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A Blessing of Candles for the Feast of the Presentation
The Feast of the Presentation, celebrated on February 2, is one of the major feasts in the church year. It is sometimes known as Candlemas or the Feast of the Purification. This feast is celebrated...
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A Blessing for the Feast of the Presentation
In a previous post I wrote about blessing candles on the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple. But what about a blessing specific to the feast itself? The Book of Occasional Services...
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A Life that Fits – A Sermon on Luke 2:22-40 for the Feast of the Presentation
St. Mary the Mother of God I recently heard a man say, “I feel as if I have dropped into my own life and it fits.” It made me smile. It was such a great description. I think we all want to be able to...
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Arvo Pärt’s Nunc dimittis
Nunc dimittis, the Song of Simeon, from the Feast of the Presentation: Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised; For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, whom...
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Act As If God Did Not Exist
When someone comes to you and asks for help, then you must not say to him with a pious mouth, ‘Have trust and cast your care on God!’ What you must do is act as if God did not exist, as if in the whole...
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Let Them Taste and See – A Sermon on Matthew 5:13-20
Who are you? How do you answer when someone asks you that question? The most common answer is to give our name. We might also tell a bit of family history and the connections that help identify us....
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Keeping the Rules or Keeping the Relationship? A Sermon on Matthew 5:21-37
Source: Wikimedia Commons You have heard it said, “The Old Testament is a book of law and judgment.” You have heard it said, “The New Testament is a book of grace and love.” But I say to you, “Welcome...
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Fairness, Monkeys, and Love – A Sermon Matthew 5:38-48
That’s not us, but it could have been. (image source) Somewhere around the time I was in kindergarten or the first grade my parents took my sister and me to a carnival that had come to town. The only...
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Taking Ourselves More Seriously than God – An Ash Wednesday Sermon, Mt....
“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your father in heaven.” (Mt. 6:1-6, 16-21; Ash Wednesday) Don’t sound the trumpet when you...
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Daytime Lives and Nighttime Lives – A Sermon on John 3:1-17
Study for Nicodemus Visiting Jesus, Henry Ossawa Tanner Nicodemus “came to Jesus by night” (John 3:1-17, Lent 2A). I wonder if that’s not true for all of us. I wonder if we don’t all come to Jesus by...
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Oscar Romero – In Life and Death his Blood was “a Seed of Freedom.”
Image source “A bishop will die, but the Church which is the people will never perish.” Those words of Archbishop Oscar Romero proved prophetic. He was shot to death on March 24, 1980 while celebrating...
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On the Feast of the Annunciation, Speaking the Creator into the World
“In the days of creation of the world, when God was uttering his living and mighty “Let there be,” the word of the Creator brought creatures into the world. But on that day, unprecedented in the...
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“Prayer is a Matter of Love”
Consequently, prayer is a matter of love. Man expresses love through prayer, and if we pray, it is an indication that we love God. If we do not pray this indicates we do not love God, for the measure...
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Clothes Really Do Make the Man, and the Woman
Icon of Jesus, PantocratorHagia Sophia “The Lord clothes his chosen souls in the garments of the ineffable light of his kingdom, the garments of faith, hope, love, joy, and peace, the garments of...
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Life-giving Turmoil – A Sermon for the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday,...
Icon of the Triumphal Entry (source) Today is known as the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday. (There are two gospel readings: Matthew 21:1-11 (the triumphal entry) and Matthew 27:11-54 (the passion))....
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Taking our Share with Jesus – A Sermon for Maundy Thursday on John 13:1-17,...
I’ve now been here at St. Philip’s long enough that you probably know one of the things I emphasize in my teaching, preaching, and our life together is the movement from thinking to experience, the...
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Hell Awaits – A Sermon for Good Friday, John 18:1-19:42
Last night we began taking our share with Jesus. We ate the last supper. We washed feet. We stripped the altar. We come here today much the same as we left here last night. The table of our last supper...
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Lamentations for Holy and Great Saturday
In a grave they laid Thee, O my life and my Christ; and the armies of the Angels were sore amazed, as they sang the praise of Thy submissive love. Entombment of Christ (source) How, O Life, canst Thou...
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The Morning After – A Sermon for Holy Saturday
The Harrowing of Hell (source) Jesus’ body has been taken down from the cross, received into the hands of his mother and friends. They have wrapped his body in their love and laid him in the tomb. The...
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