April 28, 2024 - The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Lectionary Readings

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

            A keystone is the stone in the center of an arch that holds the whole thing together. The tension from all the different angles meet in that stone, which gives the arch its strength and stability. In other contexts such as organizations, ecology, or ideas, a keystone is something that is a central principle or thing on which everything else depends. Well, when it comes to our Christian faith, today’s reading from First John presents us with the keystone of our understanding of God and ourselves – God is love.

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.