An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” That’s the first line in today’s gospel (Matthew 4:1-11) and my first thought is, Well, that’s not fair. The Spirit and the devil…
Read More Let’s Not Waste A Good Temptation – A Sermon On Matthew 4:1-11
Detail of the Fall of Man by By Hugo van der Goes, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons What comes to mind when you think about temptation? What tempts you? What is your greatest temptation today? I ask those questions because…
Read More Facing Our Greatest Temptation – A Sermon On Luke 4:1-13
The promise and risk of life come to us asking for a response. Jesus had decisions to make. And so do we. We make decisions everyday of our life; decisions and choices about what to do, who we want to be, how we want to live. We sometimes call them temptations. We feel torn and pulled between the promise and the risk. Temptations hold before us the illusion of promise without risk. But that’s not the way the wilderness works, and Jesus knows that.
With each decision we’re betting that the future will be better, not because it necessarily is, but because it might be. And that “might,” the possibility of a better future, of more life, is what gives us the strength, the faith, the hope, to risk a decision and remain open to the future, even when we don’t know how it will turn out.
Lent 1A: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 and Matthew 4:1-11 Over the last several years I've begun to see and understand Lent and temptations, the struggles in my life, in a different way. It used to be that I thought about those…
Read More Two Questions for Lent – A Sermon on Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 and Matthew 4:1-11
What if temptation is necessary? What if temptation can be our teacher or a diagnosis? What tempts you? What tempts you into living less than who you really are?
Luke 4:1-13 Jesus overcame the temptations in the wilderness. He made it possible for us to overcome our temptations. Be like Jesus and just say no. Does that sound familiar? I wonder if that’s how we often hear today’s gospel…
Read More Rethinking Temptation: It’s More Than Just Saying No – A Sermon on Luke 4:1-13
So here’s what I wonder. What if Jesus had said, “Ok. Yes, I’ll do it?” What if he had turned just one small stone into a small loaf of bread? He’s hungry, famished. Why not fill the emptiness? Not a…
Read More Temptation is the Way to Salvation, Luke 4:1-13
“Habitual self-complacency is almost always a sign of spiritual stagnation. The complacent no longer feel in themselves any real indigence, an urgent need for God. Their meditations are comfortable, reassuring and inconclusive. Their mental prayer quickly degenerates into day-dreaming, distractions…
Read More Urgent Need Makes A Real Meditation
The collect and readings for the First Sunday in Lent may be found here. The following sermon is based on Mark 1:9-15. At some point we all leave home. It is something we do throughout our lives. Over and over…
Read More Leave Home, Get Baptized, Go to the Wilderness – A Sermon on Mark 1:9-15, Lent 1B.
Interrupting the Silence 