Tag: Jesus

Faithful, Collaborative, Renewing

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Sermon for Saturday, February 14, 2026 || Celebration of New Ministry || Numbers 11:16-17, 24-30; Psalm 146; Romans 12:1-18; John 15:9-16

Greetings from the other side of the country. My name is Adam Thomas, and I am the rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Mystic, Connecticut. Yes, that is the place made famous by the 1980s coming-of-age film Mystic Pizza. And yes, there really is a pizza place named that; it’s around the corner from my church. I am so glad to be here for this celebration with you for three reasons. First, I got to escape the unprecedented run of single digit temperatures in New England. Second, three of my best friends from different phases of my life all live here somehow, and I’ve gotten to visit everyone. And third, I get to speak with you this morning about your new partnership in ministry with a friend I met half a lifetime ago, the Rev. Bret Bowie Hays.

Now, this sermon is not going to devolve into a roast of Bret. I promise I’m going to talk about God and church in a minute. But just so you know why I’m the one preaching today – besides his family, I’m probably the person in this church who has known Bret the longest. We met on the first day of orientation at Virginia Theological Seminary way back in the halcyon days of the summer of 2005. We became fast friends, bonding over our love for pizza, theological discourse, and Star Trek. We spent many a night in the dorms together at VTS, him watching Star Trek and me falling asleep watching Star Trek. Bret was a groomsman in my wedding; he’s godfather to my son; and he is one of those friends you can call up and chat to for an hour when you’re driving to a meeting at the diocesan office. After priestly ministry in Colorado, Massachusetts, and Florida, he has arrived here in California as your next rector. And I am so excited about the new partnership in God’s mission you here at Trinity Episcopal Church and Bret have begun together.

As you continue getting to know one another at the outset of this new ministry, I invite you to embrace three words for your life together. May God grant you the grace to make your ministry together faithful, collaborative, and renewing.

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Words Matter

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Sermon for Sunday, February 1, 2026 || Epiphany 4A || Micah 6:1-8

This sermon is about telling the truth. But to enter into a discussion about truth-telling, we first have to talk about words. Specifically about how our words can both curtail and expand our thoughts, and about how those in power can create societal narratives based on the words they choose. Language is a tool of creativity. The way we tell our creation story begins with God speaking creation into existence: “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” In the Hebrew language the “word” happens to people like the prophet. The Word of God is an encounter that compels the prophet to action. Likewise, the Gospel of John identifies the person of Jesus as the Word of God, the ultimate happening of the Word as it becomes flesh and dwells among us as a human being.

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Seven Ways

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Sermon for Sunday, January 25, 2026 || Epiphany 3A || 1 Corinthians 1:10-18

There is so much going on in our world today, from armed conflicts stoked by authoritarian overreach to civil wars in overlooked parts of the globe to the rising stakes of climate catastrophe. As a country, we must band together against state-sanctioned violence, hatred, xenophobia, and the scapegoating of vulnerable groups. Closer to home, our neighbors need stable, affordable housing options, food security, and better health outcomes supported by reasonable healthcare insurance. All of these crucial issues are swirling around us as we come to worship God here at St. Mark’s this morning. And while I am not going to address these issues directly in this sermon, everything we do here helps us respond to the needs of the world, as we partner with God in God’s mission. Because today is the day of our annual meeting, you can think of this sermon as a “State of the Church” address. And what better way to talk about the state of the church than to talk about how we are engaged in God’s mission of healing and reconciliation.

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Jesus’ First Conversation (Updated)

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Sermon for Sunday, January 18, 2026 || Epiphany 2A || John 1:29-42

“What are you looking for?” Jesus asks John’s two disciples.
“Rabbi, where are you staying?” they respond.
“Come and see,” Jesus says.

This is the first conversation Jesus has with anyone in the Gospel According to John. We’re going to dwell on these three lines of dialogue today. On the surface level, it’s a pretty simple exchange in which Jesus welcomes a couple of people to walk with him for a while. But the Gospel always operates on multiple levels. The first layer speaks to the surface meaning. This layer is easy for Jesus’ listeners to access, and so they become drawn in. Then the second, deeper layer of meaning presents itself. Those who listen for this second layer, who do dive deeply, find rich, life-giving substance in Jesus’ words.

