Sermons (Page 106)
Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost
I watched the funeral service for John McCain at the National Episcopal cathedral yesterday. I was very touched by the poignancy of the liturgy –vergers and all (they were the persons who guided service participants to the appropriate places to read or speak). It was a fond farewell to a national leader and emphasized the civility that needs to be the character of our national disagreements…
Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Here we are, one final week in John’s gospel before going back to Mark. I am excited to switch back to Mark. I find that John’s gospel is more confusing and can easily be misunderstood. For example, a superficial reading of today’s gospel could easily support an argument that Christians are cannibals. But let’s be careful not to miss the forest for the trees. To better see the forest, it’s important for us to remember why John was written. That’s why you have an infographic in your bulletin from the good people over at The Bible Project.[1] In the top left, we can see the intention of the Gospel writer. The objective was to lead us to the belief that Jesus is the Messiah, and that by believing, we may have life in his name. So, all this talk about bread over the past few weeks was to help illume one of John’s main questions, namely “what does it mean to truly live?”…
Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
When I started seminary four years ago, I learned a lot of new words: Eschatological. Pneumatology. Exegesis. Hermeneutics. (Not to mention all the Greek and Hebrew vocabulary I memorized.) It doesn’t really matter if you know what any of those words mean. There are days I’m not sure I even know what they mean…