An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
“Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” That’s the question the apostles ask Jesus in today’s first reading (Acts 1:6-14). In one form or another it’s probably a question we’ve all asked at times…
Read More Who Will Restore The Kingdom? – A Sermon On Acts 1:6-14
“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.” So we’re told in today’s Letter to the Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16. So let me ask you, how’s that working for you these days? What does hospitality mean and look like for you…
Read More Hospitality To Strangers – A Sermon On Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 And Luke 14:1, 7-14
“Lord, teach us to pray,” one of the disciples asked Jesus in today’s gospel (Luke 11:1-13). I wonder what’s behind his request. When you reflect on your own life of prayer what do you imagine he’s really asking? In what…
Read More Can I Get An “Amen”? – A Sermon On Luke 11:1-13
In some ways the past year has felt like a long never ending season of Lent. It has been a time of fasting, self-denial, and giving up; a time when people and things have been lost or taken from us; a time that is continually pointing to our mortality and the fragility of life. What are you doing with all that? And what is all that doing with you? Unless we face our own mortality we can never claim the fullness of life. Unless we recognize the fragility of life we will never discover its true value.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” These, Jesus says, are the two commandments on which everything else hangs. They are two sides of the same thing. You can’t truly have one without the other. This is about more than our feelings or affection for God and one another. It’s about our commitment to the life and well-being of the other. It’s a choice we make every day - to love or not to love. I wonder what that love looks like. I wonder what your life and my life would be like if we held those two commandments as the guiding principles for what we do. I wonder what we might create and achieve if we embodied and lived those commandments.
I thought I knew or had some idea of what it meant for Jesus to be the Messiah. The events of the last six months, however, have caused me to rethink what it means. It used to be mostly a Sunday morning kind of question, but now it’s an every day kind of question. It used to be about the future, but now it’s about the present moment. It’s no longer only or even primarily about saving souls, it’s about changing hearts. And if Jesus is not changing your heart and my heart then he is not the Messiah of our lives. And if he is our Messiah then he necessarily changes how we live.
Good Friday - John 18:1-19:42 What about your death gives meaning to your life today? In what ways is death inviting you to live more fully, to connect more deeply with others, to love more freely and completely? My stomach…
Read More Life In The Shadow Of The Cross – A Good Friday Sermon
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 incarnation of God, the embodiment of God in human life, the Word become flesh, is not limited to Jesus. Jesus is the picture, the pattern, the archetype of what the Word become flesh looks like. And we look at that picture so that we can recognize it in ourselves and one another.
The Third Sunday in Advent, Year A - Matthew 11:2-11 John the Baptist in Prison by Giousto de Menabuoi (1320–1391) John yelled at his disciples, “The Messiah is doing what!?” His voice escaped between the bars of his cell and…
Read More Filling The Jesus Gap – A Sermon On Matthew 11:2-11
Interrupting the Silence 