An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
Evening worship on the first anniversary of the Uvalde shooting will be offered on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, at 5:30 p.m. central time in person and online at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Uvalde, Texas. We welcome you to pray with and for us…
Read More Light And Hope – Evening Worship On The First Anniversary Of The Uvalde Shooting
Photo by Chris Barbalis on Unsplash Jesus said to the disciples, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” When I read today’s gospel (John 16:12-15) about the unbearable and began preparing this sermon I thought…
Read More Living The Unbearable In Uvalde – A Sermon On John 16:12-15
Photo by Hayden Scott on Unsplash Today’s gospel (Luke 9:28-43), the transfiguration, is one of those big stories from scripture, a mountaintop experience. I wonder where that story fits in your life. Or does it even have a place? How do you make…
Read More Bursts Of Light – A Sermon On Luke 9:28-43
Healing the Blind Man of Jericho by Unknown Author - Codex Egberti, Fol 31, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons Most of you have heard enough of my preaching that you won’t be surprised when I tell you that I don’t want…
Read More “Let Me See Again” – A Sermon On Mark 10:46-52
Where is there light in your life and the world today? And where is there darkness in your life and the world today? I wouldn't be surprised if for many or even most of us our first answer is based on how we feel and what we think about the results of our presidential election. But that is not what I am asking about and I hope that’s not the basis for any of our answers. I am asking about something more important than that. I am asking us to look deeper than that.
Many year ago, at the suggestion of my priest, I did some work with a counselor. During one of our meetings the conversation lulled and he asked me a question. “Mike, do you have a secret?” Tears filled my eyes. I had butterflies in my stomach. And my heart was pounding. I nodded, whispered yes, and waited for what I knew would be his next question.
Today we “walk through the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23). Today the familiarity, poetry, and beauty of the 23rd psalm have a different tone. The shadow is dark and the valley is long and deep. I will not mislead you by denying that reality or letting platitudes and sentimentalities echo off the valley’s walls. That doesn’t help anyone. The valley is real and the shadow is here. That does not mean, however, that you and I are without hope. Let me be clear about this. That does not mean we are without hope.
Psalm 23:4. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." Someone whose husband recently died said to me, “I…
Read More Walking Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death
There comes a time in each of our lives when understanding and knowing give way to the darkness of not knowing and not understanding. The journey of faith, it seems, is a journey through the darkness. Maybe we all come “to Jesus by night.”
The collect and readings for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany may be found here. The appointed gospel is Matthew 5:13-20. Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its…
Read More Flavoring the World, Dispersing Darkness – A Sermon on Matthew 5:13-20, Epiphany 5A
Interrupting the Silence 