Sermons from St. John’s Episcopal Church

Repentance made easier. Fr. David Houk. January 11, 2025.

Matthew 3:13-17. Why is Jesus getting baptized? What does he have to repent of? Maybe he’s trying to reassure us that there is nothing we can do to keep him from loving us.

What It All Means. Fr. Harris. December 28, 2025.

From the propers this week, Father Harris confronts our modern "crisis of meaning," diagnosing it instead as a crisis of forgetting. We chase illusions, survey the rubble of our choices, and wonder what it all means, all while neglecting the foundational, radical claim of our faith: "The Word became flesh." God’s mind and will are not hidden. They have been revealed in Jesus Christ. At Christmas, we are called to remember. Our purpose is not a philosophical puzzle but a transformative call: to have our own lives infused by that same Word. This means being remade by His light, life, and truth. The journey begins again; as infants, we behold the infant Christ.

God’s idea of Christmas. Fr. David Houk. Christmas Eve, 2025.

The scene described in Luke 2 is not what we would call an ideal Christmas. But this was God’s idea to meet imperfect people in an imperfect world.

God is with us. Fr. Louis Harris. December 21, 2025.

From the propers this week, Father Harris explores our deepest hopes for dealing with suffering. We often believe that simply forgetting our pain is the best we can hope for, an idea echoed in the ancient Greek myth of the River Lethe. Yet this path of forgetting leaves our sorrows without meaning. Advent calls us to a different and more difficult path: not to forget our heartbreak, but to remember it and bring it before the God who promises to transform it. This Christmas, we are invited to find a hope greater than oblivion, a joy that comes not from escaping our memories but from seeing them redeemed.

Choose your justice carefully. Fr. David Houk. December 14, 2025.

Matthew 11:2-11. Isaiah 35:1-10  It’s the Third Sunday of Advent and John the Baptist asks Jesus, “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Jesus answers with words that beg the question, “What kind of Messiah are you looking for?”

Crying Out in the Wilderness. Fr. Louis Harris. December 7, 2025.

Meditating on the propers this week, Father Harris confronts our modern disillusionment. Drawing from John the Baptist’s stark warning that "the axe is laid to the root of the trees," he reflects on a generation that once placed its hope in technology and human potential to build a fairer world. We now find ourselves empty, isolated, and confronted by the barrenness of our own hearts. This sermon explores how Advent begins by stripping away our illusions, revealing our bondage to folly and misplaced hopes. Yet it does not leave us in despair. We are called to clear a path in the wilderness, to repent, to turn from empty ambitions, and to fix our hope singularly on the coming Kingdom. It is a timely call to acknowledge our need, submit to God’s judgment, and find our true preparation at the altar.

Unexpected company. Fr. David Houk. November 30, 2025.

Matthew 24:36-44. On the first Sunday of Advent, Jesus tells us to wake up and that he is coming at an unexpected hour.

The First One. Fr. Louis Harris. November 23, 2025.

From the propers this week, Father Harris reflects on the Feast of Christ the King and the Church’s choice to end its year with the image of a crucified monarch. From revolutions to billionaires to strong-willed leaders, our world remains captivated by power. Father Harris reminds us that all authority ultimately rests in God, whose reign is revealed through self-giving sacrifice. Standing beside the two thieves, we face the same choice: demand a king who serves our agenda, or recognize the innocent one who reigns from the cross; to do our own thing, or attend to the one who forgives and redeems a divided and broken world.

Building the Tabernacle. Bp. Robert Price. November 16, 2025

It is Celebration Sunday and our guest preacher is Bp. Robert Price, Bishop Coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas.

Stewardship 101: Cheerful, sacrificial, and proportional. Fr. David Houk. Nov. 9, 2025.

Luke 12:32-38. Phil 4:15-20. Deut 26:1–3,12–13,15. Fr. Houk continues the Stewardship 101 series with New Testament principles on giving.