September 27, 2020 - The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Readings

O God, help us to remember who we are, that we might become what we receive.

            It’s not enough to say that stories matter. Stories are everything. It’s been said that “humans are meaning-making machines” and the way that meaning is made is by considering and interpreting the past. If you take away our stories, you take away our humanity. And we have sayings that reinforce this idea: those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Stories though are not only about the past – they are something like a map that allows us to see where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. And if we don’t know our story, if we don’t know where we’re going, how will ever know when we’ve arrived or if we have made a wrong turn? Stories are more than things that we tell to pass the time; stories make us who we are.

September 20, 2020 - The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Readings

Gracious Lord, guide us to seek your truth: come whence it may, cost what it will, lead where it might ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

One of the great preachers of the 20th century said that there are two kinds of sermons that are difficult to hear: good sermons and bad sermons. Bad sermons are hard to listen to because they are a waste of everyone’s time. But good sermons are also hard to listen to because they point to truths that we’d rather hide from. Well, through today’s parable in Matthew, Jesus delivers a hard to hear, but very good, sermon.

September 13, 2020 - The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Readings

O Lord, forgive the sins of the preacher, that only your truth may be spoken and only your grace be heard ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Enjoy your forgiveness.” That’s the tagline on a church sign outside an Episcopal Church in New York City. The idea is that forgiveness is not something we have to struggle to earn, or strive to be worthy of, or worry about whether or not we’ve been given. No, in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven, period. And this forgiveness, this freedom, is to be used so that we might enjoy the fruits of God’s mercy and grace. In this sense, “enjoy your forgiveness” is a summation of the Gospel message.

September 6, 2020 - The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Readings

O God, grant us the serenity to accept the things that we cannot change; courage to change the things that we can; and the wisdom to know the difference ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            If you had to guess, what do you think this is going to be a sermon about? Yea, it’s another sermon about love. Someone once mentioned that almost every sermon I preach is about love. And that’s true. The thing about love is that love is our beginning and our end, our purpose and our mission, our identity and our calling. And Scripture tells us that God is love. So love really is at the heart of it all. The reason why I so often preach about love is that it’s what we need to hear – that we are loved; and it’s what we need to practice – to love one another. Once the Church excels in love in all things and in all relationships, then we can move on to another topic as the main theme.