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Proper 16b, St. Alfred's

Proper 16b  2024-08-02 St. Alfred's Church Opening One of the most important books of my college years was titled Either / Or: a fragment of life . It was a foundational text for the emergence of what came to be known as existentialism. It was an important tool f or me to finding a path toward spiritual growth and faith. Ultimately it was important in my decision to embrace the Christian path to -- as I put it -- to follow it as far as its mystical riches could be mined . Maybe a decade later, I was challenged by a different sort of phrase. I encountered theologians who wanted to de-emphasize either / or and argued that Jesus proclaimed something more like both / and . I first heard about the phrase in the context of Jesus's proclamation that the Kingdom of God was at hand . Was the coming Kingdom that Jesus preached already accomplished before or with the resurrection? Or was it still in the future? The New Testament seems to argue both positions. So these teachers made t
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Proper 8b: St. Alfred's

  title: Proper 8b Sermon subtitle: Fr. Dale author: St. Alfred's Church date: June 29, 2024 The collect The collects we pray at the beginning of the liturgy have a particular form. By the way it is not entirely clear how we get the word "collect". It might have to do with a prayer that collects the gathered people. It might be from an old Latin word that means "gather the people." We know that in the word with bad associations in the old socialist term: "Collective". Addressing the prayer to God. Noticing a particular act, normally some aspect of glory, that God has done or is doing. Spelling out a particular request or petition for grace. Usually there is a "colon" at the beginning of this 3rd part of the collect. There is also usually a 4th part which identifies the desired result of the request. Concluding with a signature, the bearer of the prayer, (In the name of Christ ...) (the name of the Trinity ...) and so on Many yea
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Easter Vigil, St. Alfred's

  Easter Vigil 2024  Dale Hathaway  March 30, 2024 Opening When I was a child I spoke like a child, I thought like a child. When I was a child I experienced Easter pretty much like Fr. Peter shared last Sunday. There was Palm Sunday, with the pomp and procession. Then there was Easter. When I was a child, I knew my name and I knew that my parents were Helen and Dale. I tolerated my siblings for the most part. It was only later that I began to realize that one of the great challenges of life was to figure who I really was and who I was meant to be. And it was later still that I began to grasp that it wasn't even about me. I was a part of a larger story . I was in my 20's when I experienced my first Easter Vigil. We didn't have such a thing when I was a child in the church. I returned to the church, trying to be an adult, and trying to figure out what an adult faith looks like. I'm still working at that. I know of no better expression of what adult Christianit
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Lent 2 2024 -- St. Alfred's

  Opening We have entered into another season of Lent. For most of us it is not the first time we've "done Lent". We have followed this cycle year-by-year through the patterns of our lives. If we were to tell the narrative of the Lents that we have kept, we might get a facisimile of the history of our call to life in Christ . At some point we made a decision to follow Christ. At some point we recognized that to be a disciple of Christ it was going to mean molding and fashioning our life to conform to Christ's own life. The cycles of Lent tell something of the story of our call to life in Christ . It's not linear. It's not a straight line or even multiple ones. There are cycles within cycles. My own life has been marked not just by keeping Lent but by attempting to preach on these lessons year-by-year, Lent by Lent. It is perhaps my task of preaching Lent -- preaching it over and over again -- that leads me to think of the big picture. These well-known pas
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Sermon for Christmas Morning: St. Alfred's

title: Sermon for Christmas morning subtitle: The Rev. Dale C. Hathaway author: St. Alfred's, Palm Harbor date: December 25, 2023 Change. Christmas and our relationship to it. When I was a child I thought like a child. I had dreams like a child. I related to Christmas like a child. When I became an adult I generally related to Christmas like I did when I was a child. I began to have children, and we wanted them to experience Christmas as we had known it. And then especially after I was ordained and had children at home on Christmas morning – children who were especially eager to get gifts unwrapped and surprises unsurprised, we had a rule that before Christmas morning Eucharist everyone could open just one gift – but their daddy had to celebrate the Eucharist so we at a light breakfast and off I went. Now I'm an old man. Christmas feel different. I see the festivities as if looking on from a distance, and I wonder what happened to Christmas? And what is Christmas? The Chr
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All Saints: St. Alfred's, Nov. 5, 2023

Setting Who makes saints Someone asked me the other day who makes Saints? They had observed that some of the people in the church's calendar had "saint" in front of their name and some didn't. How do you get to be a saint? I'm a little surprised at myself that my first instinct was to describe the different ways the Catholic Church and the Episcopal church make a saint. I gave a bureaucratic answer to what I think was a personal question. Somehow All Saints Day is a very personal day. There was one thing (Bishop) Scharf said two weeks ago that -- in the language of my youth --"blew me away." He pointed to how the Pharisees were asking one question and Jesus answered a different question. It's so important to listen for the right questions, isn't it. It wasn't just that it was an insight in how to understand that particular exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees. It seemed to be a kind of commentary on the importance of really listening
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Proper 18a, Palm Harbor, FL

Proper 18a   St. Alfred's Church    The Rev. Dale C. Hathaway   Sept. 9, 2023 Metaphor for Church I remember a snippet from a sermon many years ago. I think it was probably in my teens. The preacher made reference to the way in which looking up at the roof of the church it looked like the ribbing of a ship. He said it's not by accident that that part of the church is called a nave . The nave of a church, from the Latin navis meaning "ship." We get our word navy . Now of course Saint Alfred's doesn't have the appearance of a great sailing vessel of yesteryear, with planks and ribbing. You look up at our ceiling and it looks more like a bobbing teacup or some thing. In fact I guess looking up at the architecture in our church building it looks something like the basket that Moses was floating in down the Nile River. We heard that from the first chapter of Exodus two weeks ago. Still, all in all, there you have it. The church is as if it was sailing on a journe
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