A woman finds healing by touching Jesus’ cloak, and a girl is restored to life when Jesus takes her by the hand. In both cases a barrier is crossed: in Jesus’ time the hemorrhaging woman was considered ritually unclean, polluting others by her touch, and anyone who touched a dead body also became unclean. In […]
View the Sermon (PDF)Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation! Now we are in the storm, the boat almost swamped; but Jesus is here now, and when we call him, he will calm the storm. Even the wind and waves listen to him as they would to their creator. We also listen to him […]
View the Sermon (PDF)Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
A tiny insignificant mustard seed is not the way we expect the kingdom of God to appear. Like a seed that dies so it might live and grow, we too, die in Christ that we might live and grow for him. To be in Christ is to be a new creation. The kingdom of heaven […]
View the Sermon (PDF)Third Sunday after Pentecost
A house divided against itself cannot stand. Jesus makes this observation in light of charges that he is possessed. He is possessed, not by a demon, but by the Holy Spirit. Through baptism we receive the Holy Spirit and are joined to Christ and adopted into the household of God. Those with whom we sing […]
View the Sermon (PDF)Second Sunday after Pentecost / Senior Sunday
We give thanks that God has created the Sabbath for humanity that we might always know God’s sacred time and eternity. Today we especially give thanks for St. Mark’s graduating high school seniors and the treasure of Jesus they carry in clay jars. Like them, each of us carry the treasure of Jesus in our […]
View the Sermon (PDF)The Holy Trinity
The Bible witnesses to the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one in substance, three in personhood. This is the name in which we are baptized, as the triune God dwells in us, adopting us as beloved children. The triune God is eternal yet never static, always creating a new thing in us and […]
View the Sermon (PDF)Day of Pentecost / Confirmation Sunday
On Pentecost, fifty days after Easter, we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. As the first Christians were filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, we too are filled with the Spirit of truth. The Spirit helps us in our weakness, helping us to pray and act as we ought in […]
View the Sermon (PDF)Seventh Sunday of Easter
The gospel for Easter’s seventh Sunday is always taken from the long prayer Jesus prays for his followers in John’s gospel on the night before his death, and always includes Jesus’ desire that his followers will be one as he and the Father are one. This oneness is not mere doctrinal agreement or institutional unity, […]
View the Sermon (PDF)Sixth Sunday of Easter
In today’s gospel, Jesus calls his followers “friends.” Friendship captures the love, joy, and mutuality of our lives with Christ and one another. Jesus laid down his life for his friends, and appointed them to go and bear the fruit of his love for others. As friends of Christ, we share his love and friendship […]
View the Sermon (PDF)Fifth Sunday of Easter
1 John teaches that God is love and we love because God first loved us. Abiding in love, God abides in us. In today’s gospel Jesus calls himself the true vine and those who abide in him bear much fruit. He is the vine and we are the branches reaching out to bear the fruit […]
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