December 29, 2019 - First Sunday of Christmas

Lectionary Readings

In the name of the Word become flesh, Jesus Christ. Amen.

            Through the Sundays of Advent, I preached about the centrality of the Incarnation in our faith and about how this belief is at the foundation of our Anglican theology. Now that we’ve arrived in the season of the Incarnation this claim of our faith is on full display. As we heard in this morning’s collect, “God has poured upon us the new light of the Incarnate Word.” This light that has been kindled in our world is to be our guiding light. Christmas is so much more than a day, it is the claim that God has come to us to be the Light of the world.

December 25, 2019

Lectionary Readings (Epistle reading)

In the name of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Amen.

            Over the past month, we’ve been focusing on the Incarnation, the central tenet of Christianity that God became human in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth. This belief is most clearly seen in this morning’s reading from John: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” But to say that Jesus is God incarnate can be a rather ambiguous claim. Yes, the whole point of the Incarnation is that God became specific and tangible in Jesus, but when we say that “God became man,” what do we really mean? After all, the word “God” is merely a linguistic symbol for that which is beyond our comprehension. So the question before us on the Feast of the Incarnation is what became incarnate in Jesus?

December 24, 2019 - Christmas Eve

Lectionary Readings

Eternal God, in the stillness of this night you sent your almighty Word to pierce the world’s darkness with the light of salvation: give to the earth the peace that we long for and fill our hearts with the joy of heaven through our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

            We are Christmas people. Yes, I realize that all Christians celebrate Christmas, but it’s been said that Episcopalians are Christmas people. Through the season of Advent, I preached about the importance of the Incarnation in our Anglican tradition and tonight, the Feast of the Incarnation, is where we celebrate and glory in that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

December 15, 2019 - Advent 3A

Lectionary Readings

O come, O come, Emmanuel. Amen.

            This morning’s Collect is a fantastic one in our Prayer Book tradition, beginning “Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us.” That prayer is answered in the Incarnation of God in Jesus of Nazareth. The Incarnation is the foundational claim of our faith, that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God did come among us with the might of love in the flesh of Jesus. And this claim that God came among us is at the very heart of what and how we believe as Anglicans.

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.

November 28, 2019 - Thanksgiving Day

Lectionary Readings

You, eternal Trinity, are Table and Food and Waiter for us. You, eternal Father, are the Table that offers us food, the Lamb, your only-begotten Son. He is the most exquisite Food for us, both in his teaching, which nourishes us in your will, and in the sacraments that we receive in Holy Communion, which feeds and strengthens us while we are pilgrim travelers in this life. And the Holy Spirit is a Waiter for us, for he serves us this teaching by enlightening our mind’s eye with it and inspiring us to follow it. Amen.

            That lovely prayer comes from Catherine of Sienna in the 1300s. Thanksgiving is a day about a lot of things – sales, parades, football, and family. But primarily, Thanksgiving is about food. What exactly the first Thanksgiving was really like, it’s hard to separate legend from history. But we know it was a harvest festival in which the pilgrims gathered with Natives to give thanks to God, and still today, what is most essential to this day is a feast done in a spirit of gratitude.