The Holy Work of Portrait Restoration (Sermon preached 26 December 2021)

Good morning! And merry day-after-Christmas! We’ve gathered, we’ve celebrated, we have feasted, we’ve exchanged gifts. And we have heard the story, once more, of the birth of a child, some two thousand years ago, in a stable. Attended by animals, adored by shepherds and glorified by angels. And now it’s the first Sunday after Christmas. And the first really clear day in a while.

 Which may bode well for doing a little wondering about what difference Christmas really makes, after all is said and done. No worries – I can’t imagine ever being able to fully answer that question! Let alone in a Sunday sermon that I promise will be on the short side. It just seems to me that especially since, in a few minutes, we are going to be baptizing three new members into the body of Christ – and welcoming them into this local expression of it, this Parish of St. Matthew’s – maybe we can come up with just a small nugget. Something helpful for all of us to take away...(read more)

Blue Christmas (Sermon preached 19 December 2021)

A few days ago, when I sat down to begin working on this homily, the rain was falling pretty steadily on the patio outside. I turned up the heat, and tried not to worry about whether the wet weather might dampen our already fragile enthusiasm, as another possible Covid surge looms,for coming together this Christmas.

 

And then I remembered hearing, a few years ago, that in California December is generally the greenest month of the year. And thinking how strange it is that even as the earth nears the point in its annual orbit where its axis is tipped furthest away from the sun; when the sun’s light is actually heating the ground the least efficiently, and when the nights are nearing their longest, tender shoots begin to push up through the soil.

 

The rain has been late in arriving this year, this year that has already been, in some ways, so very long. It’s been less than a week since the first shower...(read more)

 

JBap Onstage, Right Now (Sermon preached 5 December 2021)

Friends, he’s back! That prophet, that forerunner who emerges from the wilderness every year on the second Sunday of Advent, talking about getting ready for the coming of the one more powerful than he. John the Baptist has arrived, right on time.

JBap, as he is known affectionately to Scripture nerds, appears in all four Gospels, and each contributes to the fleshing out of this unique character. Mark supplies the costume: the camel hair skins and leather belt (Mk 1:6); Matthew records some of JBap’s more scorching lines, as in, “you brood of vipers, who warned you of the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance!” (Mt 3:7-8)

John, in his Gospel, gives us JBap as witness, who says, early on, when he sees Jesus walking by, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; this is he of whom I said,  after me is one who ranks ahead of me” (Jn 1:29-30). And Luke, who happens to be directing Advent this year, Luke turns our attention to the setting: the particular historical moment when JBap appears. Luke wants us to know who was supposedly running things...(read more)