Tag: discipleship

God’s Point of View (updated)

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Sermon for Sunday, November 9, 2025 || Proper 27C || Luke 20:27-38

Jesus’ words to the Sadducees in today’s Gospel are words that speak of the sublime mystery and majesty of God. I’m so excited that we got to hear this story today because Jesus’ words light my theological imagination on fire. We’re going to spend all of today’s sermon in my theological imagination as we envision as best we can our way into God’s point of view. None of us is really qualified to talk about God’s point of view, so you’ll have to take everything I say today with a grain of salt – or as a professor of mine used to say, “with salt mine.” In the next few minutes I might say something that is true, but if I do, it will have been by accident because what I’m really going to talk about is Adam’s point of view about God’s point of view. But maybe the Holy Spirit will help us glimpse the corner of the edge of the majesty of how God sees things.

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Sin and Salvation

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Sermon for Sunday, September 14, 2025 || Proper 19C || 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10

Today we’re going to talk about sin and salvation. We’re going to talk specifically about two ways of looking at salvation, one which is more helpful for our lives of faith than the other. I’ll get to these two ways in a minute, but first I want to talk about Jesus’ response to the Pharisees and scribes in this morning’s Gospel reading.

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The Good Samaritan

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment
Sermon for Sunday, July 13, 2025 || Proper 10C || Luke 10:25-37

As I prepare to go on vacation after today’s services, I am so glad that the piece of scripture I get to talk about this week is the parable of the Good Samaritan. Easily in the Top Five most memorable parts of the Gospel, the story of the Good Samaritan stands as Jesus’ most enduring teaching about what it means to be in relationship with other people. So let’s spend the sermon time this morning unpacking this parable and see what Jesus has to teach us about the danger of “othering” and the power of compassion.

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The Time That is Given Us

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Sermon for Sunday, July 6, 2025 || Proper 9C || Galatians 6:7-16

Today, we read a good chunk of the end of Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. One line jumped out at me this week, and that’s what I’d like to focus on this morning. Paul says, “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up.” Let us not grow weary in doing what is right. Another translation says, “Let’s not get tired of doing good.”

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The Flow of God’s Love

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Sermon for Sunday, June 29, 2025 || Proper 8C || Galatians 5:1,13-25

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

St. Paul says that this commandment sums up the whole law. Jesus says that this commandment, along with the command to love God, makes up all the law and the prophets. The command to love one’s neighbor as one’s self is central to the daily lives of Jesus’ followers – from his first disciples all the way down to us. So let’s talk about this commandment today, about what it means for us and how we might live it out in our own lives.

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What Other Option Do I Have

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Sermon for Sunday, May 25, 2025 || Easter 6C || John 5:1-9

Last week we talked about embracing new life and new ways of being. This embrace of newness aligns us with the God who says, “Look! I am making all things new.” I told you that I found the idea comforting – the idea that I was continually being made new; even at 42 years old, I am in the process of becoming the newest version of myself. And so are you, no matter your age. What I failed to talk about last week was why we so often don’t embrace new ways of being. And that’s where we are going to start today in this accidental sequel to last Sunday’s sermon.

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The Other Side of the Boat

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Sermon for Sunday, May 4, 2025 || Easter 3C || John 21:1-19

Let me start like this: I am not going to talk about Star Wars today. I was all prepared to write a sermon chock-full of Star Wars references because today is the unofficial Star Wars holiday, May the 4th, as in “May the Fourth be with you.” (And also with you.) But then I read the Gospel lesson for today, the story of Peter and the others fishing after the resurrection, and a powerful memory from my recent life surfaced. I feel compelled to share this memory with you instead of talking about Star Wars. And if you know me, then you know this compulsion must be pretty strong. So I’m going to spend a good chunk of this sermon sharing the story of my last conversation with a 101-year-old man the day before he died.

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Our Identities

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment
Sermon for Sunday, September 15, 2024 || Proper 19B || Mark 8:27-38
My sermons are now available in podcast form. Click here for Apple Podcasts or search “WheretheWind.com Sermon” on your podcast app of choice.
The first novella, “Arrow Ten,” is finished! You can read or listen to the whole thing by clicking here.

In the age of the internet, identity theft is a prominent danger. Answering silly quizzes on Facebook, clicking innocuous links in emails, downloading attachments, falling victim to a data breach – all of these are ways that scammers can steal our identities, impersonate us to open credit cards, or empty our bank accounts. My identity was stolen once, years ago, and I had to assure my bank that I was definitely not renting limousines in Texas. We spend a lot of time, money, and worry protecting our identities, but I wonder how often we think about what our identities actually consist of. What are the most important facets of our identities, and how do they change over time? And how does “follower of Jesus” fit into the picture of our identities? That’s what we’re going to explore for the next ten minutes.

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The Lighthouse

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment
Sermon for Sunday, March 10, 2024 || Lent 4B || John 3:14-21

When I went to high school football games as a kid in Alabama, people were always holding up signs that said, “John 3:16.” Not the words of the verse, just the citation, which was almost something of a brand in and of itself. “John 3:16” signs were everywhere. Years later while in seminary, I became a scholar of the Gospel of John. And I had this silly desire to head back to my high school, go to a football game, and hold up a sign that said, “John 3:17.” Perhaps, the person next to me would ask me why my sign was wrong and I could say that the sign wasn’t wrong, but a different verse entirely. The verse after the most famous verse of the Bible says, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” This sermon starts with 3:17 and moves into the verses that follow it as we contemplate walking in darkness and walking in light.

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The Foolishness of God

Published on by Adam Thomas2 Comments
Sermon for Sunday, March 3, 2024 || Lent 3B || 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

In today’s sermon, we’re going to indulge in a bit of foolishness. Now, I’m aware that no one – myself included – likes to feel foolish. Feeling foolish quickly spirals into embarrassment, into red cheeks and hot faces, and we get the urge to escape as soon as possible. We all know the awful feeling of being laughed at instead of laughing with. (Though I have always loved Robin Williams’s line in the movie Dead Poets Society: “We’re not laughing at you, we’re laughing near you.”) We go to great lengths not to feel foolish, going so far as not to learn new skills in adulthood because we really don’t want to be bad at them when we’re starting out. This is why I can’t ice skate or hit my driver.

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