Sermons
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December 25, 2022: The Work of Christmas
Each year at Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We Anglicans also celebrate the goodness of creation. We revel in the creation, enjoy it, and tend it as Adam and Eve tended the Garden. We do this because God pronounced creation good and because God, in the form of Jesus Christ, joined us in the flesh and dwelt within the creation.
December 24, 2022: So this is Christmas
The trials of the world can put a damper on our Christmas merriment and wonder. Of course, we can just put out of our minds all that is distressing or uncomfortable. Sadly, many do just that. But I do not think Jesus came into the world to encourage apathy any more than he came into the world to condemn the world. What he came for was to teach us how an old way could be a new way.
December 18, 2022: Anticipation
We have the opportunity to make space in our heart to have Jesus be born again within us. We can make a manger in our heart to allow the Christ child to have new birth within us and thus have new birth in him. I know that I am getting all metaphysical and metaphorical with this suggestion, but our imagination and faith are not limited by time or space.
December 11, 2022: Joy to the World
We who are anticipating the birth of Jesus and share with Mary and Joseph in that anticipation are also sharing in the happiness that they experience as the day of that birth draws near. However, joy is not to be confused with happiness. Happiness is a transient emotional experience. St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the Doctors of the Church, wrote that “Joy admits no sorrow for it is not an act of the sensitive faculties.” That is, joy is not an emotion so it cannot succumb to feelings of sadness.
December 4, 2022: Prepare the Way to your Heart
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Now that is the way to get people into a Christmas mood. Why do you think that we have to hear from John the Baptizer in this Advent season? According to the Gospels, John is the first to herald the coming of the Messiah in his time. To the people of his time and even moreso to ours, John is a mess.
November 27, 2022: God's in his Heaven, All's right with the World!
Advent is a dual time in which we look forward to two events. First it is a time of waiting and preparation for the birth of Jesus. It is something that happened in the past but will happen again in our hearts. That is perhaps the easiest part to grasp. What is harder to grasp is what the church calls us to on the early Sundays of Advent; the second coming of Christ.
October 30, 2022: In Line with God
God knows, even if they do not, that their neglect of the poor, widows and orphans is the same thing as intentionally killing them. When God makes it clear that it is there treatment of the poor that is the stain on them and the reason that they are not welcome before God I would bet that it was news to them. Not so much because they thought they were taking care of the poor but rather because the poor were never on their minds.
October 23, 2022: Stepping Stones to Life
We who have heard so many parables where Pharisees are the bad guys need to adjust our hearing to that of a first-century Jew. In that time Pharisees were behind the reformation of Judaism. They refocused religious life on a closer observance of the Mosaic Laws. They taught and practiced a reverence for the Torah. They followed the commandments and taught others to do so. This is in contrast to the Sadducees who had sold out to the Roman Empire in order to keep power in the Temple. St. Paul was trained in the Pharisaic tradition, and some scholars believe that Jesus was trained as a Pharisee.
October 16, 2022: Written on Your Heart
Have you ever wondered where you stand with God? Have you in vulnerable times, times of stress and challenge, or times of unaccountable bliss wondered where God is in your life?
October 2, 2022: The Waiting Game
We are in a world that runs to and fro like ants around the anthill. We seek to make our busy-ness a status symbol. How often have we asked someone how they are doing and the response is busy. God forbid that we should respond I am at peace. My soul is resting in the Lord.
September 25, 2022: A Right and Good Thing
When we offer our thanks and praise to God we realize too that we are not on our own. We remind ourselves of our utter dependence on the God who created us, redeemed us and sustains us every day. We remind ourselves that God walks with us all the days of our lives. We can find respite in sharing our burdens and responsibilities knowing that it is not all up to us. When we give thanks and praise, we claim our place in a partnership with God ...
September 18, 2022: Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say
A few weeks ago I began a sermon by asking “Who stole my Jesus?” In that instance we were confronted with Jesus saying that he did not come to sow peace but division, to create enmity within families, generally to make things bad and not good. Now we are confronted with a Jesus that seems to be condoning, indeed encouraging, dishonesty, love of wealth, and looking out for number one at all costs. Given all that we think we know about Jesus and his ministry this does not seem right. What is going on here and why does it seem so wrong?
August 21, 2022: What, Me Worry?
If worrying accomplishes nothing what are we to do in these dangerous and stress filled times?
