Sermons on Spiritual Life (Page 20)

Living from both pockets

Photo by Matthew Smith @ unsplash.com Text: Luke 18:9-14 Purpose:  We recognize both the Pharisee and the toll collector, both the saint and the sinner within ourselves. Prayer: Guard my lips and guide our hearts, O God, our help and our rock. Some days everything goes right.  Some days everything goes wrong! Some mornings we awake and say “Good morning, God.” Other days it’s more like, “Good God, it’s morning.” On those good days, it’s sunshine and blue skies, no…

St. Francis

Francis preaching to the birds, Painting by Giotti, 13th century Today we celebrate St Francis Day. There are three things that I associate with St Francis: his connection with birds and animals his church reform movement which became the Franciscan order and included taking vows of poverty the understanding that Christ is in all of creation You may remember the story of how Francis had a mystical vision  in the forsaken country chapel of San Damiano, just outside Assisi, in which the Icon…

Staying Grounded in a Time of Climate Crisis

Last year our Earthcare group asked Bishop Mary how we might encourage other churches to get more involved with Creation Care, and she suggested that we organize a conference for the diocese.  That conference happened yesterday in Salinas, and for the last week we have been hosting the keynote speaker, Margaret Bullitt-Jonas. Margaret, who has been a long time climate activist, is Missioner for Creation Care for the Diocese of Western Massachusetts. During this week on the Central Coast she…

Humility

When we think about St Benedict and his Rule or Way of Life, most of us think about balance or moderation or hospitality. Yet his longest chapter was about humility. In fact, he lists 12 steps of humility. Some of them are not immediately useful for us today, such as the one that says we should speak only when necessary and without laughter – after all we often associate gentle laughter with holiness; or the one that says that humility…

The peace of God is not peace

Photo by Faye Cornish @unsplash.com Isaiah 5:1-7 Luke 12:49-56 Sometimes I hear an Old Testament reading – like the one we heard today or the one we had a few weeks ago where Hosea was told to take a “wife of whoredom “ – and I wish we could skip all that and just listen to Jesus. But then we get to gospel passages like this one. Jesus is not having a good day. He is looking ahead to his…

Be Like Carson

Photo from Wikimedia Commons Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 Psalm 50:1-8, 23-24 Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16 Luke 12:32-40 I confess that I’m a Downtown Abbey fan. I got quite caught up in the Crawley’s comings and goings, and enjoyed it even more the second time I watched it. I’m really looking forward to the film coming out next month. Today’s gospel reading makes me think of Carson. The lord goes off to a wedding feast (and in those days, weddings took several days…

Being Christ

Photo by Annie Bolin @unsplash.com Hosea 11:1-11 Colossians 3:1-11 Luke 12:13-21 When I first saw the headline this morning I thought they had revised the death count from the shooting in El Paso yesterday, then I realized. Another shooting, this time in Dayton, Ohio. Both hard on the heels of the tragedy in Gilroy last Sunday. There are no words for the pain and anguish the families of the victims are experiencing today. And the sadness of a culture where…

Ask and it shall be given…

Photo by Michael Heuss unsplash.com Hosea 1:2-10 Psalm 85 Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19) Luke 11:1-13 I imagine that quite a few of you had a hard time with that first reading from the prophet Hosea! Our First Testament readings during the season of Pentecost this year give us a quick tour of the prophets. We started in the 9th century Before the Common Era  – that’s 2900 years ago – with stories of Elijah and Elisha. Now we’ve moved up a…