Grace Episcopal Church Sheboygan, Wisconsin   The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany (A)   Deuteronomy 30.15-20      Psalm 119.1-8           1 Corinthians 3.1-9                  Matthew 5.21-37     May the Lord be in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart, that I may rightly and truly proclaim His holy Word.  Amen.   “Choose life” (Deut. 30.19).  That sounds like a slogan on a bumper sticker or license plate, and of course it is.  I have no argument with those who want to use this teaching as a slogan,  but in agreeing with them I am not here speaking about abortion.  I want to address a broader topic, and this is about the choices we make that are life-and-death choices.  Jesus certainly thinks that the choices we make matter.  He says, “... it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell” (Mtt. 5.30). Now, as soon as we start talking about life-and-death choices we’re at the high stakes table.  I well remember in 1985 walking into the courtroom in Oxford, Mississippi to get the circuit judge to sign an order in a case.  I had to wait because a prisoner was being arraigned on four charges:  capital murder, aggravated assault, burglary of a dwelling and grand larceny.  Once the arraignment was finished, it became evident that there was going to be a change in counsel, and I heard the judge (a good Episcopalian) call out my name and inform me that I would be defense counsel for Anthony James Jenkins, against whom the state was seeking the death penalty. I won’t bore you with the details of the crime or of the ensuing trial.  I won’t bore you with legal theory or strategy.  When the trial finally came it lasted for twelve days, and so between the trial and the final run-up to the trial I spent a month getting by on about three hours of sleep a night.  Needless to say I was living on a lot of coffee and cigarettes, but let me tell you what really kept me going through lack of sleep and a sinus infection, to boot.  It was that I knew that I was “playing for keeps;” that I was involved in a very direct manner in life-and-death decisions. I really enjoyed that case.  That sounds strange, doesn’t it?  How could I enjoy a case that had me working crazy hours; that involved a heinous crime; that cost me money in my civil practice; and that resulted in death threats to the point where I had to carry a gun (on the advice of the sheriff)?  It’s because when you’re “playing for keeps” everything you do matters.  It’s important; it’s not just about money but about whether or not somebody dies.  But guess what?  Those are the stakes every day.  Whether or not we choose to follow our Lord determines eternal life.  Jesus makes this clear when He says that it would be better ...

Episcopal Church of the Incarnation West Point, Mississippi Feast of the Holy nativity   1st Mass:        Isaiah 9.2-4, 6-7                    Psalm 96             Titus 2.11-14                                   Luke 2.1-20 2nd Mass:      Isaiah 62.6-7, 10-12               Psalm 97             Titus 3.4-7                          Luke 2.1-20 3rd Mass:       Isaiah 52.7-10                                    Psalm 98             Hebrews 1.1-12                    John 1.1-14   Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.   Episcopalians can at times seem to be all members of one rather large family.  It is certainly common that people in different parishes know each other.  And in the time-honored practice of “connections,” once you mention a friend in another town it’s pretty common to find that a connection is made through that friend to someone else who turns out to know you or your family.  It’s a small world and a small Church, whether you are one born and raised an Episcopalian or one who joined the Church later in life.  And in this small world you often hear stories about church life from other parishes. One such story that circulated when I served in the Diocese of Mississippi related to the Easter sermon delivered by the rector at the largest Episcopal church in Jackson.  At the first Easter service celebrated by this rector, when it came time for the sermon he stood up and said. “Alleluia, the Lord is risen indeed!”  Then he sat down. To this day this story is told as one of a great success, although the rector himself will joke you that the reason people liked his sermon was that it was so short.  If you ask members of that parish why the sermon was such a success, they’ll tell you that he didn’t need to say anything more, that what he said got to the very heart of the Easter message. And so it is tempting, and would perhaps be very popular for me to just quote from our Gospel lesson, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s son, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1.14), and sit down. But [groan!] I’m not going to do that.  For there’s a problem with summing up the Christmas or Easter message in any one saying or proclamation.  The problem is that when we do that we are “preaching to the choir,” preaching to the converted, preaching to those who already understand who God is and what He has done and is doing for them.  And out there, beyond the doors of this church, there are lot’s of folks who don't get it. And, guess what?  Even in here today there are folks who may have heard the message of salvation, but have not experienced it; folks who come to church on Christmas because, well, that’s what your families have always done.  If you are ...

