An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
Shortly after Easter I attended a retreat that focused on creativity and spirituality. In one of the workshops we were invited to write our own psalm. I knew that I would write about the mass shooting that occurred in Uvalde…
Read More And What About You, O God? – My Lament On The First Anniversary Of The Uvalde Shooting
“Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.” (Matthew 27:57-66) I know what that’s like and I’ll bet you do too. We’ve all had times in our life when we were “sitting opposite the tomb.” It’s…
Read More We Shall Overcome – A Sermon On Matthew 27:57-66 For Holy Saturday
It’s not too difficult to make some connections between the man in today’s gospel (Luke 8:26-29) and ourselves and what has happened in Uvalde. Though his circumstances may be different from ours, we’re not that different from him. The man…
Read More Enlarging Life In Uvalde – A Sermon On Luke 8:26-39
Have you seen the front page of today’s newspaper? It’s the first issue since the shooting. When I saw the front page this morning I said to myself, “That’s what I feel like.” Look at it. There’s a date, May…
Read More Uvalde Weeps – A Sermon On Jeremiah 31:15-17
Jesus descends into hell, breaking down the gates, and releasing Adam and Eve. "Resurrection" by bobosh_t is marked with CC BY-SA 2.0. Nobody wants to come to Holy Saturday. Look around. Very few show up on this day, and most probably do not even…
Read More Nobody Wants To Come To Holy Saturday – A Sermon On Matthew 27:57-66
I used to try to understand, explain, or make sense of this day, Good Friday. I don’t anymore. I’ve given that up. What do you say on days like this? What can be said? Besides, most of the explanations that…
Read More On Days Like This – A Sermon On John 18:1-19:42 For Good Friday
Photo by OC Gonzalez on Unsplash Where to begin? What to say? He was a good man, a crazy friend, a character, an operator, an entrepreneur. He was a story teller, funny, gregarious, outgoing, and mischievous. He was a rancher, a pilot, an…
Read More God Wastes Nothing Of Our Lives – A Funeral Sermon On Romans 8:14-19, 34-35, 37-39
Here’s my question. What are you waiting for? And what is your hope on this day? The thing that makes Holy Saturday so difficult, that makes this gospel text so unsatisfying, that leaves my sermon lacking is that there is no resolution. There is only waiting. You’ve had days like that, so have I. And sometimes it’s not just a single day of waiting. It’s weeks, months, years. Our life has been changed and it’s no longer like it used to be. We wait and wonder what’s next or if there will be a next. We wait and wonder when it will get better or if it will get better. We wait and wonder how we will ever live again or if we will.
Here’s my question: What troubles your soul today? What is the hour from which you want to be saved? Now before you answer, let me explain what I am asking about. I’m asking about more than just something that upset you or didn’t go your way. I am asking about more than an inconvenience, interruption, or a disappointment. I am asking about those things, events, experiences that shake you to the core. I am asking about those hours that terrify you. I am talking about those memories, thoughts, feelings, or fears that never go away. No matter how hard you try you can’t wish, deny, or ignore them away. They are the things that give you no rest and won’t let you go. They keep stirring up your insides. They hound you through the day and haunt you through the night. They are there when you fall asleep at night and when you wake in the morning. They just keep coming back, coming back, coming back.
Holy Saturday is an in between day. It’s the day after Good Friday and the day before Easter. What was is no longer and what will be is not yet. If Good Friday is the day of the loss, Holy Saturday is that day when the reality of the loss begins to set in. And I’ll bet you know what that’s like.
Interrupting the Silence 