Sermons

The 3rd Sunday of Easter

April 23, 2023

Instead of a sermon, this morning Elizabeth invited the congregation into prayerful contemplation of the painting Kitchen Maid with the Supper at Emmaus by Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), which was painted around 1617-1618 and now may be seen at the National Gallery of Ireland.

The 2nd Sunday of Easter

April 16, 2023

Christ is Risen!

Yes, it is still Easter. In fact, it will be Easter all the way to the end of May. During this extended season of celebration, the scriptures the lectionary offers us tell several different resurrection stories and recount how the disciples struggled to understand the signs and visions that came to some of them and not to others. We will read of the rumors of Jesus being seen on the way to Emmaus and on a beach at the Sea of Galilee. We will hear the mysterious sayings of Jesus about being a good shepherd, about the many dwelling places in his divine parent’s home, about vines and branches and being one in Christ and one with one another, and about the Divine Comforter who would be with us always. In this long, celebratory season of Easter, we are invited to travel along with the disciples, sharing their wonder and confusion as they individually and collectively came to terms with the death of the individual they knew as Jesus of Nazareth and his resurrection as the Cosmic Christ, who walks through walls, appears and disappears at will, is only sometimes recognizable to his closest companions, and is still— somehow, mysteriously—both fully human and fully divine.

Easter Sunday

April 9, 2023

At home, the news is grim. Full of gun violence, racial tension and climate disasters. Destruction and despair haunt the headlines, and yet we gather this morning to celebrate the possibility of resurrection, not just for Jesus long ago, but for us and for all living creatures on this earth.

Palm/Passion Sunday

April 2, 2023

I first heard of Jesus in Galilee. People were talking about this man who was healing people who were lame, or blind, or had leprosy. When he met people possessed by demons, he commanded the demons inside them to leave. And the demons obeyed him!

So, I had to see for myself, and I tell you, it was amazing. There was something about him I’d never seen or heard before. He healed people and he told stories that made you think. When you did, you’d see a new way of living, like he was opening your mind and heart.

So, I took a leap of faith, left my work behind, and joined the small group that went with Jesus everywhere. When we’d come into a village or town a lot of people wanting to be healed and a lot of people who just wanted to hear his stories would show up. Jesus performed miracles so amazing if I told you about them you wouldn’t believe me. Groups of Pharisees would come to debate him, but Jesus knew Torah so well that sometimes he just left the Pharisees stunned into silence. I have no idea how everyone got fed, but somehow there was always enough. We always found a place to sleep, either on the floor in people’s homes or in a stable. We were living by faith in Jesus, and it was good.

The Fifth Sunday in Lent

March 26, 2023

In the final chapter of his book The God We Never Knew, theologian Marcus Borg traces the meaning of salvation in the Bible. Borg titled this chapter “Salvation: What on Earth Do We Mean?” to make the point that the primary biblical understanding of salvation has to do with our present life – not with an afterlife. In the Hebrew scriptures, a belief in life after death is not clearly stated until the book of Daniel, only about 165 years before the birth of Jesus. The Christian scriptures also affirm the belief in an afterlife, but that’s not what salvation means. Borg says, “

An initial clue is provided by the linguistic root of the English word. Salvation comes from the same root as ‘salve,’ a healing ointment. Salvation thus has to do with healing the wounds of existence. This is no small matter, for the wounds of existence are many and deep. Some of these wounds are inflicted on us, some are the result of our own doing, and some we inflict on others.[1]

The scriptures use many images for salvation, Borg says, in terms of both God’s actions with us and our experience. Images like liberation from bondage – think of the Exodus; reconciliation after being separated from a person or a community to which we belong – this is the Exile and return. Other images are salvation as forgiveness; as knowing God directly, the way one knows a person in relationship; and salvation as the kingdom of God, the image Jesus used most often, which is both a vision of a future society and a powerful reality, already present here and now.