St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York20 October 2024 + Lectionary 29bMark 10:35-45Rev. Josh Evans “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” What could go wrong? Even so, Jesus entertains their request:“What is it you want me to do for you?” And without skipping a beat, they name it outright:“Appoint …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York13 October 2024 + Lectionary 28bMark 10:17-31Rev. Josh Evans “You know the commandments.”Do you, Jesus?Because you only named six of them.You couldn’t even name all ten of the big ones –let alone the other 603 that are outlined in the law of Moses.Did you forget a few –hoping (as apparently …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York26 May 2024 + The Holy TrinityJohn 3:1-17Rev. Josh Evans What’s love got to do with it? “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” It’s been cited more often than …
St. John’s Lutheran Church28 March 2024 + Maundy ThursdayJohn 13:1-17, 31b-35Rev. Josh Evans I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. It’s so simple – deceptively, even – this new commandment at the heart of this day, so named Mandatum – “Commandment” – Thursday. I give you a new commandment, that you …
St. John’s Lutheran Church10 March 2024 + Lent 4bJohn 3:14-21Rev. Josh Evans It’s been printed on the bottom of shopping bags and fast food beverage cups. It’s often spotted on homemade poster board signs at sports games. By one count, it’s been translated into over a thousand different languages, and it’s quite possibly the one …
St. John’s Lutheran Church14 February 2024 + Ash WednesdayMatthew 6:1-6, 16-21Rev. Josh Evans “Do you guys ever think about dying?” Nothing brings a party to a screeching halt quite like an existential crisis. Barbie Land was a perfect utopia … until it wasn’t. Until the worries and anxieties of the very much not perfect Real …
St. John’s Lutheran Church10 September 2023 + Lect. 23a (15 Pentecost)Matthew 18.15-20; Romans 13.8-14Rev. Josh Evans Every time this gospel reading comes around, I cringe. Not because I don’t think it has value, but because of the way it has been misunderstood and misused. In one interpretation, conflict management escalates from a one-on-one conversation, to …
St. Philip Lutheran Church4 September 2022 + Lect. 23c (Pentecost 13)Luke 14.25-33Rev. Josh Evans Having a bumper sticker with the name of my congregation and the statement that “Love > Hate” has gone a long way to keep my road rage in check these last couple of years. But no more! According to Jesus, hate …
St. Philip Lutheran Church31 July 2022 + Lect. 18c (Pentecost 8)Hosea 11.1-11Rev. Josh Evans Who among us isn’t guilty of looking back at the past with a certain sentimental nostalgia? Usually those moments come during especially difficult times in the present. When the going gets tough, we open up the mental scrapbooks and reminisce about …
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 …
Pastor Josh Evans 