Sermon archive for category: Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista

The Rev. Javier discusses forgiveness: what it means to forgive others and how to seek forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-35).

The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista reflects on seeking the welfare of all God’s people and exercising the right to vote (Exodus 1:8-2:10).

The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista reflects on how Jesus’s teaching draws us out of isolation and into community in a noisy, easily distracted world where authentic connection takes effort (Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30).

The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista reflects on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21) and the hope it offers for our own broken world: “God doesn’t need more preachers, politicians, or heroes. God just needs you to join the throng of those who have witnessed God’s justice and love, a cloud of witnesses who choose life not in spite of but in the face of calamity, persecution, war, grief, death, and loss. Are you ready to learn new ways of belonging and being together?”

The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista discusses the story of Stephen (Acts 7:55-60) and mourns the recurring violence against black people in our communities: “I am saddened like many of you by what we have lost with the passing of this young man. I am saddened every time lives are stolen from us before we get the full story. I am saddened every time a life is cut short before they get to do the good work they have been placed on this earth to do.”