Sermons from St. John’s Episcopal Church

The Spirit of Flint. Father Louis Harris. April 13, 2025.

From the propers this week, Father Harris reflected on the scandal of the Cross: Why did God submit to humiliation, torture, and death? He didn’t fight back. He endured betrayal, mockery, and suffocation — Why? This is the heart of Christianity: not vague spirituality, but the plain and hard truth that the creator of all things embraced suffering for the good of his creation. And we’re called to the same. The world prizes power, security, and comfort, yet our path is flint-hard surrender — loving our enemies, sacrificing for the poor and imprisoned, and suffering for the good of others. When we submit to this love, a fire is kindled that will ignite the world. The Cross isn’t just history — it’s a mission. It's our mission, demonstrated for us by God himself.

Poured out. Fr. David Houk. April 5, 2025.

John 12:1-8. Mary extravagantly pours out a pound of costly perfume of pure nard on Jesus’s feet. It’s a picture of Jesus’s extravagant love poured out for us on the cross.

Cut It Down. Fr. Louis Harris. March 25, 2025.

From the propers this week, Fr. Harris preaches on a challenging Gospel passage where Jesus confronts the assumption that suffering is God's punishment. When bystanders recall Galileans slain by Pilate and victims of a collapsed tower, Jesus refutes the idea that their deaths signaled their sinfulness. Instead, He warns, “Unless you repent, you will all perish.” Fr. Harris exposes our modern tendency to judge others’ suffering as deserved—homelessness, addiction, violence—while complacently assuming our own righteousness. True repentance, he explains, is a “re-thinking,” a turn inward to examine what rules our hearts. Lent calls us to confront our personal “Pharaohs”—greed, trauma, comfort—and be reshaped by God’s sacrificial love, embodied in the Eucharist. The answer isn’t outward judgment but feeding our starved souls at the altar.

The Hen. Fr. David Houk. March 16, 2025.

Luke 13:31-35. Jesus chooses an unlikely animal to describe his Messianic mission, challenging our understanding of the nature of God.

Afraid of the light. Fr. David Houk. March 2, 2025.

Exodus 34:29-35, Luke 9:28-36. The glory of God that shown on Moses and Jesus leaves us all a bit trembling. But Christ invites us on a journey from fear to love.

Blessing and Woes. Fr. Oliver Butler. February 16. 2025.

Fr. Butler preaches on Jeremiah 17:5-10, 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, and Luke 6:17-26, connecting the Scriptures to the high and low points of our lives.
 

Called and sent. Fr. David Houk. February 9, 2025.

Isaiah 6:1-8, [9-13] and Luke 5:1-11. Our Scriptures recount the call stories of Isaiah and St. Peter. What’s your story?

The Stranger Simeon. Fr. Louis Harris. February 2, 2025.

In the propers this week, we are invited to reflect on the Feast of the Presentation and Purification, where an ordinary ritual becomes a moment of revelation. Simeon’s prophecy shifts the focus from celebration to transformation—Jesus will be opposed, Mary will suffer, and hearts will be laid bare. This marks our turn from Christmas to Lent: not just beholding God’s work, but responding to it. True transformation begins with honest self-presentation and a desire for deep purification. Through confession, repentance, and the Eucharist, God offers Himself so that we, too, might be changed.

One body, many members. Fr. David Houk. January 26, 2025.

1 Corinthians 12:12-31a  Paul’s reminder to the Corinthian church that they are one is a timely word about unity and diversity.

A Third Mystery. Fr. Louis Harris. January 19, 2025.

From the propers this week, Fr. Louis unpacks the third mystery of Epiphany: the Wedding at Cana. Why did Jesus choose to begin his ministry by turning water into wine at a simple wedding feast? What does this miracle reveal about God’s nature, love, and the transformation of the ordinary into the extraordinary? This first sign points to the joy, intimacy, and divine love at the heart of our faith—and what it means for the way we live today.