An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
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
The First Sunday in Advent, Year A - Matthew 24:36-44 Starry Night on the Rhone by Vincent van Gogh: Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons “But about that day and hour no one knows,” Jesus says. I hear those words and can’t…
Read More Advent Possibilites – A Sermon On Matthew 24:36-44
Jesus said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” Maybe there is something unbearable about God. When have you experienced the unbearable in your life? What happened? How did it come about? In what ways are you experiencing the unbearable today?
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.
Holy Saturday - Matthew 27:57-66 I am always struck by the contrast between this day, Holy Saturday, and the rest of Holy Week. The crowds, shouting, and turmoil of Good Friday have given way to silence and stillness. There is…
Read More Sitting In Opposition – A Sermon On Matthew 27:57-66 For Holy Saturday
Throughout our lives we find ourselves in circumstances or situations that are strange, new, incomprehensible. They’re beyond our previous experience and more often than not they leave us feeling estranged from ourselves, an alien in our own life. You know what that’s like, right?
I wonder if that’s exactly how Mary feels. I wonder if her leaving in haste is the outer expression of her inner estrangement. I wonder if her leaving home reflects that she is not yet at home in herself.
In today’s gospel Jesus speaks of the “‘Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory.” I think that’s a metaphor for the future. I’ve recently begun to think of Advent as the coming of our future, and a time when we prepare, as best we can, if we can, for that future.
What comes up for you when you look toward or think about your future? How do you live with a future that is unforeseeable?
I suspect we all live with our own version of what is and what isn’t possible. And most of the time we live our life based on what we consider to be possible. We consider the range of possibilities and then we make a decision, choose a direction for our life, take our next step, all within the boundaries of what is possible. But what if the impossible can be made real? What if the impossible really does happen? What if the impossible is possible?
Luke 1:43. "Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be, since I am a virgin?'” In the innermost courts of the temple in Jerusalem, a veil separated humanity from the Holy of Holies, where the Spirit of God rested…
Read More Parting the Veil of Impossibility
Interrupting the Silence 