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Category Archives: sermon
Naming the idols
Some are easy to spot, sporting colourful plumage;
they make fast promises they cannot keep. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, meditation, poetry, prayer
Tagged idols, Lent
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Living and dying
As the plane began to descend, it picked up some crosswinds. By the time the ground reached out to greet us, it was rocking like a boat on the wide ocean. I braced myself for a hard landing; but instead the plane pulled up sharply and we found ourselves once more climbing over the city, going around to try again. Continue reading
Ash Wednesday: grace is not in vain
Lent is a good discipline for me. The soul-searching, the self-denial, the study of God’s grace is something that I need constantly if I am to recognize the enormity, the ridiculous span and spread of God’s mercy.
But constantly is hard to do. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10, Ash Wednesday, church calendar, confession, fast, grace, Lent, reconciliation
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Words matter
Jesus does not want us less than whole. He does not want our bodies abused, nor for our relationships to become a prison or a torment. The instructions he gives us, time and again, are to love God and to love one another; anything more is hyperbole; anything less is parody. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, liturgy, other words, sermon
Tagged expansive language, Jesus, John Keble, Matthew 5:21-37, poetry, R.S. Thomas, Year A Epiphany 6
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Salt of the earth
Both of them, Isaiah and Jesus, are preaching a political message, about the end of oppression and the elevation of equality, about the mercy and justice of God, and that new world order, the kingdom of God. You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world. You are God’s gift, God’s political campaign contribution. You are God’s PAC. Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged 1 Timothy 1:15, Christ crucified, Isaiah 58:1-12, Matthew 5:13-20, politics, salt and light, salt of the earth
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When we can’t see the end of the story
It can feel sometimes as though Jesus has withdrawn to the backwaters of Galilee, , and we do not know when we will see him again, nor whether he will come with whips and cords to clean out the temples of power, or even our own house; or whether he will come in chains, bowed down by the burdens of the principalities that still oppose the reign of God, its justice, its mercy, its peace; or whether he will come in glory, a light to shine the world toward salvation. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged gospel, grief, Luke 2:22-40, Nunc Dimittis, Simeon and Anna, The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, waiting
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It is too light a thing
We see our fellow godchildren as like us, or not like us, or invisible to us. But it is God’s salvation that we proclaim, and that we claim for ourselves, and God created light to shine from one end of the universe to the other. The light of God’s salvation is for everyone. It is the light which enlightens every body, which lifts every burden, which anoints every wound with healing. Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged anti-Semitism, immigration, Isaiah 49:6, light, Martin Luther King Jr, Matthew 11:28-30, racism
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Light speaks
light whispers, flushed and fevered,
smouldering out of sight to
the point of conflagration. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry, sermon, sermon preparation
Tagged Isaiah 49:6, light, Martin Luther King Jr, Year A Epiphany 2
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Baptizing Christ, becoming Christlike
With God’s help, we baptize her. With God’s help, we rise refreshed with her, remembering that God is with us, Emmanuel, come hell or high water, and that God has anointed us to bring that good news to the world. Continue reading
Epiphany 2020: First, do no harm
If we are people of the Epiphany, then we, too, are stargazers. We have been told, commissioned by angels and dreams, to find another road. We worship the Prince of Peace in a world at war. We would rather offer gifts of gold to helpless babies than bribes to politicians or kings. We find truth in the gospel of love rather than the mantra of success. We worship the God of the manger and the Christ of the Cross. We follow Christ through the empty tomb, knowing that the star can take us only so far. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Epiphany, Le Chambon, magi, nonviolence, Philip Hallie
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