Living as if Easter is Real
When I was a growing up we didn’t have Easter egg hunts. People in Britain give each other large hollow foil-covered chocolate eggs, often filled with candy. I think I was eight the Easter I had chicken-pox and I got a bumper crop of Easter eggs. I never had so many before or since. Yesterday I happened to be briefly at an Easter Egg Hunt. There was a separate section for the little ones, where eggs lay totally unconcealed and…
Deep Sadness
And so we come to the deep sadness that is at the heart of humanity. Today we are faced with our human propensity to victimize the innocent, to resort to violence when we are threatened. Today, dozens of Christians were killed worshipping in church in Egypt. Today, children are dying of starvation in the Sudan and Somalia while as much as half of all the food produced in this country is thrown away. Today, Syria is a desolation. We can…
Jesus Wept
John 11:1-45 Personally, I have two favorite bible verses that I would like to share with you. Through the years, I have found that these two verses have the ability to either give me goosebumps or make me to tear up, or actually sometimes, cause me to do both. The first of the two we heard last year, year “C” in our Episcopal Lectionary. The verse comes from Luke in his account of the Passion of Christ. Two thieves are…
The Light and Its Shadow
John 9:1-41 In the last hundred years a myth has arisen. That myth tells us that there is only one way to read the Bible. Yet as far back as the 2nd century, the Greek scholar and Christian theologian Origen claimed that scriptures should be read in three different allegorical ways. I mention that this morning, because today’s lengthy gospel passage can be read on several different levels and I am considering two – the surface or literal level and…
Slow Church Part 2: Stability and Patience
Today I am continuing my sermon series based on the book, The Slow Church. You will remember from last month that the idea of Slow Church comes from the slow food movement that seeks to create locally sourced sustainable food grown and prepared by identifiable growers and chefs in contrast with the sameness of fast food. Today I am reflecting on both Stability and Patience. We are familiar with the idea of stability from the Rule of St Benedict. Benedictine…
Remembering Mary Elizabeth
In 2007, I had the opportunity to go to Dar es Salaam to report on a meeting of the Archbishops of the Anglican Communion. But our dog Alice had lived for several months with a debilitating illness, and my spouse was afraid that if I left, Alice would die. Sure enough, as soon as I had my bags packed and was out the door, Alice turned her head to the wall and refused to eat. It was clear that we…
Terroir – the flavor of St. Ben’s
This year is our 30th anniversary, and we are considering it to be a year of celebration and discernment. For more than seventeen years we have been working to build a church which can provide a physical home for the worship and service of God and our community. Now that is pretty much complete, and we have a plan for how we will continue to develop our facilities as we have the time, money and inclination. So what next? It…
EXPLORER, CONNECTOR OR PROBLEM SOLVER
1 CORINTHIANS 3: 1-9 Holy One, let my words be clear to those who listen to them as they come from my heart. In the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Hey, check out the palace on the top of hill—what a view! We are fortunate to have a roof over our heads when there are so many sleeping in the streets. And look what’s out in front of that palace. …
Prophets of Today
If I were to offer you a packet of peanuts, how many of you would prefer plain rather than salted? And how many of you would prefer salted? Now imagine that the salt had lost its taste – the salted ones would be slightly gritty; I think I’d rather have the plain. And Jesus says that we are the ones who make the difference. We are the ones who put the saltiness in the flavor and make the world a…