Sermon based on John 17:1-11 It’s after the meal. The bread has been broken, the cup has been passed, and Judas has already slipped out into the night. Jesus has been talking for chapters reassuring, preparing, promising. And then, without warning, he stops talking to them and starts talking for them. He lifts his eyes…

Sermon Based on John 14:15-21 Jesus never stops talking. That is not a complaint, just an observation to connect us with what we read here last week. Last Sunday we were in John 14:1–14, and the lectionary hit the brakes at verse 14. However, Jesus did not. He kept going. He had more to say……

Sermon based on John 14:1-14 The scripture we just read also gets read at a lot of funerals. And that’s for a good reason. It’s one of the most comforting things Jesus ever said. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many…

Based on Luke 24:13-35 I’ve sat in hospital waiting rooms with families packing up the things they brought with them to the ICU. The empty coffee cups, the phone chargers, the extra change of clothes they never used. And at some point, almost always quietly, almost always to no one in particular, someone in that…

Sermon based on John 20:19-31 The Gospel of John tells us when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear. I want us to sit in that sentence for a moment. The disciples had heard it by…

Sermon Based on Matthew 28:1-10 There is a moment in Matthew’s resurrection story that I keep coming back to, and it has nothing to do with the angel. It has nothing to do with the earthquake, the stone, or the guards flat on their backs like dead men. It’s this: after everything — after the…

Sermon based on Luke 2:1-20 Good News, Right Here There is something almost dangerous about how familiar this story is. Luke chapter two shows up every year like a well-worn road. We know the turns. We know where the hills rise and fall. We know when the angels appear and when the shepherds enter the…

Sermon Based on Matthew 1:18-25 Most of the stories we tell at Christmas are designed to be gentle. Soft lighting. Familiar lines. A predictable story arc that ends with a baby, a song, and a sense that everything is going to be okay. We like our Christmas narratives to reassure us, to settle us, to…

Sermon based on Matthew 3:1-12 Like I mentioned last week, there’s a strange tension the Church deals with every December. On the one hand, the world is humming with joy: houses glowing, Christmas playlists running, kids counting down the days, and grocery carts full of sugar and butter like we’re all collectively training for the…

Sermon based on Matthew 24:36-44 There’s a strange kind of whiplash built into the Christian calendar year. We turn the calendar toward Advent—wreaths, candles, kids getting excited, Christmas music humming in grocery store aisles—and the church hands us… the end of the world. Not shepherds. Not Mary and Joseph. Not even John the Baptist shouting…