Rotten Apple Seeds

Here is today's sermon, Proper 8, Year A, July 2, 2023. It is based on the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son Isaac. I imagine that, instead of an angel telling Abraham that the sacrifice is not necessary, rather he goes ahead with the sacrifice. In his grief and reflection after the event, he is given the opportunity to grieve not only for his son, and his faith in the unique God of Israel, but also in the grief of those who follow after him in faith. He grieves not only for Isaac, but along with all of us who have lost parents, spouses, children, friends.

Here is today's sermon, Proper 7, Year A, June 25, 2023. It is based on the reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, Genesis 21:8-21. It is the story of Abraham dismissing his slave Hagar and her son Ishmael. This is the woman with whom Abraham first had a child after the Lord promised in the covenant that Abraham would be the father of nations. After his wife Sarah had a child Isaac, she wanted to get rid of Hagar and Ishmael.

I make the point that the life of faith is often a paradox, or topsy-turvy. Just like the story of Abraham dismissing Hagar is the exact reciprocal of the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt:

The Hebrew Abraham raises the Egyptian child Ishmael / The Pharaoh's daughter raised the Hebrew Moses

The Egyptian Hagar is the slave and the Hebrew Abraham is the master/ Pharaoh enslaved the Hebrews

The death of firstborn Ishmael / The death of the Egyptian firstborn

Ishmael is delivered through water / The Hebrews are delivered through the Red Sea

The Egyptian Hagar wanders in the desert / the Hebrews wander through the desert

Ishmael will found a great nation after the desert wandering / the Hebrews will found a great nation after their desert wandering

Here is today's sermon, Proper 6, Year A, June 18, 2023. In it I bring together the reading from Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7) and the Gospel reading, Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-23). Genesis emphasizes the merits and virtues of hospitality and the Gospel reading emphasizes the need to evangelize. I discuss how these show the two polarities of the Anglican tradition: between Benedictine monasticism and Franciscan (Dominican) mission. I show how our particular congregation puts both these into practice.

Today's readings are the call of Abram to the Promised Land in Genesis and the call of Matthew in the Gospel of Matthew. I asked the congregation what they wanted me to preach on and they wanted to hear about the call of Matthew and the healing of the Woman with the hemorrhage and the raising of the Official's Daughter.

I made the observation that much of Jesus' ministry was to call into community those who are outside and rejected: the tax collector, as well as the sick and the dead. Healing is not only forgiveness of sin, which is considered the root of disease, but also the welcoming of the alienated back into community. For this, Jesus was ridiculed.

Perhaps our congregation my take a lesson from this Gospel passage. It may be that a certain way of being Church may be on its way out. That doesn't mean that the message of Jesus is not needed in our society. Perhaps we are challenged by this Gospel passage to "do Church" in a new way: an extroverted, outgoing, inviting way. Perhaps, like Jesus, we need to extend ourselves to those who are rejected and alienated in society and preach the Good News of invitation, welcome, and fellowship with all.

This is the sermon for today, Sermon for Trinity Sunday, Year A June 4, 2023. Of course it is impossible to understand fully, much less, communicate, the nature of the Trinity, of God in Three Persons, while maintaining essential Unity of the Godhead. Instead of describing the immanent Trinity, or God as God is in Himself, I discuss our experience of the Divine, or the economic Trinity.

This weekend is Whitsunday, or Pentecost. It is the celebration of the flooding of Creation by the Holy Spirit. The first reading is the story of the Lukan Pentecost, the one we are most familiar with. The Gospel is the Johannine Pentecost, immediately after the Resurrection.

There are so many directions one may preach, so I left it up to the congregation. I asked them whether they wished to hear a sermon on Resurrection or Forgiveness. They overwhelmingly elected Forgiveness. In the sermon I draw from Anne Tyler's novel, Saint Maybe.

This episode begins with an introduction to the gospel, then a reading of the gospel, which was John 17: 1-11. My sermon follows, which was based on Acts 1: 6-14. We live on a sphere: There is no "up". How can Jesus "rise" into the clouds in the Ascension?

Too often we see Ascension as a "clearing of the stage" so Jesus is out of the picture and the Holy Spirit is ready to show up at Pentecost next week. in this sermon, I show that the Ascension is the fulfillment of the Incarnation and the redemption of the Cross. In addition, the Ascension ennobles humanity so we are able to be partners in the Divine plan for the building of the Kingdom.

This episode begins with an introduction to the gospel, then a reading of the gospel, which was John 14: 15-21. My sermon follows, which was based on Acts 17: 22-31. I draw the differences between the pagan and the monotheistic universes. I quote David Simon, creator of The Wire, HP Lovecraft, and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

Please join us Sunday mornings at 9:30 am at Christ Episcopal Church at 107 Gay Street in Denton, on Maryland's Eastern Shore!

https://christchurchdenton.org/

This sermon is based on John 14: 1-14. In it I provide an intuitive notion of our experience of the Divine. I start from the sense of mystery in our lives and the transcendence it points to.