I think one answer is in today’s passage from Isaiah. First of all, when we read this passage we realize that this is not the only time that the world has been a mess. There always seem to be politicians, corporations, peoples, or nations who are trying to gain water, land, wealth and power at the expense of others. Lust, the basis for all of the deadly sins, keeps the world in turmoil. Sometimes it is at a low simmer and other times, like now, it seems to be on the verge of boiling over. While we feel a heightened anxiety and a sense that we can do nothing about the state of the world God says through Isaiah that we indeed can make a difference.
August 14, 2022: People Get Ready
Whenever I get stuck in a passage like this I wonder about what is going on around the passage. In real estate the old saw is “location, location, location.” In biblical study the adage could be “context, context, context.” While today we read this section of Luke in isolation in truth it does not exist in isolation; far from it. Luke has taken us on a journey with Jesus since mid-June. Initially, his ministry was around the Sea of Galilee, but then Jesus makes an important decision to, “set his face toward Jerusalem.”
August 07, 2022: Gotta Have Faith
There is a sense of reciprocity here. God keeps faith with us and we keep faith with God. We have loyalty or duty to God because God is loyal to us. But this is where it can get sticky. For when we ask something of God we have to realize that God is not some cosmic Amazon Prime that sends what we ask for via two-day delivery. God does not work like that. God hears our prayers and pleas but is not a vending machine.
July 31, 2022: Poor, Poor Cynical Me
I do not think that being impenetrable to hurt is worth the cost of cynicism. For by being impervious to hurt we also become impervious to creativity, joy, love, and wonder. These are the emotions and gifts that we are made for. If life is just a grumpy, hollow, trudge toward death there is no good in it. We are good for little in this world if we cannot see the spark and feel it in ourselves.
July 24, 2022: Kill 'Em with Kindness
Desert Hospitality was a bit like Southern Hospitality. We saw a prime example in last Sunday’s reading from Genesis. Abraham did not just welcome the three travelers, he ran to greet them and draw them into his encampment. He invited them to come into his camp and brought them some water to drink and with which to wash their feet. By the time they got seated he has already ordered special food to prepared. Instead of just giving them a short break on their desert journey he is providing a feast for them.
July 17, 2022: Love Makes Us Welcome
I believe we are surrounded by angels. They may be in the pew sitting next to you. They may be a helpful stranger on the street. They may be someone we fear, the way the Israelites feared the Samaritans, yet in Jesus’ parable it was the Samaritan who is the righteous one. We have to train our eyes to see and our hearts to know when an angel approaches. We have to push aside fears, prejudices, and notions of what an angel might look like.
July 10, 2022: The Word Is Very Near
The word of God is very near to us. We are invited to take hold of it, chew on it in pondering like a cow chews her cud. We are to, as Archbishop Thomas Cranmer wrote in the 15th century, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the Word of God. We are to become so filled with the scriptures that we find them on the tips of our tongues and at our fingertips.
July 3, 2022: Decluttering for Love
Twenty-first century people find the concept of self-denial preposterous. We ignore it in favor of fulfilling our wants at every turn. Our consumer society is the antithesis of St. Francis and Jesus. If it were not then we would not need Weight Watchers, diet books, Marie Kondo and other decluttering gurus, slogans like “live simply so others can simply live,” closet organizers, life coaches, Real Simple magazine, and the list goes on and on.
June 26, 2022: Just Say No to Cheap Grace
When Jesus calls another man to follow him the man asks first to go bury his father. Jesus does not deny the commandment to honor father and mother, but rather he is telling the man that family too may have to be released in order to follow the way of Jesus. Remember Jesus’ family thought he was out of his mind and wanted to take him away. Jesus said in that instance that his family was made of those who followed him.
June 19, 2022: Cast Away Your Bonds
Jesus’ curing of the demoniac also upsets what is normal. The people of the town have gotten used to dealing with the man. His insanity was the status quo. Now that he is in his right mind they are not sure how to deal with him. Humans are adaptable, but we also like things to be regular and average. Large changes upset our equilibrium. Moreover, the townspeople are worried about what other sorts of “cures” Jesus will bring to them. Rather than waiting to find out they ask Jesus to leave. Like Chuck and Kelly in the movie who cannot stay together because it upsets her new equilibrium.
June 12, 2022: Salome: Abused by Her Parents and Abused by Time
We in the church have many centuries of wrongs to right especially in regard to women. Biblical women such as Salome, Mary Magdalene, Bathsheba, and Tamar are a few of those women. There are many more nameless women whose reputations have been sullied by mostly, but not entirely, masculine interpretations. Let us go forth reading scripture with clear eyes that look at each person portrayed in their context and see how their actions may have more to do with the situation than is first apparent.
