[RCL] Daniel 7:1-3,15-18; Psalm 149; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31 Brené Brown, in her work, Atlas of the Heart, explores the concept of paradox and cognitive dissonance. Paradox is when we “straddle the tension of two conflicting elements and recognize that they can both be true.” For example, the act of crying can be a response…

How do you define a saint? Would you know a real-life saint if you met one? Try this definition: “A saint is a dead sinner, revised and edited.” This comes from the early 20th-century satirist Ambrose Bierce in his 1906 work, The Cynic’s Word Book, where he defined saints as revised and edited sinners presumably…

We have two ways of thinking about the saints, and it turns out that neither one of them is very helpful. We think of “Saints” with a capital “S”: St. Peter, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Augustine, the named heroes of the faith who made their mark in the world and left a legacy of…

Since the earliest days of Christendom, the faithful have gathered to give thanks for the life and ministry of the saints – women and men whose witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ has been a blessing in every generation. The witness of many of these blessed women and men – such as Saint Francis…

A year ago a young hotel clerk showed up at an All Saints’ Day service. He told the priest as he left that it was the one day he felt obligated to be in church. “I never miss All Saints’ Day,” he said. True to his word, he hasn’t been back since. The Feast of…

Most Episcopalians are familiar with the church year: that great cycle of prayer and liturgy that takes us from Advent through Christmas and Epiphany, on through Lent and Easter, and into the long stretch of Sundays after Pentecost. Fewer among us may be familiar with the cycle of the saints’ calendar. While most of the…

Someone has described a saint as an ordinary Christian who does ordinary things extraordinarily well. That’s certainly not the New Testament definition, although it’s not a bad start. If you look at the two New Testament lessons appointed for today, the one used for Service 1 gives a vision of heaven, filled with people wearing…

Note: This sermon is written with the intention that the entire passage from Luke (6:20-36) will be read as the Gospel lesson for the day. As we approach two months since the attacks on our nation that began September 11 we are still sorting out what has changed in America, and what will need to….

At this point in time, in that strange mix of pop psychology and the learning theory of our age, we have a phrase to describe Jesus’ thought patterns as seen in today’s Gospel lesson. That phrase is “counter intuitive.” Jesus’ thinking is running contrary to normal thinking. Jesus’ wisdom is not the common folk wisdom….