January 31, 2021 - Septuagesima

Lectionary Readings

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

            I remember back in seminary in theology class before starting a lecture on Evil, our professor told us about a friend of hers who works at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in the research department. Her friend told her of the dangers of spending too much time researching the atrocities and the evils of the Holocaust – you can only do it for an hour or two at a time, any longer than that and something comes over you. Well, our professor passed along that warning when it comes to studying Evil in theology. It’s a topic we certainly do need to consider, but Evil is something like a black hole – if we get too close to it, we’ll be pulled right in. I’ll pass this same warning along to you all before getting any further into this sermon on Evil – beware.

January 24, 2021 - The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Lectionary Readings

In the name of God ☩ Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

            You all really deserve some credit. I mean that – I’m not just being complimentary. I have the honor and duty of being here on Sunday mornings – but you? You could say “You know, I’m tired of this online church thing, let’s give it a break.” But you’re here. You could be worshipping with another congregation – perhaps one that has a tv studio-level production setup that would give you a “better viewing experience.” But you’re here. You could just catch the sermon on the podcast later this week and listen while you’re doing dishes or taking a walk. But you’re here.

January 17, 2020 - The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

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.

            “Come and see.” You all know that’s at the top of our parish identity statement: Come and see the difference Christ makes through abundant grace, intentional worship, and beloved community. Come and see is the invitation to draw near to Jesus and see the radiance of his transforming grace, mercy, and love. Come and see is a phrase that John uses in his telling of the Good News of Jesus Christ as a way of bringing us into the story so that, along with those in the narrative, we can see the glory of God in Jesus. And this is what the Epiphany and the season that follows is all about.

January 10, 2021 - The First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of Our Lord

Lectionary Readings

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

In this morning’s text from Acts, St. Paul is on one of his missionary journeys, this time going through Corinth and then Ephesus when he encounters some fellow followers of Jesus. And so he asks them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They said, “No, we hadn’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit?” And then St. Paul goes on to describe the difference between the baptizing that John the Baptist was doing at the Jordan River and the Baptism that we take part in when we are Baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What’s intriguing about this passage is the response – “We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

January 6, 2021 - The Feast of the Epiphany

Lectionary Readings

O God of grace and glory, help us to spend our days in adoration of your beloved Son, our Redeemer and King, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

While all of the Feasts of the Church are occasions for us to bask in the grace and glory of God, I’ve always found the Epiphany to be particularly rich. In these twelve verses from Matthew, there are so many depths waiting to be plunged. We could explore Herod’s fear, the identity and role of the magi, the peculiarities of the star, the searching of the Scriptures, the fact that the magi go to the palace of Herod instead of the home of Mary and Joseph, and the dream of warning. It’s a text chock full of sermons. The meaning of Epiphany is also profound – that Jesus is a threat to those in power, that nature itself points towards Jesus, that from the least come great things, and that Jesus is the Messiah not only of Israel but of the whole world.

January 3, 2021 - Christmas 2B

Lectionary Readings 

The Word became flesh and lived among us: O come, let us adore him. Alleluia.

            My name is not Father Tom Carter. Tom is doing fine, but he had to be admitted to the hospital as a precaution after some chest discomfort on Friday evening. So our prayers with him and Pati for his full and speedy recovery.

            You all have known me long enough to know that I have an organized routine for, well, everything, but certainly for sermon preparation. And Saturday afternoon and evening sermon writing is never a part of that routine. So, when I took a look at these Scriptural texts yesterday, I was looking for something that would lead to a sermon on a short timeline. As the saying goes, “God is good all the time and all the time God is good.” If you’re going to accuse my preaching of sounding like a broken record, you’re going to use as evidence either me talking about love as the grain of the universe, the Eucharist, or the grace of God. Well, grace is on full display in today’s passage from Ephesians and it’s a track worth listening to over and over again.