Sermons

Homily: Marriage of Pierson Payne & Grace Neill 29 December 2018 I began thinking about this homily many months ago. I have to tell you it’s a lot earlier than I usually do for normal Sunday sermons. My intention was to present Grace & Pierson with a charge that they might take with them as the begin their married life together. I wanted it to be right. I wanted it to be lovely and powerful. For I really like these two people. When I was in graduate school at Notre Dame, Bernard Cooke was regarded by some as an important theologian. He died in 2013 having made a huge contribution to the way in which we talk about God and God’s relationship to the Church, about the sacraments and how a sacramental view of the world is at the heart of what it means to be Church. When I first encountered him it was in the context of his understanding that all human life is essentially sacramental – i.e. human beings by nature reveal and make manifest God’s prese...

Homily – The First Sunday of Advent December 2, 2018 St. John’s, Winnsboro Opening I’ve prepared enough Advent sermons to remember a time that one of the main challenges was to get people to think in terms of apocalyptic , end of times , the day of judgment , and so on. When I first began preaching many people, myself included, would primarily associate such thinking with the crackpot who stood on the soapbox stand in the middle of Times Square and called out to everyone and no one in particular, “The end is coming. The end is coming.” Jesus message: “your redemption is drawing near” when you see these things. Jesus addresses his followers and says look around you. What do you see. Do you see terrible things happening? Terrible things on the horizon? Does it seem like the present course of things can’t be sustained? Well, he says, you’re right. Redemption is near at hand. Look around and see the “signs of the times”. That is look at the fig tree … pay attention … pray for stre...

Homily November 18: St. Mark’s, Chester 11 am Proper 28 The end times We have entered into a peculiar time in the church year, at least it always strikes me that way, when we are approaching the last of a year-long sequence but the world around us is in some other place. It is in a mode of buying and selling. It is in a partying mode. Next Sunday is the last Sunday of the church year. It often happens that the readings we are hearing today occur just before Thanksgiving day as it does this year. Sometimes Thanksgiving is later and we would hear lessons for the last Sunday of the church year. Those lessons all have a theme having to do with the end-times, apocalyptic occurances, the big picture. The Thanksgiving readings, of course, reflect the tone of the day and are completely about thanksgiving for all the gifts that God has given us. It’s a day about gratitude. Often this Sunday appropriates such a tone. By design the gospels of the Sundays leading up to the last Sunday of ...

Proper 27 November 11: Ordinary Time, Proper 27 Epiphany, Spartanburg Since I last saw you, we have certainly traveled a long ways as a people. One thing I know of that has been huge in our family is that we have passed from the place where Mary Pat was anxious about my being away from the house long enough to come to Spartanburg and be with you – that was June – up until the present day when she is able to be with me as I come to celebrate with you. Oh, the wonders of what God is doing in our midst. As a nation we have traveled to the end of the midterms. I said in our morning prayer on Wednesday that I was grateful to have the whole campaigning experience be over even though I knew that the next campaign was beginning already that morning. When I was in my 20’s, the experience of having one generation in conflict with another seemed inconvenient but bearable . On the downward slide to the age of 70 I am weary of the pervasive rhetoric that pushes us apart, that encourages our...

Homily: November 4:Ordinary Time, Proper 26 st mark 11 am Introductions Thank you for the invitation to celebrate Eucharist with you, to give thanks for the work that God has done, is doing, and will do in your midst. Briefly, about myself. Hawai’i parishes in WI, IN, HI, and supply in NC & USC. Taught college in Indiana, Hawai’i, and SC. Currently an adjunct in Religion department at Winthrop. It’s because my wife, Mary Pat, got hired by the Math department to teach teachers how to teach Math that brings us to SC. This is my first time in Chester, SC. I have a smattering of input from people who have knowledge of your community. For one person it has been the center for them over many years of one of his chief passions: skydiving. The bishop has shared with me his perception that the people of this particular community are seriously engaged in doing “God’s work” in this place, making Christ known by serving God’s people. We drove around Chester on our way to obse...

Homily: October 28:Ordinary Time Proper 25 – Supply at Our Savior Preface Let me open with a somber disclaimer. I had prepared this homily before we heard news about the massacre in a synagogue in Pittsburgh. We seem to be living in a time when violent and angry events dominate and are escalating daily. The worst anti-semitic act in American History is a deeply alarming event that demands a response from us. I considered scrapping my homily and just speaking to the Tree of Life Congregation massacre. This homily starts from a description of a senseless collection of violence and evil and moves in stages to evoking the Glory that only God can bring. I decided that the best course of action was to let my originalprepared homily be my initial first response to yesterday’s news. Conclusion of misunderstood OT book – Job This week we come to the end of a series of four readings from the book of Job. We have also had during this time readings from the letter to the Hebrews and we will...

Intro Thank you for inviting me back as it were for an encore talk on Anglicanism. We have been asked this year to reflect on three aspects of our religious tradition. In my case the Anglican tradition. The three aspects: scripture, sacraments , and tradition . One of the first thoughts that comes to my mind is that the very question itself supposes that there is something that can be identified as “Anglican tradition”. I’m not sure just to begin with how much one can pin down the tradition I represent. I refer to the adage that I quoted a year ago at my presentation: the Anglican tradition is made up of one part of Lutheran theology, another part Calvinist polity, and the third part Catholic haberdashery . One of the basic premises of my tradition is that it reaches back across the entire history of Christianity in Britain. The first Christians were present in what is now London by the second century of the Common Era. To say that the Anglican tradition covers so much time mean...

Proper 21 Sept. 30, 2018 – Our Savior, Rock Hill Be salt Don’t you just hate those health warnings that get in the way of our enjoyment of life? It has kept us from salting things for so long. I developed a habit long ago of not salting things – and Mary Pat is still trying to change that habit. When she read a draft of this homily she asked, “And you still don’t cook with salt?” I do love salt. There are some things about myself I need to work at changing. There are a few symbols, maybe they’re metaphors – there are a few symbols that have deep meaning throughout many different cultures and throughout the history of humanity. Water is one of them. Salt is another one. I used to think bread ranked up there with the best of them. I have been a Episcopalian all of my adult life. And closely related to that the Eucharist with the powerful symbols of bread and wine has been a powerful presence for me. I was aware of bread having a powerful evocative symbolic power In a variety of cult...