John 9:1-41 For the last two weeks, we have been granted the opportunity to be a fly on the wall of two private conversations between Jesus and two very different individuals. Nicodemus, the well-respected Jewish community leader, comes to Jesus in the night. Photine, the woman at the well in Samaria with a painful andContinue reading “The Unexpected Main Character”
Category Archives: lent
Gazing in the Dark
John 3:1-17 Since Ben and I moved to Virginia, there has been at least one exceptional meteorological or astronomical event per year visible from this area. The aurora borealis, the northern lights, have shown themselves multiple times. There has been a near total solar eclipse, which I remember particularly well because I was blessing completedContinue reading “Gazing in the Dark”
Who We Truly Are
Matthew 4:1-11 This sermon references two litanies; the Litany of Penitence beginning on page 267 of the Book of Common Prayer and the Great Litany on page 148 in the same book. Both are very appropriate devotional practices for personal use any time in the Lenten season. In nearly every Episcopal Church, Lent begins withContinue reading “Who We Truly Are”
Rend Your Heart
Joel 2:1-2,12-17 This world will break your heart if you let it. There is so much to grieve, so much to fear, so much to run from. Most of us, most of the time, are numb to some or all of it. Sometimes, the numbness is the only way to keep going, to keep fromContinue reading “Rend Your Heart”
Will We Join the Party?
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 A teacher once told me that until you can explain something to a child, you don’t really understand it. CS Lewis, another great teacher, believed most ardently that good children’s stories were only good if they could mean just as much to the adults reading them as the child being read to.Continue reading “Will We Join the Party?”
Temptation at Lunchtime
Luke 4:1-13 In C. S. Lewis’s book The Screwtape Letters, Lewis imagines what the correspondence between two demons might look like. They discuss humanity with contempt, all the while obsessing over the actions, choices, and beliefs of the individual humans they are charged with leading away from God, or as they call him, the Enemy.Continue reading “Temptation at Lunchtime”
Memento Mori
This sermon was given on the occasion of Ash Wednesday 2025, and primarily addresses the liturgy of the day as well as several references to the Burial Office, both of which can be found in the Book of Common Prayer! The t-shirt mentioned is a discontinued product of The Little Rose Shop, but a similarContinue reading “Memento Mori”
Look the Serpent in the Eye
Numbers 21:4-9 After forty years in the desert, the people of God are tired, downtrodden, and impatient. They have just recently learned that the older generation will not live to see the promised land- all those who were adults when Moses led them out of Egypt, including Moses himself, will die before crossing the JordanContinue reading “Look the Serpent in the Eye”
Every Body Holy
John 2:13-22 When I asked what struck our Lenten study group the most about this passage when they read it last week, one of the responses was the sheer size and magnificence of the Temple. We Christians sometimes conflate our own ideas of churches and cathedrals with the Temple of Ancient Jerusalem. But the scaleContinue reading “Every Body Holy”
Setting Our Minds on Him
Mark 8:31-38 There has been a lot of buzz both online and in conversations all over the country about a certain Super Bowl ad. For two years now, something called the He Gets Us campaign has been purchasing and running advertisements during prime-time sporting events. The ads have a high production value, and cost millionsContinue reading “Setting Our Minds on Him”
Mother A Writes 