Sermons

B Proper 16 August 22, 2021 I have been asked to speak this week about gratitude. When asked,  I immediately agreed.  –After all, gratitude is at the heart of our Christian faith. Gratitude and generosity are core Gospel values. Our thankfulness is an  instinctual response to God’s grace in all its forms.  For example… When the server at the Fire House Café refused my payment for my latte with the explanation that someone had already paid for it, my immediate…

B Proper 21 Land Acknowledgement Reckoning With Our Past and with God’s Mercy I recently had the privilege to represent you all in welcoming back from the pandemic exile the Gratitude Group of Alcoholics Anonymous that meets in our Campbell Hall on Tuesday evenings at 8 p.m.. In welcoming them, I thanked their organization for saving the lives of some of my best friends. If you have attended AA, you know that when each member speaks she or he introduces…

Proper 10B: 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19; Psalm 24; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:14-29 + In the name of God Creator, God Redeemer, and God Sanctifier. Amen. Please be seated. There are, by some estimations, somewhere in the neighborhood of 45,000 different Christian denominations in the world today. This includes some very recognizable groups such as the various provinces of our own Anglican Communion, the Roman Catholics, several varieties of Lutherans, several more varieties of Baptists, and so forth, to literally thousands…

We Remain Unfinished Garrison Keeler, of Prairie Home Companion fame, invariably began his weekly monologue with: “It’s been a quiet week in Lake Woebegone, my hometown…” What do you consider to be your “hometown”? Is your hometown the place where you were born– or the place where you grew up?  Or the place where you are living now? I recently returned from visiting my mother—who turns 99 years old next Sunday and who still lives in the house that I…

Click HERE to watch a recording of this sermon on our YouTube channel. God, give us open eyes to see you, opens ears to hear you, so that we may know you and believe you. Amen I’m sure I’m not the person you expected to be preaching for re-opening Sunday. I am here today because as the lectionary and life cross paths. I asked Fr. Chip if I could preach on this Gospel passage about two years ago. Because despite…

I think all of us are familiar with the term “unconditional love.”  It’s a wonderful notion: to be loved just as you are, with no preconditions or expectations.  It is a concept that is central to the Christian faith.  But as wonderful as it is, there’s something missing from unconditional love.  It’s great to love someone unconditionally, but sometimes life requires a sense of commitment that unconditional love just doesn’t include.  You might love someone unconditionally, but that doesn’t mean…

Even though our current prayer book has been approved for use in the Episcopal Church for more than 40 years, it’s still surprising to me how many people are not aware that in it are two versions of the Lord’s Prayer.  If you’re not familiar with them, you can look in your prayer books on page 364 at the top, where you’ll see there is the traditional version on the left and the contemporary version on the right.  There are…

It has been said, “It is seldom that the same man knows much of science, and about the things that were known before science.”  That is because when the only valid way for our sense of what we know to grow is through the accumulation of knowledge, there is no room left for wisdom. Knowledge is gained by attaining proof. Wisdom is granted by God and is a mystery. Because we live in an age in which “proof” reigns supreme,…

The Church makes many claims about God – about who God is, and what God does, and what God is like. And the biggest of all—the one that is at the core of all of our claims—is that God is love. We sing songs about the God of love. We pray to the God of love. We offer the gift of ourselves to the God of love. And then, this morning, which happens to be the Sunday of Valentine’s Day…

How many of you have known people who inspired you by their patience and commitment?  People who remained faithful – especially through a period of trial. Simeon and Anna were elderly Jews who remained faithful and who held on to their hope and faith in God.  Simeon and Anna believed that God would not leave the chosen people forever, so, they did what they could, and they waited.  One translation of the Gospel text says that Simeon “was upright and…