(Sermon for Sunday, December 2, 2012 || Advent 1C || Jeremiah 33:14-16) I’ve never been good at staying up until midnight on New Year’s Eve. I always seem to nod off at about 11:35, or in recent years, much earlier. There was one year back in my wild college days when I managed to keep … Continue reading »
Tag Archives: hope
First Words
(Sermon for Sunday, October 16, 2011 || Proper 24A || 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 ) Did your parents ever tell you about the first word you ever spoke? More than likely, your first word was “Da,” which is short for, “Daddy, go get Mommy so I can have lunch.” Perhaps, your first word was “Ma,” though … Continue reading »
The Dragon’s Skin
(Sermon for August 28, 2011 || Proper 17A || Exodus 3:1-15) Eustace Scrubb had read only the wrong books. The books he had read had “a lot to say about exports and imports and governments and drains, but,” says C.S. Lewis, “they were weak on dragons.” And so when Eustace accidentally accompanies his cousins Edmund … Continue reading »
Breathing on Statues
(Sermon for Sunday, May 1, 2011 || Easter 2A || John 20:19-31) Imagine with me the Apostle Peter, who is in Rome near the end of his life, talking to a friend about the day when Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to the disciples in the locked house. I wish I could tell … Continue reading »
Esperanza
(Sermon for Sunday, October 17, 2010 || Proper 24 Year C RCL || Luke 18:1-8) On August 25, 2010, a crucifix traveled 2,300 feet down into the earth. The Apostles’ Creed tells us that Jesus, after he suffered and died on the cross, “descended to the dead.” This crucifix, this representation of the cross supporting … Continue reading »
Make believe
(Sermon for November 15, 2009 ||Proper 28, Year B, RCL || 1 Samuel 1:4-20; Hebrews 10:11-25) Inigo Montoya, the Spanish hired sword who helped kidnap Princess Buttercup, is losing his duel with the Man in Black. The fight has ranged all over the rocky terrain at the precipice of the Cliffs of Insanity. The two … Continue reading »
Hope near the fourth jumbotron
We arrived on the Mall in the predawn chill after a two hour power walk from 24th and M. During the walk, we passed pairs of camouflaged soldiers at each cross street, a siren-blaring police car from the DC public library (?), and hundreds of vendors hawking T-shirts, hats, keychains, and copies of the Washington … Continue reading »
