Sermon by Mother Emily Hylden

September 20, 2026

What happens when resentment becomes harder to let go of than the hurt that caused it?

Drawing on the story of Jonah and Jesus’ Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, this sermon explores the difficult work of forgiveness and our tendency to decide who deserves grace and who does not. Both stories reveal how easily anger and self-righteousness can keep us trapped, especially when God’s generosity challenges our own sense of fairness.

Forgiveness does not excuse what has happened or erase the pain. Instead, it releases us from allowing old grievances to continue shaping our lives. The invitation is to surrender judgment, let go of bitterness, and make room for humility, freedom, peace, and grace.

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Sermon by Father Stuart Bates

September 13, 2026

In this sermon, Father Stuart Bates reflects on one of the most difficult demands of the Christian life: forgiveness. Jesus teaches that we cannot ask God for mercy while refusing to extend that same mercy to others.

Forgiveness, however, is rarely easy. Hurt, anger, and resentment can take deep root, especially when the wounds we carry are real and painful. Father Stuart explores how holding on to those wounds can become its own kind of prison, while forgiveness can open the way toward freedom and healing.

Rather than something we accomplish through willpower alone, forgiveness is a lifelong spiritual practice. Through prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit, we learn, sometimes slowly, to release resentment and offer to others the mercy we ourselves hope to receive.

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Sermon by Father David Price

September 6, 2026

What should Christians do when someone has hurt them or damaged a relationship?

In this sermon, Jesus’ teaching from Matthew 18 offers a practical path toward reconciliation: begin with an honest private conversation, seek the help of others when necessary, and keep restoration rather than punishment at the center of the process. Alongside Paul’s reminder that love fulfills the law, the sermon explores why genuine Christian love requires more than avoiding conflict. It calls for truth, accountability, humility, and the courage to repair what has been broken.

Ultimately, Christ promises to be present wherever people gather in his name and undertake the difficult work of becoming a reconciled community.

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Sermon by Father Stuart Bates | August 30, 2026

What does it really mean to follow Christ?

Father Stuart Bates reflects on Jesus’ call to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow him. Drawing from Matthew’s Gospel and Romans 12, he contrasts our culture’s emphasis on self-fulfillment with the Christian call to genuine love, humility, generosity, and peace.

Discipleship is more than belief. It is a lifelong process of transformation, learning to let go of our own ambitions and allowing the love of Christ to reshape the way we live. At the heart of the Gospel is a challenging paradox: in losing our lives for Christ, we begin to discover what it means to truly live.

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Sermon by Rev. Katie Gould

Aug 23, 2026

In this sermon, the Rev. Katie Gould reflects on Paul’s call in Romans to be “transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Using the familiar image of a smartphone crowded with apps running in the background, she explores how easily our minds can become consumed by anxiety, comparison, distraction, and the pressures of everyday life.

But transformation, she explains, is about more than simply trying harder or thinking more positively. It is a gradual metamorphosis shaped by God’s mercy, as we intentionally make room for prayer, reflection, and practices that redirect our attention toward God.

Renewing the mind allows us to see ourselves, others, and the world with greater clarity. It gives us the discernment to recognize our gifts and use them in service to one another. Even where we place our attention can become an act of worship.

Ultimately, this sermon invites us to notice the thoughts and patterns quietly running in the background of our lives and ask a simple but important question: What is shaping my mind, and is it making room for God to transform me?

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Sermon by Father Stuart Bates

August 16, 2026

In this sermon, Father Stuart Bates reflects on the remarkable story of Joseph, whose journey takes him from betrayal and slavery to a position of great responsibility in Egypt. Looking back on everything that has happened, Joseph is able to see that even through the actions of those who meant him harm, God was still at work.

Father Stuart draws connections between Joseph and Christ. Both are betrayed, both suffer unjustly, and both respond not with vengeance, but with forgiveness and the preservation of life. Joseph’s story becomes a powerful example of what it means to trust God when we cannot yet see where our circumstances are leading.

Faith does not mean that everything will happen as we would choose. It means learning to place our lives, our plans, and even the things we cannot understand into God’s hands, trusting that grace can emerge from places we never expected.

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Sermon by Father Bob Wismer

August 9, 2026

In this sermon, Father Bob Wismer reflects on the story from Matthew’s Gospel of Jesus walking across the water toward his disciples as they struggle against the wind and waves. Their experience becomes a picture of those moments in life when we feel overwhelmed, exhausted, or unsure of where God is.

Peter’s decision to step out of the boat shows both the courage of faith and how quickly fear can take hold. Yet when Peter begins to sink, Jesus reaches for him. Drawing on Scripture, personal experience, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Father Bob explores what it means to trust that Christ is present even when we cannot immediately recognize him.

The sermon invites us to carry the cross not simply as a symbol, but as something rooted in our hearts, giving us a place to stand when life becomes uncertain. Worship, then, becomes more than something we do on Sunday. It becomes a way of offering ourselves to God and carrying that faith with us into whatever storms we encounter.

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Sermon my Mother Emily Hylden

August 2, 2026

In this sermon, Mother Emily Hylden reflects on Jacob’s wrestling with God and Jesus’ grief following the death of John the Baptist. Both stories reveal people meeting God in difficult places, where grief, struggle, failure, and faith become intertwined.

Jacob comes to God carrying a complicated past. Jesus, grieving the violent death of his friend and cousin, seeks a place of solitude but instead encounters a crowd of people who need him. Rather than turning them away, he stays with them, offering compassion, healing, and nourishment.

Mother Emily reminds us that God does not wait for our lives to be orderly before meeting us. God meets us in the wrestling, in our grief, and in the consequences of our mistakes. The church can be a place where we bring those experiences together, finding nourishment, companionship, and the possibility of healing in a God who remains present with us.

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Sermon by Father David Price

July 26, 2026

In this sermon, Father David Price reflects on what happens when the challenges before us seem greater than our own abilities. Drawing on the story of King Solomon, he reminds us that God does not expect us to have all the answers or possess all the strength we need. Instead, we are invited to bring what we have and trust God to provide what is missing.

Through Jesus’ parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, Father David explores how God can take something seemingly small and transform it into something far greater. Faith does not depend on our ability to accomplish everything ourselves. It begins with our willingness to offer what we can and allow the Holy Spirit to work through us.

Even when we do not know how to pray, what to say, or how to move forward, God remains present. Nothing can separate us from that love, and our limitations do not limit what God can do.

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Sermon by Father Bob Wismer

July 19, 2026

In this sermon, Father Bob Wismer reflects on what it means to hear the Good News in a world filled with conflict, uncertainty, and division. Drawing on Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds, he considers the reality that good and evil exist side by side, not only in the world around us, but within each of us.

Rather than rushing to judgment or trying to decide who belongs on which side, Father Bob points toward patience, humility, and trust in God. Only God can see the whole picture. Using the image of a tapestry still being woven, he reminds us that our individual lives are part of a much larger story, one whose final pattern we cannot yet see.

Even amid troubling headlines and the uncertainties of everyday life, the Good News offers another way of seeing the world: trusting in God’s compassion and finding our place in a Kingdom that is still being woven among us.

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