St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York7 July 2024 + Lectionary 14bMark 6:1-13Rev. Josh Evans It’s not always easy, this life of being a disciple. Take nothing. No bread, no bag, no money. Nothing but your staff, the clothes on your back, and the sandals on your feet. Take nothing. Utterly rely on the providence of …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York23 June 2024 + Lectionary 12bMark 4:35-41Rev. Josh Evans A mysterious new alarm appears on the console. “It’s probably not important,” they say, dismissively. Such is where we leave the intrepid crew of personified emotions – Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust – safely in “Headquarters,” having navigated now 12-year-old …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York2 June 2024 + Lectionary 9bMark 2:23–3:6; Deuteronomy 5:12-15Rev. Josh Evans “Remember the sabbath day, and keep it boring.” That’s how Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor recalls her childhood religious experience of “sabbath” – a day defined by “could nots”: you could not wear blue jeans, you could not play …
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 ChurchAlbany, New York19 May 2024 + The Day of PentecostActs 2:1-21Rev. Josh Evans “I grew up with two languages,” Isaac Villegas reflects on his childhood – speaking English at home with his parents and sister, while being absorbed in the native Spanish of his Costa Rican grandparents during the day when his …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York12 May 2024 + Seventh Sunday of EasterJohn 17:6-19Rev. Josh Evans After attending the final funeral together, Carolyn Goodman, Fannie Lee Chaney, and Anne Schwerner stand alone in a New York City apartment. Inspired by a photograph captured of the three women in August of 1964, playwright Ajene D. Washington …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York28 April 2024 + Fifth Sunday of EasterActs 8:26-40; John 15:1-8Rev. Josh Evans He doesn’t even get a name, and yet he gives us one of the most profound stories of belonging in all of Scripture. “As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York21 April 2024 + Fourth Sunday of EasterJohn 10:11-18Rev. Josh Evans Here are two words I never thought I’d hear together: “Swift scholar.” As in: a scholar – not of 18th century Anglo-Irish priest and satire author Jonathan Swift – but of 21st century singer-songwriter Taylor Swift … … who, …
St. John’s Lutheran ChurchAlbany, New York7 April 2024 + Second Sunday of EasterJohn 20:19-31Rev. Josh Evans If the villains of Holy Week are Judas and Peter, then the villain of Eastertide is Thomas. Doubting. Thomas. Who earns his infamous title not even for anything particularly egregious that he does … but solely for being absent …
St. John’s Lutheran Church31 March 2024 + Resurrection of Our LordMark 16:1-8Rev. Josh Evans “They said nothing to anyone.” Okay. Time to wrap it up, and we can all head to Easter brunch early. See you next Sunday! *** Okay, maybe not quite yet … y’all did come all this way… *** Remember how it …
Pastor Josh Evans 