December 8, 2019 - Advent 2A

Lectionary Readings

O come, O come, Emmanuel. Amen.

            The Psalmist proclaims, “May all the earth be filled with the Lord’s glory.” That is our prayer, our hope, and our focus – that all the earth be filled with God’s glory. Last Sunday, I began a sermon series on the Incarnation – the central tenet of Christianity that the God of Israel, the God who created all things, the God who is being itself took on flesh and came to us in Jesus of Nazareth. This radical belief is at the heart of our Anglican tradition and influences how and what we believe.

December 1, 2019 - Advent 1A

Lectionary Readings

O come, O come, Emmanuel. Amen.

            What makes you, you? For the most part, every single one of us is identical. Two hands, two lungs, a central nervous system, dependence on food and water. One way of viewing us is that we’re all pretty much the same. And while there is a commonality among us, there is also a diversity that makes us unique. People are not interchangeable. I wouldn’t be okay if you exchanged my family for another one. So there is something that makes you, you.

March 24, 2019 - Lent 3C

Lectionary Readings

O God, in your abundant grace you sent your Son to be the light of the world: Grant that we may come and see the difference that Christ makes in each of us as we seek to become your beloved community; and as we gather in intentional worship, may we ever be reminded of your transformative love which is the foundation of our faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

            “Take the shoes off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” God tells Moses that when you come before God, it is a powerful and transformative experience. One of the ways that we come and see the difference Christ makes is through worship, which is all about pointing us in the direction of that difference.

October 29, 2017 - Reformation Sunday (Proper 25A)

Readings: Isaiah 40:6-8, 43:15-21; Psalm 90: 1-6, 13-17; Romans 3:21-28; Matthew 22:34-40

Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire and lighten us with thy celestial fire. Amen.

            Today is a once in every half a millennium occurrence. As you’ve likely heard, October 31 will be the 500^th anniversary of Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther published, though most scholars agree that he did not nail to the door, his 95 Theses against abuses of the Roman Catholic Church. And thus began a period of reformation in the Church. Ten years later, when Henry VIII requested that Pope Clement VII grant him an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon the seeds were sown for the English Reformation, which was a distinct and separate reformation than the one initiated by Luther. So Anglicans have always had a complicated relationship with the Reformation.