Category: Sermons

One of the challenges of teaching is that as a rule you don’t get to see the results of your work. You prepare lessons and you teach your classes. You do the best job you know how, but really you invest the time and energy and don’t know how good or bad a job you… Continue reading Increase Our Faith

  Jesus told the story of two men. There was a rich man and there was a beggar named Lazarus. The rich man lived clothed in purple and fine linen and he lived in luxury. Lazarus lay at the rich man’s gate, “full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell… Continue reading When did we do all those things?

When my daughter Sarah was in elementary school and was a student of Marilyn Day, we had a movie about Mother Teresa of Calcutta at the house. Sarah and some friends were moved and inspired by the story of her life and the work she did. They formed a Mother Teresa club and decided to… Continue reading Being Shrewd

I think if you were to ask people what they hope to get out of their faith practice in the short run, many of them might say peace or serenity. There is a certain comfort in worshiping with our brothers and sisters. The Bible gives us a lot of encouragement along these lines. The prophet… Continue reading The Challenge to Do Something

It is funny how we say one thing sometimes and we mean another. People will say they are there for you. They say they will do anything for you. What they really mean is they like the idea but don’t want a want a call at 2 AM. When I was in college, we called… Continue reading The Fullness of Time

One of the things I do when I travel is attend Episcopal Churches in different places. This is an interesting experience because it gives you some exposure to different congregations and practices. There is more variety than you might think in the practice of the faith. You would think that this BCP would standardize things,… Continue reading Taking a Risk for the Gospel

In Jesus’ time as now, there were those who believed and those who didn’t. Oddly enough, those who failed to believe in Jesus were people like the scribes and Pharisees. These were the people who studied Scripture and who a compelling faith. You would think they would have been first to recognize the Messiah in… Continue reading Speak the Word Only …

When I was living in Tennessee, I was a volunteer fireman for a few years. The fire chief went to Jack Heffner, the Headmaster of my school, and he explained to him that the school’s insurance rates depended on the response time of the fire department. To keep those response times low, he needed to… Continue reading Unexhausted Cup of Day

There are plenty of things in life that are one-way trips. You do things that can’t be undone. In 1976 (or 1977 maybe), my girlfriend Susan and I went to see the Eagles on their Hotel California tour. If you remember the title song on that album, they talk about a hotel where you check… Continue reading We Can Start Anew

When I was in elementary school, we lived in Northeast Harbor, Maine. My father was the rector of St. Mary’s by the Sea. St. Mary’s had an interesting tradition on Easter Sunday. They had this four foot cross on a Christmas tree stand that was covered in chicken wire. To say this was hideous was… Continue reading Jesus is not a Stranger