Sermons from St. John the Divine

Being a disciple means living into the freedom granted by our baptism into Jesus. The pressure is on to return to the old ways of being human. The tyranny of sin and corruption would have us surrender our witness to the Gospel out fear of others, enticement to temptations, and intimidation to shame. But, the world desperately needs bold disciples who are deeply connected to God the Father. The wor...

Compassion is the heart of the matter for Jesus. Compassion springs forth from love, the greatest power in the universe. Compassion is the ethos of God. Compassion kept God from immediately killing Adam and Eve, Cain and Noah, Abraham and Isaac, Moses and the Israelites, David and Solomon, and Peter and Paul when they blatantly disobeyed him. We see divine compassion at its greatest height and dep...

The world advocates a proximation of justice, peace, and access. Yet the world’s solutions to the world’s problems will always leave us feeling harassed and helpless. God proves his love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. In the grace of God, we are given true justice, true peace, and full access.

No group of people is better than another. All people have equal dignity and value in the sight of God and equal access to him through the Spirit. God has always planned to have a diversity of believers as his people.

Justice is the minimum requirement of love. But Jesus' followers are commanded to do so much more. We are called to love as Jesus loved with self-sacrificing Agape love, that flows perpetually through the Trinity to us. It is so much more than the minimum.

Cain asked God: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Are we our brother’s keeper? We the church are called to bring healing, restoration, and justice to our society, to our neighbors, to our city, to our nation, and to the world. We are our brother’s and sister’s keepers. We are called and equipped to speak the truth of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. The message is for all. The cross is for all. The powe...

As Christians, we are promised incredibly great power available to us - more than we could ever ask for or imagine. Learn how to obtain access to that power in order that God's strength may manifest more fully in your life.

Following Christ is what Christianity is all about. Each of us must seriously consider what this means in and for our own life. In addition to considering this in our individual lives, it must also be considered in our corporate life as a church. In this sermon, we’ll explore the place of Core Purpose and Core Values in following Jesus. These values come right from his life and his teaching.

There is tension between the safety and rest of staying, and the going out to meet the challenges of our lives. The tension is found at the door. The space between is found in Jesus. It’s hard to know sometime which is the greater need, to rest in our relationship with God, or to occupy ourselves in the work he has called us to do. Jesus invites us into an intimacy with him. During these times of...

In our day of trial and crisis, true and false leadership is tested and proven. Ultimately, all human leadership falls short, but Jesus is the gate back to life and abundance. He alone is the good shepherd and true overseer of our souls.

There is so much grace and hope for us in this story. When we forget all God is and has done for us, or if we run away from his way out of fear, Jesus walks up beside us. He’s listens to our sadness. He remind us, correct us, and call us back. If we call to him to stay with us in our hunger for more of him, Jesus responds eagerly. But most of all Jesus is known in all our secret small actions of s...

Jesus’ desire for us is the same today as it was on the day of his resurrection: to understand what he accomplished for us on the cross and through his resurrection. As Peter writes: “Through Jesus you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” Jesus wants us to have faith and hope in God, that in spite of what’s going on today, God is i...

While some people see the bad in circumstances, Jesus challenges us to see the light shining in the dark place. In this time of fear and anxiety, we are given the opportunity for blessing in our relationship with Jesus and our families.

Jesus teaches that we need to focus on him when under pressure and when anxiety builds. He calls himself the Light of the World and the Good Shepherd. Both titles encourage us to trust in him.

Unmet desires, pain and sickness, and feelings of powerlessness can make us wonder, does God really see me, much less care about me? Lent can be an opportunity to walk in this wilderness place of questioning God’s love. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to listen to the devil’s temptations in order to look underneath what they might be suggesting.