An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
Photo by Sven Scheuermeier on Unsplash Since the start of the new year Cyndy and I have returned to some familiar questions and conversations about our lives individually and as a couple. Where are we headed? Where is her life going? Where is…
Read More The Star Knows The Way – An Epiphany Sermon On Matthew 2:1-12
As you know, the Feast of the Epiphany commemorates the magi or wise men visiting Jesus in Bethlehem and bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:1-12). Holy scripture does not tell us their names or how many there…
Read More What About The Fourth Wise Man?
As you know, the Feast of the Epiphany commemorates the magi or wise men visiting Jesus in Bethlehem and bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:1-12). Holy scripture does not tell us their names or how many there were. No one knows for sure. Eastern Orthodoxy says there were twelve but our tradition says there were three, probably because there were three gifts, and names them Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. But what about the fourth wise man?
The Epiphany - Matthew 2:1-12 I recently overhead a man say, “I don’t want to work until I’m too old to live.” He didn’t elaborate or explain what he meant but his words have stayed with me. I think it’s…
Read More Longing And Fear – An Epiphany Sermon On Matthew 2:1-12
Whatever God’s insisting for you might be, whatever the “it” is in your life, “it” is God desiring, maybe even needing, to be seen, known, experienced by you. Epiphany happens at the intersection of God’s insistence and our response, and it requires both. A star that is not seen and followed is just another luminous ball of gas. A journey that has no guiding star is just another road trip. You and I give existence to God’s insistence through our actions, our words, our lives.
What if the experience of absence and the accompanying longings and desires are the beginning of an epiphany for you? What if that sense of absence is the star of your life by which God is revealing God’s self to you? And what if your sense of longing and desire is really God’s longing and desire for you?
“For we observed his star at its rising.” Wise men from the East have followed this star to Jerusalem. They will follow it to Bethlehem. They will be overwhelmed with joy when it stops over the house where the child…
Read More When a Star Isn’t a Star – An Epiphany Sermon on Matthew 2:1-12
St. Romanos the Melodist was a sixth century Byzantine hymnographer. Regarding the star that the magi followed (Matthew 2:1-12, the Feast of the Epiphany in the Western Church) he writes that Christ uttered in spirit to his mother: To all…
Read More A Star Powered Epiphany
The Church has a custom of blessing homes (as well as proclaiming the date of Easter) on the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6) and the week following. Family and friends gather to ask God’s blessing on their homes and…
Read More Epiphany House Blessing with Chalk
“Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?” (From Matthew 2:1-12, Feast of the Epiphany) I received an anonymous letter in this afternoon’s mail. There was nothing to indicate who or where it was from. Everything…
Read More Where is the Child? – An Epiphany Sermon on Matthew 2:1-12
Interrupting the Silence 