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.

March 28, 2024 - Maundy Thursday

Lectionary Readings

O God of love, help us to find our place in the holy drama of this week, that we might encounter anew the grace and wonder of our salvation. Amen.

            Tonight, we enter into the Triduum, the three most sacred days in the Christian calendar on which we enter anew into the story of Jesus’ Last Supper, arrest, trial, crucifixion, burial, and Resurrection. Though our watches and calendars might tell us that it is the evening of March 28, 2024 – we are inhabiting holy time. Through Scripture, Sacrament, and community, we are entering into God’s timeless presence. Our worship over these next three days plunges us into the love and drama of that first Holy Week.

March 27, 2024 - Holy Wednesday

Lectionary Readings

O God of love, help us to find our place in the holy drama of this week, that we might encounter anew the grace and wonder of our salvation. Amen.

            As we continue to consider the characters of Holy Week, tonight we consider the one we might call the antagonist of the week: Judas Iscariot. Though, to consider him the antagonist is an interpretative move and not necessarily something that is quite as clear as we might think. It really comes down to who we see as the director of Holy Week. Does Jesus end up on the cross because that is where Jesus’ prophetic mission and the sinful nature of power-hungry people intersect, or was the cross the divine destination from the beginning of creation? Put differently, is Judas really the antagonist of Holy Week, or simply a pawn in God’s plan of salvation?

March 26, 2024 - Holy Tuesday

Lectionary Readings

O God of love, help us to find our place in the holy drama of this week, that we might encounter anew the grace and wonder of our salvation. Amen.

            One of the intriguing aspects of Holy Week is that it all happens in public. A parade into Jerusalem, an episode in the Temple, run-ins with authorities in the streets and festivals, culminating in a public arrest, trial, and execution. It allows us to wonder what we might have done if we were there. Would we have noticed Jesus and the commotion he was stirring up? Would we have been so busy with our tasks and conversations that we wouldn’t have noticed? Would we have decided to just mind our own business and not worry about what he and his disciples were up to? Would we have understood the heavenly significance of what was going on around us?

            On Palm Sunday, the sermon focused on the Je

March 25, 2024 - Holy Monday

Lectionary Readings

O God of love, help us to find our place in the holy drama of this week, that we might encounter anew the grace and wonder of our salvation. Amen.

            What does love smell like? Perhaps the aroma of a freshly baked apple pie at Grandma’s house? Maybe coming home to the smell of a recently cleaned and lemon-fresh house? The perfume or cologne of a lover? The scent of spring flowers? One poet has said, “Smells are surer than sights or sounds to make your heartstrings crack.” And it’s true. The sense of smell, for many of us, is the most evocative. So what does love smell like?

March 24, 2024 - Palm Sunday

O God of love, help us to find our place in the holy drama of this week, that we might encounter anew the grace and wonder of our salvation. Amen.

            The best storytellers have a way of creating space for everyone to enter into the story. The way this is usually accomplished is through characters that we can imagine being friends with, or running into around town, or maybe even being ourselves. When we connect with a character, we enter into the story and the story becomes more than education, where we learn something, and more than entertainment, where we enjoy the story. What happens when we connect is that we enter the story on an emotional level; the story gets into our heart and gut, and from there, a story can achieve its highest purpose – transformation.

March 17, 2024 - The Fifth Sunday in Lent

Lectionary Readings

By our intentional worship, comfort us with your grace, O God. Amen.

Have you ever wondered why it is that some people seem to be fed by coming to church and others aren’t? Well, if you haven’t, don’t worry – I’ve wondered enough for the both of us. While I don’t want to claim that I have “the” answer to that question, I do have at least one response. And it’s simply that we cannot control what we believe. I know that we don’t like to hear that, but it’s the truth. Just as we cannot control whether or not something makes us angry or happy, we cannot control what we believe to be true. Yes, of course, we can always have experiences that change our minds, but we don’t get to decide which pieces of information will change our minds. Faith is in this category of things that we are not in control of.

March 3, 2024 - The Third Sunday in Lent

Lectionary Readings

Help us, loving God, to walk the way of the Cross and find it to be the way of abundant life. Amen.

            You all know that along with Jim Greene and Edward Norvell, I am a member of the leadership team for Racial Equity Rowan – a group that is committed to bringing conversations and workshops about racial healing to our community. We began our work in 2019 and, since then, I’ve attended many 2-day workshops as a member of the team. I’ve lost track of how many, I think it’s 12 workshops that I’ve been to. And while I’m nowhere near an expert on the topic, after a dozen workshops, things begin to sink in.