Ninth Bishop of Texas

Imagine: exiled in Babylon for 70 years. What does it mean to return? There are multiple generations who only have stories of Israel; there are many ideas and many unknowns. They know they must leave behind them Babylon; change is before them, a new thing.

The new thing that God is doing.

Today, we stand on a precipice; we are looking into a changed world. The new thing must come. I invite you to hear God's voice in the world around you. Yes, the wilderness is before you; but God is there with you.

Sermon originally delivered to the 2020 Colorado Clergy Conference.

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Slow Burn" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

We have a good word for the weary world, for the sick, for those who seek to heal, to those who care, to those who sit with the dying. A good word to the fearful and anxious even in a time of pandemic, of physical isolation from one another- even in this time of the coronavirus.

Audio from Bishop Doyle's Easter 2020 sermon.

Music from https://filmmusic.io "Slow Burn" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The cross is a banner on our darkest hills, signaling that the instrument of disgrace and death is now a beacon of hope - in the face of an unjust world filled with the vestiges of racism and white supremacy, truly filled with every kind of violence and suffering that we know. Jesus knows our suffering and comes as our shepherd.

Music from https://filmmusic.io "Slow Burn" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

We cannot begin to dismantle the institutional violence, nor much of the world's evils, if we do not begin by re-embodying the Gospel.

Let me be clear. We will go nowhere if we do not begin by understanding that bodies and their dignity are to be protected by the community and the nation.

Music from https://filmmusic.io "Slow Burn" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Malcolm Guite brings poetry to our understanding of current times. Take a moment to rest in this: what can we learn from poets of similar points in history? Listen for good humor, stirring readings, and Quarantine Quatrains.

In this new series, Bishop Doyle interviews experts and asks big questions. Where are we going? What does it mean for the church?

Review and subscribe - it will help others find the series. Full video of these Zoom calls are available on YouTube: https://bit.ly/2We8vdP

In this new series, Bishop Doyle interviews experts and asks big questions. Where are we going? What does it mean for the church?

In this episode, Evan Smith of Texas Tribune fame shares his thoughts about lessons from 2020, election predictions, and more.

Bishop Doyle asks: how do we form Christians to be good citizens, even amidst governmental chaos?

Review and subscribe - it will help others find the series. Full video of these Zoom calls are available on YouTube: https://bit.ly/2We8vdP

When we walk miles and miles with God, we reclaim our kinship with God, from whose heart we were shaped. We can no longer divide the human community into "friends" and "others," and we discover rather quickly that there are no strangers or aliens in God's country.

Music from https://filmmusic.io "Slow Burn" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

What can we learn from the Devil?

Jesus rejects all forms of dominion and power over one another than enrich individuals at the expense of the broader community. God rejects all religious, social, political power that demands total allegiance. And by this rejection, we are invited to reject such power as well - and entrust ourselves to God.

Music from https://filmmusic.io "Slow Burn" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

It's good to have an intro rock anthem. My new fave right now is Sarah McLaughlin's White Flag.

Anthems buttress us whatever others might do, if we feel alone, outnumbered, and we need a little something to encourage us forward.

But that is not what Ash Wednesday is about. We need to raise the white flag and be ready to put our hope in God.

Music from https://filmmusic.io "Slow Burn" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)