Dressing for This Occasion (Sermon preached 15 October 2023)

About three weeks ago, an article ran in the New York Times about the dress code in the US Senate.

I know, you may well be sitting out there thinking “I can’t believe she is going to talk about that!” With the horrors that have been unfolding over the past week in southern Israel and the Gaza strip, and the humanitarian crises that are emerging, not to mention the possibility of broader conflict erupting in that part of the world, why bother with a topic that is seemingly so trivial?

 

Why dig into this troublesome parable we just heard from Matthew, a parable that seems not only irrelevant, but in the end, pretty disturbing? Why, when we are witnessing the worst that humans do to one another, why spend pulpit time talking about what people wear?

 

I am just going to ask you to bear with me, and trust that by the time we finish struggling through Jesus’ story about a host, a banquet, and an underdressed guest, we will have more of an idea of what it means to be faithfully present in the midst of this terrible situation...(read more)

Who Are We, St. Matthew's? (Sermon preached 24 September 2023)

Happy St. Matthew’s Day, everyone! Every year, on or around September 21, which is, technically, St. Matthew’s Feast Day, we celebrate this parish and this community. We gather, we give thanks for God’s grace and guidance over 83 years since the parish’s founding in 1941. And we hear this story of how it all began, for Matthew, from the Gospel that bears his name.

 

On the surface, it’s a simple story. A plot that can be reduced to five bullets:

• Jesus sees Matthew.

• Jesus invites Matthew to follow him.

• Matthew does.

• Jesus and Matthew have dinner together later, with friends, which causes a bit of a stir.

• Jesus clarifies his mission.

 

But you could probably build an entire sermon on every one of these five bullets. Now, don’t worry – I’m not going to be doing that this morning! I’m just going to lift up a couple of themes that they suggest – even possible sermon titles that can speak to who we are and want to be, I think, as a parish named for this particular saint...(read more)

 

Learning by Being Wrong (Sermon preached 20 August 2023)

I invite you to take just a moment, and think of a time when you were wrong about someone. 

Notice I didn’t ask if you can think of a time like that – if you made an assumption about a person based on a first impression, or something you heard about them, or something your grandmother once said about people who look the way that person looks or are from where that person is from, and it turned out you were wrong. 

I didn’t say if because at one time or another we all have been wrong about someone. Being wrong about people is an inevitable consequence of a skill all of us humans develop as we grow up and move around in the world. We simply don’t have time to do a deep dive with every person we meet. So we learn to size them up quickly. To look for and recognize certain cues, conscious and unconscious. And draw conclusions from them.

I see a man walking down the street dressed in a certain style, moving a particular way. My brain instantly processes that information, and makes educated guesses about his age, socio-economic class, health, gender orientation, maybe even the quality of person he is. Because I trust the data I’ve already filed in here (gesture to head). I might not be absolutely correct – but chances are I’ll be somewhere in the neighborhood.

If you are seeing me preach for the first time, you’ll notice I’m a white woman of a certain age who stands up fairly straight, smiles a lot, speaks pretty clearly, sometimes uses big words – and already you’ve sized me up! Warm. Good energy. Credible (hopefully). And you will trust your assessment. It is a totally normal process. We all do it...(read more)