Sermons on Spiritual Life (Page 17)
Hunger and Hospitality
Isaiah 55:1-5 Psalm 145: 8-9, 15-22 Romans 9:1-5 Matthew 14:13-21 One of the many things I miss during this time in exile is potlucks! Potlucks do have some downsides – like not knowing what you are eating, eating too much and filling up with carbs. All that delicious pasta, rice and beans are not so good for those of us who are diabetic or nearly so. But I love having other people cook for me; I love knowing you all…
Negativity Don’t Pull you Through
Romans 8:26-39 Matthew 13:31-33,44-52 Thanks to St Benedict’s for giving me two new life experiences today. This is my first time ever to preach wearing a mask. It’s also my first time to preach while being video-recorded live. Actually, I’ve done one more fairly new thing this week in preparation, which was to read a book, way outside my wheelhouse. Most of what I read is ecology or theology or world fiction. But the book I’ll lead from today was…
On Tiptoe
Romans 8:12-25 Matthew 13:24-30,36-43 If I have a favorite passage from the Bible I think it must be today’s reading from Romans 8 which has been rendered as “all creation’s standing on tiptoe just to see the daughters and sons of God come into their own.” All creation’s standing on tiptoe just to see the daughters and sons of God come into their own. Let me remind you of what Paul actually said, “I consider that the sufferings of this…
St Benedict – Bishop Lucinda
Photo by Randy Greve on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mariya_umama_wethemba_monastery/3667827023/ St. Benedict detail in fresco – Gritty version; St. Benedict’s Abbey, Atchison, Kansas Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Heart Transplant
Romans 7:15-25a Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 Our second reading this morning is from Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Romans is often considered the most systematic statement of Paul’s theology. In most of his other letters, Paul is responding at least in part to particular problems in the church to which he writes. But in Romans, he seems to be trying to express his deepest understandings of the gospel. Today’s passage is a difficult one because it is taken out of its…
More than Coffee and Cookies
Romans 6:12-23 Matthew 10:40-42 The Sunday before last, we heard that Jesus sent his disciples out on a mission journey with the instructions “proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.” Then last week we heard the continuation of his charge to the disciples where he told them that his teaching was controversial and would lead to divisions…
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…
River of Living Water
Acts 2:1-21 John 7:37-39 Happy Birthday God’s People! Today is Pentecost, the day when the Holy Spirit arrived in wind and tongues of fire and the disciples found themselves on the streets, preaching the gospel. It is also the birthday of the church because it is the Holy Spirit working in and among us who creates the Body of Christ and enables us to be the church even when the church building is closed. It is the birthday of the…
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…
The Holy Coach
John 14:15-21 In a couple of weeks, we will be celebrating Pentecost, the day when the disciples saw tongues of fire and a rushing wind and, filled with courage, tumbled out onto the street proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. I have often wondered why most of us don’t have that experience today, why most of us don’t have the gifts of healing, of prophecy, of tongues. It occurred to me reading today’s gospel reading which is…