Sermons on Spiritual Life (Page 18)

Impatient: 3/14/21

The people became impatient. I don’t know about you but I have certainly become impatient. It’s been a year. Enough already. How much longer will be in this wilderness of Zoom? How much longer before we can once again gather safely indoors to share the eucharist? I don’t know the answers to those questions. I have become impatient. The poisonous snakes have been biting for a year and we are still looking and waiting for God to deliver us. And…

“Wiser is Humbler” – Rev Mike Eggleston at St Benedict’s 

I Corinthians 1.18-25 Guidance from God can be found anywhere, because God is everywhere.  Me, I most often get insights from God either through nature or through scriptures and church tradition.  That’s good because those two, nature and torah, are the two forums of God which are praised in Psalm 19.  “The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple.”  But the start of this sermon comes from a…

Radical Acceptance

Mark 8:31-38 I admit it. I’m mortal. Just like all of us. And that of course is the reminder of Ash Wednesday, that we are entirely dependent on God for every breath we take. And just in case we missed it on Ash Wednesday with this year’s self-service ashes, the loss of our beloved sister Karin this week brought it home powerfully. We are mortal. We are not gods. We are humans.  And so it’s not surprising that we see…

Transfiguration – 2/14/21

Two weeks ago, I talked about Dimension 5+ and how we can no more imagine what it is like to live outside of the space/time continuum than a fish can imagine living out of water. Both mean death, death to life as we, or the fish, know it. But we get glimpses. We get glimpses of a different reality – a reality we call heaven where the reign of God is 100% realized. Today’s gospel reading shows Jesus and the…

Treated as a Person The Rev. Susan Plucker

5th Sunday After Epiphany February 7, 2021 Isaiah 40:21-31 Psalm 147: 1-12,  21c 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 Mark 1:29-39 Let us begin by hearing the voice of Mary Magdalene.   Seven demons possessed my soul Seven Marys lived inside of me One Mary was chaste, another carnal, A Mary elated, a Mary tormented, A frightened Mary, a lone one, And one that hated God.   I stood on the hill throughout the day. Watching the procession to Golgotha Seeing the crosses…

God Is Calling

1 Samuel 3:1-10(11-20) John 1:43-51 When I was in my late teens and wondering what to do with my life I was told by lovely people that God’s will for me was clearly laid out in the Bible. I was frustrated by that because no matter which way I read the Bible it did not tell me the answer to my burning question: what was I to do with my life? We tend to think about Christian vocation as being…

Incarnation Now

This morning we gather to remember and celebrate the incarnation – the time when God became human. We remember the baby Jesus coming out of the womb, wet, bloody and probably yelling; and his young mother wrapping him tightly and placing him in the manger. Sometimes I realize that I’m thinking of Jesus the Christ as being a part of God that somehow got detached. Rather like when you take a snip of a geranium and plant it and it…

Obedience and Surrender

There are some glitches in the audio this week, sorry Romans 16:25-27 Luke 1:26-38 Have you ever wondered what would have happened if Mary had not been willing? If Mary had said “I’m sorry, I just can’t do that”? Or whether Mary was the first woman that Gabriel was sent to, or whether she was the last to be approached because she was the first to say yes? We will ever know the answer to those questions. We simply know…