An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
Seventh Sunday After Pentecost: Proper 10, Year B - Mark 6:14-29 Photo by sankavi on Unsplash Do you ever feel like your life is haunted, like something unresolved has come to visit? Do you ever feel like something is wandering…
Read More What Haunts You Today? – A Sermon On Mark 6:14-29
In today’s gospel Jesus talks about the coming of the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth. What if the Advocate, in whatever ways she or he shows up, comes not to advocate to another on our behalf but to advocate to us on our own behalf? They are truth tellers for us. They call us more deeply into our authentic selves. They are the ones who transform and change our lives. Who are those people for you?
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?
Twenty-twenty. When I say those two words I’m not sure if I intend them as a statement or a question. A lot of things could be said about 2020. It feels like we have been exiled from our homeland, from the way things used to be, from what was familiar and comfortable, and maybe even taken for granted. It feels like we are living in a foreign land, waiting and wanting to go home. I don’t know when we’ll get to go home. I hope and pray that with the vaccines and continued use of masks and social distancing we can return sooner than later. But I don’t know. So what do we do in the meantime?
We’re three days into the new year, a time of change and transition often marked by the calendar more than the circumstances of our lives or world. Regardless, the 2020 year end reviews are well underway with commentaries, assessments, and judgments. For some, maybe most, “Good-bye 2020,” could just as well be “Good riddance, 2020.” And “Hello, 2021,” could just as well be “You could’t get here soon enough, 2021.” We’ve quickly greeted the new year with predictions, wishes, and prayers. I read this in the news, op eds, and on social media. I hear it in the conversations I have with others and in the silence of my own heart. Will 2021 be different from and better than 2020? I suspect all of us, at some level, are asking and living with that question.
Today’s gospel, like all apocalyptic literature, takes us to those threshold moments that leave us wondering whether things are falling apart or falling into place. By now most of you know me well enough to know that my answer to that is, “Yes. Yes, they are.” I’m betting every one of you could tell a story about a threshold time in your life. I wonder what that threshold is for you today.
Genesis 1:26-28; Psalm 67; 1 John 4:7-16; John 15:9-12 Sophie, Tyler, I am going to give you a word for your marriage and life together. It’s a Hebrew word. It’s used seventy-one times in the Book of Psalms. Selah. Do…
Read More Selah: Instructions For A Marriage – A Wedding Sermon
The Second Sunday in Advent, Year A - Matthew 3:1-12 By Visitor7 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons What if I preached like John the Baptist? What if I was as blunt and direct as he is? What…
Read More Life Can Be Different – An Advent Sermon On Matthew 3:1-12
Song of Solomon 2:10-13; 8:6-7 and John 15:9-12 By Johannes Munz - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons I am going to start by asking you some simple questions - yes or no kind of questions. I don’t mean…
Read More The Double Yes of Marriage – A Wedding Sermon On Song of Solomon 2:10-13; 8:6-7
Proper 12 C - Luke 11:1-13 “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” It would sure be a lot easier to hear and preach today’s gospel…
Read More Let Us Dare To Pray (And Not Just For What We Want) – A Sermon On Luke 11:1-13
