September 22, 2013 - Proper 20C

Lectionary Readings

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            This fall, I’m going to take my sermons in a different direction. My focus will be a bit more inward than outward. Of the 19 sermons I’ve preached this year, 3 have had what you might call a prophetic edge; they have challenged our relationship of complicity with our flawed economic and political systems. And while I firmly believe that sometimes preaching a challenging sermon is called for, I realize that it can create an “us versus them” mentality.

We Can (and Should) Do Better

Recently a parishioner commented that most of my sermons revolve around one theme, sometimes subtlety and sometimes rather plainly. In this person's mind, the theme is that of priorities. Essentially, what comes first in our hearts, in our work, in our words? While I probably wouldn't have articulated my major theme as such, I can't disagree with the observation. I likely would have said that the Kingdom of God is my central theological tenet, but that really is about priorities. God has made us a priority with God's abundant grace and love, and the question we are faced with is- how will we respond? 

Syria, Just War Theory, and Faith

As you know, there is a crisis going on in Syria (CNN has a good overview of the situation) and this past weekend, President Obama informed the nation that "after careful deliberation, I have decided that the United States should take military action against Syrian regime targets... if we really do want to turn away from taking appropriate action in the face of such an unspeakable outrage, then we just acknowledge the costs of doing nothing...if we won't enforce accountability in the face of this heinous act, what does it say about our resolve to stand up to others who flout fundamental international rules?" Today, the news has come that many Congressional leaders are backing the President's call for Congressional support of any military action.

So what is the Christian response to all of this?

September 1, 2013 - Proper 17C

Lectionary Readings

In the name of God- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Or in theological terms, are we called to orthodoxy or orthopraxy? Orthodoxy means right belief and orthopraxy means right action. That is do we listen to St. Paul who wrote “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing” or shall we listen to St. James when he says “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith...so faith without works is dead.” So which is it?