Trinity Sunday, Year B – Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 29; Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17 A week ago today as you celebrated the Feast of Pentecost here at Christ Church, I was worshiping in the home church of my parents in Pennsylvania.  The pastor of their church, not an Episcopal church mind you, had a children’s sermon to discuss the day – Pentecost – the day that the Holy Spirit came into a room full of Jesus’ disciples, a visitation that was marked with powerful and mysterious acts.   The pastor asked the children assembled on the chancel steps what Pentecost meant. … Continue reading On with the dance!

Lent 4B – Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:14-21 Some Sundays when I sit down to prepare a sermon, I read the appointed passages and sigh, finding little or no inspiration.  I know that means I will be spending longer with those passages, waiting for that moment of divine inspiration.  But then there are weeks like this one, where all of the passages seem to speak to me, in very familiar words and with familiar images.  It is weeks like these that I must wrestle with limiting myself to a good Episcopal homily and not a deadly, hour-long sermon.   What captured … Continue reading Of serpents and crosses

Last Epiphany B – 2 Kings 2:1-14; Psalm 50; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Mark 9:2-9 Have you ever been in a place of absolute darkness?  I remember as a high school student in Kentucky visiting Mammoth Cave, the longest known cave system in the world.  Even on the quick, two-hour tour, the tour guide would gather the tour group into one of the large chambers and douse all the lights.  The darkness is intense.  Often the tour guides would warn us amateur spelunkers not to try to touch our face because in the darkness with no light to help serve as … Continue reading Light and Darkness

Epiphany 1B – Genesis 1:1-5; Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11   John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness.   When we hear these words, nothing may strike us as odd or unexpected.  But have you ever had one of those moments when you hear something in a familiar passage of Scripture, but it seems like you are really hearing it for the first time.  Either you just had never noticed the way something was phrased, or a concept suddenly leaps out at you from the pages of Scripture.  Sometimes we refer to this as an “aha moment” or in more nuanced … Continue reading Through the Same Waters