Sermons

Last Epiphany 2021 St. Paul’s Monroe, NC Opening Today we mark the end of a church season, the season of epiphany. Many images and memories pass by me as I reflect on scripture passages for this day. Perhaps most of all I reflect on how these things seem more important to clergy types then to ordinary real people. Seasons come and go. I first really thought about seasons when I moved to Hawaii and early on learned that everything I had known about seasons did not apply. We come to the end of a church season. Our altered life in the time of pandemic and in the time of wounded leaders has gone on for many seasons now. The seasons come and go and still we are here. Yes we are here. No question that today’s scripture readings confront us with vivid images. Slideshow asking, “How do we picture this? Imagine this?” My earliest memory as an Episcopalian is of the candles being lit on the feast of the presentation, Candlemas. Just a few short weeks after that comes the last Sunday of Ep...

Outline Second Sunday after the Epiphany Year B 1 Samuel 3:1-10(11-20) 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 John 1:43-51 Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17 Samuel: powerful image of inauguration and beginning Philip: “Follow me.” “Come and see.” You will see heaven opened up and angels going up and down. Powerful scene of inauguration, beginning, – Samuel Hinei one of the first Hebrew words I learned. Samuel jumps up in response to God calling him (thinking it was the priest) Eventually the LORD says, “I’m going to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle” and I think, wow – there’s the origin of tinnitis which lots of people think of as an affliction. All we have to do is explain, “No, that’s the Word of the Lord talking.” Well, as we heard, the narrative is about telling of the origin of Samuel’s call as a prophet. Wow! I had thought to begin my homily this morning with a potato. – to help us visualize the “Wow!” Plug wire, copper, zinc, diode – then – ...

Christmas Eve 2020 St. Peter’s, Great Falls, SC Incarnation as God’s remedy to great need. There is an ancient tradition, from the earliest centuries of Christianity, that the sin and brokenness of the world as we know it was of such a weight, such a consequence, so much a burden, that the only remedy God had was to send His Son – the Incarnation. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. … Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father. So we read from the opening of John’s Gospel. It’s the appointed gospel reading for Christmas morning. The need for the Incarnation was very great. And in response to the great need that we presented, God made the Word to become flesh. That’s what the word incarnation . Great need We’ve become accustomed to great need this past year. There was a great need for treatment of Covid-19. A great need for ...

September 6, 2020: Ordinary Time, Proper 18 Opening It is good to be back with you at The Church of Our Saviour. Last time I met with you – you still looked like a computer screen. And here we are, back at the computer screen. But it’s about to change, isn’t it? Next week a new chapter is being forged as you return to modified in-person worship. It will be an exciting and adventurous time. An important time. You will be discovering a new way to be church, even as you seek to return to what you used to do. It will be the same, but different. It will provide unexpected experiences and spawn new hopes. “Faith, hope, and love abide – but the greatest of these is love.” We gather today on Labor Day weekend. Again, it’s not like any Labor Day weekend I have known. But that can be a serendipitous thing. To be unique. To be unlike anything we’ve known. Labor day, a day for parades and barbecues. Family gatherings and one last trip to the beach. But mostly that’s not what this Labor Day i...

June 21, Third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 7): – Church of Our Saviour Intractable difficulty of the gospel passage The other day I was talking with the priest of another congregation about preaching on Trinity Sunday – which we observed two weeks ago. He said, “It’s one of those days in the year when you make a determined effort to find someone else to preach.” Today’s Gospel passage presents another one of those kind of days. Really, if anybody finds the passage obvious or easy to grapple with I would welcome them to replace me. Unfortunately, either they didn’t get in touch with me or I failed to reach out to the right people. Here I am. First of all, this talk about a slave not being above a master – sounds too much like the pro-slavery arguments that have been wrested from the Bible for centuries. It makes me uncomfortable from the start. The world-wide demonstrations that have been occurring these past few weeks makes me especially uncomfortable. There’s a litany-like ...

June 14, 2020 Second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 6): – Church of Our Saviour & St. Paul’s Old story about how “you can’t get there from here.” Back in the 70’s there was a comedy team that produced a series of comic albums with the title “Bert and I” . They were set in the “down east” part of the country, Maine and environs. There was one story that I have not forgotten – largely because I have retold it from time to time. A visitor is passing through town and stops to ask for directions. He receives a monologue that goes something like, “Waaall, ye go down here a piece and ya turn right at the big oak tree thaar, and the you go a ways …” After a series of such directions the voice says, “Ya know, come to think of it, you caaan’t get thaar from heeer.” I thought of that story as I reflected on this week’s scripture readings and the gospel in particular. The church makes a gear shift change between last week and this week. We ended Trinity Sunday at the end of Matthew’s gosp...

June 1, 2020 Minneapolis police chief says all four officers involved in George Floyd’s death bear responsibility - CNN CNN report As we tape this liturgy for broadcast in 6 days, we have no idea where the world is going to be. But we do know today that people from around the world have come together in solidarity to stand against the betrayal and injustice that was perpetrated on George Floyd last week. The chief of police in Minneapolis said, “Mr. Floyd died in our hands and so I see that as being complicit,” Chief Medaria Arradondo told CNN’s Sara Sidner. “Silence and inaction, you’re complicit. If there was one solitary voice that would have intervened … that’s what I would have hoped for.” Police officers around the world have knelt in solidarity with protesters. In a separate interview Sunday night, another police chief, this time from Floyd’s hometown, stood in solidarity. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told CNN he wants his department to provide escort services when Geo...