SSJE Sermons

“A playful perspective honors mystery. There is so much we do not know, and that’s ok. There is always more than we can know about the other. There is more than we will know about ourselves. There is always more, so much more about God than what we know now.” Br. Luke Ditewig encourages us to expect the unexpected as we playfully pray with the God who is mystery and playfully live with one another.

“I find Thomas a great hero because of his courage and clarity to value his own experience and needs, and to express them. He was not asking to know about Jesus; he was not banking his life on other people’s experience of Jesus. Thomas knew he needed to experience Jesus’ resurrection personally, in a way that Thomas would be able to believe.” Br. Curtis Almquist gives us a portrait of Thomas not as a "doubter," but as a man of "double faithfulness."

"This morning we arose in darkness. When you are in the middle of a dark night, there is absolutely no clue that a dawning will happen, no reason to even imagine light will ever come again… except if you can remember that, amazingly enough, the dawn has happened before. Out of a dark night, the dawn has come in the past. This memory gives hope that the dawn shall happen again, miraculously. The resurrection – your resurrection – will dawn on you, as it has before, and that is a promise Christ leaves with us this Easter day." On Easter Sunday. Br. Curtis Almquist reminds us of the paradox we have already known be the true: how life comes out of death.

“Good Friday may seem morbid, but Good Friday is healthy. Good Friday is a time to get real, a time to get honest about who we are and how we’re doing, a time to get closer to God. Good Friday is not easy, but it’s worth it. We have to take the time to deal with the shadows of our life and faith. How else will we see the light if we haven’t spent some time in the darkness?” On Good Friday, Br. Jack Crowley invites us to pray our suffering, our uncertainty, our desperate passion for God.

“What a contrast Jesus' values are to the ways of the powerful, who so often are consumed with protecting and promoting their own interests! By washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus does not diminish his authority.  He is still their “Lord and Teacher."  But he has come to show them a new way of exercising authority, a new way of being with others that is characterized by humility, compassion and loving service.” On Maundy Thursday, Br. David Vryhof marvels at the radical act we commemorate, and in which we are called to participate.

“There is an invitation to join Jesus in this Holy Week to return again to the great acts of salvation and the depths of God’s healing love.  It may not be pleasant or feel victorious to encounter anew the barriers within us and among us that keep us from God.  It may be hard to accept being loved at such a cost.  But as we come to know our need of salvation we will recognize how much we have been saved.” In the stark reversal of Palm Sunday, Br. Todd Blackham finds a promise that can redeem even the most challenging places we might unexpectedly find ourselves.

“Dear friends, what is your poverty? Where are you in touch most now with your fragility, your weakness, your need? As to the one born blind, Jesus comes here, particularly in these places, to meet you with power in mercy and compassion.” In Lent, Br. Luke Ditewig encourages us to admit the ways that we are blind, so that we can trust Jesus to meet us there and help us see.

“The story of the Samaritan woman is a story of longing for connection and reconnection, not only to the communities from which we come, but a connection to God who calls us from our past, into a future, God’s future, where we know ourselves to be born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.” Br. James Koester dives deep into the story of the Samaritan woman, to find a reminder that we are invited to become God's children, no matter what.

“Who we are, what we are, however it is we’ve gotten to be where we are, God knows, God lures, God loves. Rather than calling this God’s “unconditional love,” I now think of this as God’s “conditional love.” Because life is inescapably full of conditions and circumstances, changes and chances, and God’s love for us is neither theoretical nor generic. God’s love for us is real and personal, woven into the fabric of our lives from the very beginning.” Br. Curtis Almquist marvels at God's love which is not "blind," but eyes wide open, to us, in all our unique and conditional particularity.

“How often do I move to autopilot the moment I hear the words Our Father? How often is my mind miles away, when I hear in the gospels the words, pray then in this way? How often do I ask myself if we have said the Lord Prayer yet, when we have just finished it and said Amen. How often is this prayer just empty words?” Br. James Koester marvels at the depths and the legacy of the words we have in the Lord's Prayer.