August 16, 2020 - Proper 15A

Lectionary Readings

O God, in the Holy Trinity there exists a beloved community in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We give you thanks for bringing us into that beloved community of divine love and pray that we might foster it on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

            This week’s Collect notes that, from Jesus, we receive the fruits of his redeeming work and are to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life. One of the fruits of this redeeming work of Jesus is the reconciliation that we are given with God and the opportunity for this reconciliation to be a rule of life for us as we strive to follow him as our Lord. A good shorthand way of talking about this is “beloved community.” Through the sacrifice of Christ, we have been brought into the beloved community by God’s grace and in following his blessed steps, we find our fulfillment in living as a beloved community. At St. Luke’s, we’ve been talking about and striving to become the beloved community. Using today’s Scripture texts, we’ll consider what exactly what the phrase “Beloved Community” connotes.

June 7, 2020 - The Feast of the Holy Trinity

Lectionary Readings

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

            There’s no getting around it - this is a difficult Sunday to preach. Even in a normal year, Trinity Sunday is a challenge because when it comes to how we understand that God is a Trinity of persons in a unity of being, as it is classically stated, there are more questions than there are answers. And while the doctrine of the Trinity is full of beauty and fills us with faith, hope, and love, it takes some explanation to get there in a way that the Parable of the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son simply don’t. 

May 17, 2020 - Easter 6A

Lectionary Readings

In the name of God, in whose love we live, and move, and exist. Amen.

            What is the story that you live your life by? You know, what’s the story that you tell yourself to get through the daily grind, to make yourself get out of bed in the morning, to motivate yourself to do things that you don’t really want to do, to find hope in this pandemic? In a great book called Seculosity that I’ve mentioned before, the author says that religion is shorthand for whatever that story is. Religion is the thing that focuses our desires, ranks our priorities, and determines what we say “yes” and “no” to. And any story that you live by is a religion in this sense. So it’s not a question of which box do you check off for “religious affiliation,” it’s a question of your guiding principles and which gods you worship.

January 12, 2020 - Baptism of our Lord

Lectionary Readings

O God, at the Baptism of our Lord you opened the heavens and declared him to be your Beloved. Grant that by Baptism we might be joined to him in your gracious love. Amen.

            I have a good friend who has been searching for jobs for the past couple of months. He’s asked me to read through his application materials a few times as he tries to succulently describe who he is and his sense of vocation. The titles and dates of previous positions are easy to get. Listing duties and degrees is fairly simple. The hard parts are the identity statements – who are you and why would you be a good fit here? And it’s not just in a job search that we struggle with these questions. We all struggle with those questions of “who am I now,” “who do I want to be,” and “what is my purpose?”

January 5, 2020 - The Second Sunday of Christmas

Lectionary Readings

In the name of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Amen.

            Have you ever been at a party or social event where you didn’t know anyone? Now, some of you are extroverts and are thinking, “What’s the problem with that?” But maybe it isn’t a party, maybe it’s a hostile meeting at work and everyone in the room is an adversary. Perhaps it’s an airport terminal on a late-night layover. Or maybe you’re in a hospital waiting room, full of anxiety. If you can imagine any of these situations, you know that what makes these tense, uncomfortable, and lonely situations better is having an old friend show up out of nowhere to be with you.

December 25, 2019

Lectionary Readings (Epistle reading)

In the name of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Amen.

            Over the past month, we’ve been focusing on the Incarnation, the central tenet of Christianity that God became human in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth. This belief is most clearly seen in this morning’s reading from John: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” But to say that Jesus is God incarnate can be a rather ambiguous claim. Yes, the whole point of the Incarnation is that God became specific and tangible in Jesus, but when we say that “God became man,” what do we really mean? After all, the word “God” is merely a linguistic symbol for that which is beyond our comprehension. So the question before us on the Feast of the Incarnation is what became incarnate in Jesus?

November 3, 2019 - Proper 26C

Lectionary Readings

Come, risen Lord, and deign to be our guest; nay, let us be thy guests; the feast is thine. Amen.

