Church of the Ascension

That’s the beauty of the Trinity. It’s not a formula to be figured out, but a relationship, a mystery, a presence to be experienced. A God who meets us as Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. A God who moves toward us in love, calls us by name, and shows up—sometimes jogging down a city street—right when we need to be found.

“The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and it isbeyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity. My dear brothers (and sisters), we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our originalunity. What we have to be is what we are.”

As beloved children of God, formed by prayer and shaped by love, we are offered a destiny greater than our darkest prisons—a destiny not defined by our chains, but by ourchoices.  We need only trust that the prayers we offer—day after day, week after week—shape our lives and the lives of those around us.

Ascension Day 2025

The peace that Christ gives is not the world’s kind of peace—but it is the peace we so deeply desire, whether we are lizard-brained, dog-brained, or owl-brained.

Superman may save the day, but Jesus saves souls, hearts, and moments. He saves us—and he stays with us. And I believe that’s what we truly need right now: not just a superhero from above, but a shepherd beside us, with us—walking through this BANI world together.

My fishing skills as a child with my dad and grandfather were much different from those I developed as a young adult out on the Gulf. But those early experiences were necessary building blocks. The story of Jesus is not just a story of the past. We are who we are today because of our successes—and, perhaps more importantly, our failures. In those moments of failure, we often discover liberating gr...

The joke is on the devil. Easter is a day bursting with joy, hope, and jelly beans. It's eggsactly what God wants for us—a reminder that love wins, that the worst things are never the last things, and that resurrection is real.

Good Friday Sermon

Our past and our memories are a huge part of who we are. We are who we are because of these experiences. However, we are not the same person we were fifty, twenty, or even ten years ago. We are not even the same person today that we were last week. We are constantly learning and growing. This is the challenge for the church today: to remain open to the radical freedom of God to do a new thing. As...

In our relationships, whether with God or with one another, it’s essential that we focus on celebrating the good, not just condemning the bad. While we may not agree with the choices others make, we are still called to celebrate their return when they turn toward righteousness. Just like I learned to celebrate Banshee’s return, despite her stinky misadventures and no matter how much I disagree wit...

Empathy is the gift God gives to us to care for one another. It is the part of the divine that connects us to God and one another. It is the reason Jesus weeps when he feels the pain and sorrow of Martha and Mary after their brother Lazarus dies. It is the story he tells of the Good Samaritan. It is the repentance he calls the Jews to, who are concerned about the Galileans who Pilate has murdered...

"God chose to be our mother in all things, and so made the foundation of his work, most humbly and most pure, in the Virgin’s womb. God, the perfect wisdom of all, arrayed himself in this humble place. Christ came in our poor flesh to share a mother’s care. Our mothers bear us for pain and for death; our true mother, Jesus, bears us for joy and endless life. Christ carried us within him in lo...

In the temptation story we read today, the devil shows up and starts tempting Jesus—first with food, then with power, and finally with God himself.  The interesting thing is that these temptations are not about doubt or losing one’s faith but about gaining something.  In that something, they are ideological in nature. 

Shining that light may not be east—it can be threatening and cause other people to respond with fear. But shining the light of Christ also inspires awe. As people of God, we are called to shine the light of God in this world just as the sun shines upon us. So that by it, we might see and maybe inspire others to see as well.

Perhaps, when we see Jesus’ instructions this morning in anew light, as tools for building community, we can begin to see them as offering us a new way of being—one where we are not taken advantage of but a new way of being in community that calls us to a radical way of love.

The blessings and woes are not two sides of a game of Red Rover in which one side might win over the other. They are not about dividing us or what will happen to us after we die. They are about how we see one another and how we lift up one another in this life, in act four—the life of the church—the body of Christ.

It may seem easier to be a king and have unlimited power, but the temptations are not that different. Just as real ordinary people struggle with their own distractions and idols, so do those with power—maybe even more so—placing their idols before God. The true challenge of following Jesus is about whether we will succumb to our idolatrous cravings be they success or power or control or wealth or...

This is the Great Commission, and now that they will know we are Christians by our love. God is telling us what to do. Jesus shows us who we are. That we are the beloved creations of God and now we are called to go and build his kingdom, that community of one purpose called to love each other and him.

Love is not about winning or losing, right or wrong. It is about being connected. We have a choice--we can stone one another or we can love one another.

Jesus’ mother asks him to do something about the lack of wine, but this sign has a greatness that invigorates our hope and reminds us of who God is in the world. It is not simply about provision; it is about the promise of salvation. The promise of a God of abundance and joy. A God who will never abandon us. A God whose signs can lead to our renewed faith and trust in him. Jesus did this, the firs...

Parents will always seek their children. Prophets will always seek hope. Shepherds will always seek wonder. And wise men still seek Him. Amen.

While he may have a very unique way of saying it in Luke’s Gospel, John is telling us that joy can be found in our relationships with one another. That our ultimate joy is to be found in Jesus and that it will be through him and his saving acts in the world that we will become the best versions of ourselves. This happens because God chooses to become one of us and to walk with us building a new co...

That is what true stewardship is—sacrificial giving that leads to a transformed lives…to a transformed world. We do that through first fruits, proportional giving that hurts only enough to make us feel good. We might have to put our plans on hold just as George Bailey did, but when we remember our blessings—when we know that they are the way we are preparing for the Lord—then we too get to proclai...

What Jesus did on the cross and in the sending of the spirit, changed our relationship with God. Our relationship has undergone a paradigm shift and God’s resting place has moved from the temple and into our hearts. We no longer need to search for the house of God because God now resides in our hearts. We find God when we gather for worship and fellowship.