Sermons on Social Justice (Page 3)
We are the Body of Christ
Photo by Randy Fath @unsplash.com Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a Luke 4:14-21 Psalm 19 I love Sundays like today when each of the readings overflows with possibility. Let’s start with Nehemiah. This is the only Sunday in the whole of the three year cycle when we hear from Nehemiah and we never hear from the closely linked book of Ezra. I was in seminary before I knew anything about these guys. After the exile in Babylon, a small…
John the Deacon
Photo by Cristian Palmer on unsplash.com Isaiah 43:1-7 Acts 8:14-17 Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 I remember being a young lad in elementary school and having to have my parents help me occasionally with the difficult parts of my homework assignments. The memory that stands out for me is the fact that I was not gifted with a natural propensity toward an aptitude in mathematics in those days and my dear mother took on the challenge of helping me with that portion of…
We can, with God’s help
Photo by Jordan Rowland on Unsplash Mark 12:38-44 God of all Goodness, may we daily perceive the joy and wonder of your abiding presence, and offer our lives in gratitude for our redemption. Amen. Let me just take this opportunity to say that it’s great to be back here with all of you again for my second and final year of field education and my final year at the School for Deacons. You are a loving community of faithful, compassionate…
Longing for Healing
Photo by Danna Joy Images. Newborn Monarch at St Benedict’s On Thursday we started a six week class[1] focusing on Thomas Merton who was a Trappist monk and priest. Merton wrote over 70 books, mostly on spirituality, social justice and pacifism. This year is the fiftieth anniversary of his death and so it seems appropriate in this Season of Creation to look at his ideas about creation. In 1964, Merton wrote, “We live on a planet which has reached the point of extreme hazard…
It is I: be not afraid
Photo by Brian Cook on Unsplash John 6:1-21 I really don’t like being hungry. I’ll do a lot to avoid even the possibility of hunger. And I don’t like to think of those I love being hungry. In today’s gospel reading, I’d be the one who made sure that my kid had plenty of food with him when he went off to follow the great teacher and healer. All four gospels contain this story; the story of the 5000 hungry people. But today…
David’s Grief
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27 Psalm 130 I don’t like the feeling of grief. I’d much rather move on and think about positive things. Yet there is much to grieve. On a personal level I am still grieving the loss of Dr. Jean, and the loss of a close friendship that suddenly changed its form a year ago; on a societal level I grieve the inhumane treatment of immigrants in our cities and on our borders, and on the macro-level, I…
Hearing God’s Call
I have often wished that I could hear the voice of God as clearly as Samuel did in the first reading this morning. It’s worth noting where he was when he heard God – he was in the temple, where the ark of God was. For the Hebrew people, the ark of the covenant was the resting place of God, the Holy of Holies. Samuel was physically in the presence of God. Our contemporary understanding of God is that God…
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…
A Whale of a Tale
Jonah 3:1-5, 10 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh…