Sermons from August 2024
The Feast of Mary, Mother of Our Lord
Today’s gospel is known as the Magnificat. It’s a song of praise sung by Mary, Jesus’s mother, but it seems oddly out of place in the narrative. Up to this point, an angelos, that is Greek for “messenger” or an angel, came to Mary. This messenger told Mary that she would conceive a son. And, she’s shocked, because she’s a virgin at that point. Nevertheless, before Mary’s shocked face wore off, she learned that her much older post-menopausal relative, Elizabeth, was pregnant. During the conversation, Mary consented to having Jesus and went to see Elizabeth…
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Today we continue our exploration of John’s gospel focused on bread. Last Sunday, Vicar Vicky was back with us, and she shared a powerful sermon about the word “belief” in John’s gospel. She reminded us that “belief” in John’s gospel is always a verb, which means its active. It’s not something you have but it’s something done. It could be translated as “do faith” or even better, trust. And that’s an important reminder for us as we look at today’s potion of John 6…
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
When I was in seminary I took a course that was just “Preaching the Gospel of John” because while John is my favorite gospel writer, by a wide margin, he’s also the one that confuses me the most and the thought of needing to preach him intimidated me. Because like…John will say all of these words and…it’s not even like they’re words I don’t know! The sentences themselves will make perfect sense to me, but I still often will feel like something is happening in the passage that I am just not getting…