These writings are designed for preaching on the Sundays that correlate to the scripture listed in the Lectionary of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. As of Advent 2010, these are no longer the texts selected for use in most Episcopal Churches. But mine does.
Each sermon links to the scripture that influence it.
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Jesus Is Always There
(A sermon for John 14:23-29 Presented at Christ Christ, Bordentown, NJ, May 24-25, 2025)
A few chapters prior to today’s Gospel, Jesus during the Last Supper tells his apostles that he’s leaving them. It is sad news for them being told that “Where I’m going, you cannot come.” I imagine this had to hurt. It had to hurt having their friend and teacher who they loved, say essentially _ “Good-bye.”
Now, unless you’re hoping for it, no one likes being told, “Good-bye”. And we don’t like the feeling of losing someone we love. It feels like_ abandonment … like being adrift on a river that’s not going your way.
The apostles wrestle with this news from Jesus, and appeal and negotiate. They cannot comprehend the situation they are living through. They can only feel the abandonment. They can only feel the hurt.
Then a few chapters later_today’s Gospel_is a continuation of the conversation, and it turns to words of faith and love.
(Gospel & Sermon begin at 6:05) Firstly, Jesus conveys patience, he says, “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you”
Then He conveys peace by saying, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”
Then He offers an other worldly gift, “I do not give to you as the world gives.”
Moreover, He says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
Because even though He is going away, He assures them, “I’m coming to you”.
So even though this sounds confusing _ he just said he was leaving them, now he’s saying he’s coming to them _ this is a message of joy. And this message of joy isn’t just in the Gospel this week. It’s in every part of today’s lectionary readings. You’ll find it in Psalm 67, and the lines from Joel, Acts, and Revelation. And today’s Collect stands out saying: “O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding”.
It can be difficult to travel from confusing thoughts of abandonment to feelings of joy. It can surpass our understanding of how we can get from one point to another. But we can, and we do.
In 2017, I experienced the death of a coworker and friend, who was older than me, and always had time to chat and provide me with the odd pearl of wisdom about work, such as “you know, they’re not paying you extra to be aggravated”. His passing left a hole at my job that never got filled.
When I attended his funeral, I didn’t know what to expect. The church, St. Matthews in Maple Glen, was packed full of people that I did not know. A small number were family members but mostly it was people who knew Dave, and from the eulogies and conversations I overheard, his passing left a hole with them too. As I drove home afterwards, I cried the entire time, feeling left alone, and confused by my own visceral reaction.
But over time, my confusing thoughts of abandonment began to sort themselves out. I eventually came to a place of joy, from realizing how lucky I was to have known him, lucky to hear how others felt the same, and astonished by how many people he touched, and how many more stories there were to tell that I will never hear.
And even though my friend is gone, I often imagine how he would apply his acerbic wit and pithiness to my current list of grievances. So in a sense, his presence is still with me. But just in another form.
The apostles struggled similarly in trying to make sense of Jesus’_ “in one way I leave you, in another way I come to you”. They would soon understand that Jesus’ presence was possible in many forms. Therefore, He was never gone in the first place. He had never abandoned them. Nor would He.
For me, I feel like today’s sermon is the third part of a dark trilogy. My last sermon was about torture. The sermon before that was about disbelief, and this one is about abandonment. However, all three were about God’s never ending, and constant presence even when there is doubt, pain, and fear.
Thus, we are never as alone as it may seem at times. On some days you may feel like you’re adrift on a river that’s not going your way. On other days you’ll recognize that all of this, this human life, surpasses our understanding, and ___everything is going to be OK.
Hopefully though on most days, you feel the presence of God, and Jesus, and the Holy Spirit working through you, with you, and for you.
Because it is. All the time.
Amen.
