SSJE Sermons

“It is Paul’s moments of utter vulnerability that I most cherish, the sure signs of God’s strength made perfect in Paul’s weakness that point to the immensity of God’s longsuffering Love. The vulnerable Paul reminds me of the vulnerable me.” Br. Keith Nelson reaches through the longing and the lack of our current moment, to find blessing even in the vulnerability of our connections to one another.

“Sean, the circle of your Brothers here has been waiting patiently for you for a long time, ignoring your doubts, your past, your arguments, your objections, we have been holding open for you a place in the circle of this community. All you need to do is walk into it and take your place.” Br. James Koester welcomes Br. Sean Glenn into the circle of his Brothers' love on the joyful occasion of Sean's Profession in Initial Vows.

“ The essence of God is not vengeance, but rather justice. When we think of justice, we are tempted to think in terms of retribution for a crime committed. However, justice is more comprehensive in that it also involves restoration.” Br. Jim Woodrum marvels at how forgiveness reveals to us not only God’s essential nature, but also our own as creatures made in God’s image and likeness.

“In the spiritual dance that draws us into God’s love, we take steps forward and back. Sometimes one of our branches may be yielding good fruit while another is withered and spent as it drifts away from the true vine.” Br. Todd Blackham invites us to consider how our growth relates to that of our neighbors, and how God’s careful pruning hand tends to us all together.

“To be clearsighted about ourselves, is to be aware of our own shortcomings, limitations, and challenges. But it also means to be aware of our own gifts and talents. Real humility is not about humiliation. Rather it is about knowing ourselves as God knows us: imperfect creatures, whom God loves.” Br. James Koester invites us to see ourselves as God sees us.

“ With a heart firmly fixed on God’s love, Mary cooperates with God’s call—a call for which she does not presume to ask and from which she does not shrink back in a spirit of unworthiness. She does not allow the weight of her finitude to keep her from trusting God’s power to call, to justify, and to glorify. She trusts that the lightness of her finitude will not be crushed by the weight of the infinity that lovingly presses upon her.” Br. Sean Glenn unpacks the beautiful ‘sermon in stone’ of the Monastery’s statue of Mary with Jesus, to find a lesson in grace for us all.

Wisdom 3: 1 – 5, 9; Romans 8: 14 – 19, 34 – 35, 37 – 39; John 6: 37 – 40  One of my first experiences as a member of the Society was the death and funeral of a Brother. Even though, as a parish priest, I had been involved in several deaths, and…

“It’s a lot to try to keep in balance and when things seem to go sideways all the effort seems for naught. When we look around and wonder, is it making any difference?  Am I running blind?  Am I running in place?  Are you running with me Jesus?”

Achingly honest questions from Br. Todd Blackham, with an encouraging promise: Jesus leads us on.

“God’s right extends not only to us as individuals, but to communities and even nations.  God has in mind what he wants us to be and to become, and like the potter, God exerts pressure through the circumstances of our lives, to shape and mold us into the vessels he has envisioned.” Br. David Vryhof invites us to discern how God is shaping us, individually and concretely.

“During this time, when many of us are confined, maybe bored, and are missing church, perhaps today’s Gospel is challenging us to ask, So where are the signs of God’s Kingdom, right here in my home, in my kitchen? Where is the Spirit at work, here, now, in the midst of dull routine? Where is God in the ordinary, in the person we are so familiar with, whom we perhaps tend to overlook or ignore, in activities that we are bored with, and take for granted. But these might be the very people and places where God’s treasure is waiting to be discovered, waiting to transform our lives.” Br. Geoffrey Tristram urges us not to miss the treasure of God's Kingdom – God's presence – in our midst.