            Last month, we took the girls to the Renaissance Festival and had a really good time. I had never been that event before and didn’t quite know what to expect. It’s a 25-acre village that’s set up in Huntersville that mimics an English village in the 16^th century. There’s an assortment of food and entertainment options including a blacksmith, jousting, and all sorts of shows. But this is a sermon, not an infomercial for the Renaissance Festival. What absolutely fascinated me as a preacher and someone who has an eye on the culture is how this event isn’t just something you attend, it’s something you participate in.

November 2, 2019 - All Souls

Lectionary Readings

O eternal Lord God, who holdest all souls in life: Give, we beseech thee, to thy whole Church in paradise and on earth thy light and thy peace; and grant that we, following the good examples of those who have served thee here and are now at rest, may at the last enter with them into thine unending joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

            Dearly beloved, we gather here in the name of our loving God to seek comfort and hope in the face of death. Last night, on All Saints, we remembered and celebrated the saints of God throughout the generations, and that is a good thing to do. The tone of All Saints is often one of festivity and victory, as it should be. But when the saints that we are thinking about lived not 500 years ago but maybe 50 years ago or 5 months ago, there is a much more nuanced set of feelings.

September 8, 2019 - Proper 18C

Lectionary Readings

Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on us. Melt us, mold us, use us, fill us. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us. Amen.

            Nearly every Sunday, the foundation of the sermon is one of the passages of Scripture that is read. On some occasions, it might be a prayer, hymn, or part of the liturgy that the sermon is based upon. But today I’m going to preach about something that I never, ever thought that I’d preach a sermon about. Today’s sermon is about the bulletin.

August 11, 2019 - Proper 14C

Lectionary Readings

O God, help us to treasure the gift of your Kingdom ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            Over the past couple of Sundays, our Gospel texts have been Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God. One of the refrains that I’ve been repeating is that the Kingdom is not a place, it is a reality in which the love of God rules our lives. And because the Kingdom is an event and not a place, it means that the Kingdom can and does intersect with every aspect of our lives. With Jesus’ teaching this morning in mind, we see that the Kingdom transforms our priorities.

July 21, 2019 - Proper 11C

Lectionary Readings

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

            Earlier this month, while on vacation in Atlanta we went to watch a Marlins’ baseball game. Now, I’m a huge baseball fan, and so though this was the first Major League game that our children had been to, they’ve seen baseball on television at home plenty of times. After a few innings, Ellie mentioned how neat it was to be able to see the entire field of play, not just one little part of it that the television camera captures. And she’s right, part of the beauty of going to a baseball game is that you can watch the fielders position themselves prior to the pitch, you can look to see which fan caught the foul ball, and you can watch both the runner rounding first and the outfielder preparing to throw the ball to second. When you’re at the baseball game, you can see the entire landscape of the game and not just one slice of it as you would on tv; and this vantage point allows us to see connections and appreciate the beauty of the game in a fuller way.

June 16, 2019 - Trinity Sunday

Lectionary Readings

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

            Today is the Feast of the Holy Trinity, one of the Principal Feasts of the Church year. It’s a fairly unique feast day in that its basis is not a Biblical narrative or a specific person, but rather a doctrine of the faith. Today, our focus is on the nature and essence of God, which is, admittedly, a rather lofty topic. It is the revelation that God is Trinity that makes Christianity unique. When it comes to interfaith dialogue, we can find a lot of common ground. But the Trinity really distinguishes our beliefs from that of other traditions. This is because the doctrine of the Trinity goes right to the core of belief, as everything that we believe is rooted in God, and the Trinity is fundamentally who God is.

June 9, 2019 - Pentecost

Lectionary Readings

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

            There are many ways to think about the Holy Spirit, whose gifting to the Church we remember and celebrate on Pentecost. The Catechism tells us that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. So the first thing to grasp is that the Holy Spirit is God. And there are many other names for the Spirit, all of which tell us something about what it is. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is described as the Advocate, telling us that it is God’s work of interceding on our behalf, sort of like a defense attorney. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is called the Holy Comforter, reminding us that God’s presence with us is one of peace and support. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is described in terms of natural elements, such as wind and fire, both of which remind us of the Spirit’s power and ability to come and go throughout the world. And sometimes the Holy Spirit is described as breath because all life and vitality emanate from God.