And here’s some music that inspired this sermon …
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Jesus & His 40 Day Fast
(A sermon for Luke 4:1-13 Presented at Christ Christ, Bordentown, NJ, March 8-9, 2025)
So Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where He fasts for forty days and endures Satan’s temptations. Upon his return, Luke tells us that Satan tempts Jesus three more times. One, for Jesus to turn a stone into bread. Two, for Jesus to believe that Satan has the ability to grant him authority over everything. And three, for Jesus to jump off a cliff for nothing bad will happen as a result.
Essentially these three temptations were all encouraging Jesus to act sinfully and turn away from God.
This is Satan’s chance to hit Jesus one more time while he was perhaps at his weakest human point _40 days of fasting.
(Gospel & Sermon begin at 23:25)
But what happened during those 40 days? Scripture didn’t give us the details of what Satan did, but it seemed tortuous. Perhaps what happened is kept from us for a reason. Perhaps what Satan did was too gruesome to be printed. Or, perhaps so petty that it wasn’t worth giving it attention. Knowing what we believe about Satan and their hate for us _ probably a bit of both.
Whatever it was, Jesus endured forty days of torture while fasting.
I’d like to think I would have the fortitude to survive such a test. But it’s doubtful. I don’t like fasting; I like eating. If I don’t eat, I’m cranky and I’m not clear-headed. And that’s after just one day.
I would find it difficult if I was trying to steady my thoughts in a retreat alone in the wilderness _ in concert with the Holy Spirit _ and during that entire time having to endure the nagging poking and prodding of some demon.
I imagine that Satan would present to me an oasis where the air smelled of my favorite foods with the promise that I could lead a perfect, painless life. All of that and more! if I turn away from God and look to Satan as the ultimate authority.
But Satan’s authority is a lie and there is no perfect life. I preached this a few weeks ago. Christianity _ believing in God and Jesus Christ _does not make our lives perfect. But neither will Satan_ or anyone _ or anything else you choose to idolize.
It’s easy to believe then that the details of those 40 days are kept from us because the specific incidents don’t really matter. We don’t need to focus on the sordid details of Satan’s antics because in the end, they amount to nothing but a pack of lies.
What we need to focus on, when we think about those 40 days, is that Jesus showed us that triumphing over evil _ for us _ is possible. This demonstration is another example of how Jesus is the new covenant between God and man.
God through Jesus shows us as that:
We can endure.
We can forgo sin.
We don’t need to show-off, and greedily consume more power and attention.
We can rely on the assistance of angels.
We can be confident in overcoming temptation.
But there’s also something else God shows us in this example. And that is we don’t need to fixate on the darkness in our lives _and get caught up in every inconvenience or complaint we have about the world. We can turn away from hate and turn towards love.
Thus when we turn to love _ we can act in love, whether we’re feeling love or not.
When we act in love, we are able to turn our attention to our fellow men and women who are in tragic situations…. Whether it’s those whose homes are decimated due to a natural disaster or warfare, or whether it’s because addiction or crime has consumed their lives, or whether someone is just sick, scared, cold or alone.
We can turn our attention toward them, and at the least, pray for them that they have patience under their sufferings.
Pray that they may have a happy issue out of their affliction. And pray for ourselves that we can be a cup of strength for them.
By enduring those 40 days, Jesus showed us that we can act in love in spite of enduring hunger or torture. He wasn’t just showing us that our fasting was to go without food. He was showing us that our fasting is to go without hate and instead live with kindness and compassion.
If you really think about it, it’s a lot easier to go without hate for 40 days than it is to go without food for 40 days. You need food to keep you alive. You don’t need hate to keep you alive.
Hate is not why we were given life. We’re given life to turn to love and act in love.
Amen.
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God Doesn’t Let Anyone Go
(A sermon for Luke 5:1-11 Presented at Christ Christ, Bordentown, NJ, February 8-9, 2025)
Recently someone who I’ve known for a long time, surprisingly revealed to me that they didn’t believe in God anymore and they had a very unfavorable view of Christians. From my past experiences with this person, I knew better than to engage too much. So, I opted to just give a polite retort.
