St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York20 April 2025 + Resurrection of Our LordLuke 24:1-12The Rev. Josh Evans Maybe you remember my Christmas Eve sermon,which I began by quoting Madeleine L’Engle’s well-known poem,“The Risk of Birth.” “This is no time for a child to be born…” she begins. Four months and three liturgical seasons later,I’m stuck …
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 Church6 April 2023 + Maundy ThursdayJohn 13.1-17, 31b-35Rev. Josh Evans This sermon begins with a story. It’s a story about saying goodbye. Tonight, we remember the story of the last meal that Jesus shared with his friends. They were probably sad, and maybe a little afraid. They didn’t know when, or even …
St. John’s Lutheran Church2 April 2023 + Sunday of the PassionMatthew 21.1-11; 26.14-27.66Rev. Josh Evans Paradox abounds in our liturgy today. We began with a festive palm procession, commemorating Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. With the crowds we shout, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of …
St. Philip Lutheran Church14 April 2022 + Maundy ThursdayJohn 13.1-17, 31b-35Rev. Josh Evans “Jesus went out with his disciples to a place where there was a garden… Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place… So he brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they …
St. Philip Lutheran Church2 April 2021 + Good FridayJohn 18.1--19.42Rev. Josh Evans, preaching It was a groundbreaking image, the first of its kind. An actual image - not just a simulation - of a black hole. The first image of the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy, captured in April 2019, came …
Continue reading Black Holes, the Cosmos, and the Passion According to John
St. Philip Lutheran Church28 March 2021 + Palm/Passion SundayMark 14.1--15.47Rev. Josh Evans, preaching Reflection/Introduction: “I don’t even know what time means anymore,” admits one pastor in a recent essay for the Christian Century magazine. It’s not just the fact that she’s writing a reflection for a Holy Week issue in the midst of Advent to …
Continue reading The Passion According to St. Mark + Palm Sunday 2021
Unity Lutheran Church + Facebook Live Stream4 April 2020 + Palm / Passion SundayMatthew 21.1-11, 26.14-27.66Rev. Josh Evans, preaching Look for the helpers. That was the advice Fred Rogers - aka “Mr. Rogers” - recalled from his mother when he was growing up. Whenever catastrophe or disaster would strike, she would always try to divert …
Originally written for the April 2020 issue of the UNITY Lutheran Church newsletter Recently I had the opportunity to gather virtually with some members of my home congregation in Chicago for a Lenten mini-retreat. We centered our time on the theme of journeys - always a good retreat topic. The language of journey and journeying is fitting …
Unity Lutheran Church + Christ the King Campus19 April 2019 + Good FridayJohn 18.1—19.42Rev. Josh Evans, preaching Video of the full liturgy available here. Homily begins around the 21:00 mark. You don’t quite know the magnitude of something — physically — until you’re standing right up against it. Two years ago, I visited a good …
Pastor Josh Evans 