I am beginning this week’s sermon post with an explanation, and then an apology.

I’ve not posted a sermon here in a few months. Originally it was because I was on vacation this past August, and then that vacation transitioned into a month of frantic activity that meant I just didn’t have time or resources to film a sermon. (House of Bishops, AI Theology Task Force, diocesan events and conferences etc.)

I had a call from our most Senior Clergy Person in the diocese wondering where I was… And as part of that call I promised to get back on the schedule.

But, here’s the apology part, this week, returning from the House of Bishops and just completing a diocesan Climate Social Justice event, I just couldn’t manage this week. I’m sorry Holy Deacon. I’ll try to work with my staff to make sure I have time next week.

But I don’t want to have nothing available, so I’m reposting the sermon from three years ago. It was a good one. (I first preached a version of it in 2008 when I was Dean of Trinity Cathedral in Phoenix.)

The subject is the Parable of the Wicked Tenants of the Vineyard. The key point is this:

“…the message we need to hear is that overreaching and trying to amass fame or wealth can be an explosively dangerous thing to do.

Do you, do people, realize how similar an attempt to grab things or status for ourselves is to what the tenants of the vineyard were trying to do, whoever they really represent in the parable? An attempt to grab for ourselves means that we are, by virtue of that act, violating the 10th Commandment, and thereby setting ourselves up for a fall.”

Here’s hoping for next week!