Mark 1:4-11 I am beginning to wonder if the Holy Spirit is trying to tell me something about John the Baptist, because since the beginning of Advent he’s shown up in four of my sermon texts! This is the day that the Church remembers the Baptism of our Lord in the Jordan River, and ofContinue reading “Let it be so now”
Tag Archives: sermons
Christmas Consolations
Jeremiah 31:7-14 Merry Christmas! It is still Christmas, as my family is tired of hearing me remind at every opportunity. The year of our Lord 2020 has come to an end, and many of us watched the clock strike midnight to begin 2021. Like the pandemic, the masks, the losses, the joys, and the changesContinue reading “Christmas Consolations”
The Empty Stable
Luke 2:1-14(15-20) I have an image in my head, of an empty nativity scene. A vacant stable, closed in on three sides by knotted wood and straw and hints of animals nearby. The figures that belong there, the blue robed Mary and the staff-leaning Joseph and the tiny swaddled infant Jesus nestled snugly in theContinue reading “The Empty Stable”
Good Company
Mark 1:1-8 The past few weeks you’ve heard sermons about waiting, and watching, about keeping alert and about being patient through these unprecedented times. The news has been a wall of warnings and restrictions peppered with bright spots of possible vaccines and promises of an end in sight. The radio and television and even theContinue reading “Good Company”
What It Is We Are Waiting For
Matthew 25:31-46 The season of Advent, traditionally defined as a season of penitence, preparation, and anticipatory hope, has in recent history been overcome by ever-earlier transitions into festivity. If the church were to follow the trends of the commercial realm, this season of waiting would have begun just prior to Halloween and ended around theContinue reading “What It Is We Are Waiting For”
Fulfilled in Our Hearing
Luke 4:14-21 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee. Jesus returns to Galilee from the wilderness, where he was driven by the same spirit after his baptism in the Jordan River. “Filled with the power of the Spirit.” Luke the evangelist gives us a clue with this phrase, a hintContinue reading “Fulfilled in Our Hearing”
We are remembered.
This sermon was given on All Saints Sunday to the people of St Luke’s Episcopal Church in Anchorage KY in 2019. This time last year, I was sitting in a choir stall, in a huge crowded chapel full of candlelight and community. I was there to observe the feast of All Saints, to witness aContinue reading “We are remembered.”
Lord, Have Mercy
Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28 This morning, as we continue to live and move in a restrictive and unfamiliar reality, we are privy to a teaching of Jesus on the issue of ritual purity and virtue. Jesus proclaims that the words and deeds we put out into the world are far more prone to defile usContinue reading “Lord, Have Mercy”
What Now?
Romans 12:9-21 Often, when a preacher sits down to prepare a sermon, there are infinite questions to answer- both those posed by the text for the week and those posed by the week’s headlines. Questions about God and faith, and the way of things in the world. The preacher reads the passages, reads the week’sContinue reading “What Now?”
Apologies & True Forgiveness
Matthew 18:21-35 When I was younger, and my little sister and I would get into squabbles over toys or who would play what role in the world we were imagining together, our parents frequently had to remind us to apologize to one another. We all at some point in our development are taught to sayContinue reading “Apologies & True Forgiveness”
Mother A Writes 