Sermons from the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

"And what should we, saints and members of the household of faith, say about this exemplar, this visionary in exile, the prophet Daniel? I believe that he shows us, in a wonderfully rich way, how we should live in the world during our earthly pilgrimage. We are to remember that we, too, live in Babylon. We are exiles from our homeland, the city of God and the land of the blessed." ~ The Rev. Katherine Sonderegger

"Walking in Christ’s love is knowing. It’s knowing that this is God’s house. It belongs to all of us as caretakers. Whether we are talking about this church building, or the community, or the city, or the country, or the world. This is God’s house and it’s our call to care for it. How might we all tend it to be a place of love, welcome, and respect for all."

"Finding balance a lot of times is about grounding yourself, being sure of your footing and keeping your focus on something. The thing that I ask you to ground yourself in today is the knowledge of your true belovedness, your creativeness, the love that God has for you. And the thing that I ask you to focus on today is God."

"Your struggle, your wrestling, it’s not going away. And I’m sorry about that. I wish it was, genuinely. That is not the story we have. The story we have is of a faith where instead of God erasing our struggle, God blesses us in our struggle. Our church has begun this Becoming Beloved Community work, which is a long-term commitment to racial justice, healing and reconciliation. What is that but a wrestling? That’s not separate from who we are, that struggle is a part of who we are. Identifying it and acknowledging it is a blessing. We are a church who insists on the blessing."

"When we come to church and we listen for what we expect to hear we miss some of the most important stuff. We miss this kind of stuff because we come to church and we hear what we think we are supposed to hear: some nice pious stories about holy people doing holy things. We miss that wrestling with God is a holy thing that holy people do."

"Gratitude comes when we catch ourselves begin overwhelmed by the gifts we have been given."

"Faith is, in the midst of our acknowledgment of our brokenness, the act of reaching out with a hope that there is a possibility for us to be reconnected."

"We want God to come back and give new life to something that hasn’t fully died, so we can continue to say that we believe in love and justice. But at the same time, worship worthiness, our own and others, and make our whole God about us being useful, us being enough, us being worthy. Jesus is trying to put that to death completely. This love reality is not about your worthiness. It’s not about your usefulness. Those are our concepts. We attach worthiness and usefulness to love, not God."

"What the heck, Jesus? Miracles performed by mere humans? From a mustard seed? Masters and slaves? The propagation of destructive self-hate that we have become so accustomed to? The Gospel lesson for today is a suitcase over the weight limit in a heap of baggage that we carry as individuals and as the church."

"This is not how we’re meant to live. We are not meant to live waiting for some other time, later on down the line, when we can finally start to recognize the humanity of others. When we can finally start to love right. When we can finally start to be loved. Eternity is now."