Today we are celebrating Earth Day here at St. Andrew’s. Every year when Earth Day arrives, I think the same thing, “How typical of us humans to celebrate the planet that allows for our very existence only one day a year. Every day should be earth day. Perhaps we wouldn’t be in the planetary emergency […]
“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” I think that forgiveness is talked about more in the Bible than any other topic. Maybe love is talked about more, but then again love and forgiveness are inextricably linked […]
My Easter Sunday sermon is one that I both look forward to writing with great anticipation and that I dread as well. I look forward to writing and preaching it because Easter is the most important day of the year for Christians. It is the day on which we celebrate that event that is the […]
Note: As you listen to or read my sermon today, you may be wondering why I am not preaching about the tragedy of this past week. I beg your forgiveness. I simply have no words left to speak after so many years of the same tragedies happening again and again. May God have mercy on […]
I have heard this story of Jesus healing the blind, lame, and paralyzed man at the pool of Beth-zatha hundreds of times, and every time I hear it what stands out to me is Jesus’ question to the disabled man, “Do you want to be made well?” I think to myself, “Well, duh Jesus, of […]
“Love one another, as I have loved you.” This is a very simple statement. Easy to understand. Easy to grasp. Jesus knows he will be leaving his followers soon. He knows that he will be arrested and killed within a few hours, and he is giving some final instructions to those he has known so […]
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. As this is Good Shepherd Sunday, I found myself thinking a bit more deeply about sheep than I normally do. Actually, normally I don’t think about sheep at all. Sheep are often described as being stupid, but that description really only applies to domestic […]
I have a complicated relationship with the Gospel of John. The Jesus portrayed in this Gospel is my least favorite. He talks a lot, a whole lot. He goes on and on for pages and pages talking about himself, often repeating the same idea over and over again. And this always speaking Jesus doesn’t do […]
I think it is safe to say that most Episcopalians, indeed most mainline Protestant Christians and Roman Catholics, are uncomfortable with the Book of Revelation, the last book in our Holy Scriptures. There are 22 chapters in the Book of Revelation with a total of 404 verses. Over the course of our three-year lectionary cycle […]
Occasionally I am asked by someone who is not a Christian, “You don’t really believe in all that resurrection stuff do you?” I have learned not to just answer this question immediately, but instead to spend some time learning a little bit more about what the person is really asking me. More often than not, […]