An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things.” Given everything that has happened the last couple of months in Uvalde, our nation, and the world, not to mention whatever has gone on in our personal lives, those words…
Read More Choosing The Better Part – A Sermon On Luke 10:38-42
Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash The thing that strikes me about Jesus in today’s gospel (Luke 13:31-35) is his clarity. Jesus is absolutely clear about who he is and the task before him. He is absolutely clear in the choices he is…
Read More Gaining Some Clarity – A Sermon On Luke 13:31-35
Detail of the Fall of Man by By Hugo van der Goes, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons What comes to mind when you think about temptation? What tempts you? What is your greatest temptation today? I ask those questions because…
Read More Facing Our Greatest Temptation – A Sermon On Luke 4:1-13
The promise and risk of life come to us asking for a response. Jesus had decisions to make. And so do we. We make decisions everyday of our life; decisions and choices about what to do, who we want to be, how we want to live. We sometimes call them temptations. We feel torn and pulled between the promise and the risk. Temptations hold before us the illusion of promise without risk. But that’s not the way the wilderness works, and Jesus knows that.
With each decision we’re betting that the future will be better, not because it necessarily is, but because it might be. And that “might,” the possibility of a better future, of more life, is what gives us the strength, the faith, the hope, to risk a decision and remain open to the future, even when we don’t know how it will turn out.
How far will I go for this gospel I claim to love and follow? What am I willing to do and what am I not? I struggle and wrestle with these questions every day.
Because here’s what I see in the world and read in the life of Jesus. Sometimes, perhaps more often than not, the gospel asks us to make a choice, to take a stand, that will inconvenience us, be contrary to our self-interest, or put us in conflict and even opposition with others, ourselves, our family, our country, our religion.
The First Sunday in Lent - Mark 1:9-15 I don’t know how I can stand before you today with any sense of integrity and faithfulness and not say something about the Florida shooting. Something has to be said. I’m just…
Read More The Wilderness Of Gun Violence – A Sermon On Mark 1:9-15
Have you ever gotten exactly what you chose only to realize it was not what you really wanted? Have you ever made a choice that you knew was the right choice, a good choice, but it left you feeling empty, as if something was missing? Despite getting what you wanted, what you chose, your life was not enriched, made full and vibrant they way you thought it would be. Instead it felt diminished and impoverished.
Me or we? It’s a question each of us faces and answers everyday as we say our prayers, make decisions, establish priorities, and live our lives. Do we live as insulated and isolated individuals or as a person connected to and…
Read More Solomon’s Choice, Me or We? A Sermon on 1 Kings 3:5-12
Love triangles. I want to talk with you today about love triangles. You know what I am talking about right? You’ve seen the pictures and headlines on the tabloids in the grocery store check out lines. Love triangles are often…
Read More Love Triangles – A Sermon on Matthew 10:24-39
So who wants to be a disciple of Jesus? He certainly doesn’t pull any punches about what it takes. First, “Hate your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself.” Second, “Carry the cross…
Read More How Many Priorities Can a Disciple Have? A Sermon on Luke 14:25-33
Interrupting the Silence 