Sermons on Faith (Page 6)

Rolling with Change

“Rolling With Change” –Mike Eggleston at St Benedict’s Episcopal Church with                                                Amos 5.18-24, Wisdom of Solomon 6.12-16, I Thessalonians 4.13-18, Matthew 25.1-13 I chose to write this sermon last Monday, the day before election day. I did that because it was possible that I might have no coherent words to say after the election.  Like Job’s friends, it was possible that we could all be sitting seven days in the dust grieving in silence.  The other reason I wrote before…

Saints, Heretics and Misfits

Revelation 7:9-17 1 John 3:1-3 Matthew 5:1-12 Good morning saints of God! Today, All Saints Day, is the day that we remember those who have gone before us in the reign if God – those who have formed us and made us who we are – those who have taught us and those who have shown us how to follow Jesus. And the astonishing thing is that, in the mystical communion of saints, although they are physically gone from us…

Holiness

On Tuesday mornings, we are currently reading and reflecting on a book by Richard Foster which describes different strands or emphases in Christian thinking. This week we talked about the Holiness tradition. Now I had seen it as being about rules of behavior and associated it with anti-gay sentiment. But Foster sees it quite differently. For him holiness is about virtuous living, it is about being Christ in the world. And he says, “virtue is good habits we can rely…

Be Careful What You Pray For

Isaiah 45:1-7 Matthew 22:15-22   There is an old admonition:  Be careful what you pray for. So, in today’s collect what DID we just pray for? Do we dare go back and check it out?   “Almighty and everlasting God, Preserve the works of your mercy”… That’s us. Preserve us. Not make everything happy, happy, well and wonderful; But in other words, help us to stay alive, intact, free from decay, Not rancid, sour, putrid, rotten. And why are we…

Staying Peaceful in the Crowd

Philippians 4:1-9 Matthew 22:1-14 This is a difficult parable isn’t it? The Kingdom of heaven is like a king who when people don’t show up to his son’s wedding and some of them even shoot the messenger, he becomes enraged and sends homeland security to kill them and burn their cities. Then he sends out his slaves again to invite people to his feast and having seen what happened to the first group of guests, everyone shows up. Now we…

Justice, justice

Jonah 3:4–10 Luke 10:25–37 In our Thursday Bible Study group we have started a study of Paul’s letter to the Romans which is an important yet difficult book. It inspired Luther to rebel against the Catholic church, and has spawned hundreds if not thousands of commentaries. It starts with a sweeping condemnation of all Gentiles rapidly followed by a sweeping condemnation of all Jews. The wrath of God is visited upon everyone. Only after we are thoroughly crushed does Paul…

“You are the Messiah”

    To match the weirdness of this week, Smoke and heat on top of pandemic virtual school starts And election brew-ha-ha…. I have a weird sermon.   My brain decided to give me the topic of zombie apocalypse As I started my sermon preparations of reading, thinking, pondering. Now, I’m not a fan of that genre, but I’m been seeing references to it quite a bit In my media posts….. Usually something to the effect of: “Well, 2020 has…