June 8, 2025
Whitsunday – Year C – Bill Harkins
The Collect of the Day
Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Gospel: John 14:8-17, 25-27
Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
June 1, 2025
Seventh Sunday of Easter – Year C – Katharine Armentrout
Revealing God and Our Lord Jesus Christ
One of the gifts of working on a sermon is an “aha” moment that can come…not always but sometimes.
And this past week, as I have been reading, studying, thinking and praying about the scripture we have, I had such an “aha” moment.
Like many of you, for years I have studied Jesus, his parables, his miracles, his intellectual skirmishes with the Pharisees, His prayer times.
And it has been about “Jesus” and what He was doing, and is doing for us. It was clear to me that Jesus was faithful to what He believed God was calling Him to do and to be.
But this week, it became clear to me that all this time in Jesus’ ministry it was much more: He was revealing to those he was with, and to us, the very nature of our God!! Who our God is, what our God desires, what our God wants.
Now… for many of you that might not be a revelation but it was to me.
Jesus, when he fed the 5,000, when He healed the paralytic, confronted the authorities, comforted the widow, raised the daughter of Jairius, He was not only being Jesus, Son of God, not only showing us the priorities of our God
but He was revealing the very nature of our God…
the very nature of our God.
May 25, 2025
Sixth Sunday of Easter – Year C – Byron Tindall
This section of John’s Gospel is a portion of what is called the final discourses. Among other things, Jesus is preparing his disciples for what is about to take place in Jerusalem. He is also getting them ready to take over his ministry after he is gone.
In 2 weeks, on June 8, we celebrate our yearly remembrance of the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. To me, it’s the birthday of the church. Jesus’s work on earth is done. He has returned to his Father in Heaven, wherever that is.
This is the arrival of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, about which Jesus discusses with his disciples in the Gospel lesson from John appointed to be read today.
The spoken word and action-teaching of Jesus is rapidly coming to an abrupt halt with his arrest, death, resurrection and ascension. But fear not, Jesus tells his followers. The Counselor, The Spirit of Truth, the Holy Ghost, and there are other names applied to her, is going to help the disciples, AND US, understand what Jesus was trying to teach them and us all along. Unlike the disciples, we don’t have to wait for that arrival.
“Peace, I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives,” Jesus told his followers. When you stop and think about the peace of Rome,
May 18, 2025
Fifth Sunday of Easter – Year C – Bill Harkins
The Collect of the DayAlmighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Gospel: John 13:31-35
At the last supper, when Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now, I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
In the Name of the God of Creation who loves us all, Amen. Good morning! And welcome to Holy Family on this 5th Sunday of Easter. If you are visiting us this morning,