Sermon Archive (Page 38)

Wobbling but not Falling

Almost every week I talk with my dear friend Rebecca in Scotland. Sometimes when I ask how she’s doing she says “I had a major wobble this week.” A major wobble. A major wobble is when things seem to get out of control and temporarily beyond our emotional capacity to handle. In some ways, I think we at St Ben’s have been having a major wobble. Two of our beloved members have died in the last few months – Elizabeth…

Why was it necessary?

1 Peter 1:17-23 Luke 24:13-35 This morning’s gospel is a deeply heart-warming story of the two disciples who walked in deep sorrow and in their sadness did not recognize the resurrected Christ walking by their side. Those of us who have experienced grief or illness know how that happens; in our times of deepest pain it is most difficult to recognize God, which is one of the reasons that developing a discipline of looking for God in the midst of…

Living as if Easter is Real

When I was a growing up we didn’t have Easter egg hunts. People in Britain give each other large hollow foil-covered chocolate eggs, often filled with candy. I think I was eight the Easter I had chicken-pox and I got a bumper crop of Easter eggs. I never had so many before or since. Yesterday I happened to be briefly at an Easter Egg Hunt. There was a separate section for the little ones, where eggs lay totally unconcealed and…

Deep Sadness

And so we come to the deep sadness that is at the heart of humanity. Today we are faced with our human propensity to victimize the innocent, to resort to violence when we are threatened. Today, dozens of Christians were killed worshipping in church in Egypt. Today, children are dying of starvation in the Sudan and Somalia while as much as half of all the food produced in this country is thrown away. Today, Syria is a desolation. We can…

Jesus Wept

John 11:1-45 Personally, I have two favorite bible verses that I would like to share with you.  Through the years, I have found that these two verses have the ability to either give me goosebumps or make me to tear up, or actually sometimes, cause me to do both. The first of the two we heard last year, year “C” in our Episcopal Lectionary.  The verse comes from Luke in his account of the Passion of Christ.  Two thieves are…

Slow Church Part 2: Stability and Patience

Today I am continuing my sermon series based on the book, The Slow Church. You will remember from last month that the idea of Slow Church comes from the slow food movement that seeks to create locally sourced sustainable food grown and prepared by identifiable growers and chefs in contrast with the sameness of fast food. Today I am reflecting on both Stability and Patience. We are familiar with the idea of stability from the Rule of St Benedict. Benedictine…

Remembering Mary Elizabeth

In 2007, I had the opportunity to go to Dar es Salaam to report on a meeting of the Archbishops of the Anglican Communion. But our dog Alice had lived for several months with a debilitating illness, and my spouse was afraid that if I left, Alice would die. Sure enough, as soon as I had my bags packed and was out the door, Alice turned her head to the wall and refused to eat. It was clear that we…

Terroir – the flavor of St. Ben’s

This year is our 30th anniversary, and we are considering it to be a year of celebration and discernment. For more than seventeen years we have been working to build a church which can provide a physical home for the worship and service of God and our community. Now that is pretty much complete, and we have a plan for how we will continue to develop our facilities as we have the time, money and inclination. So what next? It…