June 5, 2022: Comfort My People
I am sure that some of you remember a hit song from the 60s that has become a pop music classic— “What the World Needs Now is Love.” There is no doubt that love is what there just is too little of. But in the midst of war; massacres in grocery stores, schools, hospitals, cemeteries and churches; the ongoing COVID pandemic; threats to our democracy; and so much more I think we also need some comforting.
May 29, 2022: Come
The world may be calling out in desperation for Jesus to come to us, to save us from the plagues of war, violence, pestilence, plague, famine, and the downright evil of some of our fellow humans. At this time many of us feel like we are living in a novel, the ones that they told us about in English class where the theme is man’s inhumanity to man. Despite our calls Jesus does not come.
May 22, 2022: Beautiful City of God
God no longer needs a private residence to which only a few have access. God now presides in the open among all people. God is truly with us. What is even more remarkable is that all people will be able to see the face of God. In the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament, it was considered a sentence of death to see the face of God. Even Moses was not allowed to see God’s face. But now all will be able to gaze upon the creator of all things in wonder, love and praise.
May 15, 2022: Lovers in Dangerous Times
The passage from Revelation does point to a new future but it is not otherworldly. When I read this passage with an open heart I do not focus on the future, but on the present. I feel as Cockburn wrote, “Spirits open to thrust of grace, / Never a breath you can afford to waste.” Revelation tells us that we are being given God’s grace in the here and now, because “the home of God is among mortals”. God is not far away, we are not alone, God is here with us. It is just as our forebears said when they named this church Emmanuel—God with us.
May 8, 2022: Speak Plainly
When we listen, really listen for the sound of Jesus’ voice and not the sound of our ego, our wants, our inner lusts and desires, we know who is talking and what we should do. But it is not just because it is something we “should” or “ought” to do, it is because we have a symbiotic relationship with the shepherd.
May 1, 2022: Follow Me
The poignancy of Jesus’ care for Peter and the gentleness with which he gives Peter the opportunity to atone breaks my heart each time I read it. Jesus gives us that opportunity to repent as well. He also sets the example for how we are to forgive. We do not need to rub the nose of our violator in the stench of their hurt in order to gain true repentance. We just need to ask, even in an oblique way for them to offer their apology.
April 24, 2022: Faithful Doubts
The Gospel does not tell us what happens during the following week. Instead it is like a movie that fades to black and on the screen we see the words “A week later.” Over the coming week the experience of seeing Jesus alive that Easter Day would certainly have come up in discussion. The group would have continued to try to convince Thomas of what happened. But there were also other things to take care of.
April 17, 2022: Left Behind
This Easter Day we thank God for the gift of eternal life found in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. But Jesus’ resurrection is incomplete if we do not take the opportunity to leave behind those things that separate us from him and God.
April 10, 2022: Save Us, We Pray
We humans are a fickle race. We want our needs met ASAP. They had been under the thumb of Rome for nearly one hundred years and their patience was short. Jesus parades into Jerusalem and all he does is teach and preach. There are no miracles, no uprisings, and no call to arms. What good is he if he cannot get the Romans off of our backs?
March 27, 2022: A Man Had Two Sons
When we hear about two sons we know a few things. First of all, the older son is supposed to be favored. Second, we know that in those three stories it was the second born son who turns out to be the one whom God favors. This proves that human rules are not God’s rules. As God says to Samuel “the Lord does not see as mortals see.” Thus we are set up for this story about a man with two sons.
March 20, 2022: The Whys of Lent
Today we heard Jesus presented with the age-old question of, “Why do bad things happen?” and in particular “Why do bad things happen to good people.” For example, we might think it is ok for a dictator to be the victim of a violent rebellion, after all they have hurt many people in the course of their rule. But when it is a team serving with Doctors Without Borders we wonder what the world is coming to that those doing good are killed in the process of doing good.
March 13, 2022: Trust
In 1974 a quirky book was published that had previously been rejected for publication 121 times. Despite all of this rejection when it was finally published the book initially sold over five million copies. This is one of the few books that I can say changed my life. It actually changed how I live. If it taught me only one thing it was to not allow the enormity of a task stop me dead in my tracks. If I could break down a large task into steps and focus on only completing that step, I had a better chance of completing what at first glance might seem impossible.
