Tag: God

The Haiti Partnership

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Sermon for Sunday, October 18, 2026 || Proper 24A || 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Today is the feast day of St. Luke the Evangelist, writer of the third account of the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Luke’s Gospel focuses on Jesus’ mission of preaching good news to those in poverty, challenging oppressive systems, de-centering imperial power, and bringing together a disparate group of followers to form a beloved community. Taken together, these mission priorities continue to guide us today as we join God in God’s mission of healing and reconciliation in this broken world.

One of the primary ways we respond to God’s mission here at St. Mark’s is our long-term partnership with St. Luc School in Mercery, Haiti. Since tomorrow is the feast of St. Luke and since many of our newer members don’t have much exposure to this mission partnership, I’d like to take the sermon time this morning to highlight this important aspect of our mission: the Haiti Partnership’s history, its justice imperative, and our ongoing commitment to our friends and mission partners at St. Luc School.

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The Subject of Worship

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Sermon for Sunday, October 11, 2026 || Proper 23A || Exodus 32:1-14

Today’s sermon is a nuts and bolts sermon, one of those occasional times where I dip into Christianity 101 so that both recent and long-time followers of Jesus can find themselves on the same page. Today we’re going to talk about worship: what worship is not, what worship is, who we worship, and why we worship.

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Seeds of Life and Hope

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Sermon for Sunday, October 4, 2026 || Proper 22A || A Reading of “Seeds of life and hope”
from Ladder to the Light by Bp. Steven Charleston

Today we conclude our Season of Creation with a final sermon in our series about humanity’s relationship to the natural world. We began this series a month ago with the reminder that humanity is one with nature, part of nature, not over it or against it. We then asked nature for forgiveness for human exploitation and chose repentance, the changing of our hearts and minds as we interact with the more-than-human world. Then in the last two weeks, we practiced awe, awareness, and gratitude in our interactions with God’s Creation. In all these reflections, we have been guided by Pope Leo, Bishop Steven Charleston, Wendell Berry, and Meister Eckhart. 

We return to Bishop Charleston today, who shares with us a message of hope in the midst of the “gathering darkness” of this “windswept moment in history.” He says, “We are not afraid because we have seeds of life and hope in our pockets. Our task is to cast them as far and wide as we can. The breath of the Spirit will do the rest.” With this hope in our hearts, let’s conclude this series of sermons by pondering the nature of seeds and by locating our trust in the breath of the Spirit.

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Mystics in Our Own Backyards

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Sermon for Sunday, September 27, 2026 || Proper 21A || A Reading attributed to Meister Eckhart

Today is the fourth of five Sundays in our Season of Creation. So far, we have remembered that humans are part of nature, we have asked the Earth for forgiveness for human exploitation, and we have embraced the spiritual practice of awe. Today, we are going to deepen that practice with an exercise in awareness and gratitude. And we’ll begin with a foundational principle of our faith: because God created all things, all things are sacred. Every element of Creation bears the potential for sacramental encounter with God through the holy offering of our awareness. That’s why we call it “paying” attention. We put in the currency of our attention and receive a hundredfold the blessings of God. These blessings then spur our gratitude, which triggers a desire for greater awareness, which delves a deeper well of gratitude. Through God’s grace, this virtuous cycle turns us into mystics in our own backyards.

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Stand in Awe

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Sermon for Sunday, September 20, 2026 || Proper 20A || Exodus 16:2-15 || Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace

Today is the third of five Sundays in our Season of Creation. Two weeks ago we listened to Pope Francis reminding us that humanity and nature are not two separate things. Last week, we recognized humanity’s tiny cameo in Planet Earth’s 4.5 billion year existence, we asked Earth for forgiveness for human domination, and we began the action of our repentance. This week, famed activist, poet, and farmer Wendell Berry guides us with his down-to-earth wisdom, as we embrace the spiritual practice of awe.

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Life is Still Growing

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Sermon for Sunday, September 13, 2026 || Proper 19A || Matthew 18:21-35; Steven Charleston, excerpt from “Nothing is Lost” from Ladder to the Light

Last Sunday we began our Season of Creation with a reminder from Pope Francis that we are not apart from or above nature. We are nature. The natural world is neither simply the scenery for our lives, nor an object for us carelessly to use and discard. The natural world is a subject unto itself, a subject filled with other subjects, each a piece of the creativity of God. Today, we’re going to zoom way out so we can see humanity’s place in Creation, and then we will ask forgiveness for choosing domination over stewardship.

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A Season of Creation

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Sermon for Sunday, September 6, 2026 || Proper 18A || Matthew 18:15-20; Pope Francis, Laudato Si’

You might have noticed that our second reading today came from a non-biblical source. This is a highly uncommon practice in the Episcopal Church, so uncommon in fact that the bishop had to approve it. For today and for the next four Sundays, we will hear readings from sources other than the Bible as we celebrate a Season of Creation. This special season is a fairly new invention in the life of the Church. The season sets off a series of Sundays in September and early October with the specific intention of praising God’s presence in Creation and recommitting ourselves to the preservation and renewal of the natural world. It makes sense that this special season takes place during the long months of so-called “ordinary time,” which is another name for the thirty-ish Sundays between Pentecost and Advent. The days of harvest are upon us. The liturgical color of the time after Pentecost is green. Godly Play calls this time the “green and growing” Sundays. So, each Sunday from now until October 4th, we will share special readings, prayers, and songs in order to grow our awareness of, appreciation for, and commitment to God’s movement in Creation.

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A Resounding Yes (Updated)

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Sermon for Sunday, August 30, 2026 || Proper 17A || Exodus 3:1-15

Twelve years ago this week, I preached the most personally impactful sermon of my entire ministry. They say if the sermon doesn’t resonate with the preacher, it won’t resonate with anyone else. I never know for whom I am writing a particular sermon, but that one twelve years ago was for me. I needed to hear it, and it turned out so did a lot of other people. Today, I’m going to revisit that sermon because it’s message is perennial, and it turns out I need to hear it again now.

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Human Precepts and God’s Commands

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Sermon for Sunday, August 16, 2026 || Proper 15A || Matthew 15:10-28

This is going to be something of a slippery sermon. It’s going to be slippery because I’m going to be skating a very fine line when I talk about the difference between human rules and God’s commandments. I’ll make sure to warn you when I get to the slippery part, but first let’s talk about why this is our sermon topic today.

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A Lantern to My Feet

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Sermon for Sunday, July 12, 2026 || Proper 10A || Psalm 119:105-112

I don’t often preach about the psalm, but today’s reading begins with a particularly beautiful verse that captured my imagination this Tuesday, my normal sermon writing day. I was planning on writing at the Westerly Library while my kids were at theatre camp, but the back rear tire of my car had a screw embedded in it, causing a slow leak. Thankfully the guys at Town Fair Tire could take my walk in. I grabbed a seat in the waiting area, under harsh fluorescent lights, trying to ignore America’s Funniest Videos on the TV. I sat there, hoping the Holy Spirit would nudge me toward some words to share with you. (Don’t worry, the tire place will become important in a few minutes; I’m not just talking about it to pad the length of this sermon.)

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