An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
Photo by Fredrik Öhlander on Unsplash I want to begin by asking a couple of questions about the Easter story. Here’s my first question. It’s pretty simple. If I asked you tell the Easter story, what would you say? How would you tell…
Read More What’s The Story Of Your Easter? – A Sermon On John 21:1-19
I often follow a thread or theme through Holy Week to Easter. This year I focused on self-betrayal, the ways in which we turn away from ourselves and our lives, and live less than who we truly are. It will be easier to see and follow that theme through these sermons if you begin with the Palm Sunday sermon. Thank you for reading and supporting Interrupting the Silence. Alleluia. Christ is risen.
"Empty Tomb" by bobosh_t is marked with CC BY-SA 2.0. Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. Do you really believe that? Who believes today’s gospel (Luke 24:1-12) is true? So let me ask you this, what makes this story true? I don’t think it’s true because the women “found the stone rolled away from the tomb.” And I don’t think it’s true because “they did not find the body.” And I don’t think it’s true…
Read More Stop Believing In Easter And Start Eastering – An Easter Sermon On Luke 24:1-12
Alleluia. Christ is risen. I wonder what that means for you today and why it matters. I don’t think we can understand what today really means apart from this past week. Without Holy Week we risk coming to this day and asking, “Risen from what?” We risk coming to this day believing it is only about Jesus’ resurrection and not our own. And what good is it to us if Jesus has been raised but we have not?
The Second Sunday of Easter - John 20:19-31 By 22Kartika - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons Every year I come to this day - the Second Sunday of Easter - and I wonder what difference last Sunday - Easter Sunday - has made. Are our lives and world different because of Easter and, if so, how and in what ways? Look around. What do you see? Has your life changed? Are you living…
Read More Easter Unlocked And Opened – A Sermon On John 20:19-31
Alleluia! Christ is risen! It echoes in here when I say that, sort of like it might in an empty tomb. Most everyone is at home, keeping to themselves. Anxiety is in the air. There are no overflowing crowds celebrating Jesus’ resurrection. People are not showing up dressed in their Easter finest. There are no fancy dresses or hats. There are no “eggstravaganzas" or kids gathered with Easter baskets. Friends and family are not sitting down together for a big Easter feast. It’s been a time of turmoil, chaos, and loss. People are shaken, as if by an earthquake. The future is unknown and uncertain.
Jesus’ resurrection is a call insisting you and I give existence to more life, whether for ourselves or another. We are the ones to continue the story of resurrection. We are the ones to give concrete existence to resurrection.
A collection of sermons preached at St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Uvalde, Texas, for Holy Week and Easter Sunday 2019.
This is your resurrection. This is your Easter. This is your feast day. And that is true for every one of us here. Regardless of who you are, what you’ve done or not done, what has or has not happened in your life, what you believe or don’t believe, the promise remains, hope abides, and the call persists.
We all come to dividing lines in our lives. It might be a heart attack, the death of a loved one, a divorce, the loss of job, a shattered dream, an aging body. But it might also be a graduation, a marriage, the birth of a child or a grandchild, a retirement, an unexpected opportunity. In some way our lives are a series of dividing lines. Every one of you could look back and see the dividing lines in your life; the questions that were raised, the choices you made, the struggles you faced, and the ways in which your life changed.
Interrupting the Silence 