March 6, 2022: Word Up
Verna Dozier writes in her little book The Dream of God, 5 that when the Church went from following Jesus to worshiping Jesus it started to lose its way. Jesus did not come into the world to create a new religion, indeed he remained a Jew throughout his life. However, he did come to set for us an example that is “The way, the
March 2, 2022: Draw Closer to God
Instead of beating ourselves up during Lent as the liturgy suggests, the contemporary church sees Lent as an opportunity to sort out our relationship with God. We are called to actively take time to “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” the messages that we encounter in scripture and the writings of the saints of the Church. We are called to step back from the frantic pace of life and focus on God. We are offered the gift of this time to sit, breathe, clear our heads and hearts, and settle into God.
February 27, 2022: Light from Light
I am in a quandary. I have two topics I want to talk about today and one that I do not. The problem, of course, is that the thing I do not want to talk about is what is crying out to be discussed. My three topics are baptism, transfiguration, and you might have guessed that the thing I do not want to talk about is the war in Ukraine. I would rather that this war had not happened. I would rather that we not have to deal with truly evil people like those autocrats and oligarchs that dominate Russian government right now. We must speak about the problem of evil or we are denying the reality of life. Jesus did not deny evil so neither can we.
February 20, 2022: Judgement at Middleburg
It seems to me that judging others is actually something people like to do. Looking at today’s passage from Genesis we hear the end of a story where everyone was judging someone at one point or another and most of their judgements were ill conceived. The back story to this scene is that Joseph is the youngest of the sons of Jacob. He is also Jacob’s favorite which his brothers resent. Additionally, he is annoying. In his dreams his brothers and even his father bow down to him in respect.
February 13, 2022: Take Two
Luke like Matthew reports Jesus preaching a set of blessings to the people. But compared to the Sermon on the Mount, Luke’s Sermon on the Plain can feel stark and more condemning than comforting. In Matthew’s Jesus only offers blessings. We can look at his list and figure out where we might fit into the list of eight blessings. Perhaps we are meek, poor in spirit, a peacemaker and so forth. Whatever we conclude there is a blessing for us. Luke’s list is different.
February 6, 2022: Two of a Kind
The two readings we heard today could not be more different and yet more similar. The differences I think are obvious, but the similarities are not so much so. The Isaiah passage is a vision that he has of God and himself in the Temple in Jerusalem. In contrast the passage from Luke is Jesus and Peter on the shore of a Lake Gennesaret. These are clearly very different scenes. Isaiah is encountering God and Peter is fishing. Isaiah also sees seraphim which are very frightening looking angels with six wings that look like something out of a horror movie. They are not at all like what we see in Renaissance paintings. Peter sees nothing he is unfamiliar with; only boats, fish, water and people.
January 30, 2022: Read On McDuff
There is something in what Jesus says in the next part of the passage that changes the mood of his neighbors in the blink of an eye. Only a modern person who is immersed in the Old Testament can understand this rapid change of mood. Having told the people that he is fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, he is now telling them that they are not the sole recipients of the prophecy.
January 23, 2022: Lament Heals
Sometimes to get us to calm down our mother would sing something slower. I think that is where I first heard the spiritual “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.” To three young children in the backseat of a car after a long day of driving it could be a lullaby. Looking at the words we realize it is much more than that. The pain in the lyrics is almost palpable.
January 16, 2022: For Zion's Sake I Cannot Keep Silent
Each year we set aside a day to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is to honor the man and the cause of equality for all for which he worked and for which he was killed. As a white man I am among the most privileged people in this world. Some might ask how I can even talk about the struggle for equality that Dr. King waged. I am the ultimate outsider, even if I want to consider myself an ally to the cause. I cannot know what it means to be vilified and suffer prejudice just because of my skin color.
January 9, 2022: Awake, Alive, Alert
Some years ago I read a seminal and for me life changing book. Despite growing up in a rural area I had become blind to the natural world in which I lived. Then I read Annie Dillard’s book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Then, as if scales had fallen from my eyes and ears, I heard geese migrating overhead, and really saw individual trees as they changed color. I experienced the natural world around me even as I was living in a small city. Reading the book was like a series of epiphanies as I became more aware the natural world around me.
December 25, 2021: Upside Down Christmas
One of my favorite Christmas carols is one that I heard for the first time just a few years ago. It is a New Zealand carol called “Carol our Christmas.” It is about having Christmas in the southern hemisphere where this time of year is not winter but summer. The problem with all of the snowy and wintry carols of Europe and North America is that they don’t resonate with a New Zealander. She writes:
“Carol our Christmas, an upside down Christmas;
The snow is not falling and trees are not bare.
