St. John's Franklin Podcast

Kenny Benge preached a sermon entitled “Enlarged in the Waiting” for Pentecost Sunday on May 24, 2015. Pentecost is Easter actualized in the church; Pentecost makes the resurrection power of the New Creation available to us. The Holy Spirit makes real to us all the realities and benefits of life with God in the present. Living by the power of the Spirit, participating in the Kingdom of God, enduring hardship and suffering is the beginning of our own cure. We can experience the eternal kind of life now, in the midst of our real and ordinary lives.

 

God, of your goodness give me yourself, for you are enough for me, and I can ask for nothing which is less which can pay you full worship. And if I ask for anything which is less, always I am in want; but only in you do I have everything. Julian of Norwich

 

Pentecost Sunday

Acts 2:1-21

Psalm 104:25-35, 37

Romans 8:22-27

John 15:26-16:15

Direct download: EnlargedInTheWaiting.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:00am CDT

Kenny Benge preached a sermon entitled “A Different Kind of King” for The Feast of Ascension on May 17, 2015. Israel’s expectation of their coming King was bound up with their uneasy relationship with Rome. When he came, Jesus did not initiate a peace accord, meeting important politicians and leaders. He didn’t gather an army around him to start a revolution. He didn’t create a fifth column to subversively and secretly undermine the Roman power. What did he do? He invited people to dinner, eating meals with whoever will have him into their home, embodying the Gospel through radical hospitality. He continues to invite us to a meal with him, welcoming us with radical hospitality.

 

(I preached this sermon at the 9:00 and 10:45 services of Church of the Redeemer in Nashville as well as St. John’s. This podcast was preached at the 9am service of Redeemer)

 

The Feast of Ascension

Acts 1:1-11

Psalm 47

Ephesians 1:15-23
Luke 24:44-53

Direct download: JesusGoesToDinner.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:00am CDT

Kenny Benge preached a sermon entitled “Breathing Underwater” on John 15:1-8 for The Fifth Sunday of Easter on May 3, 2015. It is vitally important that we stay connected to Jesus, our True Vine. We stay connected with Him as a community when we gather each Sunday for worship through Word and Sacrament. Just as important, we stay connected with Him the rest of the week in our prayer and devotional life, through the use of spiritual and focal practices (or spiritual disciplines, as they are also known).

 

The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Acts 8:26-40

Psalm 22-24-30

1 John 4:7-21

John 15:1-8

Direct download: TheTrueVine.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:00am CDT

Michael McGhee preached a sermon entitled “Keeping Score” for The Fifth Sunday in Lent on March 22, 2015. We all keep score in one way or another. This means we often live under the weight of expectations and the need to earn love. In Jeremiah God tells us he will make a new Covenant with his people. This Covenant is not one of burden, but of grace. "Come to me all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest."

 

The Fifth Sunday in Lent

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Psalm 51:1-13

Hebrews 5:5-10

John 12:20-33

Direct download: Keeping_Score_-_Mar_22_2015.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:46am CDT

Brad Perry preached a sermon entitled “God’s Heart of Justice for the Poor” on  for The Third Sunday in Lent on March 8, 2015. In Jesus’s cleansing of the temple as recorded in all four Gospels, we see the heart of God that desires justice for the poor. We also see a God that gets angry at the very idea of putting obstacles in the way of those who seek to worship Him.

 

The Third Sunday in Lent

Exodus 20:1-17

Psalm 19

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 

John 2:13-22

Direct download: Gods_Heart_of_Justice_for_the_Poor_-_Mar_8_2015.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:11am CDT