St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York29 September 2024 + Michael & All AngelsRevelation 12:7-12Rev. Josh Evans Why celebrate Michael & All Angels? Because it falls on a Sunday this year and the lectionary says so?Because it gives us another excuse to highlight the music of the brilliantly talented John Williams in the dragon-adjacent Jurassic Park …
Evangelical, Poestenkill & Faith, Troy22 September 2024 + Lectionary 25bMark 9:30-37Rev. Josh Evans (no video this week) I wonder what prompted their conversation about greatness. Were they planning for the future?For Jesus’ replacement?For which one of them would naturally take over when he is killed,a fact he has told them (at least) twice now? Were …
Preacher's note: The following homily was preached at the funeral of a St. John's member, whose name has been removed for the family's privacy. I normally don't post funeral homilies/sermons, but this one – in this particular context, on the occasion of Holy Cross Day – felt particularly appropriate to share with a wider audience. …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York15 September 2024 + Lectionary 24bMark 8:27-38Rev. Josh Evans The stage is set, and the debate is ready to begin.Each party has taken their place at the podium,ready to defend their platform,and the moderator asks the first question:“Who do people say that I am?” The disciples, in turn, offer various …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York8 September 2024 + Lectionary 23bMark 7:24-37; James 2:1-10, 14-17; Psalm 146Rev. Josh Evans It sounds like Jesus didn’t read James:“If you show partiality, you commit sin…” But of course that’s an anachronism.Jesus would have had no occasion to read James,a book written many years after his lifetime. But surely …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York25 August 2024 + Lectionary 21bJohn 6:56-69, [70-71]Rev. Josh Evans Let’s talk about Judas. This is, after all, the first time Judas is mentioned in John’s gospel:not by name, not with any biographical background,not by what he has done up to this point –oh, you know, Judas, the one who’s …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York18 August 2024 + Mary, Mother of Our LordLuke 1:46-55Rev. Josh Evans Maybe you saw it –the Opening Ceremonies –as the 2024 Summer Olympics kicked off in Paris,just a few short weeks ago. Maybe you marveledat the spectacle and the grandeur of it all. Maybe you saw the almost immediate …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York11 August 2024 + Lectionary 19b1 Kings 19:4-8; John 6:35, 41-51Rev. Josh Evans It was the best of times.It was the worst of times. Words made famous, of course,by 19th century English novelist Charles Dickens. Words which might, just as well,describe one of the most prominent figuresin the Hebrew Bible. …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York4 August 2024 + Lectionary 18bJohn 6:24-35Rev. Josh Evans “Sometimes bread is just bread,”as the brilliant New Testament scholar Dr. Barbara Rossing once suggested,following a decisively eucharistic sermon I had just delivered on John chapter 6 one afternoon during a preaching class at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York21 July 2024 + Mary Magdalene, ApostleJohn 20:1-2, 11-18Rev. Josh Evans If Jesus is “the reason for the [Christmas] season,”then Mary Magdalene is the reason for the Easter season. Mary Magdalene,witness to the resurrection,apostle to the apostles –without whom no good news would have been proclaimed. “Woman, weeping in the …
Pastor Josh Evans 