Sermons of Pastor Rob Myallis Pastor Robert Myallis

Easter V (April 28, 2024)“He removes every branch in me that does not bear fruit.”   These words often sound threatening and cause us to ask:  “Am I one of the branches that will be pruned or not?”Pastor Rob invites us to see this a bit differently.  Rather than be concerned with “Who is in and who is out?” instead we are to ask ourselves “Which me is in and which is out?   Each of us a side of ourselves — truly a version of ourselves — that needs to be pruned.  Yet, each of us has another side — another version — that is bearing fruit.  Our life in Christ, abiding in him, means that we are constantly being pruned, yet also raised up to new life to bear fruit.Once we embrace ourselves as people who are pruned to bear fruit, we can embrace the humility and charity Christ intends for us.  This humility and charity, as it turns out, is what enables us to live in community; these virtues are also, as it turns out, in short supply right now.  This presents an opportunity and challenge for us at St. Paul.

 Easter IV 2024 (April 14) Good Shepherd SundayThe image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd powerfully communicates the fundamental truth  “God loves you.”  When push comes to shove, this is the fundamental truth we live by and we want to pass on to the next generation of faith.However, there is another vital truth – even embedded in Psalm 23 – that we want to pass along too:  It is not about you!  Our lives have an importance to God for the sake of our neighbor and God’s purposes in this world.A reflection on Baptism, Psalm 23 and how God teaches us these two truths again and again in our lives.

Easter III (April 14, 2023)This past week our nation was fascinated and delighted by the eclipse.  It was a reminder of the glory of the heavens, the place where the beauty and complexity of the creation bears witness to the creator.This past week our nation was heartbroken and afraid of violence and further escalation around the world, particularly in the Middle East.  It was a reminder of the muddiness of life of earth, the place where the tragedy and complexity of human interactions bears witness to the power of sin.Given this tension, it is easy to see why many develop a theology in which Jesus comes to lead an escape mission, to get us out of earth.  But as the story of the risen Jesus shows (Luke 24:36-48), Jesus isn’t interested in giving up on earth; he offers his disciples no packing list for their trip to heaven.  Jesus is not intending to an escape mission, but a reclamation one, as he wins back earth for God’s purposes.  For you see, the fundamental constant of the universe isn’t the speed of light or the gravitation constant, but the faithfulness of God’s love.This is true in our lives: God is faithful not just to creation, but to you as well. Therefore, we are to expect to see repentance and forgiveness into our lives.  And…therefore…our job then is to share — much like we shared photos of the pictures of the eclipse — the stories of God’s faithfulness in our lives and in this world.For more photos of the eclipse from space, you can check out NASA’s website.

  Easter Sunday 2024 (March 31) We live in an age of pessimism, in which it is easy to be cynical about present and gloomy about the future. The women who go to the tomb of Jesus had every reason to be pessimistic, cynical and gloomy (Mark 16).  Yet they do not succumb to this attitude, but choose instead to do an act of love, courage and hope. From where does their home come from?  Where does our hope come from?  What can move us to act in love, courage and hope in an age of cynicism? Pastor Rob offers that the antidote to fatalism and cynicism is the forgiveness of sins and resurrection of Jesus.  For God's forgiveness means that the story goes on -- that Jesus, not our sins, is the author of our salvation.  In that hope, we can keep doing the loving, courageous and hopeful thing.   We do this, not confident that it will all turn out as we want, but trusting that Christ's death and resurrection means God will keep the story going, arcing it toward life, thanksgiving and love. The artwork is from the Catechesis Presentation of an Episcopalian church.

 Palm Sunday 2024 (March 24) Throughout his ministry, Jesus transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary:  donkeys, jugs of water and scraps of food.  Again and again, through faith, the ordinary becomes an extraordinary vessel of God’s love.He further sends out his disciples to unbind things, animals and people so that which is unbound, the ordinary, can fulfill its extraordinary purpose, to become a vessel of God’s love.Sometimes this unbinding is easy and straight-forward, like untying a donkey.  Other times the unbinding is more complex and requires undoing lies that we’ve internalized.A reflection on the work of Jesus, in his ministry, in our lives and on the cross, to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.These ordinary Legos were transformed for an extraordinary purpose by Deep Water Baptist church in a YouTube video.

 Lent 5 (March 17, 2024) Jesus was the most empathetic human who has ever lived.But for Jesus, like for all humans, empathy exposes him to the pain and suffering of others.  In the cross, this empathy is taken to another level, a wholly divine level, whereby Jesus fully empathizes and fully takes on our suffering, shame and sin.  This brings him to cry out “My God, My God, Why Have you Forsaken Me!”  (Mark 15:34)The good news of the Empty Tomb is that one day, we will get to proclaim to our sin, suffering and shame: “It — namely you — are finished.”   But for seasons of our lives, we live bearing a cross that prevents us from such confident and joyful proclamation.  In those days, we know that Jesus prays with us, even our deepest laments…slowly tilling the soil in our suffering to raise up a harvest of empathy in our own hearts, enabling us to carry the cross for another.The art of Simon carrying Jesus cross comes from a Roman Catholic devotional website.