In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.   Today, we hear a notoriously difficult story from Jesus.  The parable of the Dishonest Steward (the translation we are using calls him a “manager”) is very hard to understand.  Indeed, there are...

Jesus said, “Just so, I tell you.  There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.  As I was saying to the children, when I was just a little boy, maybe five or...

Take up your cross then, in his strength, and calmly every danger brave:  it guides you to abundant life and leads to victory over the grave. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.   At 309 S. Jackson Street in Montgomery, Alabama,...

Jesus said, “When YOU are invited, go and sit down at the LOWEST place.” In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. Humility is a virtue.  Whatever else we may be in the world’s eyes, God calls us to be simple, humble people—to live as...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. Today we hear a story about Jesus healing on the Sabbath.  And, like other stories of this kind, we need to be careful not to read it in an anti-Jewish way.  For, in the story, Jesus is speaking...

Is not my Word like fire (says the Lord)?   Is it not like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. About fifteen years ago, a book came out, called Take this Bread.  The author is named Sara...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. It is so good to be back home and to see all of you.  We had a great vacation.  As many of you’ve seen, our daughter Rachel got engaged to a young man that we really like.  We have known Alex...

The first century AD was a good century for Rome. The century before that was not. You may remember from school the story of Julius Caesar and his assassination and the struggle for power that emerged in its wake. Octavian, later known by his title Augustus, meaning...

If you’re anything like me, you probably were paying attention this week to the photographs that have come out of the James Webb telescope, NASA’s newest tool for discovering what lies beyond. Besides the images themselves, which are truly stunningly beautiful, what’s...

“Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’” I speak to you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. The Parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the best-loved stories in the Bible.  But who are we in the story?  Are we the priest and...

In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. I did a really nerdy thing this week. I had a hunch about something, a hypothesis, and so I tested it: I ran the Book of Common Prayer through an analytical tool that ranks words based on frequency, or how often...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. I have decided to follow Jesus.   I have decided to follow Jesus.   I have decided to follow Jesus.   No turning back.  No turning back. I’d like to begin with this old Gospel song, which comes...

In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. What do we really FEAR when we FEAR GOD?  A common theme in all of our readings this morning is FEAR. The fear of the Lord, or the idea that what keeps us in line as the people of God is a continuous sense of...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. I’d like to begin with a prayer: God above me, Father from whom my being descends, on whom my existence hangs, to whom I turn my face, to whom I stretch out my hands [in prayer]: God beside me,...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. Recently, I’ve been reading a book called Seeds of Faith.  It’s by Mark McIntosh, an Episcopal priest and one of our greatest theologians.  He co-authored it with Frank Griswold, our former...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. Jesus said, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”  Jesus is the healer of the nations–and the true desire of...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. I’d like to begin this morning by reconsidering something that I said on Ash Wednesday in light of the Good News of Easter—and, in particular, the Good News that the Holy City, the New...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. “How long will you keep us in suspense?” It is a good spiritual practice, I believe, to place the words of the different characters of Scripture in our own mouths from time to time. Maybe this...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. Three years ago, we baptized Bill and Heather Bane’s grandson, Jase McGuire, into the Body of Christ, the Church.  It was the first baptism I performed here at Trinity.  And, on that occasion, I...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. If I were to ask the children to draw me a picture of something–anything, really–they would probably, most likely, do it, and they would do it enthusiastically. I could ask them to draw...