Good Shepherd Nashville

Romans 6:1 – 5 with Fr. Art. Rowers move forward by facing backward, navigating by the puddles their last stroke left behind. Through Paul's words on baptism into Christ's death and Luther's daily refrain, "I am baptized," Fr. Art invites us to live in the fixed point already declared over us: that we belong, by water and the Spirit, to the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Romans 4 with Dcn. Derek. What story are you living in? Through Abraham, who believed God's promise long before its fulfillment, Dcn. Derek invites us to commit ourselves first to God's person, trusting his character before we see the outcome, and to discover that maturity in the Christian life moves from the complexity of our questions into the simplicity of being befriended by God.

Romans 3:21 – 31 with Bp. Todd Hunter What do you want? That is the deepest spiritual question the gospel asks of us. Through Paul's announcement that God justifies everyone who welcomes his action and enters into it, Bp. Todd invites us to receive Christ's redemption as the restoration of our whole lives, and to become cooperative friends and agents of God's renewing work.

John 7:37 – 39 with Fr. Art Thirst is the only qualification. On Pentecost, Jesus's invitation in the temple courts becomes our own: come to him and drink. Through John 7 and the four ordinary means of grace described in Acts 2, Fr. Art invites us to keep drinking deeply of the Spirit and to discover that we go in thirsty and come away rivers, channels of life for the world.

Romans 1 – 2 with Dcn. Derek. We cannot help but worship something, and what we worship shapes who we become. Through Paul's diagnosis of idolatry and the story of Eustace the dragon in C.S. Lewis's Voyage of the Dawn Treader, this sermon invites us to see that worship of the true God is the cure for our distorted hearts, and that God's love and wrath together reach to set us free.

Romans 1:1 – 17 with Mtr. Suzie. The gospel is the power of God for salvation. Through Paul's bold opening to the church in Rome, this sermon invites us to rediscover the gospel as the pardon of our sins, the healing of our brokenness, and the new world Jesus is bringing, and to live unashamed of the one we love.

The opening sermon of a seventeen-week summer series in Romans, anchored on the doxology of Romans 11:33–36. This section of Romans is the hinge between Paul's eleven chapters of doctrine and the practical chapters that follow. Drawing on how Romans found Augustine in a Milan garden, Luther in a tower, and Wesley on a London street, Fr. Art argues that Paul does not finish with summary but with wo...

In this episode we explore John 21, where Jesus restores Peter by the charcoal fire and re-commissions him to feed the sheep. We reflect on repentance, grace, and the pattern of healing before sending. Fr. Art also examines Christian calling—both for the incoming rector and for every believer—emphasizing that our authority rests on the resurrection, our callings are unique, and we are sent to love...

A sermon on John 21:1-14. The disciples fish through the night and catch nothing. Jesus waits on the shore at dawn beside a fire he has already built. The fire and the meal arrive before any word does, before any failure gets named, before anyone asks who is on the beach. Grace runs ahead of us, belonging precedes purpose, and resurrection takes root in ordinary work. Fr. Art insists the risen Lor...

A sermon on John 20:24-29, the risen Jesus appearing to doubting Thomas. Thomas wants proof. Dcn. Derek reads the demand as the universal instinct to fit resurrection into the world we already understand. Drawing on David Brooks's How to Know a Person and the "invisible gorilla" experiment, Dcn. Derek argues that the Spirit Jesus breathed on the disciples was the gorilla Thomas could not yet see....

A sermon on John 20:1-18, the Easter morning encounter between Mary Magdalene and the risen Christ. Mary has watched Jesus die, anointed his body, and come to keep watch in the dark. Mtr. Suzie traces her journey from grief, through searching, to the moment Jesus says her name. On the cross Christ confronts a fracture that runs through all creation, including our failures, the world's violence, an...

A sermon on Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry bones, preached at the Easter Vigil. The Spirit carries Ezekiel into the valley, God asks whether the bones can live, and the prophet answers, "Sovereign Lord, you alone know." Fr. Art names the valleys we all know: a cold marriage, faith gone stale, grief that settled and stayed. And ours as a parish: In 2025 a leadership crisis and a resignation set us d...

