The Christmas story does not end at the manger. In this sermon, we revisit the story of the Magi and ask what it means to follow the light of Christ after Christmas has passed. The wise men were seekers, scholars, and outsiders who recognized something worth pursuing and were changed by the journey. When they encountered Jesus, they did not return home the same way they came.
This sermon invites us to consider which stars we are following, what roads we are walking, and whether Christ is calling us onto a new path in the year ahead.
In this sermon on the Prologue of John’s Gospel, we explore how God’s light enters human darkness not as an abstract idea, but as a living presence. Through stories of discovery, revelation, and grace, we’re invited to see Christmas as more than a memory of Jesus’ birth. It becomes the possibility of new life, new meaning, and the awakening of the soul.
This is the good news of Christmas: God comes to us where we are, opening our eyes to a reality far larger than we imagined.
In this sermon for the First Sunday after Christmas, we turn to the opening of John’s Gospel and hear the bold claim at the heart of the Christian faith: the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Drawing on story, film, and lived experience, this sermon explores how Christ is the light that shines in the darkness, a light the darkness cannot overcome.
Jesus comes not just to illuminate the world, but to dwell with us, remake us, and fill us with grace and truth so that we might carry that light into a weary world.
When Joseph faces an impossible choice, God meets him not with easy answers but with awe. This sermon explores Joseph as a quiet model of justice, compassion, and courage—someone who learns to see the divine at work in ordinary, vulnerable circumstances. As we reflect on angels, dreams, and the people who help us carry Christ’s light, we are invited to ask where we need support and where we are being called to be a Joseph for others in a world longing for hope.
As the final sermon in our Singing While We Wait series, this message turns to Psalm 80 and the practice of singing songs of love when life feels unlovable. Drawing on the language of lament, we are invited into honest prayer marked by vulnerability, trust, and bold petitions before God. Even in seasons of sorrow and silence, this sermon reminds us that deeper transparency leads to deeper revelation, and that God meets us with love precisely in the places we most long to be restored.
What happens when the path you thought you were following leads you into a dark wood instead? Drawing on Dante, John the Baptist’s doubt in prison, and Mary’s quiet faith, this sermon explores spiritual discouragement, waiting, and the surprising places where God meets us. If you’ve ever asked, “Are you really the one?” this Advent message offers hope, honesty, and an invitation to trust that Christ comes even to us there.
What does true greatness look like in the Kingdom of Heaven? Jesus’ answer may surprise us. In this sermon, we encounter John the Baptist at his lowest moment and hear Jesus call him the greatest who has ever lived. From prison cells to ordinary lives that seem to be going just fine, Jesus radically redefines greatness as something that transcends circumstances and upends the values of the world.
True greatness, we learn, is not found in status, success, or recognition, but in becoming least, giving freely, and following the self-emptying way of Christ.
On the Second Sunday of Advent, we meet John the Baptist, the wild, unsettling prophet who refuses to let us sleepwalk toward Christmas. His message is not cozy or sentimental, but urgent and clarifying: God is coming, and everything hinges on whether we are awake and ready.
This sermon explores why John the Baptist stands at the threshold of Advent as the essential bridge between promise and fulfillment. Through Scripture, story, and a surprising literary analogy, we are invited to examine the difference between dutiful religion and wholehearted devotion.
Advent is not about polite waiting or cautious faith. It is a call to repentance, attention, and courage. John points beyond himself to Jesus, the Lamb of God who comes, who will come again, and who calls us to go all in.
Wake up. Prepare the way.
In Week 2 of our Advent series "Singing While We Wait," we turn to Isaiah 11 to hear a song of peace. This sermon explores how God meets us in the messes we’ve made, not with abandonment or punishment, but with presence. Even when peace feels lost and circumstances feel broken, God promises Emmanuel, God with us. As we wait, we are invited to sing a song that celebrates Christ’s presence in the middle of our mess and trusts that God is still at work bringing life, hope, and restoration.
In this first week of our Advent series “Singing While We Wait,” we explore one of the most universal human experiences: waiting.
Waiting can be mundane, exciting, painful, or full of longing. The Bible is filled with people who waited—Noah in the ark, Abraham and Sarah for a child, Israel for deliverance. And just like them, we often find ourselves waiting for God to move, heal, answer, or renew.
This sermon invites us to recover that same holy rhythm through the first Advent song: a song of hope. Hope rooted not in wishful thinking, but in remembering God’s faithfulness yesterday so we can trust His faithfulness tomorrow.
If you’re carrying anxiety, longing, or unanswered prayers, this message offers a way forward:
sing while you wait—because God is working even now.
This Advent, we begin the Christian year not with shepherds or angels, but with Jesus’ own urgent call: Be ready.
