An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
Jesus Weeps Over Jerusalem (detail) by Enrique Simonet - Museo del Prado, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons Did anything strike you as strange about today’s first gospel reading (Luke 19:28-40)? Did it sound like something was missing? It’s the familiar Palm…
Read More The Things That Make For Peace – A Sermon Luke 19:28-40 For Palm Sunday
Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash As you may know, today is the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus. This year we hear Luke's version of that story (Luke 3:15-17, 21-22). And in a few minutes we will, as part of that story,…
Read More Winnowing Our Life – A Sermon On Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Last week, some of you may remember, I ended my sermon by asking this question: Will we, in 2021, be different from and better than how we were in 2020? There’s not much about the first ten days of 2021 that suggests we will. I think it’s still an open question and, I hope, still a possibility. But after the events of last Wednesday and the assault on our nation’s capitol I’m just not so sure we will be. As I reflect on the events of last Wednesday I keep going back to words from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, “Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”
Emmitt, though you are only four and a half months old you are never too young to hear the Beatitudes for the first time, and neither are the rest of us too old to hear them again for the first time. Today you are being immersed in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) as a way of being, a path to be followed, principles by which to guide your life. They describe the divine life, the life of Jesus. And whether that life exists in this world depends on you and the rest of us. We never accomplish the beatitudes as a task completed. Instead we strive, day by day, to live into them.
What do you do when your prayer is not answered, the budget doesn’t work out, expectations are not met? What do you do when your plan doesn’t come together, a relationship ends, or life is interrupted? What do you do when it’s a hard day and you just want to say no and run away? Today’s gospel sets before us two choices. We can either resist, forbid, and try to prevent what is coming to us, which is what John wants to do. Or we can permit it and “let it be,” which is what Jesus tells John to do.
Baptism doesn't happen just in the font at the back of the church. We’ve been taught and come to believe there is only one baptism in the church. And I think that is right, but I want to put the emphasis on “in the church.” In the church there is only one baptism. In life we are baptized over and over and over again.
The First Sunday of Advent - Matthew 24:36-44 Many are saying that the world has changed and that it changed on November the 8th with the election of Mr. Trump as our next president. Some are excited and hopeful about…
Read More Advent in America: Politics and Baptism – A Sermon on Matthew 24:36-44 for Advent 1A
Luke 7:11-17 Think about someone who was there for you at a critical moment in your life, one of those times when you just didn’t know how or if you would get through it. Who was there for you? Picture…
Read More The Holy Work of Crossing Over – A Sermon on Luke 7:11-17
I remember someone saying to me many years ago, “I’ve had a bad decade. There are things I wish I could re-do. I’d make different choices. So many words I wish I hadn’t said. Relationships that I’d do differently.” It…
Read More Into What Then Were You Baptized? – A Sermon on Mark 4:1-11
A priest-friend of mine tells this story about a family he knows. It seems a young boy had been at home all day with his mother. He had been a terror all day long. With each incident the mother responded,…
Read More A Sermon on Luke 3:15-17, 21-22: The Baptism of Jesus
Interrupting the Silence 