Carol the summer, and welcome the Christ Child,
Warm in our sunshine and sweetness of air.”
December 19, 2021: Mary Had a Baby
When this baby hears Mary’s voice he jumps in recognition that the mother of the Son of God is speaking. This baby, by the way, will grow up to be John the Baptist. The baby who has just started to form inside Mary is so special that all Mary has to do is walk into a room and say “hello” and something special happens.
December 12, 2021: Again I Say Rejoice!
In the three readings we heard before the gospel today there was a call to joy, but it is important to realize that these calls to joy came in the midst of suffering, oppression, pain, and imprisonment. Our three writers were not naive pie-in-the-sky dopes. They knew the realities of life, but they also knew that the only way through suffering and injustice, and we must go through because we cannot avoid suffering and injustice, the only way through was to have hearts that are centered on God’s joy.
December 5, 2021: The Power of Love
It was up to this man of frightening visage and angry preaching (in the next verses he calls his listeners a brood of vipers) to share the message of the coming of the Prince of Peace. I can assure you that this is not the way a public relations guru or ad man from Madison Avenue would work. John is as unattractive as a spokesperson can be. But that is the way God seems to always work. God comes from unexpected places and unexpected people.
November 28, 2021: The Lamb Is My Shepherd
Happy New Year! Come on say it back to me... I think it is appropriate that the new year of the Church and the secular world are different. We do not let the celebrations of the secular New Year cloud the importance of the new year in the Church.
November 25, 2021: Can It Long Endure
As we look at the current state of the nation it seems to me we should focus on what Mr. Lincoln wrote. Like people of his day we need to pray “with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience... fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation...”
November 21, 2021: King of Hearts
What is it that rules our hearts? Is it fox hunting, cars, art, literature, or hobbies? Is it work, meetings, money, and prestige from our vocation? Perhaps what rules our hearts are vices—that is good things misused? The world provides many distractions most of which are not bad in and of themselves. It is only when they become the ruler of our heart that they become a problem.
October 31, 2021: All You Need Is Love
What Jesus and the scribe talk about today is not about a feeling or emotion. It is something even more profound than what we experience when singing that song. When they talk about love it is something almost unemotional... That part of love, like the love that Jesus and the scribe are discussing, is the love that is not about self and how I feel but about the other and what we would do for them and sacrifice for them.
October 24, 2021: A Sight to Behold
I think that Mark wants us to see something more than just another miracle story. This is why he focuses on the blind beggar and gives him a name (recipients of miracles are not named in Mark). Naming him is a clue for us to focus on him. While he is just a beggar and no one of importance, he is audacious.
October 17, 2021: The Joy of Becoming Insignificant
In today’s Gospel reading from Mark two of Jesus’ closest companions on the way, James and John, ask a favor of Jesus. They say, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” I suppose they think they are asking to become something like the Vice President, or Secretary of State, or head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Jesus tells them that they do not know what they are asking for.
October 10, 2021: That's Just the Way It Is?
Living in poverty is not a preferential way of being. Indeed, while scriptures tell us that God has a preference for the poor; this preference is most often expressed in the command for those of us who are financially secure to help out those who are in dire straits. The command is not usually to become poor, but to share with the poor. The reading from Amos is a castigation of the wealthy who are taking advantage of the poor. Amos does not say go and be poor. He says stop using your power to hurt those who are poor.
October 3, 2021: God's Dream
As we have discussed in recent weeks, Jesus often speaks in hyperbole, because it gets our attention. In this case he pushes back on the Pharisees’ literal reading of scripture with one that is more human and humane.
September 26, 2021: Ooo Gross!
Does anyone think that Jesus really wanted us to hurt ourselves? I don’t. I think Jesus is using exaggeration in order to help us understand how serious he is. Jesus wants us to know that he cares about each of us. He knows we are going to make mistakes that will hurt other people and will hurt ourselves. So he tells us that if something causes us to make mistakes over and over and over again we should get rid of it.
September 19, 2021: Love Makes Us Jesus People
Does anyone think that Jesus really wanted us to hurt ourselves? I don’t. I think Jesus is using exaggeration in order to help us understand how serious he is. Jesus wants us to know that he cares about each of us. He knows we are going to make mistakes that will hurt other people and will hurt ourselves. So he tells us that if something causes us to make mistakes over and over and over again we should get rid of it.