May 5, 2019 - Easter 3C

Lectionary Readings

O Lord, give us this day our daily bread. Amen.

            Meals are central to what it means to be human. Of course, all animals eat, but only us humans make a meal out of getting the necessary nutrients into our bodies. And there’s nothing quite like a meal’s ability to serve as the foundation for so many different occasions. Need to close the deal with a client? Take them to a nice restaurant. Want to celebrate a romantic relationship? Open a bottle of wine and have a nice meal. Celebrating a wedding? Make sure you have a good caterer to provide for a celebratory meal. Have a friend who is mourning the loss of a loved one? Take them a casserole. Birthday parties, farewell receptions, job promotions – sharing a meal is at the center of how we mark these occasions.

March 3, 2019 - Quinquagesima

Lectionary Readings

In the name of God ☩ who is love. Amen.

            We do like to focus on those big moments, don’t we? You might not watch much football, but you tune into the Super Bowl. You try to ignore politics, but the State of the Union catches your attention. You don’t always make it to church, but you’re sure to be here on Easter Sunday. It’s the mountaintop experiences that grab us and make us pay attention. The Transfiguration of Jesus, which we heard about in Luke this morning, is certainly one of those experiences. And while mountain top experiences can be amazing and insightful, every single mountaintop has a base, a foundation that the entire experience sits upon. While the pinnacle is certainly wonderful, this morning, I want to focus on that foundation of the Transfiguration.

January 13, 2019 - Epiphany 1C

Lectionary Readings

In the name of the God who makes the common holy and the holy common. Amen.

            “When Jesus had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.” Doves are beautiful creatures, aren’t they? Pristine white, graceful, peaceful, calm. Nothing like those nasty pigeons. We all know that pigeons are dirty, stupid, and they leave droppings everywhere, not to mention that there are too many of them. It’s no wonder that pigeons are often called “sky rats.” But doves, what a wonderful way to think about the Holy Spirit.

December 24, 2018 - Christmas Eve

Lectionary Readings

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            What a joy it is to be here with you on this holy night. There is something special about this night. Something beckons us out of our warm homes and pajamas and calls us through the darkened streets to make our way to gather with friends and strangers to recall the birth of Jesus. Maybe it’s a deep sense of faith that brings you here, perhaps it’s nostalgia, or it could be something in your soul that tells you that you might find here tonight that thing you’ve been searching for. Whatever it is, there is no denying the power of this night which fills us with wonder and stirs us to sing praises to God.

November 4, 2018 - Proper 26B

Lectionary Readings

In the name of God – who was, and is, and is to come. Amen.

            “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” What a world this would be if our actions were more aligned with those words. The reason why I preach about love so much is that the Beatles were right, “love is all you need.” Being rooted in the knowledge that God loves us, if we respond to that love with our whole being then we’d see more what we pray for each week – thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. But because of Sin, we aren’t the best at remembering that we are loved or showing love to others. And so love must remain at the center of the Church’s preaching. Once we get love right, then I’m happy to entertain a discussion about what the next priority ought to be. But until then, love remains at the center.

September 2, 2018 - Proper 17B

Lectionary Readings

In the name of the Holy Trinity ☩ Amen.

            What do you think might the be the book of the Bible that has been the most commented on throughout history? You might guess the Gospel according to John – after all, it’s full of symbols and signs that are ripe for theological harvesting. Or maybe Revelation, with all of its apocalyptic images, as it does require a lot of explanation. But in actuality, the book of the Bible with the most attention paid to it is the Song of Solomon. The book is eight chapters long, but the six verses that we read this morning are the only part of the book that shows up in our entire three year lectionary – so you’d be forgiven if you didn’t even realize that this most commented on book of the Bible was even in the Bible.

July 29, 2018 - Proper 12B

Lectionary Readings

Be with us, O Lord, for if you are with us, nothing else matters; and if you are not with us, nothing else matters. Amen.

            Have you ever considered your faith in terms of dimensions? This morning in Ephesians we heard that St. Paul prays that we might know the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ’s love. How far into your soul do you perceive this love? How far are you willing to go in faith? How widely is this love manifest in your life? How deeply do you feel God’s love for you? This beautiful passage from Ephesians invites us to consider the dimensions of God’s love for us.