Sermons

Christmas Eve, St. Peter’s 2019 December 24:Christmas Eve 2019 St. Peter’s Great Falls Pre-liturgy Announcement The liturgy this year will be different from any you’ve experienced. I tried to structure our worship and celebration tonight around a couple of requirements. We should sing as many Christmas carols as we can We needed to not go too late We don’t have a professional choir – it’s just us To that end the key element you will notice is a series of readings that are in fact selections from a longer piece. I will say more about it in the homily. For now my minimal hope is that at the end of it we can all say, “I’m glad I was here.” And for all of you who help make it possible tonight – Thank you! Introduction It was many months ago that Cindy had invited me to be with you tonight. Most liturgies I have led at this time of year have presumed that there were numerous gatherings in the church in the weeks leading up to this holy night. It’s a different story here. I ...

December 22, 2019: The Fourth Sunday of Advent – St. Paul’s Opening Normally I would say “Thank you for inviting me back.” And, “I’m glad to be here.” It’s not appropriate, somehow, today. "It’s good to be here. The reason for being here is decidedly not a happy thing . Fr. Jim called me shortly after seeing the doctor back in November. Mostly I think he just wanted me to know. Further conversations and here I am this morning. I assured Fr. Jim and Susan and Charlotte that I would help in whatever way I could as you, the people of St. Paul’s, Monroe, journey through this conflicted time. I am glad to be here, for all kinds of big and little reasons and with emotions that cover a range – and are all too human. It’s one of the things I like about being here at St. Paul’s , Monroe – it feels real. A couple of weeks ago we watched a movie. Watched tonight Beasts of the Southern Wild . An utterly one of a kind movie that successfully portrayed metaphor (glaciers melting, wild...

December 8:The Second Sunday of Advent – Our Saviour Homily Bumping into … Some years ago I was at a retreat center to the west of Chicago. I was there for a provincial working group dealing with issues related to small churches. It was a Catholic retreat center and had what I thought was a wonderful chapel. I am a sucker for places with significant baptistries , having been taught way back when in seminary of the primacy of baptism for understanding who we are as Christians. There was a wonderful pool for a baptistry at a Protestant seminary in Indianapolis. I like the font at Mary Pat’s family parish back in Dayton. There is a large pool, about 10’ across and then a small font that flows into it – obviously used for dabbing infants with a few drops of water. At this particular retreat center there was a great baptismal font – not as large as the one in Dayton – but it was placed in a small chapel at a small retreat center. You walked in through the back doors and within a few s...

Dec. 1 St. John’s Winnsboro: Advent 1 Introduction I want to talk about time 1 this week. Well, I really started talking about time last week when I reflected on beginnings and endings. Last week’s concept of time was endings and beginnings . This week I turn to the contrast between two different kinds of time. I frequently remember the joke I heard long ago about there being two different kinds of people. There are those who divide the world into two different kinds of people … And there are those who don’t. When it comes to people I come down firmly on the side of there being just one kind of people not two. Well in this case I come down on the side of two kinds of time. But time, well time can fairly usefully be divided into two: there is sacred time and there is ordinary time. One religious thinker from earlier in the 20 th century divided things between sacred and profane . For our purposes it’s probably enough to just use the word ordinary . There is the kind of time ...

Sun, Nov 24, 2019 at St. John’s Winnsboro Christ the King Color: White Assigned Readings (Proper 29 ) Track One Lesson 1: Jeremiah 23:1-6 Psalm: Canticle 4 or 16 Lesson 2: Colossians 1:11-20 Gospel: Luke 23:33-43 Endings Endings are important. That’s a big subject. I only want to scratch the surface here today. Endings are important for making possible New Beginnings. I had a lesson in endings recently when I smiled to myself at the Charlotte Symphony when the whole audience was blown away by the virtuosity of a pianist. We burst into applause and then slowly began to realize that it was only the end of the 1st movement (out of 4). The etiquette is that one applauds only at the finale. For the past 2 years Mary Pat and I have had season tickets to the Charlotte Symphony. It has been a wonderful experience, involving a large collection of sensory satisfactions. There has been good company. We often attended with good friends. Good food. We often went to a nice dinner with ou...

