SSJE Sermons

“A sense of urgent longing to cross over a frontier from nominal belonging onto a path of transformational belonging within the body of Christ…If Jesus is turning your life upside down but you’re discovering that that’s what you want more of, you’ve felt it. The ways we express this longing, like the zealous of the fourth century, are astonishingly diverse. But they have one thing in common: they are a direct response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, who “searches our depths” and “searches the depths of God.” It is the depths our hearts long for most.” Br. Keith Nelson connects our own experience of zeal & the intensity of our commitment to Christ to the mission of one of the early monastics, Basil of Caesarea.

“Today we celebrate the great gift which God poured out upon us all on the Day of Pentecost. When the Spirit came down to those disciples they were changed, transformed.  Their spirits were recharged with life and power. They came back to life. And that same promise is made to us, today.” On Pentecost, Br. Geoffrey Tristram gives us a wake-up call – to pray.

“The witness of the martyrs is powerful, not because we are in awe of what they lose, but because we are inspired by what they have, and we find ourselves wanting it. We see in them a life of courage, inspired by their faith in the resurrection of Jesus. Seeing them, we find in ourselves a desire for the same life of faith and courage, which allows us to stand firm even in the face of death.” Br. James Koester remembers the martyrs of Uganda, and challenges us to live lives of courage, profoundly marked by faith in Jesus.

“As love goes, this is where things get thorny. Loving God without condition as God has loved us, while a tall order for finite creatures, is something we might readily give ascent to. But, loving each other ‘agape’ style? What does it mean to love each other without conditions: without sex and romance, without stability and provision, without fellowship in exalted experience, or ultimately, without any expectation or transaction?” Br. Jim Woodrum challenges us to mirror God's unconditional love in the love we show to one another.

“It is too easy to see the Resurrection in human terms, an event that reveals a God whose omnipotence is characterized by all the ways human beings conceive of omnipotence. Yes, God is big and strong and powerful. But not in the ways our hearts have been trained to conceive of such attributes.” Br. Sean Glenn separates the power of God, revealed in the Resurrection, from those human forms of power that seek to dominate.

“It is God who is the source of our lives, and God who is the end of our lives, and it is God who calls us and desires us to be in union with God forever. It is God who seeks us out, God who has all the time in the world for us. Baptism is an act which anticipates its completion in the future, with a person’s own confession of faith. Baptism is an initiation, not a completion.” On the joyful event of an infant baptism, Br. Curtis Almquist invites us to see all baptism not as a completion, but as an initiation.

“Are there humble, ordinary gestures that the crucified and risen Jesus has used to show you the nature of God? Have you become distracted from the pattern of light by the dissatisfied ache for an epiphany? Jesus offers a profound reassurance and a further invitation to Philip, and to us, today: 'If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.'” Br. Keith Nelson beckons us toward Jesus and the long, slow work of conversion as we see, in his prismatic glory, the Light of God.

“It was seeing Jesus’ body, in all its brokenness and woundedness which brought Thomas to belief. But this beautiful story is not a story of proof but a story of love. For me, the story of Thomas is not primarily a story of a sceptic who comes to believe because his list of doubts is answered; not an intellectual assent to something proven. The story of Thomas is rather the story of a man who comes to believe not because he has enough proof, but because he has actually touched the mystery of divine, self-sacrificial love.” In this sermon on Thomas, Br. Geoffrey urges us to listen to our gut and heart, not our head, as we encounter the Lord.

“We come to Easter this year exhausted, not by our keeping of Lent, but by our keeping on, keeping on. We are exhausted by two years of uncertainty, sadness, and anxiety brought on by a global pandemic. We are exhausted, by two years of blatant inequality and injustice. We are exhausted by fear, that what is going on in Ukraine, will plunge the world into even more chaos, and uncertainty. We are exhausted, by the stink of these past two years, as the pandemic tide ebbs out revealing, what has long been hidden.” Br. James Koester uncovers the promise of the resurrection to us and to all creation: If God can raise Jesus from the dead, then God can mend, heal, and cleanse a broken, stinking world, making all things new

“We hear proclaimed in our Gospel account that Jesus is resurrected. But one thing has not changed. Even though Jesus is resurrected, Jesus’ heart is still broken.” Even as we celebrate Jesus' resurrection, Br. Curtis Almquist encourages us to acknowledge our own and the world's woundedness, to allow us to tap into Jesus' resurrection power in the here-and-now. Hallelujah!