Augustana Lutheran Church 30 October 2016 + Reformation Sunday John 8.31-36 There are more than a few one-liners peppered through the Bible—single verses plucked out for their pithy expression of some essential theological truth. Today we encounter one such one-liner: “[Then] you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” The problem, …
Continue reading A Sermon about Being a Church That Is Always Reforming
Augustana Lutheran Church 23 October 2016 + Lectionary 30C Luke 18.9-14 Music permeates our culture. How many times have we caught ourselves singing along (some of us admittedly more poorly than others) to the radio in the car or in the shower? It’s simply hard to imagine life without music. It’s hard, too, to imagine …
Originally published in The Door, the student and community newsletter of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago I often remark that I find it amusing that the first person to whom I came out was a pastor. That was in 2011 and all the more remarkable because it came on the heels of graduating …
This weekend, I had the opportunity to join in an interfaith prayer vigil with the advocacy group Insure the Good Life, a project of Nebraska Appleseed that aims to urge state legislators to close the Medicaid gap - a gap that currently leaves tens of thousands of hard-working Nebraskans uninsured and without access to quality …
Continue reading Close the Gap: A Prayer for Health Care Justice
Augustana Lutheran Church 25 September 2016 + Lectionary 26C Luke 16.19-31; 1 Timothy 6.6-19 One of my favorite scenes in the film adaptation of the popular rock musical Rent opens on an impoverished-looking apartment complex in Manhattan’s East Village, where we are introduced to two roommates, Mark and Roger, and their former roommate and friend-turned-landlord, …
Continue reading A(nother!) Sermon about Wealth and Chasm-Crossing
Augustana Lutheran Church 11 September 2016 + Lectionary 24C Exodus 32.7-14 Liturgical whiplash. It’s the result of a hearing a bizarre pairing of seemingly disparate lectionary texts. On the one hand, there’s the angry vengeful God ready to smite the Israelites in Exodus—and yet, it’s precisely that kind of rash judgment toward “sinners” that Jesus …
Augustana Lutheran Church 28 August 2016 + Lectionary 22C Luke 14.1, 7-14 Wash your hands. Pray before you eat. Don’t chew with your mouth open. Keep your elbows off the table. All phrases that I imagine each of us has heard as children that teach us table manners. And the fancier the meal, these table …
Continue reading A Sermon for Those Who Have Been Told to Take the Lowest Place
This Sunday, I had the opportunity to worship with the people of God at First Lutheran Church, a neighboring ELCA congregation not far from Augustana. You can read more about the ministry FLC is up to in Omaha on their website. First Lutheran Church, Omaha, NE 21 August 2016 + Lectionary 21C Luke 13.10-17 Some …
Continue reading A Sermon about Keeping the Sabbath (and Why It’s So Hard)
Augustana Lutheran Church 31 July 2016 + Lectionary 18C Luke 12.13-21 [22-34] It’s all a little bit overwhelming, isn’t it? This election season, that is. We’ve certainly witnessed a mix of exciting and interesting moments. One moment in particular caught my attention this past Tuesday as delegates at the Democratic National Convention cast their votes, …
Continue reading Overwhelmed: A Sermon for Lectionary 18C / Pentecost 11C
This is the first sermon preached at my internship site. Click here and here to learn more about the congregation I will be serving for the next year in the city of Omaha, Nebraska. Augustana Lutheran Church 17 July 2016 + Lectionary 16C Luke 10.38-42 It’s been a hard couple of weeks. I’ve found …
Continue reading A Sermon about Listening and What It Means to Be a Disciple
Pastor Josh Evans 