In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge
The Rev. Joshua N. Sullivan [he/him]
Click here to watch on Facebook!
Malachi 3:16-4:6
Exodus 3:13-15
At this time we are offering “Reflections & Practices” in our digital evening prayer. Above is a casual reflection about God’s name and the practice of meditating on the vast array of things this “name” can mean for us.
Reflection given via Google Hangouts and Facebook Live from my home in Philadelphia. It comes at around 22:40 in the video.
[Click here to watch on Facebook if there is no video above.]
At this time we are offering “Reflections & Practices” in our digital evening prayer. Above is a casual reflection about Psalm 27 and the practice of “waiting” and listening for God in prayer.
Isaiah 40:1-11
2 Peter 3:8-15
Mark 1:1-8
It’s strange to think that today is the 2 year anniversary of my ordination! Two years with you all here in Perkasie, at St Andrew’s. Two years is not so long a time. Pretty short, I guess, if you think about it, but I hope you’ll forgive me for saying it, but gosh has it felt long! These have been 2 full years of getting my feet wet in ministry! And then Covid wave #1. And then Covid wave #2, and Maddy my wife being pregnant, and Simone’s birth. Even Easter, back in April, feels like eons ago! Time is a funny thing, I think.
We divide our days into hours, and hours into minutes, it should all feel even—it should all feel the same. And yet it doesn’t. Time bends and moves. Time has texture like fabric. We say we’ve had a “rough” time or a “smooth” time. We have all kinds of curious expressions about time that point out how funny it is. Time “flies” when you’re having fun, we say. Time “gets away” from us, which is weird. Or it felt as though time “stood still.”
Continue reading “Ripples through Time—Advent 2”Sermon delivered at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Perkasie, PA it comes at about 29:20 in the video.
[Click here to watch on Facebook if there is no video above.]
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Ephesians 1:15-23
Matthew 25:31-46
Well. Here we are again on Facebook Live, in a third, raging wave of the pandemic, in a nation divided—on the edge. This reminds me so much of a passage from Ezekiel this morning: Where God says, “I will rescue [my people] from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.”
A “day” of clouds and thick darkness, which I think means: A time when we cannot see what the future holds. A day of deceit and mistrust. A day when we, apparently, no longer believe what the news says, we no longer believe what our electorate says, or what doctors and health officials say. If back in the summer I thought both our nation and our souls were distrustful and lost, then where are we now? Well? We are in a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Continue reading “Christ is Everywhere, Even in Our Dark Days—Reign of Christ”Reflection given via Zoom and Facebook Live from my home in Philadelphia. It comes at around 14:30 in the video.
[Click here to watch on Facebook if there is no video above.]
At this time we are offering “Reflections & Practices” in our digital evening prayer. Above is a casual reflection about Psalm 9 and a practice of resting in God’s presence with wordless prayer called contemplative prayer or habitual recollection.
Click here to watch on Facebook!
Isaiah 25:1-9
Psalm 23
Matthew 22:1-14
I’m almost entirely sure that nearly all of you have had some experience with record albums. Yes, 12 inch and 7 inch. 33 and 45 rpm vinyl records—relics of the past you might think. “How does Pastor Sullivan, that young whipper snapper, know about those!” Well, you might be surprised to hear that I have a little collection myself. Back in college I realized you could go to thrift stores and get great used records for like 25 cents each!
But since my college years in the early 2000s the sale of new vinyl records has gone up as much as 18 times! In 2005 new vinyl record sales in the US totaled about $900,000. In 2019 the total was $18.8 Million! Why has this clunky, heavy black disc come back?
Continue reading “Analog God”Click here to watch on Facebook!
Isaiah 5:1-7
Philippians 3:4b-14
Matthew 21:33-46
I hope you won’t be shocked to learn this, but I have some bad habits. And I think these bad habits will help explain what Scripture is saying to us today in the image of the vineyard.
I have been known, in my personal life, to be a bit of a bad listener. If Maddy, my wife, is listening now, I’m sure she is nodding and rolling her eyes. That’s a little absurd, you might think, since a large portion of what Pastor Krey and I do is listen to you all, listen to your joys and your trials! But, there’s a specific kind of listening I am bad at.
Continue reading “Bad Listeners in the Vineyard”Click here to watch on Facebook!
At this time we are offering “Reflections & Practices” in our digital evening prayer. Above is a casual reflection about St. Benedict’s four ways of reading scripture as I encountered them in Cynthia Bourgeault’s new book: Eye of the Heart: A Spiritual Journey into the Imaginal Realm.
Click here to watch on Facebook!
Jonah 3:10-4:11
Matthew 20:1-16
We all, I think, know the story of Jonah. On some level we all remember the dramatic tale: the prophet of God in the belly of a whale. It’s kid stuff. But, do you remember why Jonah was in the belly of that whale? He was in the belly of the whale because some sailors threw him off a ship during a storm, and the whale swallowed him up, to save him from death. But why was he thrown into the sea by the sailors? Because it was revealed to the sailors, during the storm, that Jonah was running away from God, away from God’s call, and that caused the storm to happen! What was God’s call to Jonah, maybe, is your next question?
Continue reading “Grace Can Sting!”Click here to watch on Facebook!
Ezekiel 33:7-11
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20
As many of you know, or have heard me say: we are shifting our ministry with children and youth right now. The ongoing pandemic has made it pretty impossible to find any consensus about children’s Sunday school. So, instead, we are focusing our attention on parents.
And I have met already with several parents and families. And these meetings have been amazing. You all need to know there is deep spirituality in our parents. Of course this is a tough time to be a parent—a tough time to be anybody, really. But something that came up over and over as I asked folks to talk about their faith, was the welcome they have received here. The relationships they have formed.
Continue reading “God Made Us for Relationship”