Sermons

When I read today's gospel a man came to mind who I have not thought about in many years. Ernest was a fellow parishioner at St. Ann's in Nashville. He was a quiet, unobtrusive man, probably in his mid-80s. He had long been a member of that congregation and played an...

Of all the technological advances in the past couple of decades the one that I love the most is probably the GPS, whether in my car or on my phone. As the men with whom I've lived would tell you, I have a notoriously bad sense of direction.. So I take great joy in...

Every year the fourth Sunday of the Easter season is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. It’s easy to see why. Three out of four of our scripture readings today have images of sheep and shepherds. The shepherd, or more accurately the good shepherd, is one of our most...

It is so wonderful to be here with you this glorious morning. So many people have worked hard to create the beauty of this service - and the three others that preceded it this week. The altar guild has been busy polishing silver, ironing linens, and preparing our...

Dear friends in Christ: On this most holy night, in which our Lord Jesus passed over from death to life, the Church invites her members, dispersed throughout the world, to gather in vigil and prayer. For this is the Passover of the Lord, in which, by hearing God’s...

"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." These are the words that Jesus said to his disciples on the last night of his life. Love one another. Jesus was a man...

"Sir, we wish to see Jesus." That was the request of some Greeks who were visiting a festival in Jerusalem, or someplace close by. They ask this of one of Jesus' disciples, Philip, who tells his friend Andrew. The two of them go to Jesus with the request. I've read...

Sunday morning has a language all its own, full of words that we seldom, if ever, use other times of the week. Words like repentance, righteousness, grace, incarnation. Words that I suspect we  would be hard pressed to easily define. Sometimes the strange...

Every year during Lent we begin our service with a version of the Ten Commandments, either the full reading of them as we did today, or a condensed  version of what Jesus calls the two greatest commandments – to love God and to love your neighbor. The...

Today's service is a little bit different from what we would normally do on the Second Sunday in Lent. As you know, this week our parishioner David Abner died after a stay in hospice. David's children preferred not to have a formal funeral for their father, but will...

The story of the rainbow is a curious reading for the first Sunday in Lent. We are at the beginning of the most somber season of the church year, a time set aside for reflection and repentance, for fasting and self-denial. We began the service today with the Great...

Today is the last Sunday of the season of Epiphany, those weeks between Christmas and the beginning of Lent.   Epiphany ends every year with the reading we heard today, the story of the Transfiguration – the ultimate mountaintop experience where Jesus meets...

Today's reading from the prophet Isaiah finds the people of Israel in deep despair, wondering if they've been abandoned by God. The land that God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the land that God led them to after freeing them from slavery in Egypt; the land...

When I was in college someone gave me a button that I probably still have in a drawer somewhere. “Question Authority” it boldly proclaims. “Question authority” was a philosophy that suited a journalism student well. In fact, I spent my college years, and many years...

Our Old Testament reading opens today with the prophet Jonah on a beach in the Mediterranean.  This is no beach vacation. Jonah looks stunned and confused. You would, too, if you had just spent three days in the belly of a giant fish, then were spewed out onto...