Sermons on John

Sermons on John

Unbinding Grief, Unbinding Life: Shouting in Windows and Mirrors

Our Lenten Sermon Series, Unbinding Grief, Unbinding Life continues with Pastor Billy’s sermon, Shouting in Windows and Mirrors. Jesus shouts at Lazarus to come forth in John 11:38-53. This is the first time John uses that verb and then he repeats it throughout the passion narrative to contrast Jesus shouting for life and the crowd shouting for death. How can we read the the Bible as both a window and a mirror (also called descriptive/prescriptive reading) and notice ourselves in…

Unbinding Grief, Unbinding Life: The Gift of Tears

In this short section from the story of Lazarus, Jesus comes down to earth. Breaking from his laser focus on his mission and his message, he falls apart. He break down. He weeps. In doing this, he learns what it means to be human, to be vulnerable, to be broken, and to grieve. He becomes human through his tears. We also can become truly human through ours.

Unbinding Grief, Unbinding Life

What does Jesus mean when he says “I am the resurrection?” Much more than just an invitation to say a magical formula about Jesus that gets you into heaven. He is inviting us to hold the vision of heaven and bring into into our lives today. It is a resurrection power that can transform us.

Unbinding Grief, Unbinding Life: Part One

We begin a 5 Sunday series inspired by the story of the Raising of Lazarus. What does Jesus mean when he says Lazarus’ illness is “for the glory of God”? In this sermon Pastor Tom explores both the complexity of grieving and God’s transformative power to create new life from death.

Don’t Look it Up!…Look Up!

What does Wordle have to do with the Gospel? Why are Pharisees like Scrabble? John invites us to resist the temptation to decide what Christ can’t do by looking it up in the Bible. Instead Look up and see Christ loose in the world and imagine what Christ can do.

Keep on Gnawing

In John’s gospel, Jesus tells us repeatedly he is the “bread of life,” but how exactly does that work? This Sunday, Pastor Billy will discuss the great bread chapter of John (chapter 6), Passover, manna, feeding the 5,000, and what Jesus’ invitation to carbo-loaded, full life might mean for us today.

Quenching Our Thirst by Knowing Our Worth

The woman at the well represents just about every outsider we can imagine. Jesus offers her Living Water that is the knowledge that her worth is not dependent on what she can do or who society says she should be. Her worth (and our worth) is only dependent on our relationship to God as God’s children. And every living being on earth is a child of God.

Containing the Uncontainable

In our passage today John uses the symbols of larger stone water jars to invite us to reflect on the structures, rituals, and practices we use to help us find reliable connections to God. Even though we can never contain God, how would you express what you hope to contain when it some to the Spirit? What do you do in your life to give you regular access it?

Invitational Faith in a Religiously Plural World

John is clearly calling us to an invitational faith. To follow Jesus means to invite others to follow Jesus. Yet, we can struggle with this calling when we believe other faith traditions are equally valid to our own. We also know as individuals we are not any better than anyone else. So what can John teach us about sharing our faith today? Come and see.