Kat Armas: "Liturgies for Resisting Empire" (Sermon for May 17, 2026)

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth.” — Acts 1:8

Friends,

This Sunday, we mark the Ascension, the day forty days after Easter when, according to Luke’s Gospel and the Book of Acts, the risen Christ is taken up into heaven.

In both tellings of the story, the disciples are called to become witnesses — to carry forward the story of Jesus’s life, his execution at the hands of empire, and his resurrection by the power of God. It is no small thing to bear witness in a world where empire so often seeks to suppress, distort, or control the stories that threaten its power.

Perhaps that is why the disciples are told not to stand staring into the sky, but to return to the work of living, proclaiming, and embodying another way.

This Sunday, we are honored to welcome theologian, author, and speaker Kat Armas to St. Paul & St. Andrew. Kat’s work explores how faith can resist systems of injustice and imagine more liberative ways of being. She is the author of Abuelita Faith, Sacred Belonging, and Liturgies for Resisting Empire — a book many in our Connect & Care groups have been engaging together this season.

Kat will guest preach at our 11:00 AM worship service and will join us afterward, at 12:15 PM, for a moderated conversation on Liturgies for Resisting Empire. Together, we’ll reflect on how spiritual practice can ground movements for justice, nurture belonging, and help us reimagine faith beyond the logic of empire as we live into our call to be witnesses.

We hope you’ll join us for this meaningful Sunday of worship, conversation, and collective reflection — and we encourage you to invite a friend.

See you there!
Pastor Andrea