Church of the Good Shepherd, Richmond

05/13/2026

"Easter is about more, so much more, than going to heaven when we die, or even getting resurrected when Jesus returns. It’s about the promise of a deep, meaningful, holy, and Spirit-led life, here and now. It’s about knowing Christ, loving him, sharing in his life in a way that Jesus is present to us, revealed among us and shared with others. At Easter God did something amazing, astounding, earth-shattering, raising Jesus from the dead. But Jesus insists there’s more…more to Easter, more to what God is doing, more to what he wants us to be a part of. For that we say, Thanks be to God!" - Father Terry

Coming as we are to the tail end of the Easter season, when it’s harder and harder to maintain excitement at the news of Jesus’ resurrection, John in the passage before us today channels Popeil, insisting, “But wait, there’s more,” more to Easter than the promise of our resurrection.

05/04/2026

"When we Christians claim that Jesus is the way to God, we are being anything but arrogant and coercive. We are saying that the way to God is the way Jesus showed us, the way he lived—the way of humble service, the way of self-sacrificial love, the way of the cross."

For more of Father Terry's sermon, see below.

The only way we can say that, though, to claim Jesus is the way, is to follow his way ourselves. This involves learning the way of Jesus, picking up his rhythms and ways of doing things.

04/29/2026

"Some years ago, in a commentary I read, a Bible scholar explained how he was talking to an Arab shepherd. He was not a Christian and didn’t know the Bible. But he was a keeper of sheep and so was showing off his flock as well as the pen where his sheep slept every night.

“And when they go in there,” the shepherd said proudly, “they are perfectly safe.”

But the scholar noticed something. “Your sheep sleep in that pen and yet I just noticed that the pen does not have a gate on it.”

“Yes, that’s right,” the shepherd replied, “I am the gate.”

“What do you mean?”

“After my sheep are in the pen, I lay my body across the opening. No sheep will step over me and no wolf can get in without getting past me first. I am the gate.”

“I am the gate.” That’s just what Jesus said. He is the gate, the one who protects the vulnerable sheep in the pen from the predators who would kill and consume them. He puts himself between two things that shouldn’t meet the flock on the inside and the evil that seeks to destroy them, us."

- Father Terry

In today’s reading from John, Jesus is speaking to his disciples about fences, specifically the kind that you keep sheep in, a “sheepfold.” He says that those who are thieves and bandits try to “hop the fence,” but the shepherd comes in the right way, through the gate, and the sheep know h...

04/20/2026

"Scripture and Supper, Sermon and Sacrament—these are the two central components of our Sunday service,—the Service of the Word (Scripture) and the Service of Holy Communion— the two “acts” around which we come together, which structure our worship. It’s not for nothing that our worship is this way. Just as was the case with Cleopas and his friend, we believe, the resurrected Jesus is revealed to us in these two powerful ways."

Read more of Father Terry's sermon on the road to Emmaus:

The two disciples in this morning’s Gospel lesson seem to think that by getting out of Dodge maybe they could escape their grief, could leave behind the bad memories of the previous Friday. Jerusalem had become like an empty house from which all the children had gone, haunted by memories, by pain,...

04/13/2026

Easter isn’t just that Jesus rose—it’s that he came back for his fearful, hiding disciples…and for us.

Even behind locked doors, he finds a way in.

Here’s this week’s sermon:

The remarkable thing about Easter is that Jesus was not just raised from the dead, or that he defeated the powers of sin and death, but that he also returned to his disciples. It would have been enough that Jesus was resurrected, but he also came back to his fearful followers.

04/09/2026

Missed Easter at Good Shepherd?
Good news—Easter isn’t just a day, it’s a season.

If you’re still carrying a bit of Lent, or just need some hope, Father Terry’s Easter sermon begins in the dark—and shows how resurrection meets us there.

Easter may ultimately be about things that are high, bright, light and clear, but it begins low, dim, dark and murky. That’s what we see in our Gospel lesson this morning from John. Here we are told that, for Mary Magdalen, the day that would eventually become celebrated as Easter began “while i...

03/19/2026

What if seeing clearly isn’t just about our eyes?

In this week’s sermon, we look at Jesus healing the man born blind—and how his story invites us to see God, ourselves, and the world in a whole new way.

Read here:

The healing of the man born blind is significant if only because it had never been done before. No one had ever gained sight when they were born without it. Not in the Old Testament, nor in any stories from ancient times that I can recall. It was a miracle without parallel. It entailed not just fixi...

03/02/2026

https://www.goodshepherdrichmond.org/post/how-can-this-be

"As we continue our Lenten journey towards Good Friday, towards the cross, the story of Nicodemus reminds us what this is all about, what the Bible and the church say is the reason God sent Jesus: that no matter how far we feel from God, no matter how long we’ve lived ignoring God’s presence in our lives, no matter what we’ve done or how guilty we feel, or wounded or sullied, Jesus came to save us, to redeem us, to give us new life, eternal life, a life that is so abundant that it cannot be contained in this life but spills over into the next. " - Father Terry

As we continue our Lenten journey towards Good Friday, towards the cross, the story of Nicodemus reminds us what this is all about, what the Bible and the church say is the reason God sent Jesus: that no matter how far we feel from God, no matter how long we’ve lived ignoring God’s presence in o...

02/25/2026

You may have heard of giving up things for Lent, but have you thought about what our small sacrifices have to do with the temptation of Christ? Start your Lent by reading Father Terry' sermon from Sunday.

What thing in your life is in danger of taking over? What do you love too much in the wrong way? Whatever “it” is, God calls us to end it, to give it up. But that “giving up” need not be some great courageous act of renunciation, rejecting the world and becoming a monk, say. Likely more help...

02/16/2026

Join us this Wednesday, February 18th, for a service of Holy Communion and Imposition of Ashes.