St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York7 September 2025 + Thirteenth Sunday after PentecostProper 18 / Lectionary 23cLuke 14:25-33The Rev. Josh Evans Did Jesus really just say that? “Whoever…does not hate father and mother,wife and children,brothers and sisters,yes, and even life itself,cannot be my disciple.” Is this really the same Jesuswho heals the sick,mingles with outcasts,and …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York31 August 2025 + Twelfth Sunday after PentecostProper 17 / Lectionary 22cLuke 14:1, 7-14The Rev. Josh Evans A place for everything,and everything in its place. It’s so simple,so proverb-like,so beautiful of a sentiment.Words to live by. It’s no secret that I like things neatly organized.If we had projection screens in …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York24 August 2025 + Eleventh Sunday after PentecostProper 16 / Lectionary 21cLuke 13:10-17The Rev. Josh Evans [Content Note: This sermon includes a mention of suicide and mental illness.] *** No one likes being ignored,made to feel unimportant,or worse – invisible. This woman – unnamed as so often women are in …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York10 August 2025 + Ninth Sunday after PentecostProper 14 / Lectionary 19cLuke 12:32-40The Rev. Josh Evans Three years ago,I decided to shake things up in worship.That summer, while I was still in my previous call,I opted for the alternate set of first readings –sometimes called the “semi-continuous” first readingsfor the …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York27 July 2025 + Seventh Sunday after PentecostProper 12 / Lectionary 17cGenesis 18:20-32; Luke 11:1-13The Rev. Josh Evans I don’t know how Genesis 18 came to be paired with this gospel readingfrom which we get the Lord’s Prayer –except that it has to do with prayer(?) because Abraham “prays”?And is …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York13 July 2025 + Fifth Sunday after PentecostProper 10 / Lectionary 15cLuke 10:25-37The Rev. Josh Evans In nearly seven years of ordained ministry,you might be shocked to learn – as I was –that I have, apparently, never preached on this parable before.This parable of the so-called “Good Samaritan,”as our Bibles …
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 ChurchAlbany, New York30 March 2025 + Lent 4cLuke 15:1-3, 11b-32The Rev. Josh Evans “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to [Jesus]. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he told them this parable…” Actually, …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York16 March 2025 + Lent 2cLuke 13:31-35The Rev. Josh Evans It’s an ancient image,rooted in the writings of the early churchand in scripture itself. Anselm of Canterbury, writing in the 11th century,speaks of Jesus as a mother who gathers us. The medieval mystic Julian of Norwich writesof Christ, our true …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York9 March 2025 + Lent 1cLuke 4:1-13The Rev. Josh Evans “The passion of Christ begins not in the week of suffering but already with the first day of his preaching,” as Dietrich Bonhoeffer observes, in a brief homily on this very gospel, preached to the students of the Berlin Technical …
Pastor Josh Evans 