With wisdom, humor, and pastoral directness, Bishop Josiah urges us toward the heart of Advent: Semper Paratus, always be prepared. Not for fear, but for faith. Not for speculation, but for trust. Not for passivity, but for the mission Jesus gave us: go into all the world and proclaim the gospel.
A timely and stirring reminder as we enter the season of expectation:
Are you ready?
On the 100th anniversary of Christ the King Sunday, Reagan explores what it really means for Jesus to reign. Not through power or domination, but through the cross, self-giving love, and a kingdom shaped by sacrifice. The question for us: Is Jesus truly first in our lives?
Many young people today are not just asking whether God is real. They are asking whether God is good. On Christ the King Sunday, this sermon turns to the cross to answer that question with clarity and hope.
Jesus reveals a kingdom unlike any earthly power. He does not rule through force or domination. He takes on the weight of sin, suffering, and death itself to bring healing and new life to the world. At the place of the skull, when everything seems lost, God shows his true heart.
This message invites us to look at Jesus and see the God who created all things, who holds all things together, and who draws near to our pain with redeeming love. Christ is our Savior. Christ is our King.
Reagan reflects on a recent trip through Asia where he witnessed a growing hunger for prayer and a longing for a God who truly knows His people.
He reflects on global hunger for prayer, the witness of persecuted Christians, and Paul’s charge to Timothy, he invites us to rediscover Scripture as the place where we hear God’s voice, receive His unconditional love, and learn to love others in the same way.
This is an encouragement to return to the Bible, not as an obligation, but as a relationship. God still speaks through His Word and fills us with His Spirit so that we may live lives shaped by grace rather than by conditional love.
In this sermon on Luke 21, Leigh reflects on a missed moment in a New York taxi and how Jesus prepares His followers for times of pressure. The temple’s purpose is fulfilled in Christ, and every believer, from the early martyrs to ordinary Christians today, is called to pay attention to the moments when the Holy Spirit prompts us to speak.
These “micro-amphitheaters” show up in everyday life: a comment at a bridge table, a joke on the golf course, a choice at home or at work. Jesus promises that when those moments come, the Spirit will give us what we need. Our part is to live each day rooted in grace so that bearing witness becomes second nature.
When Jesus is confronted by the Sadducees about the resurrection, His answer is more than a clever response. It is a revelation of who God is. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. His covenant promises do not end at death. They are fulfilled and deepened through the resurrection.
In this sermon, The Rev. Trent Pettit explores what it means that God draws life from death and that His faithfulness outlasts ours. Resurrection is not an escape from creation but God's commitment to redeem it. This is the hope that frees us to live patiently, humbly, and joyfully in Christ, here and now.
This sermon wrestles with a tender question from Luke 20: will we still be with our spouses in heaven? Jesus’ answer points beyond marriage to something even greater. Marriage is a good gift for this age, given for mutual joy and comfort in a world of sorrow. In the age to come, every need that marriage meets is fulfilled perfectly in the risen Jesus.
We are first and foremost children of the resurrection. All good things find their proper place under Christ, who is our ultimate good and our lasting joy. Come be encouraged to love your spouse, your family, and your calling with gratitude, while centering your life on Jesus who is all in all.
On All Saints Sunday, we remember the great heroes of the faith who continue to inspire us to believe and live for Christ. But this day also calls us to reflect on our own faith.
What would it take for our lives to inspire others in the same way? In this message, we are invited to live an “All Saints” kind of faith: to know Jesus deeply, to love Him fully, and to follow Him faithfully, not as the hero of our own story but as part of God's great story of redemption.
On All Saints Sunday, Bishop Jeff W. Fisher reminds us of a simple but life-changing truth: God doesn’t discriminate between sinners and saints.
Through the waters of baptism, we are marked as Christ’s own forever, forgiven, loved, and called to new life in Him. Drawing from his own story at St. John the Divine, Bishop Fisher reflects on the gift of grace, the power of community, and the love that unites all the saints, both past and present.
Join us as we give thanks for our baptism, for God’s unearned love, and for the saints who have shown us what that love looks like in action.
In this sermon, The Rev. Trent Pettit reflects on Psalm 65 and the deeper meaning of gratitude. Thanksgiving is more than good manners; it is how we recognize that everything we have and everything we are comes from God.
Our gifts, our worship, and even our very lives are acts of praise and offerings that join us to God’s own self-giving in Christ. Through this lens, the tithe becomes not a transaction but a transformation: a way of giving ourselves to God’s ongoing work of redemption, healing, and hope in the world.
Join us as we remember that we are not self-made but grace-made, drawn into God’s song of love for all creation.