A New Earth
Note: the audio starts in the middle of the sermon, about para 5 Isaiah 65:17-25 Luke 21:5-19 In today’s gospel reading, Jesus talks about the troubles that are to come. Scholars have often thought that this, and its parallel passages in the other gospels, were probably added later, after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in the year 70 CE, with words kind of put in Jesus’ mouth. That may be the case, but in the…
Called to be the Holy Ones of God
Photo by Borna Bervanda @unsplash.com
Living from both pockets
Photo by Matthew Smith @ unsplash.com Text: Luke 18:9-14 Purpose: We recognize both the Pharisee and the toll collector, both the saint and the sinner within ourselves. Prayer: Guard my lips and guide our hearts, O God, our help and our rock. Some days everything goes right. Some days everything goes wrong! Some mornings we awake and say “Good morning, God.” Other days it’s more like, “Good God, it’s morning.” On those good days, it’s sunshine and blue skies, no…
St Benedict
Photo by Danna Joy Images Luke 14:27–33 Today we are celebrating our patron saint, St. Benedict. Just as a quick reminder, Benedict was born towards the end of the 5th century, the son of a wealthy Italian family. He was sent to Rome to study, but found life in the city to be self-indulgent and immoral, so he retreated to the countryside and on the advice of a monk became a hermit, and lived in a cave for three years.…
Grateful
Photo by Timothy Eberle @unsplash.com 2 Timothy 2:8-15 Luke 17:11-19 The grateful Samaritan – the one person who comes back and thanks Jesus is a foreigner. This is great gospel reading to have in our Season of Gratitude, with the Gratitude Dinner coming up this Friday and the celebration of St. Benedict, our patron saint, next Sunday. So let’s start this morning by thinking about things we’re grateful for. I’m grateful for the Saturday night eucharist, for coffee, for my…
St. Francis
Francis preaching to the birds, Painting by Giotti, 13th century Today we celebrate St Francis Day. There are three things that I associate with St Francis: his connection with birds and animals his church reform movement which became the Franciscan order and included taking vows of poverty the understanding that Christ is in all of creation You may remember the story of how Francis had a mystical vision in the forsaken country chapel of San Damiano, just outside Assisi, in which the Icon…
Grace and Gold
Photo by Shreyas Malavalli on unsplash.com “The world gives you so much pain and here you are making gold out of it… there is nothing purer.” Rupi Kaur Unfortunately, we were not able to record the first five to eight minutes of Bishop Mary’s sermon.
Storm
Luke 8:22-25 One summer Jill and I and a friend chartered a small sailing boat to explore part of Alaska. It was very small – there were two berths both big enough for two very close friends. We had one, our friend the other. The crew somehow slept on the table in the cabin. It was a good week and on the last day we were headed back to Juneau for a night in a real bed before flying out…
Staying Grounded in a Time of Climate Crisis
Last year our Earthcare group asked Bishop Mary how we might encourage other churches to get more involved with Creation Care, and she suggested that we organize a conference for the diocese. That conference happened yesterday in Salinas, and for the last week we have been hosting the keynote speaker, Margaret Bullitt-Jonas. Margaret, who has been a long time climate activist, is Missioner for Creation Care for the Diocese of Western Massachusetts. During this week on the Central Coast she…
