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 ...