the Rev. Phil Brochard

This week’s sermon was preached by Emily+ and the youth of All Souls on Sunday, July 19^th following an immersion trip to the U.S./Mexico border on the theme of immigration justice.

To protect the privacy of the youth, we have chosen not to publicly post an audio or visual recording of this sermon. The written text will be available as a Pathfinder article on Thursday, July 23rd. (If you would like to listen/watch instead, please email Emily+ for access to a sound/video recording).

The Rev. Dr. Paula Nesbitt

Using the surprising story of flowers blooming a year after they were planted, the sermon explores Jesus' Parable of the Sower and the mystery of spiritual growth. Good soil consists of truth, hope, meaningful relationships, and openness to God's work, but growth often happens slowly and unexpectedly.

Drawing on experiences at the Anglican Consultative Council in Belfast, the preacher describes how delegates from across the world chose unity over division despite deep disagreements about gender, sexuality, and church governance. Rather than allowing political conflict to break apart the Anglican family, they committed themselves to mutual respect, continued dialogue, and remaining together.

The sermon concludes that the Church's calling is not to seek perfect conditions but to cultivate patient, loving relationships where faith can grow. Even rocky, thorn-filled soil should never be abandoned because God's grace often produces unexpected fruit where least expected.

The Rev. Phil Brochard

The sermon explores Jesus' invitation, "Come to me, all you who are weary," by placing it in the context of John the Baptizer's question from prison: "Are you the one who is to come?" John's uncertainty reflects the surprising nature of Jesus' ministry, which transforms the world not through political power or revolution, but through countless acts of mercy, healing, and compassion.

Using the image of the yoke, the preacher explains how Jesus transforms a symbol of oppression into one of liberation. Rather than blind obedience, the yoke represents deep listening—to God and to one another. Celebrating the wedding of Lani and Tyree, the sermon presents marriage as a joyful example of this liberating yoke: a covenant in which two people freely bind themselves together so they can bear life's burdens together. Ultimately, Jesus' yoke is one of gentleness, humility, mercy, and shared love that sets people free by teaching them to carry one another's burdens.

The Rev. Emily Boring

This sermon reflects on Jesus' teaching that discipleship requires not only serving others but also accepting our own vulnerability and dependence. Drawing on Matthew's Gospel, the preacher explains that Jesus intentionally sent his disciples out with no provisions so they would have to depend on the hospitality of strangers. This dependence is not incidental but essential to following Christ. Human beings are created for interdependence, continually giving and receiving throughout life. Welcoming others—and allowing ourselves to be welcomed—is itself God's reward, forming relationships that reflect the love and generosity at the heart of the Gospel.

The Rev. Phil Brochard

Using stories of political disagreements with his father and his mother's earlier conflicts with her own father, the preacher reflects on how family tensions often arise when visions of justice challenge accepted social norms. He connects these experiences to a Juneteenth sermon about living between the "almost" of promised freedom and the "not yet" of fully realized justice.

Turning to Jesus' difficult teaching about family division, the preacher argues that Christ is not promoting conflict for its own sake. Rather, Jesus recognizes that faithful discipleship often creates tension when people challenge systems, narratives, and comforts that sustain injustice. The Gospel's call to justice inevitably creates friction between the world as it is and the world as God intends it to be.

The sermon concludes that freedom and justice require confronting the gap between promise and reality. The question is not whether conflict will arise, but whether those conflicts will produce light, growth, and transformation rather than merely generating heat and division.

The Rev. Erika Jackson

Using the framework of living between "almost and not yet," this Juneteenth sermon explores the gap between freedom promised and freedom realized. Juneteenth itself exists because enslaved people in Texas remained in bondage more than two years after emancipation had been declared, revealing that legal freedom and lived freedom are not always the same.

The preacher connects this reality to Scripture. The Israelites waited for liberation after God promised deliverance. Paul envisioned a community without hierarchy in Christ. Jesus proclaimed freedom for the oppressed while ministering in a world still marked by injustice. In every case, God's people lived between promise and fulfillment.