What my friend doesn’t understand is that Christians like everyone else in this world are imperfect, and unfortunately Christianity doesn’t make life, or us_ perfect. Christianity, instead, helps us sort out the complications of our lives, leads us toward happier outcomes, and guides us to understand that God is always with us.
(Gospel & Sermon begin at 11:29)
But sometimes, how Christianity does this for us is not always clear. Our scriptures give us paths and signs _ but sometimes give us multiple roadmaps with complicated directions, that still lead us to the same destination.
Take the four gospels for example. Four different stories of Jesus written for four different audiences that don’t always tell us the same events exactly, or line up perfectly in an historical timeline.
Today’s Gospel from Luke for instance tells us the story of the apostles Peter, Andrew, James and John giving up everything to follow Jesus. Many view Luke’s account of this event as the same event told by Matthew and Mark, just written differently. But Luke’s version is different enough that maybe Luke’s story is an account of _not the first time that Jesus calls them, it’s the second time that He calls them.
In Matthew and Mark, Jesus classically tells Peter, Andrew, James and John, “follow me and I will make you the fishers of men” and they stop what they’re doing, and start following.
The four apostles follow Jesus around Galilee helping him with his ministry. And that seems reasonable enough. But then it’s easy to think that the four men thought, “this was great helping you out Jesus, but I have to get back to work the next day. I’ve got customers who need their orders filled. I got to do payroll. I got to fix my fishing boat and my nets.”
So perhaps it was a struggle for these four men, they had to choose between their livelihood, or follow Jesus who they believe to be the savior.
So if this is the case, they go back to work and Jesus visits the four men again. And Luke documents that this time, Jesus came with a crowd. To be able to preach to the crowd, Jesus uses one of Peter’s boats to preach from. When Jesus finishes, he tells Peter to drop the nets again. Peter, believing this is fruitless effort, is amazed when the net catches enough fish to fill up many boats.
This time around, Peter recognizes that he has shamefully turned away from God. Jesus in response does not say again, “follow me and I will make you the fishers of men”.
Instead, he says “have no fear, from now on you will be catching men.” Peter’s reaction and the difference in Jesus’s statements suggests that Jesus had already said “follow me” once before, and they did. But not until Jesus followed up with an abundant catch of fish, and the assuring words “have no fear” did they fully follow him.
I think if this is part two of the story, it is more in line with human nature. It wasn’t enough to simply say, “follow me”. It took a sign of reaping abundance and [comforting words to not fear], to make it more palatable for them to follow.
It is an example of our human frailty and the precious frailness of our faith. As Christians, we worship Christ in church, we bow, we sacrifice. But we can choose to let it go. We can choose to be atheistic or agnostic. But God does not let us go, just like he did not let Peter, Andrew, John and James go.
God not letting us go, is clearly a major theme of the scriptures and to prove it, He gives us Jesus. He gives us Jesus to help us make sense of the complications of our lives, [to help us trust that God knows the outcome that we need is not always the one we want], and to guide us to understand that He is always with us.
Jesus says the right words at the right time to make us understand this, knowing that our lives are complicated, and the roadmaps take us in different directions, but still lead us to the same destination … back to Him.
So next time someone tells you that they don’t believe in God, a great way to change their minds is to politely retort, and treat them as Jesus would, with love and patience, remembering that God believes in them, and even though they are not following God, God is never letting them go. Just like he’s never letting you go.
And even though Christianity is not perfect, God never letting us go, is the perfect thing in the midst of our very imperfect lives.
Amen.
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Faith and the Wizard of Oz
(A sermon for Luke 21:25-31 Presented at Christ Christ, Bordentown, NJ, Nov. 30-Dec. 1, 2024)
For the past several years now, I have had the pleasure of working in different ministries in this church, whether that was serving at the altar, or through our adult education sessions, or preaching to this congregation. I’ve worked closely with Father Matt, listening to him, learning from him, and thankfully finding out along the way that his advice and opinions make sense, and his sermons are inspirational.
