Sermons from the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

The presence of Jesus in physical form, physical human form is a continuous miracle throughout the gospels. Jesus' very being is a miracle, both transcendent and grounded all at once. And the path of love Jesus teaches us and invites us to enable us to bear witness, in our own days, to the miraculous nature of love.

"What we all need is to have compassion. And remember compassion is not about doing. Compassion is being a resting place for someone else's pain. So, compassion isn't leading people back to the sheepfold it is being sheepfold."

"There's something really wonderful about saying, 'Oh yeah, God is love isn't that nice.' Without acknowledging that that means that if God is love and God has called me into life, into living, into being in this world that I am made for love. And then I'm meant to live in this world as if that's true. Well, that might require me to look at myself differently"

"Then along the way of Love, we hear in today's Gospel

reading, Jesus sends out the 12 disciples to heal and teach like he had been

doing. Then later on, Jesus sends out 70 more disciples to do exactly the same

thing. So the Jesus love movement grew then and continues to grow even now because

Jesus' followers say and do something in the name of love and for the sake of

love, even if it's just a little thing. Just being grateful and faithful followers

of Jesus persuade us to speak on God's behalf to becoming a beloved community."

"This is our very human dilemma, as people of faith. Like Jairus, we desperately want our loved ones to be healed. Like the woman, we want ourselves to be healed. We pray faithfully, and yet if we focus on what we think that healing looks like, we may miss the healing that is happening in our midst, the healing that already is."

"Sometimes my son's wisdoms wisdom falls short of his ancient namesake, who reminded us that humility is a flower which does not grow in everyone's garden. And what I realized in my son Aristotle's response was a real-life example of society and scripture in conflict. The world says to us, punch that storm in the face. But the gospel says to us, ask for help. The world says, be afraid. And the gospel says, keep the faith. The world says, take control. And the gospel says, some things are beyond you."

"But in my mother's garden, the one that is wild and free with all the weeds growing in it, a conglomeration of cuttings from heirloom plants and pretty flowers from one daughter and hardy trees from another and exotic ground coverings from another and veggies to feed our friends and some flourishing throwaways that we rescued from the flower dump down the street. Among all of these, there in that place, the sign makes sense. Because that garden looks a lot like the world and that's where God is."

"But the power of family, the power of blood, can do so many things to keep us in its thrall and make us feel like we've got to stay in something that is unhealthy. We've got to put up with abuse. We've got to put up with being less than God has made us to be. And Jesus has a liberating message for us in those moments: That our true family, our true belonging, is found in the God who made us, and our siblings and parents are the people who understand that God is love. And the community that is built on the God of love is meant to become our family."

"We are always becoming who we are destined to become. Your very being is a love prayer, melting away the restlessness of this life. And it's centered in God. In God. Of God. About God. For God. Enfolded, immersed in a love which cannot be broken by any dark power of hatred or violence in this world. Transcending inner and outer fear. Transcending anxieties. Transcending apprehensions and preoccupations. It is possible to live in the world yet not be part of it. To keep a loose hold on this world. To be centered."

Image: Icon of the Trinity by Ellen McGuckin. Used with permission.

"Looking back at that reading in Acts, Luke writes, all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another; What does this mean? But others sneered and said they're filled with new wine. The Holy Spirit invites us to notice and witness with amazement, with wonder. Whether the Holy Spirit shows up as a dramatic force or a source of guidance and truth. Or as a surprise of a loved one at the door. Or as the gentlest touch in the anointing on the head of the newly baptized. In all of these expressions, we are invited to respond with wonder, with grateful hearts, with love."