September 12, 2021: Who Is He? Who Am I?
Today’s Gospel asks two questions that resonate across the centuries. The first is the question Jesus asks of the disciples “Who do you say that I am?” The other question is, “Given my answer to the first question, who am I?”
September 5, 2021: Border Folly
The gospel reading this week is deceptively simple. We have two stories about Jesus healing people—a daughter with a demon and a man with a speech impediment. Yet, despite the simplicity of the narrative, with a little close reading we can see that these stories are anything but simple.
August 29, 2021: More than Lip Service
God always calls us to care for the poor, widowed and orphaned. The prophets reprimand us time and again for not following that commandment. Jesus affirms the necessity to live into God’s word, not just have it flow over us like some sort of justifying waterfall that requires nothing of us.
August 22, 2021: Good Food
God always calls us to care for the poor, widowed and orphaned. The prophets reprimand us time and again for not following that commandment. Jesus affirms the necessity to live into God’s word, not just have it flow over us like some sort of justifying waterfall that requires nothing of us.
August 15, 2021: Come to Wisdom's Feast
We have been talking about bread and other baked items for several weeks now. While Jesus being the bread of life is a powerful and indeed central tenant of our faith, I thought today might be a good time to talk about another life-giving concept, wisdom.
August 8, 2021: Taste and See
Without this bread life is a pale imitation of life. It is a life of grasping hoping for something real, fulfilling, and healing. But that life always comes up short because possessions, money, power or anything else the secular world offers is hollow. It may sparkle for a moment but soon it loses its luster. Then our eyes start searching for something new with more sparkle which is also destined to fade.
August 1, 2021: Eat and be Filled
No one can blame the people in the Temple or the woman at the well for hoping that their need for the essentials of life could be solved by something Jesus promised. But Jesus was not some internet huckster trying to sell them a “miracle” cure for poverty and hard work. Jesus, via metaphor, was trying to show them that God offers more than the basics of life.
July 25, 2021: Make Me A Good Animal Today
So what does it mean to be human? I believe it means we are part of this world. I agree, as well, with scholars who say, God, having given us more, also expects a greater duty of care. We are responsible to serve as good stewards over God’s creations. To look after all other living things. To be good animals. Because
July 11, 2021: Let Justice Roll
Those words ring out across more than two and three-quarters millennia. Anyone who says that the Bible is no longer relevant is not paying attention. Those words of God through Amos are as potent today as they were in 750 BC or 1963 AD. When a society chooses the rich over the poor, the powerful over the powerless, and greed over righteousness it is corrupt. It can no longer claim to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
July 4, 2021: Familiarity Breeds Community
In our case, familiarity does not breed contempt, but rather community. This is a community of love and care. It is a community that challenges itself and others to love and be loved. Time and again I hear from visitors how welcomed and respected they feel here. This is a house of Christian love. When someone like that guest shakes the dust of this place off of his sandals, he is dismissing the love of Christ for the judgments and partisanship of the world.
June 27, 2021: Healing Words, Healing Touch
The world is full of need. It is often not as obvious as that, but the need still exists. I expect there is someone amongst us this morning or with whom you work or regularly meet who is in a need as desperate as the hemorrhaging woman or the little girl. They may feel that no one cares, or they may not have an advocate as strong and well-placed as Jairus. How do we let them know that they matter?
June 13, 2021: Wonder of Wonder
Free floating wonder allows the questions to abound. It also allows that awe does not have to have an answer. Wonder is enough. We live into the questions and that is enough...
June 6, 2021: We Are Family
There are numerous compelling questions in the Bible. Questions such as “Am I my brother’s keeper?” “Who is my neighbor?” and today’s question, “Who are my mother and my brothers.” These questions are gripping because they hit so close to home. These are not questions about “Life, The Universe and Everything.” They are questions about how we live faithfully and genuinely as human beings. They come up in a religious context, but ultimately they go beyond the religious.
May 30, 2021: A Trinity of Love
The Trinity like so much about Christianity is a mystery. This is not the Agatha Christie kind of mystery where the purpose is to figure out whodunit. Not having an answer may make us uncomfortable, but the mystery can be the answer in itself. The mystery may be a call into engagement.
