Category Archives: sermon

Year B Easter 7: outside agitators and inside voices

The leaders in Jerusalem, religious and secular, were anticipating with no small degree of anxiety next weekend’s Festival of Weeks, or Pentecost, so called because it fell fifty (pente) days after Passover; a full week of weeks since death was … Continue reading

Posted in sermon | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Year B Easter 6: water and blood, a Mothers Day proclamation

“This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.” I don’t … Continue reading

Posted in sermon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Year B Easter 5: abide with me

I can’t help but think that to judge God’s will by the outcome of our prayers that way is a pretty dangerous sort of reverse-engineering. Continue reading

Posted in sermon | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Year B Easter 4: What’s in a name?

Eric Garner. Freddie Gray. Freddie Mercury. Machiavelli. What do these names mean to you? Try Jerry Falwell. Billy Graham. Denzel Washington. George Washington. John Paul II. John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Mother Theresa. Mary. Then, of course, there’s Jesus Christ of … Continue reading

Posted in sermon | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Year B Easter 3: joy and disbelieving

Did you ever feel as though you came in halfway through the story? I mean, that’s not always a bad thing: in film school, they teach this technique called in media res for opening sequences, meaning start in the middle … Continue reading

Posted in sermon | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Damien and Marianne of Molokai (and Robert Louis Stevenson of Scotland)

Jesus answered, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see:
that the blind see beauty, the lame leap for joy, the deaf are sung lullabies, the lepers are loved, a dead faith finds new life and poor souls have good news brought to them.
And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.’ Continue reading

Posted in homily | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Year B Easter 2: that our joy may be complete

These fifty days of Easter are a strange and troubling time, when the risen Christ walks abroad, taking his disciples by surprise on the road, by the water, behind closed doors, murmuring of Peace. They are days when the signs of God are all around us, the signs of resurrection, calling us into the good news that the kingdom of God has drawn near. Continue reading

Posted in sermon | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Easter 2015: on not winning

Our Sunday School children know the rule about running at church – the one that says, “Please don’t run in the church.” This morning, the rule was suspended for five minutes – set on a timer – so that the story might be told. Continue reading

Posted in sermon | Leave a comment

Easter Vigil 2015: ready or not

Last night, I buried Jesus under the apple tree. Good Friday, and the daytime of Holy Saturday, are the only times in the Christian year in which the Eucharist, the Great Thanksgiving, is not celebrated. Instead, on Maundy Thursday at … Continue reading

Posted in sermon | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Maundy Thursday 2015

When I came home, my foot was bleeding from a cut acquired through the wearing of open-toed sandals in a dirty and dangerous city. My mother came into the bathroom where I was going through the tortured motions you have to go through in order to get your own feet under running water and into clean bandages. Without hesitation, my mother took my feet out of my hands, washed them, anointed them with antibiotic ointment, and bandaged them for me. As she worked, she offered from her knees and from her heart her forgiveness, her acceptance, her love; and I found myself doing the same. Neither of us had changed our position, yet love and mercy won, and we were reconciled. Continue reading

Posted in holy days, sermon | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments