Sermons on Faith (Page 10)

Joy!

Photo by Delfino Barboza @Unsplash.com   One of the ways that I know there is a long way ahead of me on the spiritual path is when I see holy men like the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu laugh. These are people who have experienced great suffering both personally and as part of an oppressed people. Yet they can laugh and laugh. It seems that joy is the mark of a child, and also of a spiritual master.  It is…

Peace

Photo by Alice Donovan Rouse@unsplash.com Isaiah 11:1-10 Matthew 3:1-12 What does peace look like? When you imagine peace what does it look like or what does it feel like? Today’s reading from Isaiah gives us a lyrical if unlikely image of peace, The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze,…

Hope

Photo by Kelly Sikkema @ unsplash.com Isaiah 2:1-5 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:36-44 I read in the news this morning the sad story of Ron, a man in Maine, who rigged a pistol in his front door so that anyone who tried to enter would be shot.  Unfortunately, he made a mistake – I don’t know the details – but on Thanksgiving he walked into his own booby trap, was shot by the pistol and later died of his wounds. This…

Is Your God too Small?

Photo by Frances Gunn @unsplash.com Luke 20:27-38 Let’s begin with a riddle: Picture this scene:  There was a car wreck. It was the fault of a man in a small car who darted out in front of a big car causing the big car to crash through a store window.   The people in the small car were not hurt. In the big car there was one person injured and one person dead. A manslaughter charge was never filed against…

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…

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…

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…

The peace of God is not peace

Photo by Faye Cornish @unsplash.com Isaiah 5:1-7 Luke 12:49-56 Sometimes I hear an Old Testament reading – like the one we heard today or the one we had a few weeks ago where Hosea was told to take a “wife of whoredom “ – and I wish we could skip all that and just listen to Jesus. But then we get to gospel passages like this one. Jesus is not having a good day. He is looking ahead to his…