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...

  Christmas https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearABC_RCL/Christmas/ChrsDay1_RCL.html These are not the circumstances I expected for a Christmas message. Like all of you I was caught off-guard when in the span of 24 hours it seemed clear that we would have to move back to being church virtually. I am speaking to you now, trying to reach into your homes through the wonder of modern technology, while what most of us are probably most aware of is the distance between us. I do know, however, that each of us is doing the best we can with the deck of cards that we have been dealt. The wonder of God's work in us is precisely that God takes who and what we are and works with that. God isn't finished with any of us. Opening It’s Christmas. The season of Christmas will stretch for 12 days. It’s all around us and its impact stretches as far as we can see. The supply chain, the success of the economy, images of lights and candles, and stories of generosity and self giving, -- all of ...

Advent 4 Opening It's so often happens that I am boggled in my mind with what we say and read in church. I think did we really say that? Did we really mean that? Take, for example, the Collect of the day we opened our liturgy with. Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation , that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming , may find in us a mansion prepared for himself ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. We just let it roll off our tongues. But listen! In just the most simple sort of way, we acknowledge that Almighty God comes to me everyday. I can imagine that might be a kind of theoretical statement whereby we acknowledge that God the creator of the universe is somehow maybe in the universe itself present. But with me? When I'm getting out of bed, groggy from sleep and wanting a cup of coffee? Me when I'm crabby or impatient? But we are claiming that God comes to visit me in order to prepa...

  Tis the season It is Advent. We are swiftly moving through Advent, now. The time is running short. Do you feel the pressure? Maybe your goal is to be ready to travel wherever you're going for Christmas. Perhaps it is to get things in the mail on time. I know in our house we've missed deadlines related to Christmas by weeks and even months. Such is the season. Why is it that the harder we try the behinder we get? What are the barriers that somehow we erect to hinder ourselves in going forward? Advent a time for self-examination Advent is precisely the time for asking those kinds of questions. It is a time for looking at ourselves with sharp eyes. And it is a time of becoming more sharply aware of what is the goal. And the goal isn't really about letters, or packing, or any of the myriad things we fill our days with. The goal is our encounter with the living God. Paul to Philippians Paul seems to present us with a list of things of that order. rejoice always D...

  Advent 2 lectionary Opening It was many years ago. I was still a youth. I'm not sure where I learned it. Was it that I had a physician and a nurse for parents? Was it that I was an oldest child? Was it learning about people like Mother Teresa? I don't know. But I knew, deep down, that the lives we lived were not primarily for ourselves, for our enjoyment or fulfillment, but for others. Man for others was the title of an address by the head of the Jesuits in 1973. 1 I also may have heard it in connection with the movement of the 90's, focused on men and led by the football coach of the Colorado University football team: Promise Keepers Called to prepare the way We are not here for ourselves. We are here for those who come after us. That is a startling thing to acknowledge. It is shocking to try to put it into practice. If we are not for ourselves but for others, it is clear that we are not not even here for our generation, but for those we will not even meet in t...