Each Sunday’s sermons brought us closer to understanding the Gospel and about Jesus. And we would learn things about Father Matt’s life, like one of his favorite movies is “Roadhouse” or his music tastes include Motorhead and AC/DC.
And seriously, these three things are absolutely fine examples of modern culture that I couldn’t agree with more, and thus certainly got me to raise my head up attentively. And these are just a few examples of how this would happen.
But all that came into question a couple of months ago, when our rector openly claimed in a sermon how much he detested the movie … the Wizard of Oz.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting right there and I completely spaced out after his bold confession, so I have no idea what he said after that, or why this cultural icon of cinema was on his abomination list. But it didn’t matter what he said. My head went down and my mind was a-flood with how wrong he was.
Granted, this is a movie that glorifies witchcraft as something good, and the Lollipop Guild song is probably the most annoying 25 seconds in the history of America cinema. But this is a movie rich in the human condition and dynamic.
The four main characters represent some inherent truths about ourselves. We either don’t think we’re smart enough,
or that we don’t love enough,
or that we don’t have the courage that besets us,
or have the ability to get home.
But as the hit song from the 1970’s stated, “Oz never did give nothing to the Tinman that he didn’t, that he didn’t already have.” This was also true of the Scarecrow, the Lion, and Dorothy.
So, despite a wicked witch, an army of flying monkeys, angry apple trees, narcotic poppy fields, meeting Oz’s big scary green head _ these characters stuck together through the “distress among nations”, and their own fainting from fear and foreboding, only to find out that when they got Oz’s attention, the song was correct. They already had what they were searching for.
And as I wrote this sermon, I wondered, do brains, hearts, courage, and wanting to go home cover everything about the human condition in this story? What about faith? Does the story need a character who thinks they lack faith?
At times they lacked faith. But not enough to keep themselves from venturing to the Emerald City. Even though Glenda knew Oz was not who he wanted everyone to think he was, Glenda knew enough about Oz to know he was the one who could help Dorothy.
Glenda had faith in Oz and gave Dorothy faith, and in turn, Dorothy spread her faith. And she spread her faith in a land that was ruled by an onerous and wicked leader.
So faith was not their problem. They were concerned with their lack of other attributes. Faith seemed inherent in them.
AND It’s that inherent faith that Jesus points to when he says to look to the blooming of a fig tree as a sign to us that Summer is near. What Jesus doesn’t say is that the fig tree knows that it’s time to bloom. It knows it instinctively.
The fig tree doesn’t need an Oz to tell it that it’s Summer, and that it has what it takes to bloom….The tree raises itself and points itself to the sun and does not worry about what it lacks.
So to you _ I encourage you to hear Jesus’ words _”stand up and raise your heads”.
Raise your heads in faith.
Raise your heads despite your flaws, real or imagined.
Raise your head despite your bad day.
Raise your head despite the weather outside.
Raise your head knowing your faith is already within you _ already within everyone _ and even when you feel shaken in your faith.
Raise your heads when you don’t agree with your leaders, or your preacher, or your rector.
Raising your head is inherent in each of you. So, when it comes to that time of redemption when you ‘see the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory _ remember your faith, remember the faith that you’ve had all your life _ and let that instinctive faith raise your head to meet Jesus.
I’ve made my case as to why The Wizard of Oz should not be a detested movie. In truth _ I couldn’t care less that Father Matt does not like The Wizard of Oz. It just goes to show that we don’t have to always agree. And when we don’t agree we can poke fun at it.
We don’t have to take our differences while we live in this world so seriously. When Jesus comes, He’s not going to care about our disagreements with each other over earthly matters.
He cares that we find ways to bridge our differences, and not let those differences erode our connections, beliefs, and faith in each other, so we are ready for our redemption when the Kingdom of God finally does arrive.
As you all know instinctively, it may be December today. But you also know that Summer is already near.
Amen.