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Bring Forth Justice

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Sermon for Sunday, January 11, 2026 || Epiphany 1A || Isaiah 42:1-9

I wrote a version of this sermon on Tuesday, which is my normal sermon-writing day. Then the events of Wednesday happened – ICE agents shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis – and I knew I would be writing a new sermon on Saturday. But the more I reflected on what I had planned to say, the more the bulk of the words I wrote on Tuesday made sense to share this morning, not despite of the events of Wednesday but because of them.

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The Missing Verses

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Sermon for Sunday, January 4, 2026 || Christmas 2 || Matthew 2:13-15, (16-18), 19-23

In a 2003 song, the band Death Cab for Cutie sings, “So this is the new year / And I don’t feel any different.” That’s about how I feel today, and it’s not a great feeling. The new calendar on our kitchen wall features pictures of our kids and our nieces and nephews a year older than they were in last year’s calendar. But other than that, nothing has changed. The turn from December to January is symbolic only. Four days ago, we marked that the earth completed another revolution around the sun, but every day could mark the same. Indeed, other calendars set the date later this year: Chinese New Year is February 17th, Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) is September 11th.

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God’s Creativity

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Sermon for Wednesday, December 24, 2025 || Christmas Eve || John 1:1-14

Good evening and Merry Christmas. It is a great joy to celebrate this Feast of the Nativity with you tonight. We’ll start this sermon with a little trivia. Did you know there are two Nativity stories among the four accounts of the Gospel? There’s the one everyone remembers: the familiar story from Luke’s Gospel about Mary giving birth to Jesus and laying him in a manger in Bethlehem. You might think the other is the story in Matthew’s Gospel about the magi coming to bring Jesus presents, but that’s not a Nativity story. Jesus isn’t born in that story. The story of the magi literally begins “After Jesus was born…”

No, the second Nativity story happens in the Gospel reading we heard tonight, what scholars call the “prologue” to the Gospel According to John. In these beautifully poetic verses, the gospel writer presents the entire sweeping history of God’s creation in just a few short lines. The prologue begins just like the Book of Genesis: “In the beginning…”

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Living in the New

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Sermon for Sunday, December 14, 2025 || Advent 3A || Matthew 11:2-11

Imagine with me the imprisoned John the Baptist in the days before his execution. He has sent his disciples to ask Jesus the question from today’s Gospel reading, and they have just returned with Jesus’ answer.

My days are numbered, my friends. Herod is weak. He’s a petty ruler susceptible to the whims and flattery of those around him. One of these days I fear someone I have angered with my words will sway Herod to kill me and that will be that. But until that day comes, I will do everything I can to help you live into the new reality that is happening all around us. You will not be left orphaned when I am gone. I have only ever been a caretaker, a herald for the one who is coming after me. Because of what you just told me, I am convinced more than ever that Jesus is that one.

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New Possibilities

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Sermon for Sunday, December 7, 2025 || Advent 2A || Isaiah 11:1-10

Today’s sermon is about the unexpected grace of new possibilities. As we continue in our Advent season of preparation and anticipation, we practice opening ourselves up to how God is moving in our lives in the same type of unexpected ways that God moved in the lives of Mary and Joseph as they welcomed Jesus into the world. Mary practiced this openness when she said “Yes” to the angel. Joseph practiced this openness when he made a family with Mary despite pressure to reject her. Our openness to new possibilities is a symptom of the hope we place in the God who makes all things new. So let’s talk about new possibilities today: first we’ll look at the beginning of this morning’s reading from the Prophet Isaiah, then we will talk about three ways we can test that the new possibilities we are reaching for come from God.

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Tolle Lege

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Sermon for Sunday, November 30, 2025 || Advent 1A || Romans 13:11-14

Today marks the beginning of Advent, the four week season to prepare for Christmas, that great and joyful mystery of God’s Word becoming flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Advent is a time of preparation and anticipation, a time in which we share the story of Jesus’ earthly family getting ready for his arrival, along with the words of the Hebrew prophets who came close enough to God to imagine a world where peace and reconciliation come to pass.

So today, on this First Sunday of Advent, lets talk about preparation. But instead of talking about our immediate preparations for this particular celebration of Christmas, I’d like to zoom out and talk about how God use the raw materials of our entire lives to prepare us to become the people God dreams for us to be.

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