Grace Episcopal Church Sheboygan, Wisconsin   The Fourth Sunday of Advent (A) Isaiah 7.10-16                       Psalm 80.1-7, 16-18             Romans 1.1-7                            Matthew 1.18-25     May the Lord be in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart, that I may rightly and truly proclaim His holy Word.  Amen.   On this Fourth Sunday of Advent our gospel lesson focuses on Jesus’ birth as a human being.  I could preach a sermon about this, and draw a line between what is revealed in Matthew’s account and what will be revealed in Luke’s account and John’s account, lessons we will encounter at Christmas.  I could preach about Mary and Joseph, about them as archetypes of faithful response to God and of complete availability to God.  I could preach about the fulfillment of prophecy, or about how God’s plan of salvation makes all things new.  But, rather than speak directly about those themes, and how they are revealed and reinforced to us in today’s lessons, I want to recognize that in something else that is new—in someone else who is new—we experience the fulfillment of God’s promises and we are challenged in how we become those who participate in God’s plan for us and for the world. What’s new, of course, who’s new, is that Archdeacon Michele is now Mother Michele, the newest priest in Christ’s one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.  I can say she’s the newest, even though there were three ordinations in Fond du Lac, yesterday because she’s at the end of the alphabet—or perhaps we should just say that in God’s infinite wisdom He recognizes that “three’s the charmer”.  But, before you think I’m going to preach about Michele’s vocation, and about how this vocation will be lived out in ways that will bring new life in Grace Episcopal Church and at St. Paul’s in Plymouth, be forewarned.  Those sermon themes I teed up at the start, about new life in Christ as the fulfillment of all prophecy, the fulfillment of God’s plan for Creation, while they apply very much to Michele and her ministry, they apply very much to you. In the collect prayer for this final Sunday before Christmas we continue our Advent season focus on preparation, on turning our hearts and minds and souls to yet again make ready for the coming of the Christ.  We pray: Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.   Notice that the Collect doesn’t describe us as active but God as active.  Like Joseph in today’s Gospel we are to make ourselves available to God, to hear His message and respond to it.  We need to be ready to receive the message of the Gospel.  We need to open our hearts and minds to allow God to enter into and ...

Grace Episcopal Church Sheboygan, Wisconsin The Third Sunday of Advent (A) Isaiah 35.1-10                 Psalm 146.4-9                 James 5.7-10                   Matthew 11.2-11 May the Lord be in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart, that I may rightly and truly proclaim His holy Word.  Amen. “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”  When John the Baptist sends this question to Jesus, he’s echoing his own proclamation, which we heard last week from ch. 3 of Matthew’s gospel, the proclamation that “... he who is coming ... is mightier ...”  But wait a minute!  John baptized Jesus.  Doesn’t John  know who Jesus is?  He does.  His question is rhetorical, and Jesus notes this in His answer.  How does Jesus answer?  He describes the works of the Messiah, as described by Isaiah:  The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. John asks the question rhetorically, knowing the answer, just as we, as Christians, know the answer.  But we are surrounded by many people who don’t know the answer.  We are surrounded by people who have no faith or who have lost their faith.  We are surrounded by people who despair of life because they do not know the Good News.  And it is to these people that we need to provide an answer.  We need to provide an answer–the answer–to their groping question, “Is Jesus the one?  Is Jesus the Way, and the Truth, and the Life?” In 1 Peter we are reminded that we must always be ready to testify to the hope that is within us.  And here we are in Advent, a time of hope, a time when we prepare to greet the “one who is to come”.  So let us ask ourselves, how do we answer the question, “Is Jesus the One?”  One of the ways we answer this question is to answer it in the same way that Jesus answers John’s question.  We answer the question by describing what Jesus does in our own lives, and in what we see in the world. Do we see the miracles described by Isaiah and recited by Jesus?  We need to be careful here.  The miracles described are those described for when the Messiah will first come.  So while we might see a miraculous healing, perhaps we will do better to look for the signs of God with us, rather than of God arriving in flesh.  And what do we see?  We see that life is created; that sins are forgiven; that love is shared; that burdens are lifted; and that death has no triumph.  We see these things in our own lives, and around us.  We see that hope is not in vain.  Just as we live in this hope, part of our calling is to share this hope, to let all others know that the One who is to ...