Category Archives: Sermons

“Gifts of the Spirit: our diversity is our strength”

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Day of Pentecost (1 Cor 12:3b-13)  6/12/2011

Many years before the drama of television soap operas and reality shows like “The Jersey Shore” and “The Real Housewives,” there was the real-life drama of the city of Corinth. The ancient city of Corinth that was known to the Apostle Paul was a city that was populated under the supervision of the Roman government; the Romans sending a diverse population of unwanted citizens from the capital city of Rome. With its population growth and its strategic location in the Mediterranean Sea, the city of Corinth soon became a busy trading center and the culturally diverse population became an interesting community for Paul to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ. Paul’s message of Christ was well received by many Corinthians, but his first letter reveals to us that the diversity of the people also led to a diversity of understanding of how to live together in their newly formed Christian community. The Corinthians continued to argue about many aspects of their common life: how to worship together, how to live together, and whose spiritual gifts were most important. Paul urged the Corinthians to settle their differences and live together in love. Paul encouraged the community to set aside their childish arguments and come together. He wrote: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13:11-13) Continue reading →

“Now is the time – Christian witness to the ends of the Earth”

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7th Sunday of Easter (Acts 1:6-14)  6/5/2011

For audio presentation – <follow link here>

Many years ago, my first extended time at sea during my service aboard a submarine was spent in the North Atlantic Sea. The journey to the North Atlantic took several days and once the submarine had arrived at its operation area there were not many circumstances that were important enough to cause the submarine to leave its assigned area. But there was one occasion when a Chief Petty Officer’s son was so ill the Navy called the submarine out of its area in order to send the Chief home to be with his son and his family. We left the northern operation area and proceeded to the coast of Norway to meet the Norwegian Coast Guard, who would take the Chief back to shore so he could fly home. When we arrived in the Norwegian Sea, we were met with a blinding snowstorm and large waves – the transfer did not look promising. However, after a few moments of waiting at the rendezvous point we saw the lights of the Coast Guard ship in the distance. We were all amazed to see that shortly after the ship arrived we spotted a small zodiac boat heading toward the submarine. The Chief and the topside crew made their way to the surface of the submarine. The small zodiac boat was soon alongside the submarine, waiting to receive the Chief. As the snow continued to come down sideways and the waves continued to pitch the small boat up and down as it rested against the submarine, the Chief leaned forward, peering into the small boat that waited for him just a few feet away, but he just could not bring himself to jump into the boat. The Chief was frozen; frozen from the cold snow and frozen with fear and anticipation. Is this the time? His son was sick, his family needed him at home; the zodiac boat continued to rock back and forth and the Chief stood wondering – is this the time? Continue reading →

“Following the Good Shepherd”

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4th Sunday of Easter (John 10:1-10)  5/15/2011

As we journey through our lives we experience significant milestones that mark important points in our lives; days that we will long remember with great clarity. Throughout this past week I have had the privilege to be present with others as they experienced or prepared to experience some important events in their lives: the pure joy of Baptism, the wide range of emotions of a Burial service, the excitement of marriage preparation, and this afternoon the celebration of my niece’s Confirmation. These events are important times in one’s life. These events are times that hold particular sacramental significance in our relationship with God and with others; often we feel closer to God as we experience these occasions. But throughout our lives we also live between these milestones; in fact, most of our days are filled with the everyday challenges and joys that shape and define our journey through life. In the midst of these ordinary days, where do we find God in our everyday experiences? Where do we find Christ when the important milestone day has ended, everyone has gone home and we are left with the joys and challenges of everyday life? Continue reading →

“God’s Abundant Justice: a challenge to our American dream”

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Proper 20A (Matthew 20:1-16)  9/21/2008

A sermon preached at Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill, Alexandria, VA; reposted to test audio features.

