Joshua Bowron
Josh Bowron is the rector of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Charlotte, N.C.. where he lives with his wife, four chickens, three children, two cats, and one amazing dog.
Sermons and Bible Studies
All Sinners, Epiphany 6 (A) – February 16, 2020
[RCL]: Deuteronomy 30:15-20 or Sirach 15:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37 There have been many good and talented comedy troupes throughout the years: Burns and Allen, Martin and Lewis, the original cast of Saturday Night Live, for instance. Of course, there is Monty Python, so good it hurts. But of all the wonderful […]
Testimony, Epiphany 2 (A) – January 19, 2020
[RCL]: Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-12; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-42 Don’t you find it remarkable that we know anything at all? If you think about it, we don’t know much of anything unless we have been taught it by another person. Engaging in a website or a film or a book privately is being taught […]
Engaging with Scripture, Proper 28 (C) – 2019
[RCL]: Isaiah 65:17-25; Canticle 9; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19 It seems almost self-evident that children’s literature contains some of the most unvarnished truths among any genre. Certainly, we all have our favorites, but two, in particular, have something to do with our life in the church hinted at in our collect and the readings […]
Across the Chasm, Proper 21 (C) – 2019
[RCL]: Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16; 1 Timothy 6:6-19; Luke 16:19-31 We’ve just heard the story that Jesus tells, but I’d like to highlight a couple of details. Jesus mentions that the rich man, who is not named, is feasting sumptuously every day and wearing purple. This guy is ostentatiously rich – filthy rich, […]
Sheeple, Proper 11 (B) – 2018
What do you suppose are the most prevalent metaphors that we use for God? Likely Father, King, and Shepherd are in the top three, if not the top three. There are, of course, hundreds of names and images in the scriptures for God. The sheer number of images for God present in the scriptures is enough to […]
Hometown, Proper 9 (B) – 2018
Several years ago, a diocese was celebrating its one-hundredth anniversary. At the time, the diocese had produced a beautiful coffee table book that contained short histories of each of their parishes, along with a generous helping of pictures. At the diocesan convention that year, the book was being sold everywhere and anywhere, between legislative sessions, […]
Taking on Jesus’ Yoke, Proper 9 (A) – 2017
There is some debate about whether or not people can change. The spiritual and psychological sages throughout the millennia basically agree that people can learn better ways to cope with who and how they are, but people don’t change all that much. Transformation can occur, though that’s for later in this sermon. But changing is […]
Let Your Idols Fall, Good Friday – 2017
This is really not a day for words. When we grieve, all words are too much. It is much better for us to take in the facts about how Jesus was treated: the injustice, the spiritual blindness, the narrow thinking, the positioning for power. It is better that we just sit with that grief and […]
You Are the Salt of the Earth, Epiphany 5 (A) – 2017
Youth ministers are a vicious lot. They are wonderful human being, but they are vicious. Youth ministers are wonderful because they work with a population that many people are either afraid to work with or simply don’t know how to work with. They have a life-long, enduring impact on the youth they serve; but youth […]
Be Awake and Ready – Advent 1 (A) – 2016
[RCL]: Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44 The hippopotamus is an awfully deadly animal. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica hippos are the sixth most deadly mammal to humans on the planet. Hippos follow elephants, horses, deer, tigers, and of course, other humans as the most dangerous mammals to human beings. Most of us, […]
What Is God Calling You to Love? Proper 18 (C) – 2016
It’s not every day that we read an entire book of the Bible in church. Well, today is no different, but we do come awfully close to reading an entire book from the New Testament. The book we read, almost in entirety, is Philemon. You may have never heard of it. It only makes an […]
The Waiting Is the Hardest Part, Lent 5 (A) – 2014
Friends, we are almost there. We have been on this Lenten road since Ash Wednesday: about 28 of our 40 days. We are in the home stretch. As Tom Petty so wisely put it, “the waiting is the hardest part.” Throughout this Lenten season we have been reading long stretches from the Gospel According to […]
Don’t forget to subscribe to the Sermons That Work podcast to hear this sermon and more on your favorite podcasting app! Recordings are released the Thursday before each liturgical date.
Receive Free Weekly Sermons That Work Resources!
