Sermons from St. John the Divine

Redemption and forgiveness are available to the son who at first disobeys and embarrasses his father but then says “Yes” and means it. It is not available to the son who refuses to do what is asked. This parable is about the choices we make to honor God and obey his commands. We know these commands. Jesus summed them up well for us: Love God and love your neighbor.

Anxiety is the dis-ease and fear that one can never have enough or be enough. Anxiety spoils contentment and robs us of enjoying life in the moment. We are either stuck in the wrongs and pains of the past or preoccupied with the uncertainty of the future. Anxiety is the antithesis of trusting in a good and gracious God and the enemy of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,...

Envy can be a rather pesky sin of the faithful. God’s mercy and generosity knows no bounds. Our hearts can get a little resentment when we see someone who doesn’t “deserve it” being shown divine favor.

Since Joseph knew God was always behind the scene, he was able to overcome hardships. He knew God was good and loved him and was using him for his greater purposes. Joseph’s mind prioritized God over evil. He chose to see God’s light in dark times and was able to love God and his neighbor.

The Lord has called together in the Church a group of forgiven people. Learning how to live as a community that will eventually sin against each other is challenging. Jesus teaches us the way!

We follow a crucified Lord. The call of the disciple of Jesus must not only understand who Jesus is, but also what he came to do. As we become clear on Jesus' mission, the focus of our calling takes a cruciform shape.

While we might not all be called to be great leaders like Moses, God does call each of us into our own vocations. The calling of Moses has much to teach us about God’s heart, and how God can give each of us purpose for our lives as we respond to the needs of our current situation. God hears the cries of his people. I believe that he sees the troubles we have. And I also believe that God uses peopl...

Keys open barriers. Seeing the reality of who Jesus is and bringing that truth out into the world opens a portal between heaven and earth. No longer are we limited to this earthly plain, and God now has a way in, to do his will.

In the present spiritual battle, the fog of fear and uncertainty has descended on our culture. But God grants his people a clarity of identity and purpose grounded on the solid rock of King Jesus that not even the gates of hell can stand against.

Shallow leadership only seeks conformity. Jesus looks deep for true authentic transformation. The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart.

A lot of us are being asked to look honestly about our cultural beliefs. We have been invited to question some of our treasured views about how our world works. How can we move from a scarcity mentality to one that trusts there is enough for all? How can we move from seeing the other outside the door, to seeing them at the table with us?

Jesus did not come to be Uber Eats, delivering food to the hungry. He came to be the living bread for our souls. He came to offer abundance to those living in scarcity. We need to change our scarcity model of God being absent to an abundance model of God being present, especially during these days of Covid-19. Our church may be closed to in-person worship, but look at the abundance of what God has...

When you feel like the challenges confronting are beating you down, Jesus comes. He challenges “little faith”, fears, and doubts with his presence and salvation.

Unfortunately many disciples have the vision and heart of Jesus in compassionate mission, but do not consider Jesus’ immeasurably great power in their engagement. The disciple of Jesus must learn to account for God’s creative dynamism as he or she engages in the mission and call of the kingdom.

My focus today is on Paul’s lament — his sorrow, grief, and anguish — that his fellow Jews and the Jewish nation as a whole are cut off from Christ. To understand more fully lament and the power of lament, I want to look at four aspects of Paul’s lament at the beginning of Romans 9: 1st) the cause of his lament; 2nd) the intensity of his lament; 3rd) the authenticity of his lament; and 4th) the fr...

Expressing honestly our feelings to God is a way to move through our grief together with our Father who never stops loving us. God is groaning in us all. Find a way to join him. Allow your losses to lead you to a deeper intimacy with the God who suffers with you. Cry out to him in your anger, distress, desperation, frustration, or whatever it is you are feeling. Find a groaner to help you.

What does radical Christian love look like? It is love that springs forth from our foundational love in Christ. It is not a love that complains about harassment or the short comings of others. No. It is a compelling love that says, “I may not be at my best; I may not feel everything is going right in my life; I may not like you very much today; but in spite of all that, I am going to love you sacr...

Romans tells us that our inheritance also includes our own glorification. Our glorification allows us to enjoy our inheritance. If we stay in our present condition physically, emotionally, and spiritually, we will lack the capacity to enjoy and benefit from all God will give us. Therefore, through the Spirit, God promises us not only an incredible inheritance, but new capacities to enjoy it foreve...

As God’s children we are meant to live and work in this in between time to bring forth the future realty of God’s vision. In this extended time of quarantine and isolation, we know what it is to wait. Know that God is with you in the waiting. He has given you everything as his heir. And THAT EVERYTHING is himself. I invite you to build that relationship by listening and sharing your heart with God...

I pray that you yield to the ongoing work of God's Spirit in your life. Trust in the finished work o God's Son on the cross for you. And praise the greatness of God's love and the glory of his grace that planned it all so that the Holy Spirit can grow you in Christlikeness in good soil.

God loves us so much that he makes his home in our hearts. The Sprit of God never stops working in the depths of our souls. God’s Holy Spirit causes growth and bears fruit, love, joy, peace. Paul is telling us that as we live by the Spirit, we can stop trying so hard on our own strength, and go along with what the Spirit is already doing in us.

In this sermon, guest seminarian Julian Borda discusses Matthew 11:18-19 and what Jesus has to say about the widespread problem of hypocrisy in our lives, in our nation, and in our church. It is one of the most destructive forces in human life - but, as Jesus says, “wisdom is justified by her deeds".

The Apostle Paul provides a stark choice to the believer in Jesus. We will surrender our hearts in obedience to the Lord and his life or return to the bondage of sin submitting ourselves to its authority and power. As Bob Dylan sang, “you gotta serve somebody!”

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) The last verse of Romans 6 sums up all that Paul has written about. That verse may be the most famous that his hand, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, penned. Yet when it comes to understanding this verse, we don’t usually acknowledge the fact that the sixth chapter and its sum...