Sermons – Page 256 – The Episcopal Church

Some Years Ago…, Epiphany 3 (A) – 2002

Some years ago, on an Indian reservation, there lived a man named White Plume, who was a deacon in the Episcopal Church. He was called to this “special ministry of servanthood” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 543) sometime during the early 1900’s and he remained a perpetual deacon. His ministry was spent serving his people…

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A Witness for the Lamb of God, Epiphany 2 (A) – 2002

Last Sunday we commemorated the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We heard from St. Matthew’s Gospel how John the Baptist saw God’s Spirit alight upon Jesus, and a voice from heaven identify him as “my Son, the Beloved.” Today our lesson comes from the Gospel of St. John and the scenario of Christ’s baptism…

Read More A Witness for the Lamb of God, Epiphany 2 (A) – 2002
Last Week We Celebrated…, Epiphany 1 (A) – 2002

Last week we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany, the manifestation of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. In these Sundays following the Epiphany you will hear a series of stories and teachings that carry out the theme of God made manifest to us in Christ. Each year on the first Sunday after the Epiphany we…

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The Stewardship of God’s Grace, Feast of the Epiphany – 2002

Like Isaiah before us, we have been visited with visions of darkness covering the earth, and thick darkness covering the peoples. We have seen the darkness that pervades what we now call Ground Zero. We have seen the smoldering darkness at the Pentagon. We have looked into a crater of darkness in Pennsylvania. We have…

Read More The Stewardship of God’s Grace, Feast of the Epiphany – 2002
Principles of Christmas, Christmas 1 – 2001

This is the Sunday of Christmastide when we begin to consider what God has done in the birth of Jesus. In some homes by now the tree has been taken down, perhaps decorations put away. Stores are advertising year-end sales. Some people have already bought presents and cards for next year at significant savings. In…

Read More Principles of Christmas, Christmas 1 – 2001
Word Made Flesh, Christmas Day (III) – 2001

Let this sermon begin with an invitation. Lift your hand in front of your face, and look at it. The reason your hand exists, from one moment to the next, is the Word of God. The Word of God always has been and always will be. All things were made through this eternal Word, and…

Read More Word Made Flesh, Christmas Day (III) – 2001
The Joy Known to God, Christmas Eve – 2001

Miss Manners would bury her head in shame! Miss Manners would hang her head in shame at the regrettable hospitality and gift-giving that appear in the Christmas story. Joseph returns to his old hometown. What takes him there is no pleasure jaunt, but a government census designed to increase income from taxation. No doubt this…

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When the Moment of Crisis Comes, Advent 4 (A) – 2001

The simple truth is this: none of us avoids a crisis. All of us have trouble in the course of our lives. Someone may appear to be always on top of the world, but this observation may only show that we do not know that person well. Take a man who is successful in business,…

Read More When the Moment of Crisis Comes, Advent 4 (A) – 2001
For God’s People, God’s Holy Way Is a Choice, Advent 3 (A) – 2001

A highway shall be there,and it shall be called theHoly Way;the unclean shall not travel on it,but it shall be for God’speople;no traveler, not even fools, shallgo astray.(Isaiah 35:8-10) The earlier verses (5-6) of this beautiful chapter in Isaiah are much more familiar than the few lines quoted above. The opening of blind eyes and…

Read More For God’s People, God’s Holy Way Is a Choice, Advent 3 (A) – 2001
During Advent, Some Clergy…, Advent 2 (A) – 2001

During Advent some clergy move Créche figures around the church as a way of telling children the story of Joseph and Mary and the shepherds and wise men moving toward the barn in Bethlehem. Imagine a priest adding to the usual mix on this second Sunday of the Advent season to illustrate today’s Gospel. This…

Read More During Advent, Some Clergy…, Advent 2 (A) – 2001