The Preaching Moment

Summary Mother Suzanne reflects on the powerful encounter between Mary and Elizabeth, two women in impossible pregnancies whose faith transformed shame into songs of praise and defiance. Through their story, we are challenged to consider what leaps for joy within us and whether we can trust that God is with us, even in our most difficult circumstances. THE GOSPEL                                   ...

Summary Mother Suzanne reflects on how God used Caesar Augustus's census, intended for taxation and control, to fulfill ancient prophecies about Jesus's birth in Bethlehem. The true miracle of Christmas is found in God's surprising ways—choosing to reveal the birth of the King of Kings to lowly shepherds rather than the powerful, and coming not as a mighty ruler but as a vulnerable...

Summary In this first Sunday of Advent sermon, Mother Suzanne shares how this liturgical season begins not with Christmas imagery but with apocalyptic messages that honestly describe our broken world. Through a deeply personal story of being comforted during her darkest moments, she illustrates how Jesus promises not to eliminate our suffering but to be present within it, fostering courage and cal...

Summary In this Advent sermon, Mother Suzanne explores how God's word came to John the Baptist in the wilderness rather than to the powerful leaders of the day. She reminds us that while wilderness experiences are painful and often avoided, they become sacred spaces of transformation where God meets us, makes our paths straight, and guides us toward salvation—if we accept rather than fight ag...

Summary Mother Suzanne explores how Jesus's eyes are always drawn to those society overlooks, exemplified by the poor widow who gave her last two coins in Mark's Gospel. Unlike the scribes who "devour widows' houses," this unnamed woman gave her entire "bios" (life), foreshadowing Jesus's own sacrifice and teaching us the profound paradox that "life is...

Summary Mother Suzanne explores Jesus's apocalyptic vision in Mark's Gospel where He predicts the temple's destruction, revealing that God cannot be contained by physical structures. She reminds us that when we find ourselves amid life's rubble and ruin, we shouldn't fear, for God is present in our mess, bringing hope and new life through our struggles—just as birth pains...

Summary On Christ the King Sunday, the final Sunday of the liturgical year, this sermon explores how Jesus's kingdom "is not from here" (John 18:36) but operates through radical love and service. Mother Suzanne celebrates Grace's extraordinary impact through a mobile food pantry ministry that has distributed 3.5 million pounds of food over five years, demonstrating how Christia...

Summary In her sermon on Mark's Gospel, The Rev. Suzanne Smith explores how Jesus repeatedly taught his disciples about servant leadership while they failed to understand his impending death. She contrasts worldly ambition with "God's economy," where one becomes first by being last, emphasizing two essential truths: we are never alone, and we can never escape God's faithfu...

Summary Mother Suzanne shares her own gradual call to ministry alongside Bartimaeus's immediate call to discipleship in Mark's Gospel. She highlights how Bartimaeus, despite his blindness, recognized Jesus as "Son of David" and received healing through his persistent prayer, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." Mother Suzanne challenges us to adopt this same praye...

Summary Mother Suzanne explores the communion of saints—the whole family of God, living and dead—as we celebrate All Saints Day. She shares the powerful story of Saint Perpetua, an early Christian martyr, to illustrate how saints are not merely historical figures but companions who journey with us through time and space, spurring us toward love and good deeds through the indwelling of God's S...

Summary In this sermon, Rev. Suzanne Smith reframes Jesus' teaching on divorce in Mark's Gospel not as a condemnation of divorce itself, but as a defense of the vulnerable—particularly women and children who were often left destitute by divorce in first-century Palestine. Jesus shifts the Pharisees' legal trap into a revolutionary teaching about equality, protection, and God's...

Summary In Rev. Suzanne Smith's sermon, she examines the Gospel story of the rich young man who sincerely asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life. Despite Jesus looking upon this man with love—the only recorded instance of this in all four gospels—when Jesus tells him to sell his possessions and follow Him, the man leaves grieving, unable to let go of his attachments, demonstrating that salvat...

Short Summary In this sermon on Mark 9, The Rev. Suzanne Smith explores Jesus's rebuke of the disciples for stopping someone from healing in His name simply because they weren't part of their group. She contrasts Jesus's teaching about faith centered in punishment (requiring extreme self-mutilation) with faith centered in generosity (offering just a cup of cold water), reminding us...

THE GOSPEL                  A reading from the Gospel according to Mark                                  Mark 8:27-38 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that...

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                       Mark 9:30-37 Jesus and his disciples passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise...

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                   Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 When the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly...

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                         Mark 7:24-37 Jesus set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed...

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                        John 6:51-58 Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us h...

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                                John 6:56-69 Jesus said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not lik...

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                  John 6:35, 41-51 Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not...

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                            Mark 6:1-13 Jesus came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds...

THE GOSPEL                                             Mark 5:21-43 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she...

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                               Mark 4:35-41 When evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into t...

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                                     Mark 4:26-34 Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, t...

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                               Mark 3:20-35 The crowd came together again, so that Jesus and his disciples could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He...