SSJE Sermons

“We are good at dying. This past year alone, we’ve had lots of practice. We know what to do in the face of death. We know what’s expected, even when gripped by shock and grief. In the midst of death. What shocks, alarms, terrifies, amazes, and makes us afraid and speechless is life, and especially the kind of life Jesus offers us in the resurrection.” On Easter Sunday, Br. James Koester invites us to join the women at the tomb and to be shocked, overcome, and speechless – not at death – but at the unpredictable, Spirit-filled, risky life of Jesus' resurrection.

“The gospel news of the cross is that God took on our human nature in the face of Jesus and endured the shame of the cross for our sake. It is in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead that God restored our nature, giving us the ability to stare shame in the face and eradicate it with a different language: the language of love. But, we do have to face the cross as Jesus did. We have to summon the courage with God’s help to face what we know to be true, that we are worthy of love and belonging, that we are enough.” On Good Friday, Br. Jim Woodrum invites us to leave our shame at the foot of the cross.

“Allow yourself to be scandalized again at what Jesus is doing as though he were approaching your own feet.  What act of service would shock you?  Can you imagine coming home to find your spiritual director scrubbing the tile in your bathroom?  Or a favorite teacher doing your laundry.  The choir director and the coach cleaning the baseboards in the kitchen.  The head of your department vacuuming under the couch.  A mentor making your bed.

Shocking, uncomfortable, even embarrassing.  But this is Jesus, who being in the very form of God didn’t consider equality to God as something to be clung on to.  He emptied himself taking on the form of a slave.” On Maundy Thursday, Br. Todd Blackham urges us to experience the depths to which Jesus has gone – moving heaven and earth – out of God's profound longing to be reunited with us.

“For many, betrayal marks the end of a relationship, the end of love. But the wonder of the Cross, what brings us to our knees in awe, is that Jesus on the Cross, betrayed, abandoned, alone, is able to forgive. No betrayal, no amount of darkness in men’s hearts, can extinguish that love which is immortal. Love and betrayal. They exist side by side. But love conquers all.” On Wednesday in Holy Week, Br. Geoffrey Tristram weighs betrayal and love in the final days of Jesus – and in our own lives.

“We continue at present separated in longing by disease and death, grief and loss, fear and uncertainty. Yet we join in hope with those who went out of the holy city of Jerusalem to greet the humble Savior.  We raise our cries, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” Together we hail Jesus, the Victor over death and evil, present among us now.” On this second Palm Sunday in pandemic time, Br. Jonathan Maury encourages us to join in Holy Week with hope, knowing that, whatever our present circumstances, we will be supported and strengthened by the grace of our re-birth in Holy Baptism.

“Holy Week offers this powerful invitation, day by day, to let go – to loosen our fearful grip on our attachments, our illusions about ourselves, to strip ourselves of all that keeps us from receiving the new life that the crucified and risen Lord longs to give us.” As we step into the shadow of the cross with Holy Week, Br. Geoffrey Tristram reminds us that we must lose our life to find it.

“The choice is ours, but answer the question we must: who are you? Whatever our answer, will shape who and what we see in the week to come. Indeed, the answer will shape our lives, not just for next week, but for all eternity.” Br. James urges us to answer the ultimate question, not only about Jesus, but about ourselves.

“How many times have I sat, head in my hands, wondering what on earth to do, being twisted and turned by the demons of doubt, insecurity, fear, avoidance, the list goes on. You have seen that in me. You have seen that in yourself. ” Br. James Koester looks to the shadowy Scriptural figure of Joseph for guidance on how to avoid the voices that twist our hearts, listening instead for the voices that fill us with hope on God's promises.

“At the very beginning of his Gospel, John tells us what’s about to happen. He does that by looking backwards, backwards all the way to Moses, and the story of the poisonous serpents, so that we can look forward, forward all the way to the story of the crucifixion and to the lifting up of the Son of Man.” Br. James Koester invites us into the middle of a conversation that has been going on for eons, so that we may believe.

“For many North American Christians, the pages of Scripture are our primary place of encounter with nature. We are isolated from, and have domesticated nature, to such an extent, that we are not often aware of its power, and force, until we are faced with fire, flood, or storm, and property is damaged, or power lost. Then we discover again what our ancestors knew only too well, that nature is not God, but that in nature we can behold the power, the splendour, and the glory of God.” Br. James Koester considers what we can learn of God from the marvels of the natural world – and the pages of Scripture.