Sermons

About ten years ago, in The Good Book: Reading The Bible With Mind And Heart, Peter Gomes wrote that what makes the Bible so compelling is the company of characters who, like ourselves, are so often both confused and confusing and yet play their part in the drama of human relationship to God. The stories…

Today is September 11, a date that will be remembered for generations yet to come. It is a date that Americans consider one of the most significant in the nation’s history. It is a date that is associated with other epic historic events such as the founding of the United States, the end of the…

Long ago the great Anglican priest and poet John Donne reminded us that, “no man is an island, entire unto himself.” For centuries we have considered a person living totally alone to be a hermit. More and more we are discovering that even in densely populated cities loneliness is a chronic, debilitating, and common condition….

Sooner or later, all of us have to bear something that is, to all intents and purposes, unbearable. A young widow is left with three children to raise alone because her husband was killed in Iraq. A baby dies at birth. A sister dies in a car crash involving a drunk driver. Sometimes it is…

Simon Peter replied, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church,…

Note: This sermon can conclude with the singing of a traditional 8-bar blues. If you or someone in your congregation plays guitar, or piano, or banjo (you get the idea), you could easily work this up. It’s a lot of fun, and helps to drive the message (kerygma) home. People internalize what they sing. Or,…

Sometimes thinking in the Episcopal Church is too sophisticated. Sometimes, we tend to miss simple truths, stated plainly and simply. How many of us would feel comfortable in a congregation where the people express a form of the old time religion? One such church developed a kind of chant that expressed a simple truth. The…

What is the kingdom of heaven like? Jesus seems to have a lot of different answers to that question is today’s Gospel. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. Or, it’s like yeast. Or, it’s like a treasure hidden in a field. Or, it’s like a pearl of great value. Or, it’s like…

Our lessons for today speak with dynamic emphasis of the power of God. In the passages from Wisdom we read of God’s presence in the life of his people, a presence combining firmness and power as well as compassion and caring. “Although you are sovereign in strength, you judge with mildness, and with great forbearance…

Everybody knows the old bit about optimists and pessimists—how a pessimist says the glass is half empty and an optimist says the same glass is half full. It’s a familiar platitude. But did you ever stop to think about how terribly important the issue here is? It really matters how you understand that glass. What…