Tag: Power

Living in the New

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Sermon for Sunday, December 14, 2025 || Advent 3A || Matthew 11:2-11

Imagine with me the imprisoned John the Baptist in the days before his execution. He has sent his disciples to ask Jesus the question from today’s Gospel reading, and they have just returned with Jesus’ answer.

My days are numbered, my friends. Herod is weak. He’s a petty ruler susceptible to the whims and flattery of those around him. One of these days I fear someone I have angered with my words will sway Herod to kill me and that will be that. But until that day comes, I will do everything I can to help you live into the new reality that is happening all around us. You will not be left orphaned when I am gone. I have only ever been a caretaker, a herald for the one who is coming after me. Because of what you just told me, I am convinced more than ever that Jesus is that one.

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The Capacity to Act

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Sermon for Sunday, April 6, 2025 || Lent 5C || Philippians 3:4b-14

Two-thirds of the way through this sermon, I’m going to bring today’s second reading into it, but first I need to set the stage. Today, we’re talking about power, which is one of those tricky words because it can mean many different things to different people. We’re going to talk about three understandings of power, and I hope you will stick with me because the third one is the one we are aiming for.

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Forty-Two

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Sermon for Sunday, January 12, 2025 || Epiphany 1C || Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

For this sermon, I’m going to do something a little different this morning. Today is my 42nd birthday, and if you’re even half the size nerd that I am, you know that the number 42 is a special one. In the strange and whimsical science fiction series The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the number 42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. This answer was determined by the superest supercomputer that ever existed, but when the computer spit out the answer “42” no one could agree as to the content of the question that would result in such an answer. So now they had to figure out the question. The subtext of this very silly premise is that we (1) cannot outsource our own seeking and (2) we must never stop learning and growing.

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The Unbroken Circle

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Sermon for Sunday, September 22, 2024 || Proper 20B || Mark 9:30-37
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Imagine with me the memories of the Apostle Peter, near the end of his life, thinking back to that day in Capernaum that is described in our Gospel reading this morning.

We didn’t think Jesus could hear us on the road. He was lagging behind us, chatting with people who had come in from the countryside to see him. Only Philip, his self-appointed bodyguard, had hung back with Jesus. The rest of us were hungry and eager to get to my house, where they knew my mother-in-law would put out a fabulous spread. But for the moment, our hunger and exhaustion had gotten the better of us, and a stupid argument broke out. We argued about which one of us was the greatest of Jesus’ disciples. I thought I had a pretty good claim on the title, given that I was always by Jesus’ side, but so were the sons of Zebedee. Others thought it might be Thomas for his devotion or James the Zealot for his zeal. Bartholomew, ever the jokester, voted for Jesus’ shadow because it followed him everywhere.

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Listen to My Voice

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Sermon for Sunday, May 8, 2022 || Easter 4C || John 12:22-30

Two weeks ago in our Gospel reading, we heard Jesus say, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Last week Jesus told Simon Peter (and by extension, us the readers) “Follow me.” And today, we hear him say something else from earlier in the Gospel. He has just talked all about being the Good Shepherd, who calls the sheep by name, who brings the sheep out of the sheepfold, who lays down his life for the sheep. And then he says this. He says, “My sheep listen to my voice.”

The trouble for people reading or hearing the Gospel way back then is the same trouble we have today. None of them and none of us have ever audibly heard Jesus say anything. And yet, we follow. We believe. We listen. The question we’re going to ponder together for the next few minutes is “How.” How do we listen to Jesus’ voice? How do we listen to someone who lived nineteen centuries ago and who inhabited the other side of the world and who spoke a language that no longer exists?

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Grace-Full

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Sermon for Sunday, July 4, 2021 || Proper 9B || 2 Corinthians 12:2-10

There’s an old standby in American culture that when a job interviewer asks you about your biggest weaknesses, you end up turning the question around so that you actually talk about your strengths. What are your biggest weaknesses? “Oh, I suppose sometimes I work too hard. Sometimes I’m just too welcoming of others’ feedback. Sometimes I care a bit too much.” Now, it is true that someone’s weakness can be their strength taken to an extreme. But I wonder if we all know this particular interviewing convention because revealing our actual weaknesses is something that our culture trains us simply not to do.

And so when we read Paul’s words from this morning’s lesson, they probably sound wrong to our ears: “[The Lord] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’”

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The Upside Down

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Sermon for Sunday, November 1, 2020 || All Saints A || Matthew 5:1-12
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There are many ways to describe the overarching narrative of the Bible, the connective tissue that weaves through the many and varied voices and genres that make up the library of our Holy Scriptures. One theme describes God’s love and grace restoring all of creation back to God. Another tells a family story and invites all who read it to share in that story. A third way of viewing the thrust of the biblical narrative is what I’d like to focus on today. This third way sees our holy texts speaking to an upside down world – speaking God’s yearning for justice and peace in order to empower people to partner with God to turn the upside down world right side up.

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Three Kinds of Power (With a Lot of Help from Star Wars)

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Sermon for Sunday, October 4, 2020 || Proper 22A || Philippians 3:4b-14

Today, I want to talk about power. Like the word ‘love,’ we use the word ‘power’ to mean several things, which makes any discussion about power challenging. I’m going to move through three understandings of power, and I hope you will stick with me because the third one is the one we are aiming for. Also, I’m going to use Star Wars to illustrate the three types of power. (I’ve only used one Star Wars reference this year, so I’m well within my limits.)

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On the Basis of Love

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Sermon for Sunday, September 8, 2019 || Proper 18C || Philemon 1-21

I guarantee you that the Apostle Paul has no idea he was writing scripture. This fact lends a certain authenticity to his words because he was never trying to add to the Bible. Rather, his letters flow from his close relationships with people all over the Mediterranean, people he has met while planting house churches. Today, we heard most of Paul’s shortest surviving letter, his letter to Philemon. We know Paul isn’t aware this letter will become Holy Scripture because his words are so personal, so timely. “One more thing,” he says (after the verses we read this morning), “Prepare a guest room for me.” That’s like me emailing an old college buddy and seeing if I can crash on his couch for a few days. Such a normal, everyday request gives this short letter a down-to-earth quality, a glimpse into Paul’s extraordinary (and yet still very human) life.

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