Ascensioncast

Sermon by Mr. Adam Bean, July 21, 2019

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The Gospel: Luke 10:38-42

As Jesus and his disciples went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

 

Note: We currently do not have the text to this sermon.

Ascensioncast

Sermon by The Rev. Christopher W. Hogin, July 14, 2019

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The First Lesson: Amos 7:7-17

This is what the Lord God showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,

“See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by;

the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,

and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,

and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said,

`Jeroboam shall die by the sword,

and Israel must go into exile

away from his land.'”

And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, `Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

“Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.

You say, `Do not prophesy against Israel,

and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

Therefore thus says the Lord:

`Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city,

and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,

and your land shall be parceled out by line;

you yourself shall die in an unclean land,

and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.'”

The Gospel: Luke 10:25-37

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, `Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

The Sermon

The Reverend Christopher Hogin

The Prophetic Voice

Amos 7:7-17

The Episcopal Church of The Ascension

July 14, 2019

 

It’s the summer of 1978. I’m five years old riding in the back seat with my brother and sister in a station wagon headed to Florida. With seatbe

Ascensioncast

Sermon by The Rev. Patrick J. Wingo, July 7, 2019

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The Gospel: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

The Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, `Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, `The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, `Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’

“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Ascensioncast

Sermon by The Rev. Patrick J. Wingo, June 30, 2019

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The Gospel: Luke 9:51-62

When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Sermon Text

Sermon for Proper 8C 6-30-19 CAK The Rev Patrick J Wingo

 

In late 1993 Mr Alvin Straight, 73 years old, of Laurens, Iowa, received news that his older brother Henry had suffered a stroke.

Henry was 80, and the two men were estranged and had not seen each other for over ten years.

Alvin decided that he needed to see his brother and make amends, but Alvin was arthritic and almost blind.

He didn’t have a drivers license, and he didn’t like to accept help from anyone.

But he badly wanted to see his brother, so he hooked up a supply trailer to his old red lawn tractor and drove out on the highway toward Henry’s home in Blue River Wisconsin, over 240 miles away.

He got 25 miles, but then his old red tractor died, so after he was towed back to Laurens he bought a 1966 John Deere tractor and hit the road again.

He broke down again on the trip but got the mower fixed.

Then heavy rains forced him to stay for several days with one of his daughters who lived along his route.

After a badly-needed Social Security check arrived in the mail, he was off again, and made it to within two miles of his brother’s house before he broke down yet again.

But this time he finally accepted a ride.

He stayed with his brother for several weeks, until he allowed a nephew to take him and his John Deere back home.

When Alvin died in 1996, a John Deere tractor was in the funeral procession to the cemetery. (From “The Off Season: The Real Story About ‘The Straight Story’” by Mike Lunsford, The Tribune-Star, Terre Haute, IN, March 17th, 2015.)

 

Jesus said, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.”

Or in a more modern translation, “No one who gets on his John Deere and gives up is fit for the kingdom of God.”

This statement, and indeed everything in today’s reading from Chapter 9 in Luke’s gospel, flows from the first verse we heard:

“When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”

Luke is telling us that everything that will happen after Chapter 9 is in the context of Jesus looking straight ahead, without looking back, without doubting his path or what he is doing, to go to Jerusalem in order to fulfill God’s plan for the reconciliation of the world.

It is as if Jesus has jumped on an old John Deere and will not be deterred from making it to the place where reconciliation would come through his own suffering, death, and resurrection

Ascensioncast

Sermon by The Rev. Sara-Scott Wingo, June 23, 2019

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The Gospel: Luke 8:26-39

Jesus and his disciples arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me” — for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

Sermon Text

2 pentecost, Proper 7C, 2019

The Rev. Sara-Scott Wingo

Not a second passes after Jesus steps out of the boat onto dry land before a demon possessed man meets him.  Everyone in Gerasa knew the man, and no one knew what to do with him.  He wore no clothes.  He made his home in the tombs and not in a house.  His community tried to restrain him by binding him with chains and shackles, but that didn’t work.  He always broke loose and ran out into the wilds.  Something uncontrollable was at work in him.  He had no power over it and neither did the towns’ people.  The demon cries out to Jesus,  “What do you have to do with me, Jesus Son of the Most Hight God?”  This question posed at the outset of the story is the question that the story itself will answer.

