Sermons

14th Sun. after Pentecost St. Paul’s, Monroe, NC September 10, 2017 Greetings and introduction Greetings from my wife and me. Greetings from Rock HIll where we have lived since 2014, having moved there from Hawai’i where we had lived for over a dozen years. We are there because WU’s invitation to Mary Pat to teach in the Math Dept. seemed like a call. Even before I left Hawai’i I had discussed with my bishop there about the various opportunities for serving the church from where were about to move to. Clearly in Rock Hill we are close to NC while still living in SC and really we are pretty close to a number of Episcopal dioceses. When I moved here I called fairly soon and found that it would be 9 months or more before I could meet with the bishop of North Carolina. I decided to put that off for a while. Of course you then proceeded to get rid of your bishop by sending him to New York. After meeting with Bp. Anne, I finally received my license to supply in North Carolina...

Funeral: Betty Boyd – August 24, 2017 Remember paschal candle? process in? process to garden? parish register ps. 23 in Unison (Gordon) – Leslie prayers – MP chalice bearer To the congregation: Betty found her way to Episcopal Church because something touched her deep within. At least a part of it has to do with communion . That is why we worship this way each week. You are all invited to come forward at communion. There will be little wafers and a chalice of wine that will be blessed – prayed over – not unlike we do when we say grace at a meal. If you are baptized, you are invited to receive it. Hold out hand. Offered the cup – some will dip the wafer in it. You may just come forward for a blessing. Homily Known Betty only a little more than a year. I wish I had known her longer. From the moment I was introduced, I knew she was someone special Testimony from Kim Loving. Family. Created traditions that bind together, that will be passed on by children, grand-children, niece...

Sermon: August 6, 2017 – St. Peter’s On this date In 1978 I was in process of moving to seminary I was generally aware of Transfiguration Day. I was aware that it was the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima at the end of WW2, largely because of my interests and contacts during college. It was a Sunday that year, just like this year. I probably went to church, because I was moving my family to seminary. It was a kind of long circuitous route, a little like the one Mary Pat and I followed this summer! In 1978 I drove from Colorado to California to Oregon, seeing aunts and uncles and cousins, a brother and his life-partner, now wife, and my cousin Peter in Salem, Oregon. The Monday morning paper, Aug. 7, blared in huge letters the headline that Pope Paul VI had died the day before. More recently I have become aware that August 6 is the date on which President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act , guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote and making it illegal to i...

Sermon July 30, 2017 – St. Peter’s, Great Falls Paul’s 8th Ch. Of his letter to the Romans We are confronted by words and phrases that have entered the universal jargon and terminology that has entered the standard beliefs of Christianity. Like parables that we have heard over and over again – such as we hear in today’s gospel passage from Matthew – it is so easy to think, “Oh I know that, now on to the next thing…” And all the while our ears are blocked to the deeper significance of the message for us. predestination justification All things work together for good for those who love God Nothing can separate us from the love of God We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justif...

Sun, Apr 30, 2017 (St. John’s, Winnsboro) lectionary Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” that day about three thousand persons were added Now on that same day two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village called Emmaus … We’re still connected by the narrative of the gospel with Easter time … with the time still being around Easter Taking a fork in the road Walking along a road, two companions. They didn’t really know where they were headed because where they were from was so astonishing. Frost: 2 roads … I took the one less traveled I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. An...

Easter Sunday St. Peter’s, Great Falls – Sun, Apr 16, 2017: Elements of our liturgy There are some changes in the liturgy today that you can’t have missed. We lit a “Passover” candle – i.e. “paschal” Secondly we have renewed our baptismal covenant We fulfill a part of that covenant as we break bread together Service of Light Normally this happens in a service sometime in the dark of Saturday. In the prayer at the lighting of the candle it seemed to me appropriate that we leave some reference to the night time that gives way to the light of the morning. Easter night gives way to Easter morning. I expanded a little the prayer related to lighting the “paschal” candle I first experienced an Easter Vigil where this candle lighting normally takes place at seminary. There was tremendous power in the service. We gathered at night outside the doors to the chapel. Someone kindled a fire from a flint as the congregation sat in complete darkness. The fire rose and then the candles lit...

Easter vigil: 2017 Our Savior, Rock Hill, SC This is the night Some of you may have heard me, at the beginning of our service tonight, repeat the refrain: “This is the night …” Most of the time over the last 40 years or so, as I have heard the words of the exsultet proclaimed, I have heard 2 voices. Sometimes 1 is stronger. Sometimes the other. One of them is the person doing the singing or the saying. The other voice is from somewhere else. It is a heavenly sort of voice. In fact, trying to think about it, I’m pretty sure it has been an angel of some sort. This is the night This is the night, when you brought our fathers, the children of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt, and led them through the Red Sea on dry land. This is the night, when all who believe in Christ are delivered from the gloom of sin, and are restored to grace and holiness of life. This is the night, when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell, and rose victorious from the grave. How holy is this night, when...