This is a love letter for you who have never had to wonder if you belong and for you who question it every single day.

God meets where we’re at – and doesn’t leave us there.

God cannot be explained. God has to be experienced.

The Holy Spirit isn’t done with us because there is still good news to share.

And then – just like that….he’s gone – taken up into heaven in a cloud. Instead of our hearts burning within us they are once again broken.

Rise, beloved. Christ has freed our hearts from fear. God’s own Spirit, the Advocate, brightly hovers and goes with us.

Our Lamb has conquered all evil and injustice. Our Lamb has conquered death and destruction. Our Lamb has conquered oppression and hatred.

“My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.”

Jesus instructs Peter, “If you love me, feed my sheep.”

And yet: Here, this morning, in this moment, we proclaim a defiant and unexpected resurrection. Hallelujah anyway.

It is a love poured out for us in the water that washes over our feet and in the waters that wash over us in our baptism.

These two women get it. They understand what it means to love Jesus into his future ...

Grace requires nothing of me. No expectation to be anything other than who we are: beloved children of God, loved wholly and completely.

Bloom where you are planted. Or maybe, better yet: Just be where you are planted.

St. Philip Lutheran Church 13 March 2022 + Lent 2c Luke 13.31-35; Genesis 15.1-12, 17-18 Rev. Josh Evans

Jesus was tempted. Jesus struggled. Jesus contended with his own worst fears and vulnerabilities.

Full to the Brim invites us to experience a different kind of Lent

And here again this week, an astonishing story of Jesus up on a mountaintop, transfigured and sparkly in prayer—

It’s one heck of a story. Enough, in fact, to occupy the last fourteen chapters of Genesis. That’s 28% – over a quarter – of the first book

St. Philip Lutheran Church 13 February 2022 + Lect. 6c (Epiphany 6) Jer. 17.5-10; Psalm 1; Luke 6.17-26 Rev. Josh Evans LISTEN HERE What...