Sermons

St. Paul’s Bible & Newspaper Back in the distant past -- like the first part of the 20th century -- there was an important theologian by the name of Karl Barth. 1 He was quoted in 1966 by time magazine. “ Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” ( Time Magazine , May 1, 1966.) Many people have referred to that quote and it has been interpreted in different ways. What it has meant to me is something like what James wrote about in the New Testament, and we heard it not too long ago, that “Faith without Works Is Dead” 2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? Some have used Barth’s words to mean that the Bible and the newspaper are of equal authority. It doesn't mean that to me at all. Like James statement about faith and works, what it means to me is that unless the gospel speaks to the world that we live in it is little better than the...

  Epiphany-2c-homily http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Epiphany/CEpi2_RCL.html Season of Light This year especially the seasons feel out of sync. The church year is centered, as we have noted, around Easter. We have just celebrated Christmas, but oh what a strange Christmas it has been. The church season transitions now in January to a season of light. Epiphany. But this January feels so off kilter. COVID-19 and its omicron variant blistered us at Christmas time. Invariably in my experience January and February are among the coldest and dreariest of months. Though the days are supposed to be getting longer it seems at this time of year that things are getting darker. Bob Dylan sang a song that rang in my head all this past week: It’s not dark yet . Shadows are falling and I’ve been here all day It’s too hot to sleep, time is running away Feel like my soul has turned into steel ... It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there Season of light. Epiphany. That’s not Dyl...

  2 Christmas Homily Jan. 2, 2022 St. Paul’s, Monroe Still Christmas We're still in the Christmas season. The 12 days of Christmas, ending on the feast of Epiphany, January 6th. In my youth it was my Episcopalian relatives who emphasized this fact. Over the years it has been used to justify Sending out Christmas cards after Christmas Day. Early on when I was young, my mother used it to justify keeping Christmas decorations up until the Denver Stock Show was over -- that happened in the last week of January. In more recent years I've used it to justify something of a counter cultural tendency. The world at large ends Christmas on Christmas night. I am determined not to let it end there. Still pandemic I can't help but recognize a parallel with the fact that here we are again in the year 2022, filming a liturgy to be broadcast over the internet. At first our shifting into gear for the arrival of covid-19 felt like a jolt and a shock. In time it felt like it was bring...