For audio presentation – <follow link here>

American statesman and publisher Benjamin Franklin wrote the following advice in his 1757 edition of Poor Richard’s Almanac; “Diligence is the mother of good luck…and God gives all things to industry. Then plow deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.”[i] Franklin’s humorous, yet insightful bits of wisdom profoundly shaped the growing English colonies that would one day become the United States of America. These pithy proverbs would form the backbone of what we would today describe as “the American Dream.” Work hard, save your money and then spend your money wisely so that you and your family may enjoy the fruits of your labor. There appears to be an obvious justice at work here: those who work hard get something in return. Those who work harder get more than those who work less. This simple formula for the “American Dream” appears to be shared by those early morning laborers in our Gospel lesson this morning, but Jesus’ parable story highlights a very different form of justice. Jesus presents us with a justice of abundance; a justice of love; a justice full of God’s grace. Like my son’s calculus homework, Jesus’ formula appears to be more complicated for us to imagine. Continue reading →

“Alleluia, Christ is risen – surprised?”

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Easter Day (Matthew 28:1-10)  4/24/2011

Happy Easter to everyone! We have now all traveled the 40 days of Lent. I hope that your Lenten journey was a time of rest, reflection and renewal. Throughout this season, I hope you were able to discover all that you were in search of and that you accomplished all that you set out to do. But most importantly, I hope that you were surprised. If even for just one small moment, I hope that you were unexpectedly swept off your feet with your mouth wide-open and your senses tingling, surprised. I hope that you were surprised because God has so many gifts to give us that our human expectations struggle to imagine the wonder and abundance of God’s love and grace. Continue reading →

“Maundy Thursday: Humble service to others”

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Maundy Thursday (John 13:1-17, 31b-35)  4/21/2011

Many years ago, as I was preparing to become confirmed, I was required to complete a certain number of service hours as part of the program. After participating in many different activities, I had two hours of service remaining to complete my goal. As I considered how I might fulfill these final two hours, the thought occurred to me (as I looked at the snow outside) that I might offer to shovel snow for a few of my neighbors. I grabbed a snow shovel and started down the street. I soon approached the house of a neighbor who had not shoveled the front walk. I had occasionally talked with the folks that lived there (they were friends of my grandparents) but I did not know them very well. I knocked on the door and the man soon opened the door. “I would like to shovel your front walk this morning,” I said to him. “No thank you, I always shovel my own walkway,” he replied. “But I am providing community service for my Confirmation class and there will be no charge; can I shovel your walk for free?” I protested. “For free? I suppose you can shovel the walk for free,” the man agreed. I quickly began shoveling, hoping to quickly finish the very long walkway so I could find another walk to clear. One hour later, I had finally finished and I was so tired I decided to go home. I did not go back and tell the man I was leaving because the job was free and I didn’t think there was anything to say. A few days later we had another snowstorm (you know the feeling, right?) and I returned to the same house – one more time and all my service hours would be done. I knocked on the man’s door and asked if I could shovel one more time. He agreed, but asked if I would come back to the house when I was done shoveling the walkway. One hour later, I was done and knocked on the door. The man answered the door and asked me if I would like to come inside and join him and his wife for something warm to drink. We had a wonderful conversation and they showed me many pictures and souvenirs that they had collected during the past 50 years of their life together. My time with them was an unexpected opportunity to share some of their most important memories. Continue reading →

“Open my eyes and my heart”

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Fourth Sunday in Lent (John 9:1-41)  4/3/2011

“Where’s the beef?!” Nearly 30 years ago a trio of burger-loving ladies made this phrase very popular as they appeared in a number of Wendy’s restaurant advertisements. For Wendy’s restaurants – this phrase meant to highlight the small burgers they claimed that their competitors offered, but soon the phrase was incorporated into the political debates of that year’s Presidential campaigns. In the context of the debates, “where’s the beef?” was a phrase that was transformed into a challenge to others – a challenge to defend their ideas and support the substance of their answers. The phrase was an effective tool to put one’s competitors under careful examination. Throughout our lives, we too have questions and we seek answers, but how can we examine and accept the answers we receive, especially if we seek those answers from God. Continue reading →

“The difficult pilgrim road – from where is our help to come?”

