Sermons

Proper 12b July 25, 2021 St. Paul's, Monroe Jesus The church has a reputation for never changing or more precisely for not changing very much. When I was a child I somehow absorb the notion that the church was the rock, the steady rock, in an ever-changing world. I think it’s possible that in my 20s I was particularly attracted to the notion of a church that never changed. One of the things that also occurred at about the same time and for many of the same reasons was that I began to learn about the history of the church, learned what I could absorb about the changing landscape of the interpretation of the Bible and theology. What I began to learn at that time is that the church in fact changes a lot -- and also often . What made it seem like it didn’t change was that the scale that one needed in order to see the change was much larger than would often be possible for a person in a single lifetime. I began to appreciate and continue to marvel up to the present day that the chur...

Proper 11b July 18, 2021 Our Saviour, Rock Hill Introduction Those of you who were here last week journeyed with me to the first century, Paul was traveling around the Mediterranean because God had commissioned him to take the gospel to all people. I offered up a brief introduction to the letter to the Ephesians, suggesting that in order to really understand and to digest what is in that book of the New Testament, we needed to keep a proper perspective, remembering to keep in mind the big picture. The lessons we have heard today from scripture make it possible for us to put that into practice, keeping our perspective on the cosmos as well as what is going on around us. The lessons today invite us to consider our place in the community of God‘s people. To consider who are God‘s people, and who do we include in that definition? The lessons today invite us to consider the implications of the gospel for our lives today and the church's mission in the world at this time. That'...

Proper 10b July 11, 2021 Our Saviour, Rock Hill Introduction to Ephesians Over the next 6 weeks, on Sundays we will be hearing from Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Ephesus. If any of you have made one of the excursions that follow Paul's travels you might well have visited. It's on the coast of Turkey. The ruins you would have seen are spectacular and vivid. By Benh LIEU SONG - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15578063 Part of today's reading we hear on the 2nd Sunday of Christmas. It's that kind of reading. It is majestic. It takes a cosmic view. In contrast to many of Paul's letters where he is responding to particular issues in particular places and times. Whole of Creation In this letter the theme is not about local conflicts or issues. Here the perspective is Christ's redemption of the whole of creation. Here we have a big scope. This is the big picture . When I read from this letter I have feelings s...

Proper 9b July 4, 2021 Christ Church, Lancaster Proper-9-2021 lectionary 4th of July: look beyond the obvious It's the 4th of July. It only falls on Sunday every once in a while. I remember some years ago when it fell on Sunday, and that day happened to be the day the bishop, Dick Chang, visited my congregation in Hawai'i. Dick Chang was born and raised in Hawai'i and except for a couple of stints on the mainland he lived his whole life in Hawai'i. Chinese-American. Raised in Hawai'i. I was surprised to learn that weekend that Dick Chang loved hot dogs. 4th of July means such a wealth of things to us in this country. Some of them so important. Some of them trivial -- like hot dogs. When I lived in Hawai'i it was reported once that the 4th of July fireworks were the 3rd biggest in the country -- after New York and Boston. It's important to note, perhaps, that there were more fireworks in Hawai'i on Chinese New Year than on the 4th of July. Those ...