St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York22 March 2026 + The Fifth Sunday in LentJohn 11:1-45The Rev. Josh Evans Lazarus was dead:to begin with.There is no doubt whatever about that.Lazarus was, in a Dickensian turn of phrase, as dead as a door-nail. Lazarus is dead,Jesus says plainly.Dead for four days,John tells us –a not insignificant detail,perhaps …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York28 September 2025 + Sixteenth Sunday after PentecostProper 21 / Lectionary 26cLuke 16:19-31The Rev. Josh Evans This is an uncomfortable gospel. For Lazarus:who in life was economically destitute,covered with painful sores,without even a crumb to eat,the hunger pangs gnawing away inside of him,overlooked and passed by,with only the feral dogs …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York3 November 2024 + All SaintsJohn 11:32-44Rev. Josh Evans It’s a well-known story,often summarized with the title “The Raising of Lazarus”without a second thought. Start reading the actual story,and you’ll quickly realize: This isn’t so much about the raising of Lazarus –which only takes up two short verses at the …
St. John’s Lutheran Church26 March 2023 + Lent 5aJohn 11.1-45; Ezekiel 37.1-14Rev. Josh Evans It’s probably the most famous prophecy in the book of Ezekiel: the valley of “dem dry bones.” Truthfully, it’s a bit of a terrifying vision: for these dry bones to suddenly shake and rattle and come together, with sinews and flesh …
St. Philip Lutheran Church25 September 2022 + Lect. 26c (Pentecost 16)Luke 16.19-31Rev. Josh Evans Very few things will get me out of bed at 4:30 in the morning: A fire alarm.A sudden crash of thunder as intense as though lightning struck my own roof.My cats knocking something over in the next room. This past Monday, …
Continue reading A Sermon about the Reign of God (and Queen Elizabeth)
St. Philip Lutheran Church3 April 2022 + Lent 5cJohn 12.1-8Rev. Josh Evans All throughout this season of Lent, our cups have been filled to the brim. At the start of our journey, we walked with Jesus in the desert, tempted to our very limits, and in that desert-place, we remembered and claimed the belovedness that …
St. Philip Lutheran Church7 November 2021 + All SaintsJohn 11.32-44Rev. Josh Evans I’m not sure what it says about me that two of my favorite days on the church calendar have to do with death. First, there’s Ash Wednesday, where we are honest about our human condition, our sin, our brokenness, our frailty … marking …
Earlier this month, I attended the annual Proclaim Gathering, a conference for Lutheran pastors, deacons, seminarians, and first call candidates who publicly identify as LGBTQIA+. Proclaim is a part of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, an organization that believes the public witness of gender and sexual minority ministers transforms the church and enriches the world. Learn more …
Unity Lutheran Church + Cross of Life Campus7 April 2019 + Fifth Sunday in LentJohn 12.1-8Rev. Josh Evans, preaching This is a tale of two women. First: She’s at this big party, a wedding feast to be exact. Everything’s going great, and everyone’s having a great time… until: They run out of wine. With an …
This sermon marked the end of the summer/fall of itinerant preaching in Chicago, and I can't imagine a better place to have spent it than preaching and presiding among the saints at Wicker Park Lutheran Church, a place so dear to me and my eleven years in Chicago(land) for so many reasons.Incidentally, this sermon was …
Continue reading A Sermon about St. Óscar Romero, Matthew Shepard, and the Whole Communion of Saints
Pastor Josh Evans 