A Good Friday sermon on John 12 and the passion. Mtr. Suzie reads John against the modern instinct to dwell on physical suffering. John, in contrast, attends to what the cross accomplishes: judgment of the world, the ruler cast out, all people drawn to the lifted-up Christ. Working from the Immervard crucifix (Romanesque, c. 1150, in the Braunschweig cathedral where Suzie's ministry began), she re...

A sermon on John 13, the foot washing on Maundy Thursday. Dcn. Derek shares a memory from his time as a high school camp at the end of beach day, cleaning sand off first-grade boys' feet. Jesus washes the dust off the disciples' feet to undo Genesis 3's "dust to dust" curse, then commands them to wash one another's feet and pass that liberation on. He does both before the cross, preparing them to...

A sermon on Matthew 21, the Palm Sunday entry. Fr. Art tells the story of a parade in St. Louis 25 years ago that ended with the donkey locking up at the church door, then visits medieval Germany, where wooden Palmesel statues on wheels were pulled through village streets to keep Christ's coming at the level of the crowd. Matthew quietly drops "triumphant and victorious" from his Zechariah quote b...

A sermon on John 15:12-17, the command to love one another. Where last week's vine-and-branches gave the wide angle, this week brings the close up. Fr. Art connects Lewis' trap of loving humanity in the abstract, and Bonhoeffer's wish-dream from Life Together: the imagined community always destroys the real one. The remedy is John Stott learning to pray for his parishioners by name. And ours is to...

John 15 with Fr. Art. Christian life is not the fruit of effort, but of connection. Through John 15, this teaching invites us into the practice of abiding in Jesus and the slow fruit of that life: vulnerability, gratitude, and care. Apart from him we can do nothing and rooted in him we become what only the Spirit can produce.

John 15:1 – 8 with Dcn. Derek. God loves us as we are, and he does not leave us as we are. Through John 15, this teaching invites us into the necessary work of pruning as the way the Father strengthens our connection to the vine. If God does not prune us, something else will, and only the careful work of his hand bears in us the fruit that lasts.

John 11:1 – 44 with Mtr. Suzie. Jesus enters our grief and meets us there. Through the story of Mary, Martha, and the raising of Lazarus, this sermon invites us to see how the one who holds resurrection power shares our tears and answers our questions.

John 9:1 – 41 with Benjamin Walker. Seeing Jesus begins with knowing our need for him. Through the story of the man born blind, this sermon invites us to come hungry, come needy, and come blind, trusting that Jesus reaches into the mud of the world and gives sight to those who know they cannot see.

John 6 with Fr. Art. When we face overwhelming needs with underwhelming resources, Jesus creates abundance. Through the feeding of the five thousand, this sermon invites us to bring what we have to Jesus, watch what he creates, and trust that there is always more where his presence is.

John 4:46 – 54 with Mtr. Suzie. Belief takes shape in our walking and our trusting, especially when the outcome is still unseen. Through the story of the royal official's son, this sermon invites us to see how desperation brings us to Jesus, and how trust deepens through every stubborn yes we say to him on the long road of waiting.

John 1:35 – 42 with Fr. Art. The heart of discipleship is staying. Through the calling of the first disciples, this sermon invites us into the slow education of desire that happens when we abide with Jesus, breathing the same air as him and letting his presence reshape what we want.

John 2:1 – 11 with Fr. Art. At a wedding running out of wine, Jesus reveals his glory in absurd abundance. Through Mary's simple naming of a need and the first sign at Cana, this sermon invites us into the kind of God whose first act is to save a celebration, and whose generosity overflows whenever we bring what we have into his presence.

John 1:9 – 13 with Fr. Art. The miracle of Christmas is an exchange: God takes what is ours and gives us what is his. Through John's prologue and the early church's wondrous exchange, this sermon invites us to bring our restless souls to the manger and to begin a year of learning Jesus by letting him finish the unfinished business in our hearts.