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Second Sunday in Lent (Psalm 121)  03/20/2011

Several weeks ago, the rising protests in many countries of the Middle East and North Africa captured our attention; and our attention deserves to remain focused on these important events because the results of these protests will shape world history for many years to come. The protests of the people, although surprising in their rapid escalation, were not altogether surprising after years of suffering from poverty and many forms of government abuses. Farther to the East, well beyond this region of political turmoil, we have recently seen events unfolding in Japan that the word “surprising” does not do justice to describe the situation. The earthquake, tsunami, fires, nuclear accidents, and the biting chill of winter weather have all visited destruction upon the people of Japan so completely that the human language is unable to adequately capture the scene. Archbishop Nathaniel Uematsu, Anglican Primate of Japan, recently made this observation in a letter he released: the Archbishop wrote, “The stories and images constantly broadcast by the media have left people lost for words, unable to describe the sheer scale of the unbelievable destruction caused by the earthquake, tsunami, and fires.”[i] As I read the Archbishop’s letter and watched the dramatic images of the events unfolding in Northern Japan throughout this past week, I was reminded of the story of Job, one of the earliest biblical stories of complete and unexplainable loss. Continue reading →

“‘The King’s Glory’ – listen to Him and have confidence”

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Last Sunday after Epiphany (Matthew 17:1-9)  03/06/2011

(Transfiguration of Christ)

The amazing growth of hi-tech devices has created a number of ways to watch movies these days…and my usual preference is the fairly low-tech method of receiving a disc in the mail from Netflix. But this past Sunday, Carol and I decided to catch a movie in the theater before watching the Academy Awards that evening. We decided to go to “The King’s Speech,” a movie about the life and challenges of Prince Albert, the Duke of York. The movie dramatically tells the story of Prince Albert’s challenging life: challenges that would be faced by any member of Britain’s royal family and challenges that were unique to Albert – most notably the difficulties of public speaking for a man who suffered from a stammering speech problem since his earliest days. Everyone faces challenges throughout their lives – some challenges can be avoided or accommodated through the decisions we make; but some challenges must be faced head-on because these difficulties stand in the center of our road of life, they block the very path we must travel if we are true to who we are as individuals. Public speaking (for Prince Albert) was the immovable, center-of-the-road type of challenge. The story tells us that the Prince had already tried several methods of correction before he met a man who had a reputation for his success and for his unorthodox methods of correcting speech problems. The reluctant Prince is finally introduced to his new instructor and after some awkward conversation the teacher asks the Prince to try recording his voice by reading aloud from a book while he listens to music through headphones. Shortly after beginning the test, the Prince is not convinced his teacher’s methods have any merit and he abruptly leaves, but not before he is given a copy of his voice recording. The unhappy Prince returns home and soon his curiosity gets the better of him and he listens to the recording – to his surprise the recording of the bizarre experiment proved that the Prince read the book aloud with perfect speech. The story of Prince Albert’s struggle to overcome his speech problems had really just begun that day, but at the beginning of that long road was this recording – an amazing recording that seemed to be from some different place breaking into the “now” of today…a day that remained to be full of challenges and difficulties. Continue reading →

“Forgive each other, love each other, and don’t be a grinch!”

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7th Sunday after the Epiphany (Matthew 5:38-48)  02/20/2011

Throughout the past several days I have been following the events unfolding in Egypt with great fascination. The protests of the people who gathered in Tahrir Square were first coordinated through the social media channels of the Internet but then continued with and without the assistance of technology. Although it appears that the Egyptian government successfully shut the Internet down for a time, people who had previously never known each other continued to come together to unite behind a common cause – the hope of a new and better government that fairly represented the voice of the people and could provide all Egyptian people the promise of a better tomorrow.[i] But the region of the Middle East has a lot of history; and this new chapter of life does not come without uncertainties and the anxieties of tomorrow’s realities. The people of Egypt have questions: questions about their new government and their future. The people of the Middle East region have questions: questions about Arab/Israeli relations and the impact that the Egyptian demonstrations will have on neighboring countries. And the people of the world have questions: questions about the stability of the region and how the future will impact global relations. All of these questions are wrapped around one important center point: how will we decide to live together in community? This is an important question, no matter where you reside: How will we – we, the Egyptian people; we, the people of the Middle East; we, the people of the world; we, the people of this parish; how will we live together in community? Continue reading →