All Souls Parish Sermons episodes:

• December 01, 2025First Sunday of Advent

  The Rev. Emily Boring

  The sermon uses Mary Oliver’s poem about the world descending into winter

  “rich mash” to explore how loss, darkness, and stillness are not endings

  but the ground of renewal. While nature’s cycles teach this intuitively,

  trusting the same process within our inner lives—especially during

  Advent—can be frightening. Stillness can uncover unprocessed grief or

  desired changes we’ve avoided.

  Though the Advent gospel speaks of upheaval and the unknown timing of

  Christ’s return, it reassures us in three ways: Christ meets us amid

  ordinary life; faith requires surrender rather than control; and in God,

  every ending becomes the seed of a beginning. Resurrection is a pattern

  that shapes all creation.

  Advent invites us to enter our “inner winter” with trust—slowing down,

  keeping awake, and attending to hidden truths—supported by Scripture,

  liturgy, and poetry. The sermon ends with Oliver’s reminder that the vigor

  of what was is connected to the vitality of what will be.

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• November 24, 2025Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King

  The Rev. Phil Brochard

  The sermon asks, “If Jesus is a king, what kind of king is he?” Using

  Luke’s crucifixion narrative, it shows that Jesus is a king who refuses to

  save himself even when mocked by religious leaders, Roman soldiers, and the

  criminal beside him. His kingship is revealed not through power or

  self-preservation but through self-giving love. In contrast to modern

  cultural tendencies toward self-interest, the sermon calls Christians to a

  citizenship defined by mercy, solidarity with the vulnerable, and

  allegiance to a king whose authority is expressed in sacrificial

  compassion.

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• November 16, 2025Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

  The Rev. Michael Lemaire

  The sermon uses the story of the failed Millerite rapture predictions to

  explore why people long for the world to end: because the real world feels

  unbearably painful. Drawing on Jesus’s prophecy of the temple’s

  destruction, the preacher shows how ancient and modern communities alike

  cling to apocalyptic hope when everything familiar collapses. But prophecy

  and visions of a perfect future can become escapist fantasies. Isaiah

  dreams of a world without suffering, yet our own world remains filled with

  war, grief, and injustice. Instead of waiting for God to fix everything,

  the gospel points us toward endurance, love, and the everyday practice of

  kindness. Like Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem teaches, only when we know sorrow

  can we recognize kindness as the deepest thing. In a broken world, kindness

  is the call, the task, and the sustaining presence.

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• November 09, 2025Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

  The Rev. Phil Brochard

  The sermon reflects on All Saints and All Souls traditions—especially this

  year’s ofrenda—as ways of making the hope of resurrection tangible. It

  connects the congregation’s questions about the afterlife with the Gospel

  story in which the Sadducees challenge Jesus using an exaggerated scenario

  about a widow marrying seven brothers. Their real goal is to mock belief in

  resurrection.

  Jesus responds by meeting them within their own scriptural framework,

  pointing to God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—living beings to

  God. His teaching doesn’t describe the mechanics of the afterlife but

  emphasizes that we will be known by God and that earthly structures like

  marriage cannot contain the fullness of intimacy and joy in the life to

  come. The sermon concludes that our identities remain, our relationships

  matter, and nothing will hinder the deep communion God intends for us after

  death.

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• November 03, 2025Feast of All Saints and All Souls

  The Rev. Canon Sierra Reyes

  On All Saints’ Sunday, the preacher reflects on the hymn “When the Saints

  Go Marching In” and its line, “Lord, I want to be in that number.” The

  sermon explores the human longing to belong among the saints and reassures

  the congregation that sainthood is not earned but given — an identity

  rooted in God’s grace and baptismal love. The preacher honors both the

  famous “capital-S Saints” and the everyday “lowercase-s saints” who shaped

  our lives.

  As the church baptizes new members, the community joins an unbroken line of

  faith. The life of discipleship, the preacher reminds us, is not easy — it

  is a journey through hardship, calling for courage and “holy trouble” in

  pursuit of justice and truth. The hymn, reimagined as a defiant protest

  song, proclaims that God’s love conquers death and despair. To be in that

  number means to live as one already beloved, bearing witness to God’s

  enduring grace and hope.

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• October 26, 2025Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

  Michael Lewis, Senior Warden

  Michael reflects on stewardship through stories of faith, inclusion, and

  gratitude. Raised in the Black church, he learned that giving is joyful

  participation in community life. His journey to the Episcopal Church began

  when he and his husband David sought an affirming congregation for their

  marriage — finding both acceptance and history in the Episcopal tradition.

  For Michael, All Souls embodies radical openness and active compassion,

  much like the church of his youth. Quoting 2 Timothy, he frames stewardship

  as gratitude for God’s sustaining presence: not repayment, but renewal. He

  celebrates the generosity already thriving in the parish and invites all to

  renew and sustain both their faith and this beloved community through

  cheerful giving.

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• October 19, 2025Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

  The Rev. Phil Brochard

  This sermon reflects on Jesus’ parable of the persistent widow as a call to

  steadfast faith and courage in troubled times. Just as the widow refused to

  give up on justice, we too are invited to persevere in prayer, community,

  and hope, trusting in God rather than in worldly power. Faith (the greek

  word pistis) is about where we place our trust; courage, as Brené Brown

  teaches, is about living with heart. The preacher calls the church to be a

  “school for courage” — a place where people learn to not lose heart and to

  support one another in love, persistence, and generosity.

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• October 12, 2025Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

  The Rev. Emily Boring

  This sermon contemplates the ten healed lepers, especially the nine who did

  not return to thank Jesus. Their silence is explored with empathy—shock,

  fear, or unready hearts may explain their absence. Healing, the preacher

  reminds, has stages. The Samaritan who does return becomes the first

  “Eucharistic disciple,” giving thanks to Jesus with the same word that

  grounds the Church’s central act of thanksgiving. His gratitude mirrors the

  pattern of worship: confession, mercy, praise, and shared communion.

  Gratitude, the sermon concludes, is not demanded but discovered; it moves

  us toward action, generosity, and joy. Stewardship is the living out of

  that thankful turning—faith made visible.

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• October 05, 2025Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

  The Rev. Rachel Dykzeul

  The sermon reflects on the life of St. Francis of Assisi, who abandoned

  wealth and status after a vision redirected him to serve God rather than

  worldly success. Francis embraced poverty, compassion, and stewardship of

  all creation, making his legacy one of faith rather than wealth. Mother

  Rachel connects Francis’s example to the parish’s stewardship campaign,

  urging the community to see generosity not as financial transaction but as

  investment in God’s transforming work. Unlike corporations that measure

  success in profit, the church’s mission is to nurture relationships,

  support one another, and follow Christ. True legacy is not found in money

  or reputation but in Christ, who makes generosity and love endure across

  generations.

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• September 29, 2025Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

  The Rev. Phil Brochard

  The sermon begins with Trump’s reflection on heaven and uses it to frame

  Luke’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The preacher highlights Jesus’

  warnings about wealth, comfort, and distraction, which insulate people from

  others’ suffering. The rich man’s failure is not active cruelty but his

  inability to see Lazarus. Christian faith, the preacher insists, is a

  “mysticism of open eyes” — perceiving suffering and responding with

  compassion. The sermon ends with the parable’s haunting question: even if

  someone rose from the dead, would we truly live differently?

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