May 23, 2021: Good Trouble in the Water
This Day of Pentecost we are reminded that where we find wholeness is in God’s love. It is also where we find our commission to do God’s work in the world. Wade in the water because God is going to trouble it and heal you and strengthen you. When we step out of those troubled waters we will not be able to stop sharing the message. But first we have to step in.
May 16, 2021: Help My Unbelief
I wonder why we ignore this feast day unlike others in calendar. It could be that to the modern mind, the Ascension seems like something out of a fantasy movie. Somebody getting lifted up in the air and floating or zipping away to heaven seems silly. The world does not function in that way. We are left thinking that this is another one of those weird things that only happens in the Bible like seas parting, donkeys talking, flying chariots and people who live for nine hundred years. But there is so much more to the Ascension than the whisking off of Jesus into heaven.
May 9, 2021: For Lovin' Me
Love is like a holy infection: the more we love God the more loving we become towards others. Our hearts are filled with love, pushing out fear and anxiety. As those negative emotions find less space within us, we are less able to feel them. God’s love wins.
May 2, 2021: Better Together
We are to abide in Jesus just as he abides in us. That is, we are to stay within him as he is within us. I think that is why he chose this metaphor of a vine. The level of connection with Jesus is cellular. We don’t just abide as we abide in our home or in Middleburg. We are so connected with Jesus that we cannot go anywhere without him and he cannot go anywhere without us.
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April 25, 2021: Sheepish
As it says in Psalm 95, “For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. / Oh, that today you would harken to his voice.” This is a relationship of truth and trust. We are God’s flock not because we are stupid like sheep, but because we are smart like sheep. Like sheep we follow the shepherd, we are not prodded along like cattle which must be driven from behind. We know the voice of the one who leads us. We can discern that voice from the many others that cry out for our attention.
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April 18, 2021: Knowing Beyond Knowing
When I hear these post-resurrection stories I often respond skeptically. While I listen attentively, my brain is talking back to the Gospel saying something like, “Yea, sure, he just popped into a room with closed doors and windows.” Or “Yep, he broke the bread with the disciples at Emmaus and then he disappeared.” It is as if Jesus flipped open his transponder and said, “Beam me up Scottie” so that he could flit around ancient Palestine. But to a brain educated in post-Enlightenment, post-scientific revolution thought this just doesn’t make sense. This is the stuff of fantasy, sci-fi, or ghost stories.
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April 11, 2021: Forgiven and Forgiving
There we have it. Jesus’ final instruction to his disciples turned apostles is not to tell the world what is right and wrong. Their job is not to tell nice tidy moral stories like Aesop’s Fables. That sentence makes it clear that besides sharing the Good News of Jesus they have the very important duty to forgive. Their job and ours is the work of forgiveness.
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April 4, 2021: Rise up in Love (Easter)
We are in the midst of so much uncertainty and upheaval. There is the Covid pandemic that has changed the way we live, and left so many dead in the US and around the world. There is the American epidemic of gun violence that continues to take tens of thousands of lives every year. There is the epidemic of racial injustice that has plagued the US for over 400 years. Just as we think we have made significant steps forward it rears its ugly head again as black, brown and Asian persons are targeted. Then there is the epidemic of conspiracy which is another cancerous ill fed by the dark web and other malevolent serpents.
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April 2, 2021: You Think This Happened Only Once and Long Ago? (Good Friday)
Christ is crucified every time someone utters a racial slur, or when a child is terrorized by schoolmates for the color of his skin. We do not seem to learn. The Crucifixion should have happened only once and long ago. Even if no one else learned the lesson of summary judgment and the brutality of capital punishment we who call ourselves Christians should have. We who know that our Lord and Savior was murdered by the religious and political powers of his day should know better, but we don’t. We just keep on keepin’ on with the same blind and brutal ways of our ancestors.
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April 1, 2021: Humility, Love, and a Towel (Maundy Thursday)
Suppose for a moment that by the time the disciples get to this fateful night they finally accept what Jesus has been telling them all along about his impending death. They may not understand the resurrection part, but having seen what has been going on in Jerusalem in the past week they realize that things are not going to end well. What’s more it has become clear that his death is imminent, that he will probably be put to death the next day. What do you think they would have wanted to happen during what we call the Last Supper?
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March 28, 2021: Let Us Not Pass Over the Passion
As we all know, when passions run high there is often a price to pay. Either those passions lead to some confrontation between the passionate and their opponents, or the passion turns on itself. In this case we see that the passionate crowd that welcomes Jesus into Jerusalem becomes the crowd passionate for his death.
