The Rev Alissa: Sermons

The First Sunday of Advent: The Mystery Box

Send us a text"There are things that we will never know. That can be discouraging, but it can also be motivating... I don't love it. I don't love this idea that we will never know. But this is how we begin our Advent season: in the strangeness, and the darkness, and just the straight up honesty that there are things we will never know."Text: Matthew 24:36-44Preached at All Saints, Manhattan on November 30, 2025

Christ the King: Power Struggle

Send us a text"We submit to God’s power by refusing to harm each other.We obey God’s power by rejecting the pressures of our world to punish, to win, or to control any part of God’s created world."text: Luke 23:33-43preached at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Pearl River, NY on Christ the King Sunday.

Good Friday Personalities of the Passion: Mother of an Exceptional Child

Send us a text"We meet the mother of Jesus in this gospel not when she gives birth to his physical body, but when she gives birth to his ministry, at the wedding in Cana. The first time we see Jesus mother in John is at the beginning of the second chapter – “on the third day there was a wedding in Cana at Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there.”'text: Gospel of John, in particular chapter 2 and chapter 19preached at Grace Church Manhattan for Good Friday

Maundy Thursday: The Banquet of Love

Send us a text" In this last night with his disciples before his big showdown with the Empire Jesus does not tease them, or intimidate them, or reassure them with a show of strength, or sign of power. Instead God incarnate puts a towel around his waist and serves them. And when he done scandalizing his friends with this act, he commands them to do the same, to love one another."text: John 13:1-17, 31b-35Preached at Church of the Heavenly Rest, Manhattan, New York on Maundy Thursday

The Fifth Sunday of Lent: Chosen Family

Send us a text"Today Jesus gets to sit and eat with the people who mean the most to him. These are friends who have walked with him for the past three years, who have loved him through everything. Martha, Mary, Lazarus, his apostles, the ones who know him best, right now. His chosen family.Each one of them has struggled with the reality of who Jesus is, and how to love him."text:John 12:1-8Preached for Church of the Ascension, Mt. Vernon NY on the Fifth Sunday of Lent.