August 7, 2022 - The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Readings

O Lord, help us to worship you in Spirit and Truth ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            Ritual without justice is heresy. This is the message of the prophet Isaiah and one that the Church must always bear in mind. So often we think that religion is about what we think of God. But we have little evidence in Scripture or Tradition to suggest that God is concerned more about what we say in the Creed than how we treat our neighbors. When the people of God get into trouble it is by neglecting to do justice. To be clear, worship is always the foundation. There’s a reason why the Ten Commandments begin with prohibitions against serving false gods or using God’s name inappropriately. Worship is at the very heart of what it means to be God’s people. But what good is a heart without the rest of the body? This is what Isaiah and the prophets of God challenge us to see – faith isn’t simply about rituals, it is about justice. And if we practice some perversion of the faith without justice, well, that’s heresy.

July 31, 2022 - The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Readings

O Lord, help us to know that our lives are safe in you ✠ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            We’ve all heard the phrase “you are what you eat.” And there’s a lot of truth to that idea – what we consume makes us who we are. This is true not only of foods but any sort of content that we take it.  If we listen to a lot of partisan news, we shouldn’t be surprised to find ourselves with stronger than average political opinions. If we read a lot of poetry, our speech might be a bit more lyrical. Studies have shown that children who watch violence in cartoons are then more violent in their interactions with others. We become what we consume.

July 24, 2022 - The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Readings

Lord, let us be so bold as to pray as you have taught us ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            If there has ever been a set of words spoken more often than the Lord’s Prayer, I’d be surprised. For 2,000 years, Christians have been praying these words, often multiple times a day. And there’s a deep beauty to this – these words are prayed at weddings, gravesides, battlefields, hospital rooms, chapels, and living rooms. I have prayed these words with people as they died, I have prayed with people who know these words even when, because of dementia, they do not know who they are, I have prayed these words with children as they are just learning about the wonderful and amazing grace of God. This is the richness of such a familiar prayer. The other side of familiarity though is that, because we know this prayer so well, we can say these words while on auto-pilot. So it is always good when we have a chance to reflect on and rejoice in these words that our Savior Christ has taught us.

July 17, 2022 - The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Readings

O God, help us to focus on the one thing that we have need of ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            A quick Google search will tell you that “time management” is in high demand. We can watch videos, attend seminars, and read books that all promise to teach us how to better manage our time so that we can be more successful, or whatever the supposed goal of having our time better managed is. We give school children and young adults all sorts of lessons about how to best structure the day to maximize productivity and minimize stress. Judging by the overall feel of our culture right now, I’m not so sure it’s working. We’re just more stressed about how productive we are, or are not. Now, to be clear, I say all of this as probably the most neurotically organized person here, so it’s not that I don’t value time management, it’s just I’m not convinced when we hear Jesus say that “There is need of only one thing” that he is referring to productivity, success, or returns on investments.

July 3, 2022 - Proper 9C

Lectionary readings

In the name of the God who is love ☩ Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            It’s all about love. It really is. If we could all know just how deeply we are loved, remember this love as the core of our identity, and recognize that participating in and sharing this love is the only the worth doing then we would come and see the abundant life that Jesus intends for us. A life well lived is a life lived in the way of love. This is what today’s Collect and Scripture passages are pointing us towards.

June 26, 2022 - Proper 8C

Lectionary Readings

Gracious and loving God, guide us to seek your Truth: come whence it may, cost what it will, lead where it might. Amen.

            This sermon begins with a disclaimer about what I ask of you, as a listener. I do so because this sermon will address the topic of abortion. As a note, I wrote and planned this sermon before the Supreme Court's decision on Friday. I would have preferred the decision to come out this upcoming week so that this sermon could be heard more reflectively and not reactively with tensions high, but I'll play the hand we've been dealt. For one, I ask that you trust me. I hope that you know that I love you and my only priority is pointing to the love of God. I ask that you would listen, and re-listen if necessary, to this sermon. Then reflect on it. Then examine your reactions. And then, finally, to respond after listening for the Spirit. This sermon will be a bit longer than normal, not that I can cover everything, but this is an important enough conversation to not have an artificial time limit imposed on it.

June 19, 2022 - Proper 7C

Lectionary Readings

Preached at All Saints Episcopal Mission in Linville, NC

In the name of the God who is one ☩ Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            What are the things that matter most? I’m sure we could all come up with responses, and because we’re all in the same culture, our answers would likely be fairly similar: family, church, community, vocational goals, hobbies, serving the least of these. None of these, of course, are bad things. But finding someone who has found the balance in actually prioritizing all of those things would be quite the find. And I don’t know about you all, but I’m exhausted by all of the things that are constantly in front of us. Because of technology, we know far more about the world than we are able to handle. Within a span of just a few minutes on a phone, I can see that we’re in a bear market and quite possibly heading for a recession, I can see reports of the latest carnage in Ukraine, I can read about partisan gridlock in Congress, I can look at charts showing that our nation is still averaging 100,000 new daily COVID cases, I can hear forecasts about violent hurricane season fueled by the climate catastrophe that is upon us and all of that is without thinking about all the people I know who are dealing with cancer, addiction, or depression. Between all that we want to do and care about, it’s exhausting just thinking about it.