Rev. Chelsey Harmon lives in Vancouver, BC and is a bivocational pastor at The Bridge Community Church (CRC) in Langley, BC. Chelsey is also on staff at Churches Learning Change, a non-profit that aims to help congregations and leaders pursue personal and congregational transformation. She earned her M.Div. at Calvin Theological Seminary (2009), a ThM in Spiritual Theology at Regent College (2023) and is currently a part-time PhD student at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Divinity where she studies historical examples of Trinitarian mysticism and theology.
Chelsey has been writing sermon commentaries for the CEP website since 2019.
John 17:20-26
Commentary
Easter 7C
This section of Jesus’s lengthy prayer in John 17 is a good summary of the whole: it reveals the heart and intent behind the prayer, as well as what’s at stake. Given the fact that along with pastoring I’m currently working on a PhD in the History of Christianity, I consider myself someone a little…
John 14:23-29
Commentary
Easter 6C
“I do not give to you as the world gives.” – Jesus Our lectionary passage this week is Jesus’s response to a disciples’ question. Jesus has been talking about the coming Holy Spirit and how he will reveal himself to his disciples even though he is no longer with them. And one of them basically…
John 13:31-35
Commentary
Easter 5C
How confusing this all must have been for the disciples. During the supper that they’ve just shared, Jesus has taken on the role of a servant and washed their feet—an act he tells them should be part of what they do for one another (verses 1-17). Then Jesus starts to speak of belonging to him…
John 10:22-30
Commentary
Easter 4C
After two weeks of post-resurrection Easter encounters, the lectionary always brings us back to pre-Easter events and to Jesus’s teachings about the new life he envisioned for his beloved. We start here at the Festival of Lights/Dedication or as it is more well-known today, Hannukah. It is a gift to return to these texts during…
John 21:1-19
Commentary
Easter 3C
The new life that Easter represents finds its expression this week in a call to discipleship. So much about this pair of scenes calls back the original call to disciples. The gospel writer tells us that this is the third time Jesus appears to the group, but even still, the awkwardness the disciples feel as…
John 20:19-31
Commentary
Easter 2C
Suffering is the feeling, the fear, the bedrock that fills the space of the story without really ever being its focus. Even when Thomas is touching the wounds in Jesus’s side and hands, suffering is the note played, but not the song sung. Being held captive by fear is most definitely a kind of suffering….
Luke 24:1-12
Commentary
Easter Day C
The resurrection of Jesus Christ represents as much as—if not more so—a turning point in the life of his disciples than any other point in their journeys. The same is true for us. Yes, it was a big deal for the twelve to be called to be his disciples, plucked out of their everyday tasks…
Luke 19:28-40
Commentary
Palm Sunday C
King Jesus has come. Palm Sunday makes the first explicit connection to Jesus’s kingship in the Gospel of Luke, but it’s a truth that’s been woven into the very fabric of his existence. From the prophets of old to the heavenly hosts at his birth, through the details of his entry into Jerusalem, Jesus is…
John 12:1-8
Commentary
Lent 5C
The little family of Martha, Mary and Lazarus are the prime example of disciples who were not the disciples (the twelve). They are front and center of some of Jesus’s most intimate moments as well as perhaps his most spectacular miracle. And though this scene is one of many positive encounters Jesus has with women,…
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Commentary
Lent 4C
What makes someone resent repentance? That’s really the crux of the matter for the older brother, isn’t it? Or maybe it’s that the older brother doesn’t care about his younger brother’s repentance, but that he resents his father’s compassion. Jesus tells three stories about something lost being found and how being found is always worth…
About Chelsey Harmon