Sermons from St. George's

At Easter the Gardener calls each of us, like Mary from the Tomb, so that we might grow like a plant around the Trellis of his Cross, emerging out of the ground towards the life-giving Son.

From The Table on Easter Sunday, 4/21/19.

Here is the promise of Easter. Here is the reality that baptism immerses us in. The age old story, the story of failure and fear, the story that has haunted our days and, for so many of us, has defined our old selves – that story, and we along with it, have been put to death. We’ve been buried, plunged deep, with Christ in his death. And with Christ’ resurrection, a new story is being written.

From the Great Vigil of Easter on 4/20/19.

Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, knowing that evil, pain, and death were being defeated,

knowing that salvation was coming into the world to rescue the shipwrecked, Jesus said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

This is what glory looks like.

This is how the shipwrecked are saved.

This is God dealing in sovereign, rescuing love.

This is how your new life is given to you –

It is a gift of love. It is a gift of grace. It is a gift for the world.

From the Good Friday service on 4/19/19.

When the hour came, Jesus took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. (Luke 22:14)

Here in this meal, Christ takes simple elements of the earth, and transforms them into the bearers of the kingdom of God. The bread and wine—taken, blessed, broken, poured out, and given—they bespeak his redemptive work: his mingling with this broken Creation, his submission to it unto death, his transformation of it by his sacrifice, and his reweaving and renewing of it through his resurrection. And we are invited here to encounter this mystery—not just to observe it or ponder it—but to participate in it.

The Passion Narrative presented by members of St. George's Church, followed by a short homily. From the 8:45am service on Palm Sunday, 4/14/19.

I believe that Christian communities most committed to faithful worship are those that end up doing the most good for the world. You rarely start with “do-goodism” and end up at the feet of Jesus, at the foot of the cross. You end up with works-righteousness and a lot of burnout and frustration when you realize “the poor you will always have with you”… and the rich too and all their problems.

Sermon from the 8:45am service on 4/7/19.

John 12:1–8

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

If God does not exist, then we have what we have and we should fight tooth and nail to protect it and to get more, because life is a zero-sum game. But if the God revealed in the cross and resurrection is real, then even bread and wine—and all the stuff of life—can become vehicles for his infinite and abundant grace; we are free to give, to serve, to love without hope of a return on our investment.

Sermon from The Table on 4/7/19.

“This is more than a poignant fable encouraging us to be better parents. This is more than a tug at the heartstrings in order to get us to be more gracious and more forgiving. This is a shocking story about the lengths to which the father will go in order for his children to experience reconciliation and restoration and life.”

Sermon from the 8:45am service on 3/31/19

What I have come to learn - and what I hope the elder son comes to learn as well - is this: I am powerless to root out my feelings of resentment and unfairness about the way life sometimes goes… Only God can root out feelings of resentment and unfairness. But I can take responsibility. For what I can do is place myself in a position for God to do that work of rooting out. I can make the decision over and over to return to this story, this gospel, this church, this worship… to return to this Father, and to that other Son whose welcoming embrace extends from the hard wood of the cross. And in that perpetual homecoming, undying gratitude defeats standoffish resentment every time.

Sermon from the Table service on 3/31/19

Lent is a time in the church year when we attend to the rocks in our lives: the rough spots in our personalities, the unwanted habits, thoughts, and behaviors, the rocky relationships. We ask God to disentangle them from the roots of our lives. As those rocks surface and are removed, we realize we can breathe again. After being pressed down for so long, we can stand up again. After carrying so much for so long, we can rest again. This is the beginning of a new flourishing. This is the beginning of a new season of fruitfulness.

(Luke 13:1-9, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13)

Sermon from 8:45am on 3/24/19.