Sermons on Church's Year (Page 2)
The Trinity and Racism
Trinity and Racism Genesis 1:1-2:4a Today is Trinity Sunday when we focus on the idea of God as three persons in total unity. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to us because we have no way of conceiving a Being who is more complex than ourselves. And there is no passage in the Bible which lays it out. Jesus talked a lot, at least in John’s gospel which we have been reading recently, about his oneness with the Father…
It’s Not our First Choice
Acts 1:6-14 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11 John 17:1-11 I haven’t yet worked out how to show pictures while we are live-streaming, which is a shame because there are many, many paintings of the ascension that we could look at. You can Google them if you’re interested. Most of them show Jesus going straight up or doing an arabesque as he ascends. There are one or two which show the disciples looking at his feet, but the one that intrigues me…
Risen
Photo by Andrew McKie on Pexels Colossians 3:1-4 John 20:1-18 I wonder why Mary did not recognize Jesus? Was it because her eyes were blinded by the light from the angels? Was it because her eyes were filled with tears and in her grief she was not able to see properly? Or was it simply that she did not expect to see him there? This is perhaps one of my favorite gospel passages. I love the simplicity yet the intimacy…
Remember Who You Are
Romans 6:3-11 Matthew 28:1-10 When Jill was in her twenties she formed a close friendship with the retired Bishop of Los Angeles, Bishop Eric Bloy. At the end of an evening together, his parting words were always, “Remember who you are.” If we were to give a theme to this evening’s service it might be just that, “Remember who you are.” During the first part of the service we symbolically brought the flame of Christ’s resurrection life back into the…
Maundy Thursday – Love one Another
Photo by Jan Romero on unsplash John 13:1-17, 31b-35 It’s a puzzling thing. Jesus lived in a time that could not have begun to conceive of what we are doing tonight – gathering for virtual worship – and he could not have conceived of a world where people stayed in their own homes. Without that physical connection, how are we to follow his direction, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved…
Good Friday with John Donne
Photo by Chema Photo @ unsplash Isaiah 52:13-53:12 Hebrews 10:16-25 John 18:1-19:42 Psalm 22 This morning I want to share with you a poem by one of the early Anglican poets, John Donne. He wrote it about Good Friday in 1613, when he was riding west to Wales. It was on this ride that he decided to take holy orders. Although it was a holy day, Donne was traveling on business and so the poem begins with the push-pull of…
Resurrection
Photo by Pam Riches@unsplash.com Ezekiel 37:1-14 John 11:1-45 The first reading this morning is one which will be familiar to those of you who come to the Easter Vigil, because it is an important story that we often read as part of our Salvation History. It is one of the visions of the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a contemporary of Jeremiah’s – both of them experienced the final fall of Jerusalem and the exile, but whereas Jeremiah was able to…
Hunting for Fig Leaves
Photo by Sime Basioli @unsplash.com Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11 Psalm 32 My sister once said,” I think we must have come from somewhere very wonderful or we wouldn’t be so dissatisfied with what we have and filled with longing for something better.” Today we start Lent with part of the ancient Creation story. This narrative was developed by the ancient people as a way of explaining that longing that my sister voices, and explaining how things are. …
Get Up!
Transfiguration Sunday (Last Sunday of Epiphany) Sermon February 23, 2020 St. Benedict’s Episcopal Church, Los Osos, California Message from the Mountain (Invocation of the Holy Spirit, suggested by words in Celtic Daily Prayer) Most powerful Holy Spirit, come down upon us and subdue us From heaven, where the ordinary is made glorious, and glory seems but ordinary. Open our spiritual ears, that we hear a word from God. Amen. Transfiguration is a translation of Greek that happens to…
Created Beautiful and Messy
Luke 2:22-40 Happy Groundhog day! I understand that in Pennsylvania this morning, the groundhog did not see his shadow and so we can expect an early spring. It was the Germans and the Dutch who brought the tradition of Groundhog day to America. The tradition was probably originally based on a bear coming out of hibernation, but as bears became scarce it became a fox or a badger and that translated here to a Ground Hog. Ground hogs or no,…