Category Archives: Sermons

This sermon can be listened to here: God Restores Our Souls Like many of you, I find myself standing firmly in the Episcopal tradition not because of, but despite much my early religious training. While my religious heritage gave me things that I value like a deep love and appreciation for communion, scripture, and baptism,Continue reading “God Restores Our Souls”

This sermon can be listened to here: Faith Like Mary       Three days ago, while we gathered in this church to pray the Solemn Collects and remember Christ’s brutal death on Good Friday, there rose tension and violence in the Old City of Jerusalem. Political unrest is not unknown on that holy land, but this weekendContinue reading “Faith Like Mary”

Over the past three years, I’ve found myself saying, “It can’t get much worse than this” about things happening in our world. A global pandemic, cataclysmic weather events, and violence that seems be the ground on which our society stands; I’ve been shocked again and again at how suffering seems to never end, as ifContinue reading “In the Abyss”

       “In the midst of life we are in death; from whom can we seek help?” This is the beginning line of one of the optional anthems in an Episcopal funeral; it’s usually passed over for the more hopeful “I am Resurrection and I am Life, says the Lord” anthem which is pulled largely fromContinue reading “Grief in Action”

This sermon can be listened to here: Conversion of Love Once while driving from Texas to the East Coast, I drove past a large billboard with a black background and big, bold white letters that read, “‘For God so loved the world.’ – John 3:16” and then in an ominous red font below it read,Continue reading “Conversion of Love”

       There is something holy about the break of dawn. Like most folk, my life has had ebbs and flows, but one of my most favorite seasons of life allowed me to witness the slow overwhelm that the day has as night fades away. Dawn tends to happen sort of all at once; it’s aContinue reading “Light from the Dawn”

       There are things that I have gathered throughout my life that hold special significance. The heavy and effective depression-era quilt that my grandmother sowed with scraps of fabric that would not be valuable to anyone else other than my family. But I love that quilt, and used it everyday until the threads began toContinue reading “Sanctified and Called to be Saints”

The memory for me is still visceral. I remember the cool, smooth surface of the standard issue junior-high chair with its metal legs and deep blue seat. I remember exactly where I sat, one-third the way down the third row of the tiered band room; I remember the daily unpacking of my standard issue clarinetContinue reading “The Practice of Christmas”