Advent is about watching and hoping. But for what? There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s spectacular! That belief, held stubbornly in spite of what seems to be going on around us right now, is the faith of the Church. We see a glimpse of that light at Christmas with all the joy and memory it brings, but the true light is fully revealed as Spring ends and the Summer […]
What does it mean to have power and authority over someone else if you are following Jesus? This is a huge question in the church. And one we are deeply uncomfortable answering. We give people power and authority but we don’t teach them, or have any real understanding of how they should hold and exercise it. And then we act surprised or even shocked when people to whom we give power and authority, with no […]
The parable of the talents, in Matthew’s Gospel, seems to be a blessing and endorsement of our modern economic life. Three slaves are given custody of various fortunes, some of them truly immense. They are told that eventually they will need to return what has been entrusted to them to their master when he returns. We’re told that their master is a hard man, seizing others property and taking the spoils of other people’s work. […]
The Gospel reading this week, the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids, is not one of my favorites. That’s probably just my problem, and should in no way reduce the seriousness of the message that Jesus communicates to us in it. Jesus is warning us, as he often does, that we should be prepared for him to come unexpectedly, even in the middle of the night, and to be ready to greet him when […]
We celebrate The Feast of All Saints this weekend. (We actually celebrated in the middle of the past week, but like most preachers, I’ve transferred the readings and the observance of the Feast to this Sunday.) All Saints historically falls on the first day of new year according to oldest calendars we have from Northern Europe. It’s a hinge between the final harvest days and beginning of the bitter cold. This two-fold aspect to the […]
This is the week of our Annual Diocesan Convention. It’s the 232nd one we’ve held in the Diocese of Rhode Island since our start. And as such most of my time this week has been taken up with preparing for that gathering and the business that is before us. So I’m re-sharing the sermon from this week’s lectionary readings from 2020. I rather liked this sermon back then, and it’s worth a second hearing. Perhaps […]
This week’s Gospel reading tells of a challenge that was posed to Jesus about whether or not it was lawful to pay taxes to the Caesar. It’s more than just a challenge, and it probably wasn’t an innocent question either. It’s a trap set so that either way that Jesus answers, he will become mired in controversy with the religious parties of society or be in danger of prison with the Imperial occupiers. Jesus escapes […]
As a scientist, I have spent that part of my life believing that problems have answers, and hoping that such answers would be beautiful and elegant. A professor of mine once said to a class I took: “Physics is easy, if you ask the right question.” But there are problems and situations in real life that, unlike the idealized world of a physics problem, have no simple answer, or even any answer at all. Sometimes […]
From this week’s sermon: “Perhaps 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 […]
The Pharisees probably expected the tax-collectors to repent and become their disciples, in essence to become just like the other Pharisees. But that didn’t happen. And so they wouldn’t believe that the “repentance” being claimed was “real” What do you think repentance looks like? Do you expect a penitent life to look just like yours? Is that realistic? In the sermon below I’ll try to answer that question – or at least try to explain […]
