Sermons from St. John the Divine

Love and vulnerability commingle in this holy child to reveal the meaning of the Incarnation, the miracle that changes everything. 

Children's Christmas Eve sermon

To the question, “what is it to be a Christian?” One might respond: “to be a Christian is to choose to live a different story than the one you thought you were going to live, to have one’s life disrupted so that we live no longer live for ourselves, but for him who was born and lived and died for us.”

Joseph’s story can give us a way forward into hope as we approach Christmas. We can ask God to give us new eyes to see his dream for all people. We can allow God to show us where the Holy Spirit is moving in surprising ways. Then we can name that work of the Spirit and join it and nurture it in the world. Like Joseph, it might seem small — like taking care of a mother and baby. But God can take it...

Comedian Fred Allen once said, "Most of us spend the first six days of each week sowing wild oats; then we go to church and pray for a crop failure." That pretty much sums up the human condition. We are afraid about our future and want to do something about it. Grace is hard to wrap our heads around when we’ve been taught throughout life that we need to earn God’s love by being holy. As Peter expl...

Isaiah’s prophecy is a song of deliverance for the people of Israel who were in exile. In the slave camps of Babylon, they would rehearse the stories of their deliverance. Though defeated and humiliated, the people of Israel in the days of Isaiah still believed that God was with them, and, in time, God would redeem them and give them safe return. There would come a day of rejoicing, not only for t...

Maybe deep down we intuit that we need to face the reality of our wilderness if we are to be delivered from it. Maybe this is what John the Baptist is preaching. But he is also a voice of hope for the One who is coming into our wilderness himself.

Deep in every human heart is a desire to repeat some experiences from the past. Deep within our human memory is a picture of that reality that no longer exists. A time and place that the people of the Bible called Paradise — a time of innocence, a time of peace. Then came the Fall, and Paradise was lost. Though we are far removed from that innocence, peace, and harmony, a memory of Paradise is sti...

Advent reminds us we are to be ready for the return of Jesus, our righteous judge, in whom we place our hope. Praise God we can be ready through the Spirit because Jesus removed our guilty judgment on the cross so that we can put our full hope in the promises of the Father.

If you knew that the world was ending, what would you do? Advent is about an incredible beginning (the birth of Jesus) and the end of all things when Christ returns in glory. If we know the beginning of the story and know that it is soon ending, how does that change how we live?

On Christ the King Sunday, we make clear the Church's faith in one God. Christ existed before all creation, and all things come into creation through Christ and for Christ, including us. We are made for God and God's purposes. This faith is meant to lead us into action. We are meant to do the work of Christ, releasing his goodness into the world.

When the thief on the cross heard Jesus say, “ Today you will be with me in paradise,” he likely did not understand the fullness of the forgiveness of his sins, but he must have felt the celebratory love of God. The work of Jesus on the cross brings us into a reconciled relationship with God where we experience deep community in forgiveness and celebration. Like the Prodigal Son, we are welcomed h...

The challenges of today will be dwarfed by the glory to come. Pray for it. Watch for it. Crane forward into it. Point toward it. For those who believe, despair is presumptuous. We are people of hope. For the Lord says, “I am about to create.”

Making meaning of our suffering not only comforts us but it enables us to tell stories that help others understand how God can be with them in their troubles.

Paul mentions the inheritance Christians have in Christ three times in the first chapter of Ephesians. This inheritance implies a family that we belong to, and consists of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

We all need revival in our lives, and we see this in the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus. We learn four things in Zacchaeus’ story: - God alone can satisfy the hunger in our heats - God has a purpose for your life - God’s mercy and love is greater than our sins - God’s Spirit transforms us

The story of Zacchaeus is often thought of as a story of someone who has a passion to meet Jesus. Yet the real story is about the passion of Jesus to meet Zacchaeus and to carry out his stated mission to seek and save the lost!

We are never more blessedly human than when we each make our humble way before God with nothing to offer except our need for righteousness only Christ can give: “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” And God is, always.

When we quit the spiritual comparison game, we find that we can finally get what we really need--God's mercy.

Jesus encourages us to keep praying even when we don't see results yet from our prayers. God is always listening.

Rather than fighting injustice with hatred and violence, we can bring God’s love and peace to the situation. We can be the relentless widow, powerless on our own, but fearless and persistent as our hearts are infused with the heart of God as we pray.

We all have a yearning to be loved and accepted without having to "measure up." Christ has taken every hint of "it’s never enough" off of me to the cross, and that it is enough for me … more than enough and forever.

Most of us are challenged by walking the way Jesus calls us to go. He asks us to take up our crosses, to die to our wills, to think of others before ourselves. That’s not easy. But Paul gives Timothy some helpful ways to rekindle all the gifts God has already given him. These are like way stations along the road that help support our journey of faith.