Sermons from the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

"You all need to find your voices... all of us. And, those of us who have had a voice, we need to relearn how to use it. God is calling us - in this time - to rethink how we speak, and he's calling others of us for the first time to speak louder than ever. And, when we do it, we are being told to do it with love and honesty - with care and respect."

James 3:1-12

"There is no part of your life that is too dark or confusing that God is not willing to be present. There is no low to which you can sink where God will not go and meet you there. There is no part of your life - even in your own pettiness, your own blindness or naivety - that God will not be willing to shake you out of your doldrums and help you recognize God's holy presence and the holy presence of God in every person you meet."

Mark 7:24-37

"Its when we hit those hard places - when we know we don't have the magic answer; we don't have control of the circumstances; we don't have the skills to get through them. It's in those moments that we are most ready to reach out to each other and to reach out to God."

Mark 7:24-37

"What we say matters. What we do matters. And the simplest measure of this is God's commandment to love - to love. Love is the litmus test. Are our actions loving of God, our neighbor, ourselves... are our words loving of God, our neighbor, ourselves?"

Psalm 15

James 1:17-27

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

"It's easy to follow a God who only comforts me, and only calls me to do things that I want to do, and loves the same people I love, and hates the same people I hate. That's an easy God to follow. The God of the New Testament loves all the people I hate and calls me to love them. The God of the New Testament - the God of the Bible - wants to comfort but also to challenge me. The God of the bible wants to love me and transform me."

James 1:17-27

"You don't need to go win the war. The war is done. All these powers that try to thwart the good work of good people have already lost. So, our job is to stand firm knowing that faith, and righteousness, and peace, and truth, and all of these armaments that we can put on ourselves - that's enough to protect us."

Ephesians 6:10-20

"We are church. Church is't a place we go. Church is a thing we are, and it is a thing we bring into this world with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds. And so it is fitting for us to be big, and ridiculous, and beautiful out here in this weather and in this place."

"You're going to play God now let's talk about what it looks like to play God. It looks like you forgiving each other because you are forgiven. It looks like you being kind to one another because God is kind to you. It looks like you breaking down the walls in this community that tear us apart."

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

"God wants you to come join the 'Us' - be part of the 'Us'. And, those of us who are here with the 'Us' need to welcome 'Them'as part of 'Us'. And doing that will leave us changed."

Ephesians 4:1-16

"If we are going to experience what it means to love and be loved in this world part of it needs to be to claim who we are - honestly. Even if it scares us and even if we're insecure about it, we are saints. We have been chosen and set apart by God to move through this world in love, and to bring love where it's needed, and to tear down walls, and to speak truth in love."

Ephesians 4:1-16