Services and Sermons

Sermon and Service ~ October 25, 2020

Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

October 18, 2020 ~ Sermon and Service

“Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” In the Name of the one, holy, and undivided Trinity. Amen.

October 11, 2020 ~ Sermon and Service

I don’t know about you, but I am finding myself getting grumpy about this COVID19 thing, the divisions in our country, and not being able to gather with friends and family

October 4, 2020 ~ Service and Sermon

We start with the Ten Commandments. This is a simple, forthright expression of a vision for the people of God. This is apodictic law. It does not say what will happen if we do not obey these commandments. They simply say, “This is the way it should be.

September 20, 2020 – Sermon and Service

From Exodus: “The Lord spoke to Moses and said, “I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’” In the Name of the one, holy, and undivided Trinity. Amen.

September 6, 2020 – Sermon and Service

Our three readings today invite us to consider the topic of confronting evil—the evil in ourselves, in our fellow Christians, and in our country. Let us take them in the order we heard them.

August 9, 2020 – Sermon and Service

Well, we have been buffeted by a wind this week. On top of CVID19 and confronting the systemic racism in our country, losing power, phone, and internet is seems unnecessary. For some of us it may feel like we are sinking. At the very least we need to bailing the boat. Wouldn’t be nice to just be able to walk on top of the troubled waters of our lives?

July 26, 2020 – Sermon and Service

Nothing can separate us from the love of God. (This is a subjective genitive—the love God has for us.) Nothing in all creation, not COVID-19, not racism, not wealth inequality, not disagreements about politics or masks. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. God loves everyone, no exceptions.

July 19, 2020 – Sermon and Service

So, we begin with Paul: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

July 12, 2020 – Sermon and Service

The good news is that this anxiety about disease and the turmoil about racism both can tools in the hand of our divine gardener to break up our packed earth, rake out the stones, and pull up the thorns, so that our hearts can receptive to the words, the blessings, and the love of God which is broadcast so liberally upon our lives.

July 5, 2020 – Sermon and Service

God loves us, everyone of us, no exceptions. And the yoke Jesus invites us to shoulder are to love God and love each other, no exceptions.

June, 28, 2020 – Sermon and Service

God loves you. God loves me. God loves everyone. Even the people we don’t, even the ones that cause damage to the world, even the ones who harm us. God loves everyone. No exceptions.

June 21, 2020 – Sermon and Service

I am sick and tired of this pandemic. I am sick and tired of racism and the abuse of power. I am sick and tired of polarization. I am sick and tired of death. And I am sick and tired of talking about them.

June 14, 2020 ~ Sermon and Service

We proclaim the possibility of a new and better world for which God yearns. And we dedicate ourselves to helping to build that new world. A world of justice, where authority and power are used to protect the weak from the strong, the poor from the rich, and the minority from the majority

June 7, 2020 – Sermon and Service

In this time of COVID19 and the response to the killing of George Floyd, it may seem irrelevant to be focusing on the arcane doctrine of the Trinity. Is that not merely a flight from the difficult issues of the day? Or might thinking about the Trinity provide a context or lens through which we might see our current context more clearly?

May 31, 2020 – Sermon and Service

Jesus said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” In the Name of God. Amen.

May 24, 2020 – Sermon and Service

        “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” In the Name of the one, holy, and undivided Trinity. Amen.

May 3, 2020 – Sermon and Service

We learn that voice through reading the Gospels and through talking to Jesus ourselves. And don’t be surprised if in following that voice we find ourselves sharing our resources with our neighbors breaking bread with glad and generous hearts, and praising God.

March 29, 2020 Sermon and Service

COVID19 is commanding much of our attention this Lent. Indeed, it almost seems as if protecting ourselves and our loved ones from infection and helping our neighbors in any way we can has become our Lenten discipline

March 1, 2020

Why would God not want us to know good and evil? Isn’t the ability to judge between good and evil a good thing? Are we not supposed to make moral judgements? How can we be good human beings if we don’t know what is good and what is bad?

February 23, 2020

When Jesus was baptized, there was a voice from heaven that said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” This marked the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.

February 16, 2020

Moses offers us a choice: life or death, blessing or curse. “Choose life!” he exhorts.

February 9, 2020

    Well, that’s a nice thing for Jesus to say about us. Then come the implications. We cannot lose our flavor. We have to shine for the world. He goes on to say that he did not come to abolish the law or the prophets; he came to fulfill them. Fulfilling both the law and the prophets is a tricky thing, for there is a tension between the commandments and the prophets who bring the word of God to the people of God.

November 10, 2019

The Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost                                             E. Bevan Stanley November 10, 2019 Proper 27, Year C, RCL Haggai 1:15b-2:9 Psalm 17:1-9 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17 Luke 20:27-38 Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to God all of them are alive. In the Name of the Father and of the […]