April 21, 2024 - The Fourth Sunday of Easter

Lectionary Readings 

Keep us in the fellowship of your love, O God. Amen.

            Throughout the Sundays of Eastertide, the sermons have been focusing on the readings from First John, a letter written by and for the early Church. We’ve been noticing how the letter aims to foster a sense of fellowship with God, which comes through our interactions with one another. Whether it's relationships, theology, technology, or politics, so often our disagreements and misunderstandings come about when we aren’t clear about definitions. We say one thing, but someone hears something else. We might actually be saying the same thing, but based on our vocabulary, we think we’re on opposite sides. So before we go any further, let’s make sure we’re on the same page when it comes to the idea of “fellowship.”

April 14, 2024 - The Third Sunday of Easter

Lectionary Readings

Risen Lord, keep us in the fellowship of your love. Amen.

            In the pastoral aspects of being a priest, I have the sacred privilege and duty of being with people who are struggling. And while suffering is suffering and there is no way to compare different types of struggles, dementia is certainly one of the cruelest and most devasting of struggles. When someone starts to lose their sense of who they are, it is often experienced as a death before death comes. Memories fade, personalities change, and connections are eroded. It can be a scary, disconcerting, and frustrating experience on all sides. I’m thankful for the researchers who are trying to better understand the human mind in hopes of providing a cure, and I pray for their success. Indeed, there is something tragic about forgetting who we are.

April 7, 2024 - The Second Sunday of Easter

Lectionary Readings

Risen Lord, keep us in the fellowship of your love. Amen.

            The Prayer Book teaches us that “All Sundays of the year are feasts of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Through the centuries, many have said that “every Sunday is a little Easter,” drawing on St. Augustine who called Sundays a “sacrament of Easter.” And while, theologically and liturgically speaking, that might true – we can also admit that the difference between last Sunday and today is obvious. There are decidedly less seersucker, fewer people, and not as much energy in the air. Yes, if every Sunday is a little Easter, the “little” stands out on the Second Sunday of Easter.

March 31, 2024 - Easter Sunday

Lectionary Readings

Risen Lord, give us ears to hear and eyes to see your new creation all around us. Amen.

            In the name of our Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, welcome. It warms my heart and puts a smile on my face to see each of you here. Regardless of who you are, what your story is, or what you’ve been dealing with recently, it is a joy and blessing to have you here. God has brought us together this morning as this manifestation of the beloved community. Maybe you were here for every single liturgy during Holy Week, perhaps this is your first time in a church in a long time, maybe you are watching online, it could be that you’re not exactly sure why you’re here – something, or someone, nudged you to be here. As we heard St. Peter say in the reading from Acts, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality.” Indeed, it is an honor to have each of you here to help us celebrate Easter more fully.

March 30, 2024 - Easter Vigil

Help us to always hear that same old song of your saving love, O God. Amen.

            There are so many wonderful aspects of our Prayer Book tradition. Through the centuries, the Book of Common Prayer has been revised, and sometimes certain prayers don’t make it into subsequent versions. This sermon is framed by one such prayer that was composed for the first Prayer Book in 1549. And it really will function like a frame – I’m not going to spend much time talking about the frame, just as we generally focus on the painting, not the frame, in a museum. But the frame is what holds it all together. This a prayer for those being baptized:

March 30, 2024 - Holy Saturday

Lectionary Readings

O God, you are so often found in silence, help us to watch and wait as the faithful myrrh bearers did at the tomb of your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Psalm 62 opens with “For God alone my soul in silence waits.” One mystic has said that the purpose of spoken prayers is to take us to a place of deep silence with God. And when the prophet Elijah was waiting for a word from the LORD, we are told that “the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.”

March 29, 2024 - Good Friday

Lectionary Readings

Gracious God, help us to look upon the Cross and see the love that makes all things well. Amen.

            This Holy Week, the sermons have all been focusing on one character each day. By focusing on the very real people of Holy Week, we find our place within the great drama of our salvation that unfolds this week. On Good Friday, we fix our attention on Jesus.