Sun, Sep 29, 2019 St John’s, Winnsboro Pentecost 16 Opening We conclude this week a series of readings from the gospel of Luke that have had to do with priorities and the value of money or service. I recognized in my first year of ordained ministry, having to preach on these texts that they serendipitously fall during the traditional time of pledge drives, preparing church budgets, basic fiscal management in the churches. Next month we continue reading from the gospel of Luke, hearing Jesus teach and heal. The focus shifts toward healing and prayer, sincerity of heart. Goodness, the Christian life is complex. At least there are a lot of moving pieces to it. What do we make of it? How is what we hear today helpful to our lives as Christians? Stories (religious) What does a story mean? Take e.g. Good Night Moon In the great green room There was a telephone And a red balloon And a picture of- The cow jumping over the moon … Goodnight little house And goodnight mouse Go...

Sun, Aug 18, 2019 St. Peter’s, Great Falls Pentecost 10 – 08/18/2019 Cloud of witnesses There’s probably something that you enjoy doing just to relax. What is the thing that makes you feel good deep down inside when things haven’t been going great and you just need a break? The other day we saw something on TV where one of the characters experienced that. He was too overwhelmed with things and he announced that he would be gone for a while to go fishing. I thought to myself well now that’s a good manly thing to do and I have known people like that. Now I don’t mind going fishing but it’s never been a relaxing thing for me. There are so many things to think about gathering together just to get out the door; and I don’t really know what I’m doing; and it just becomes a chore. Mostly facetiously I turned to Mary Pat and asked if she wished that I was the kind of man who would go away fishing for a while just to relax and to get away from the pressures of life. And her response was ...

Sun, Aug 11, 2019 Chapel of Christ the King Back when I was still in my 20’s in Colorado, my parish priest invited me to a presentation by a monk by the name of William McNamara in the nearby town of Pueblo. He wrote about contemplative prayer and I was interested. We drove to the auditorium of a Catholic parish there and found our seats. There, sitting on dais was man with a huge beard, almost to his waist, wearing a cassock, carrying himself with a kind of awesome confidence in himself together with a contagious aura of submission to a mighty God. When he stood up and began to speak, I had the distinct sense that he was one of the Old Testament prophets who had walked right out of the Bible and into this auditorium. He sounded like a prophet. It was as if he announced, “Pay attention.” And he got my attention. I hear the words of God himself being spoken by the prophet this morning: From the opening of Isaiah : I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of we...

Sun, Jul 28, 2019 Our Saviour Proper 12 The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Color: Green Assigned Readings (Proper 12 ) Track One Lesson 1: Hosea 1:2-10 Psalm: 85 Track Two Lesson 1: Genesis 18:20-32 Psalm: 138 Lesson 2: Colossians 2:6-15,(16-19) Gospel: Luke 11:1-13 Introduction It just seemed to me wonderfully serendipitous when in the space of a week I read today’s gospel and someone who is very dear to me asked, “What are some bible references to help teach me how to pray.” I actually have given some thought to that question over the years, having been asked it, oh, maybe a 100 times or more. It took me back to when I tried to teach and model prayer to my children. I could remember my own grandmother teaching me prayers, including a German one from her childhood. Sometimes it seemed productive and sometimes not so much. Children and Lord’s prayer Take, e.g. these stories about children and the Lord’s Prayer: I had been teaching my three-year-old daughter, Caitlin, the ...

Sun, Jul 21, 2019 St. Peter’s Great Falls Sun, Jul 21, 2019 St. Peter’s Great Falls Pentecost 6 The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost Color: Green Assigned Readings (Proper 11 ) Track One Lesson 1: Amos 8:1-12 Psalm: 52 Track Two Lesson 1: Genesis 18:1-10a Psalm: 15 Lesson 2: Colossians 1:15-28 Gospel: Luke 10:38-42 Introduction My first instinct is to just say, “Hi. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you all.” October by my reckoning. I’ve heard some about you from others. You had a gathering here last month, I think, that I would have like to have attended. We were out of town and unable. Seriously, It’s good to see you. For both of us. Prophets in the church I want to pay attention today to Amos. We heard from him last week and we will again later in the church year. Amos the prophet . Partly what I want to do is to try to take the prophet’s message seriously. Kind of an introduction to interpreting the prophets. Secondly, it seems that Amos in particular is exceedingly relevant ...