And for that hit song from the 1970’s, here you go …
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Spiritual Friendships
A sermon for Mark 10:2-9 Presented at Christ Christ, Bordentown, NJ, Oct 5-6, 2024)
The best words I ever heard at anyone’s wedding was when I heard the priest tell the about-to-be married couple that there will be difficult times ahead, and that you will feel this friendship strained at times. And when this happens, I want you to think about this day and remember the love you have for each other right now and the vow you’re taking.
(Gospel & Sermon begin at 5:14) Because despite the pageantry, despite the dress that was said ‘yes’ to, and despite the designed wedding cake _the wedding day_ is a day of vows. Vows_ that you promise to love the person next to you for the rest of your life. Vows_ that you are joining your lives together.
And people join their lives together in all sorts of ways. Sometimes with this union, sons and daughters are created and/or adopted. Sometimes just cats and dogs are adopted. Sometimes the married couple don’t live together. Sometimes, and at times, they have a lot in common, and sometimes they don’t. And the variations go on and on.
Whatever it may be, what makes the marriage is that two people join their lives together, and when done in Church, it’s having God as their witness.
So, this question from the Pharisees about the legality of divorce, that attempts to draw Jesus into a contradiction of his teaching, raises the question of_ what is divorce? Conversely, it draws us to the question of_ what is marriage?
Jesus’ response to the Pharisees is that the Law for divorce was shaped to the character of those, for whom it was written. So that with a certificate, a woman who was now dismissed as an unworthy wife, was permitted to marry again.
But also, Jesus’ response hearkens back to the Book of Genesis and the reason for the origin of woman, which was for Adam to have help.
Thus, it was for men and women to have companionship, and that companionship comes in many forms_ to join together in friendship _ or in a formal committed friendship to join their lives together _ or to have offspring.
Each version of these companionships is two persons coming together as one, for men and women to live with each other, love one another, and to continue a fellowship of man.
When Jesus says, “what God has joined together, let no one separate”, it points to the notion that you shouldn’t just write off companionship with a certificate.
So let’s apply this to the real world of companionship in today’s times. As a person that has spent almost sixty years on this planet, I can relate to the expression that friendships are either for a reason, a season, or forever.
Let’s also be realistic. Hardening-of-hearts happens. Forever-friendships-ending, happens. Divorce, happens. Sometimes it’s supposed to happen. Sometimes it should happen. But judgment of these circumstances is not what we’re exploring in today’s Gospel.
Instead, we’re exploring our relationships with each other, how we relate to each other, and how this is linked to Jesus teaching us to love each other.
The theologian Aelred of Rievaulx wrote a book on friendship in 1164 and you can see in that book how a friendship that he described as “frivolous excess” would be a “reason” friendship, a friendship that he describes as for “something to gain” as a “season” friendship, and the “forever” friendships as truly spiritual. These forever spiritual friendships he describes come from two persons having the “likeness of life, habits, and interests” and also having “an agreement in things human and divine, with goodwill and charity”. He goes on to argue that a friendship based on this should last forever. And due to their complex and intimate nature, human beings will only have a few forever spiritual friendships in a lifetime.
He says that “Such a spiritual friend is a partner of your soul.” Moreover, this spiritual friend will in “silence protect all the secrets of your spirit _ and will …endure according to their ability anything wicked they see in your soul.” Sound familiar? It should because it’s the same friendship that you have with Jesus.
Thus, something this rare on earth should be sacred, held with the highest regard. If the friendship should be forever, then it should not be easily written off and we should thank God for having it.
And when it is a sacred and spiritual friendship that we can vow to each other as a marriage, it’s a promise to God to hold this companionship forever.
Just like the other six sacraments, marriage is a gift _ a divine gift of grace celebrated with a visible rite.
Jesus’ message is_ it’s a choice to do what you want with that gift. But before returning that gift, we should consider unhardening our hearts and think back on that wedding day and ask do I really want to write off this marriage?
And when anyone has reached that level of sacred spiritual friend, wedding or not, the same question arises. Either way all that’s being asked is that we firmly search our hearts before we walk away from any rare spiritual friendship.
Amen.
And now for some inspirational music …
Wired For Faith 
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