Sermons by Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall (Page 20)
Trinity
Many of you know that I enjoy playing golf. Some golfers spend a lot of time thinking about their shot before they hit the ball. They think about how far the green is, which way the wind is blowing, which club they should use, how high their tee is, which leg is carrying the most weight and so on. Me, I skip most of that, put the ball down and hit it in the general direction of the hole. After…
Trumpet Blast of Liberty
I don’t often spend time thinking about our baptismal vows. But this week I found myself explaining to a friend, “My baptismal vow is to seek and serve Christ in all persons and that includes the president.” She was amazed that I could consider the president to be my neighbor. Our baptismal vows are not easy nor are they simple. We say them quite fast and rarely spend much time focusing on them. But if we were to live by…
The Ascended Christ
When I was in elementary school, my mother took me out of school once a year on a Thursday to go to church for the feast of the Ascension so I totally agreed with St Augustine who called it the crown of all Christian festivals.[1] The Ascension is celebrated on the Thursday that comes forty days after Easter, but we no longer have a service that day. So it is the focus of our worship this morning instead. The…
Enough is enough (plastic)
Luke 12:13-21 Today’s gospel story described one individual who had so much stuff that he tore down his barns and built new ones to hold everything. But then he died so it was all a waste. I can imagine Jesus’ listeners must have had a good laugh about that. Most of them couldn’t imagine being so wealthy that you would need bigger storage units, let alone demolishing the ones you have to build bigger ones. Unfortunately, it’s not a funny…
Why?
Acts 3:12-19 Luke 24:36b-48 Why do you wonder at this? Why are you frightened and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Both this morning’s readings ask why. Why are we surprised at the way God works among us? Why do we doubt when miracles happen? The first reading this morning from Acts is a short passage taken out of its context in a longer story. In the exciting, heady days of the early church, Peter and John were going…
Faith and Fellowship
Acts 4:32-35 1 John 1:1-2:2 John 20:19-31 When I was a teenager I had a very definite faith. I believed that the Bible was the inerrant word of God. I knew pretty much all there was to know about Christianity, and I practiced it. But as I grew up I suffered from severe depression and my faith gave me no answers. I became confused between the sacramental and symbolic Anglo-Catholic faith that I had grown up in, and the fundamentalist…
It is not yet the end
Alleluia The Lord is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia! We often think of Easter as being the end of Jesus’ story. After years of preaching, healing and challenging the religious authorities, he was betrayed and died. But then, like all good heroes, he turned the tables on his opponents in the ultimate triumph and rose from the dead. This morning I want to suggest to you that the resurrection is not even the climax of the story, let alone…
For God so Loved
Once a year, usually the week before Holy Week, the clergy of the diocese meet together to renew our vows and to bless oil to be used for healing and blessing in the coming year. When we met last week, the Bishop shared a TED talk by academic and author, Brene Brown. Brown has spent hours interviewing people about guilt and shame. She distinguishes between the two by suggesting that guilt is when you feel bad for something you did…
You will never wash my feet
“You will never wash my feet.” Those are the words of Peter, but they could be the words of many of us here. The whole foot washing thing makes us very uncomfortable. In Johns’ gospel, Jesus does not tell us to eat his bread- body and drink his wine-blood as a sign of the New Covenant. Instead he tells us, “if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” Imagine how…
The Big Picture
This is the final sermon in my Lenten series about the nature of atonement and the meaning of the cross. I have been pointing out that although we sometimes think there is just one way to understand crucifixion and salvation, understandings have differed over the years, and in these post-modern times there are multiple sometimes conflicting, sometimes overlapping meanings. The earliest understandings are grouped under the heading of Christus Victor. These suggested that through his death and resurrection, Jesus the…