Sermons (Page 22)
Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi
Alright, I’m no fool, there’s animals in church, maybe you’re in charge of one of them, maybe one is actively trying to convince you to go pet them right now, like I’ve got to work to keep your attention this morning. Why are there animals here today, Vicar? What a great question! Today we celebrate the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of merchants, needleworkers, families, and peace, as well as protection against fire, and dying alone. He is the joint patron St of Italy, along with St Catherine of Siena, founder of the Franciscan order, from whom we also get the Order of St Clare, put on the first ever live nativity scene and in 1224 had the first recorded case of stigmata! He’s also the patron saint of animals and ecology…
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
I need to confess that I don’t like today’s parable. It’s been a thorn in my side all week, and you’re probably getting the fourth rewrite of this sermon, but honestly, I stopped counting on Friday, so I don’t know. What makes me most uncomfortable is that I cannot seem to find the “gospel.” And when I say “gospel” I mean it in the Lutheran sense–the good news, that reminder of God’s grace, the recounting of God’s love, the thing that picks me up when the world kicks me down. Instead, this parable has a lot of fire and brimstone, a lot of talk about an afterlife, and it is based on the actions of the rich man and Lazarus…
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
I’m the kind of person who loves a good plot twist in a book or a tv show or video game or whatever. You think the writer is setting the story to go one way and then BAM we ended up going somewhere else entirely. When it’s done well, well then you’ve got my full attention! Which is ironic because I also have this terrible habit when I’m at home of being like “yep, I know where my husband is going with this conversation about like all the yard work we need to do, I only need to half listen here.” Until suddenly a sentence contains the phrase “with the fire” and it sounds like maybe a question was happening about this fire business and now he has my full attention again and I’m rapidly trying to piece together what led up to this, and…suddenly I’m not really feeling like a fan of plot twists anymore…