St. John’s Lutheran Church11 February 2024 + Transfiguration of Our LordMark 9:2-9; 2 Kings 2:1-12Rev. Josh Evans It’s tempting to want to stay in certain moments, isn’t it? Moments where everything is dazzling and bright and clean and safe – far removed from the pain and brokenness we experience on an all-too-regular basis. It’s tempting …
St. John’s Lutheran Church4 February 2024 + Epiphany 5bMark 1:29-39Rev. Josh Evans Give the woman a break! As quickly as Jesus takes her by the hand, lifts her up out of bed, and cures her of her fever, she gets up and begins to serve them?! It sounds ridiculous – and a little sexist – …
St. John’s Lutheran Church28 January 2024 + Epiphany 4bMark 1:21-28Rev. Josh Evans Diana was a passionate and gifted art curator when she began to suffer from symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and dementia. Possessed by illness, she started to experience vivid hallucinations, while John tried his best to enter into his wife’s world, to see what …
St. John’s Lutheran Church21 January 2024 + Epiphany 3bMark 1:14-20Rev. Josh Evans What was he thinking? Inviting fishermen to follow him? Not exactly the upper echelon of society – but smelly, day-laboring fishermen without any formal education or social standing. People the world would just as easily cast aside. It’s almost as absurd as God’s …
St. John’s Lutheran Church14 January 2024 + Epiphany 2bJohn 1:43-51Rev. Josh Evans Three simple words. One profound – and dangerous – invitation. “Come and see.” Words spoken by Philip to Nathanael, echoing Jesus’s own in the scene just one day before, as he calls Andrew and Simon Peter, the first of his disciples, on the …
St. John’s Lutheran Church24 December 2023 + Nativity of Our LordLuke 2:1-20Rev. Josh Evans To be perfectly honest: I never really cared for the Christmas Eve ritual of lighting candles and singing “Silent Night.” Maybe it has something to do with — oh, I don’t know — that time I was attending midnight mass at …
St. John’s Lutheran Church24 December 2023 + Advent 4bLuke 1:46b-55Rev. Josh Evans Between two concerts, Beer & Carols, and a Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols, it’s been a very musical week. It started a week ago Saturday, when I had the opportunity to attend Joy & Harmony, the Albany Gay Men’s Chorus holiday concert, …
St. John’s Lutheran Church10 December 2023 + Advent 2bMark 1:1-8Rev. Josh Evans The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God … starts … in the wilderness. Not in a stately palace, fit for a king. Not in Rome, the seat of imperial power. Not even in a house where everything …
St. John’s Lutheran Church26 November 2023 + Christ the KingLast Sunday before AdventMatthew 25:31-46Rev. Josh Evans INTRODUCTION: Keeping Time We keep time in different ways. Most of us keep time according to the calendar year, January through December. Anyone connected to academia keeps time according to the school year, roughly Labor Day through Memorial Day. …
Continue reading (Church) Year in Review: A Sermon-Hymn Sing for Christ the King
St. John’s Lutheran Church19 November 2023 + Lect. 33a (25 Pentecost)Second Sunday before AdventMatthew 25:14-30Rev. Josh Evans There’s no doubt that this parable, like the one before it, is challenging. In the first place, we’re confronted with the language of slavery – which, while different from the history of slavery in this country, is still …
Pastor Josh Evans 