[RCL] 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20); Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:43-51 Can anything good come out of Nazareth? In our Gospel lesson, Jesus finds Philip and says to him, “Follow me.” A little later, Philip finds Nathaniel and says to him, “We have found him about whom Moses and also the prophets wrote,…

[RCL] 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20); Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:43-51 This sermon, written by the Rev. Curtis Farr, originally ran for Epiphany 2 (B) in 2018. In Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic work The Little Prince, the narrator is a pilot who crash lands his plane in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Miles…

In Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic work The Little Prince, the narrator is a pilot who crash lands his plane in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Miles from civilization, the pilot assumes he will only last as long as his water supply, but one morning he is awakened by a funny little voice that says,…

“You will see greater things than these.” Like Nathanael, we are all looking for signs. We search high and low, near and far, for some confirmation that God is with us. When really, as Jesus says to Nathanael, we will see greater things, if only we will open the eyes of our hearts. It can…

Hannah was barren. She could not have children. In the ancient times, this was a disgrace, but her husband loved her and did not care. Hannah cared. She stood deeply ashamed in the presence of other women. She was an underdog. Like so many of us who turn to the Lord when we need help,…

Today’s gospel reading is a delicious story. We encounter enthusiasm, prejudice, and extraordinary insight all in one short story. It is sometimes good for us to remember that we get above ourselves when we regard the people of our Lord’s day as being so inferior to ourselves as not to be taken too seriously. Obviously…

We’ve all heard little kids holler at each other, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” For a mother, that phrase can be horrifying because it usually means the kids are doing something like hanging upside down on a tree branch they had to climb pretty high to reach in the first place or daring each other…

We find ourselves, on this Second Sunday after the Epiphany, early in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This week between two holy days — The Confession of St. Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul — has been observed for many years as a particularly appropriate time to pray for the unity of…

The text from the St John Gospel is a quintessential evangelism and mission text. First, Jesus said to Philip, “Follow me,” and he did! This is remarkable. It is just backwards from the way we are inclined to gather people into the Christian faith. There is a wonderful hymn by St. Richard of Chicester, commonly…