Claire Woodley-Aitchison
Sermons and Bible Studies
All Throughout Scripture…, Proper 20 (C) – 1998
All throughout scripture there is attention paid, and tension within, the relationship between money and piety. Money and possessions signal God’s blessing in many stories. God’s blessing follows those who live an upright and righteous life. There almost seems to be a quid pro quo equation between having money and possessions and the assumed goodness […]
In the Gospel Text…, Proper 14 (C) – 1998
In the gospel text from St. Luke, Jesus is quoted, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I will give you the Kingdom. Use your stuff so that you have permanent benefit from it. You will be happy if you are ready for my return.” Or, to paraphrase it in the simplest way, don’t be afraid, enjoy your […]
Today Marks the Celebration…, Feast of the Epiphany – 1998
Today marks the celebration of Epiphany, the revelation, the showing forth, the manifestation of God. This season is begun with the story of the Wise One’s seeking out Bethlehem of Judah in order to find the new King, the one indicated by the great light in the sky and confirmed in the holy texts of […]
St. Michael and All Angels Selected Sermon
How do we talk about what we know and cannot see, what we perceive and cannot touch? Our age is one poor in language and concept for the realities that lie beyond the small confines of empiricism. And yet we know that they are there. And even with the inner knowing we can feel embarrassed […]
The Visitation Selected Sermon
“Mother Mary meek and mild…” In artistic depictions of the Visitation, all the great medieval and renaissance paintings, there seems to be a uniformity in the blandness of Mary’s facial expression that seems curiously at odds with Luke’s description, “Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country,…” In the birth narratives the focus […]
Early in the Morning…, Easter Day (B) -1997
Early in the morning the women disciples of Jesus are on their way to the tomb when suddenly they realize they are going to encounter what we moderns might call a technical difficulty. Who will roll away the stone? It’s a big stone, it’s a big problem. But they continue on anyway. Rocks may be […]
Ashes to Ashes…, Ash Wednesday – 1997
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Even in life, we live with death. Even as we strive to live well, provide for ourselves and others, love God, we are complicit in the forces which deny life, which desires death. It’s just as hard to focus on this now as it was in the day of […]
The Feast of All Saints…, All Saints’ Day (A) – 1996
The Feast of All Saints is here again. The great songs will be sung. We’ll celebrate that wild, mysterious reality of the communion of Saints and talk about saints, little “s” and big “s.” Many of us will sing “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God.” Unfortunately there is something of the English […]
The Vine and the Ties That Bind and Set Us Free, Easter 6 (A) – 1996
Jesus imagery in the gospel this morning speaks to us of the rooted context of the maturing Christian life. We are called to abide in God, trusting that the Vine will supply the needs to the branches, that one comes from the other, that we are connected. It is only in abiding, the peaceful, calm […]
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