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March 21, 2021: Close to You
Jesus wants us to have our best lives too, but he challenges us way beyond any motivational speaker. He challenges us to see the world through the eyes of God. He challenges us to see the world and all of its people as beloved of God. We in the church feel all snuggly with Jesus, like he belongs to us; we often act as if he shares our opinions and biases. We forget that he angered the religious establishment of his time, and that we are part of the religious establishment of our time. I do not believe he would be any easier on us just because we believe in him. I expect his first question of me would be why I do not live the Good News more fully. I expect he would want to know why we are so unforgiving of others.
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March 14, 2021: Light of the World, Shine on Me
Nicodemus, concerned that his fellow elders will look unfavorably on his meeting Jesus, seeks an audience with him at night. Darkness is also a great foil for the darkness that surrounds humanity; a darkness that Jesus says “people loved” more than the light.
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March 7, 2021: Takin' Care of Business
This is not the Jesus of the movies who is slender with flowing hair like a peacenik from the 60s with a sophisticated English accent. It is not the soft focus Jesus of greeting cards. This is not the Jesus of Sunday School stories who calls children to his side. Nor is this the Jesus of miraculous healings, compelling parables, and captivating sermons. This Jesus is tough and angry.
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February 28, 2021: What's My Line?
“Who do people say that I am?” It is a cleverly posed question, because the disciples could disguise their own response as if it were the words of someone else. Despite the cover they are given and the many hints through Jesus’ preaching, teaching, and miracles they respond that people say he is John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the prophets. It is only when Jesus asks “Who do you say that I am?” that Peter blurts out, “You are the Messiah.”
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February 21, 2021: Post it on Your Heart
Mark specializes in economy of words. While the other two give us more detail of Jesus’ experience, Mark’s description can serve another purpose. Mark’s few verses offer a believer the straightforward route to living the gospel. I think of these few verses as the refrigerator door or mirror reminder of living in Christ. It is like when we start a new exercise routine or diet. We create a list of what it is we need to do in the simplest terms. We take that list and tape it to the fridge or bathroom mirror.
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February 14, 2021: A Doorway to Heaven
Liminal. L-I-M-I-N-A-L. Liminal is not a word that I expect most of us use in daily conversation, but it is common in spiritual and religious circles. The word “liminal” comes from the Latin root, limen, which means “threshold.” It is often seen in the phrase “liminal space” which is a place of transition. It is a place where one “crosses over” having left something behind, but not yet having fully moved in something else.
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February 7, 2021: Transcendent and Immanent, High and Low, Near and Far
When I was a young man I became disillusioned with the church of my upbringing. That disillusionment did not lead to atheism or agnosticism. Rather I embraced the favored religious notion of many Enlightenment era intellectuals; men such as Thomas Jefferson and John Locke–Deism. For me it helped to explain creation outside of a scientific theory, but it also helped explain the evil, injustice, and randomness of life.
January 31, 2021: Maybe I'm Amazed
I have a question that I wish I could ask of you and get responses from lots of you. The question is what do you expect to experience or hope to experience when you come to church? I imagine you might say quiet, peace, comfort, good music, friends, communion, community, a sermon, or a lesson to help me in my life to name a few. Looking back at the Gospel reading I think a synagogue goer in Jesus’ time might have had similar expectations. Yet the adjectives used in Mark’s Gospel to describe their experience are anything but what we have named.
January 24, 2021: Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?
Time is very important to our lives. We want to save time. Indeed, one of the aspects of the modern era was the invention and manufacture of time-saving devices such as kitchen and laundry appliances. These were intended to free up time for leisure activities. The typewriter, then word processor and then computer made the writing and editing of documents, articles, books, speeches, and sermons more efficient. Search engines put information, whether a recipe for tonight’s supper or a citation for a scholarly article, at our fingertips.
January 17, 2021: Seeing Rightly
Mirrors are common accoutrement of our bathrooms and closets. We use them to adjust a tie, make sure the makeup is flattering, or that the various parts of our outfit are complementary. Yet, how many times do we really look at our self? Not in a cursory way, but a studied way. Likewise, we see others on the street, in church at work. How often do we really see them for the child of God that they are?
January 10, 2021: Only God Saves Me
When I was a kid, about 5th or 6th grade, I took several road trips with my dad. In many ways they are the highlights of my youth. I had my dad to myself for a week at a time. He was nearly deaf at that point so we did not talk much as we drove, but just being invited to be with him was great.