The sermon challenges Christians to recognize who still lives in that gap today and to resist the temptation to settle for "almost." True Christian hope does not deny unfinished work; it trusts that Christ remains present within it. Until freedom is experienced by all, the work of liberation continues.

The Rev. Dr. Bill McNabb

Preaching during Pride Month, the preacher celebrates God's inclusive love and focuses on what he calls "the greatest verse in the Bible": Romans 5:1, which declares that believers are justified by faith and have peace with God through Jesus Christ. He argues that after describing humanity's brokenness, Paul delivers the astonishing good news that God has reconciled humanity to himself.

Using the humorous story of Chippy the Parakeet, the sermon explores how suffering can suddenly disrupt life. Paul does not teach that suffering is enjoyable, but that God uses it to produce endurance, character, and hope. The Greek word hypomonē—the ability to "hang in there"—becomes a central theme. The sermon concludes by affirming that God's love remains present even in hardship, summarized in Karl Barth's famous answer: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."

The Rev. Phil Brochard

The sermon connects the founding of the Metropolitan Community Church by Troy Perry in 1968 with Jesus' ministry among tax collectors and sinners. Perry created a worshiping community for LGBTQ Christians who had been rejected by society and the church, offering them a place to experience God's love and healing.

Drawing on Jesus' call of Matthew and his statement, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” the preacher argues that God's kingdom is characterized by compassion rather than exclusion. Stigma and judgment push people to the margins and convince them they are unworthy, but mercy restores dignity and belonging.

The sermon concludes that no one is outside the reach of God's grace. Every person is worthy of healing and wholeness, and Christians are called not to draw tighter boundaries around God's love but to extend mercy as Jesus did.

The Rev. Rachel Dykzeul

On Trinity Sunday, the preacher reflects on the Trinity not as a doctrine to be solved but as a mystery to be embraced. Recalling a childhood conversation with a pastor grandfather who admitted he could not explain the Trinity, she argues that humility before divine mystery is an essential part of faith. Drawing on Genesis, she highlights the plural and relational language used for God and suggests that creation itself reveals a God who exists in community rather than isolation.

The sermon contrasts this vision with the ancient world’s belief in many competing gods, using the Babylonian creation story, the Enuma Elish, as an example. Whereas those gods were violent, transactional, and self-interested, the Christian understanding of God reveals an eternal community of love. Because God is love—not merely loving—the Trinity becomes a model for human relationships, care for creation, and communal life.

The preacher concludes that the Trinity invites people into a “divine dance” of relational love. Rather than clinging to certainty or systems of domination, Christians are called to embrace mystery, diversity, community, and the fundamental goodness of creation as reflections of God's own life.

The Rev. Emily Boring

This sermon explores mystical experience, depression, healing, and Christian community through the preacher’s personal experience with ketamine therapy. The preacher describes how ketamine sessions produced profound experiences of interconnectedness, dissolving feelings of isolation and revealing a deep sense of divine unity. She reinterprets depression as disconnection rather than simply sadness and suggests that healing comes through reconnection with others and with creation. Drawing on Paul’s discussion of spiritual gifts and the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians, the sermon argues that spiritual gifts are not private possessions but acts of service that bind communities together. Ultimately, the sermon emphasizes that true spiritual wholeness is found not in escaping embodiment but in embracing human life together through love, care, touch, worship, and shared community.

The Rev. Phil Brochard

This sermon reflects on the period between Jesus’s Ascension and Pentecost, when the disciples waited in uncertainty for the coming of the Holy Spirit. The preacher connects the disciples’ “in-between time” to today’s cultural instability, political upheaval, climate anxiety, and technological transformation. The disciples ask Jesus whether he will restore the kingdom of Israel, but Jesus redirects their focus toward God’s greater kingdom beyond earthly power. After Jesus departs, the disciples return together to pray and wait faithfully.

The sermon’s central theme comes from Matt Skinner: living with “urgency without haste.” Rather than reacting fearfully or impulsively, the disciples remain together in trust and discernment. The preacher encourages listeners to do the same in their own uncertain lives, trusting that God continues authoring a story of justice, compassion, and hope even when the future is unclear.