On Ascension Day, this sermon contrasts a culture of shallow, disposable living with the Gospel’s call to rooted presence. Drawing on Robin Wall Kimmerer and the angels in Acts, it invites us to stop looking for escape, to love fiercely, and to live deeply. Not everywhere, but somewhere. As if we were staying.

Set against stories of injustice past and present, this sermon explores Jesus’ commandment to love as a costly, embodied practice. Rooted in the farewell discourse and the Eucharist, it calls the church to resist separation, stand with the suffering, and become Christ’s body, broken and given for the life of the world.

In this sermon, our rector reflects on how Christian faith has often been shaped by an anxious focus on salvation that Jesus himself never centers. Drawing on John 14, he argues that Jesus’ words about being “the way” point not to exclusion or superiority, but to a way of life marked by trust, compassion, and openness to God here and now. When fear‑based theology turns faith into boundary‑making or nationalism, it loses sight of a God whose house always has room to spare.

On Good Shepherd Sunday, the image of sheep and shepherd can feel distant or even insulting. Drawing on Palestinian shepherd practices, Howard Thurman’s wisdom, and Psalm 23, this sermon explores discernment, trust, and how we recognize the voice that leads toward life rather than fear or domination.

On the road to Emmaus, the risen Christ walks unnoticed beside grieving disciples. The Rev. Lee Lowery explores how we remake Jesus in our own image, miss his presence in everyday life, and yet encounter him again in community, Scripture, sacrament, and the faces of those most in need.

Preaching on Doubting Thomas Sunday, the Rev. Joe Britton reflects on John’s Gospel and its surprising claim that the Holy Spirit is given on Easter Day itself. Drawing on music, lived experience, and the sacrament of baptism, he reframes Thomas’s doubt not as skepticism but as spiritual illumination delayed. Baptism, he argues, is the moment when Christ breathes the Spirit into us, opening our eyes to abundant life and commissioning us as co‑creators in God’s ongoing new creation.

We celebrate Easter this year in a world at war, a world tired, anxious, and hungry for good news that does not deny reality. This reflection asks what Christians really mean by victory when suffering, fear, and injustice persist. Easter is not about pretending everything is fine, but about refusing to let despair win.

On Good Friday, Angel Nalubega preaches a powerful homily about the cross. Leaning on the theology of James Cone, she says that we cannot understand the cross without the lynching tree. Christ the Victor is the suffering servant, the poor man.