 

Jesus asks the man his name.  The reply comes,  “Legion, for we are many.”  If Jesus asked any one of us our name we would probably tell him the name we have been called all our lives:  Betty, Tom, Susan, Bob, William, Abigail – a name like that.  But what if Jesus asked you your name and your demon answered  for you.  What if you gave your name as “addiction,” or “cancer,” or “greed,” or “fear,” or “guilt,” or “perfection.”  We all struggle with something.  We all know what it is to do battle personally with a force that opposes God’s goodness and love.  Indifference to these struggles, or denial of them can cause us to step back and give these forces more power than is theirs to have.  This is when they may try to name us, when they may become not the thing we struggle with but the thing that defines us, or the thing that we are.

 

The man in our Gospel story is known as Legion.  His demons define hi

Ascensioncast

Sermon by The Rev. Christopher W. Hogin, June 16, 2019

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Epistle: Romans 5:1-5

Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Gospel: John 16:12-15

Jesus said to the disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

Sermon Text

The Reverend Christopher Hogin

Trinity of Perfection

Romans 5-1-5; John 16:12-15

The Episcopal Church of The Ascension

June 16, 2019

 

There was once a man named Joe Rantz, born in Spokane, Washington in 1914. When he was three years old, his mother died. Racked with grief, his father sent him on a train to the east coast where he lived with relatives. He was later sent back to live with his father a couple of years later after his dad remarried. At age 10, he was sent away by his step-mother, and ended up living in a one-room school house washing dishes and stacking firewood. He again was invited to live back home. By this time the country was deep into the depression, and the family was plunged into poverty. One day and found his father, stepmother and half siblings packed up in a car. His father said, “Sorry Joe, we’re leaving. We can’t take you with us.” Then they drove off. He distinctly remembered the red taillights fading off as he was left alone in the darkness. (Something tells me his dad didn’t receive a Father’s Day card.)

Joe Rantz was tough. He had grit. He foraged in the woods for food, hunted and fished. He did this all while going to school during the day earning excellent grades. Later he ended up at the University of Washington and winning a spot on the crew team. Initially Joe almost lost his position. He lost it, not because of his abilities, but because he was unable to trust his other crew mates. He could never fully get in sync with the team. Something held him back that impacted the rhythm of the boat. One of his trainers sensed a psychological and spiritual void. Joe had learned never to depend on anyone. That anybody he cared about eventually abandoned him. That mindset carried over to his relationship with his teammates. His trainer gently got him to the point where he submitted himself to his crew mates.

Each member of that team came from some kind of broken situation. And yet they came together as a unit. The greatness of the team came through hard work, training and coaching. All of those elements were important. But what really mattered was the trust that each member had for one another. What mattered was how each person flowed seamlessly as a single unit. They knew one another’s rhythm and patterns. They stroked, breathed and glided as one. Years later they described that sense of unity as something akin to touching the divine.

This crew team smashed numerous records upsetting the prestigious crew clubs of the east coast. They later represented the United States in the 1936 Olympics, defeating Nazi Germany and taking home the g

Ascensioncast

Sermon by The Rev. Patrick J. Wingo, June 9, 2019

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The Reading from Acts: Acts 2:1-21

When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs– in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

`In the last days it will be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

and your young men shall see visions,

and your old men shall dream dreams.

Even upon my slaves, both men and women,

in those days I will pour out my Spirit;

and they shall prophesy.

And I will show portents in the heaven above

and signs on the earth below,

blood, and fire, and smoky mist.

The sun shall be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood,

before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.

Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ “

The Gospel: John 14:8-17 (25-27)

Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

[“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have s

The Landscape of the Episcopal Church

a Sunday School Class led by Bishop Brian Cole

Sunday, June 2, 2019

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Ascensioncast

Sermon by The Rt. Rev. Brian Lee Cole, June 2, 2019

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The Gospel: John 17:20-26

Jesus prayed for his disciples, and then he said. “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

“Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Ascensioncast

Sermon by The Rev. Christopher Hogin, May 19, 2019

Thank you for tuning into Ascensioncast. We hope you enjoy listening to this and our other podcasts. You can find more information at www.knoxvilleascension.org or by emailing [email protected].

The Gospel: John 13:31-35

At the last supper, when Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Note: We do not have text to the sermon at this time.