My One Sermon (Preached 21 April 2024)

It’s said that every preacher has just one sermon that they preach over and over again; one core message that runs through their whole body of work. And every time we preach, no matter how original we think we are being, or how novel a direction we think we are taking, it is still basically the same sermon.

Now as you can imagine, I’ve thought a lot about what I want to say to you today. And I’ve been wondering, what is my one sermon? And what might you who have been hearing me over these last several years say it is? Because what you and I hear is shaped by where we are when we hear it and, I think, what we need. And there is this space, between what’s said and what’s heard where very mysterious things can happen.

Still, if there was ever a time it is now, for me to say as simply and clearly as I can what I think my core message is. And it is this: God is here. Christ (God in human flesh) is here. Here in this place. Here in this moment. Here in every one of us, and in the space between us.

I believe this with all my heart. And sometimes, when I’m paying attention, and sometimes when I’m not, I see it. I feel it. It’s like “oh!”. I’m pretty sure this happens to you too.

Well last weekend it didn’t matter if I was paying attention or not – God’s holy presence was manifesting all over the place. And if you will bear with me, I’d like to tell you how it was...(read more)

Resurrection is Out There... (Easter Day 31 March 2024)

So they (that’s Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus and Salome) went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

 

This final sentence in this morning’s Gospel that we just heard isn’t just the last line in Mark’s account of what happened on the first Easter morning. It’s the last line in Mark’s Gospel period. Curtain down. Which means that in what is believed to be the oldest version we have of the Easter story, the risen Christ does not appear. Anywhere. 

Not cooking breakfast on the beach or showing his scars to Thomas in the Upper Room. Not falling in with travelers on the Emmaus road. Not commissioning his followers to make disciples of all nations. Matthew, Luke and John all go on, from the empty tomb, to describe actual encounters with the resurrected Jesus.

 

Mark ends with three brokenhearted women having to take a stranger’s word for it. Women who are so freaked out at the idea that “he has been raised”, they can’t even talk about it. It is kind of a disturbing ending, right?

 

Well, yes. So much so that early editors actually felt compelled to add more. Open up any Bible, and you’ll discover two additional chunks of text after this final line of Mark’s, one labeled a “shorter” ending and the other a “longer” ending, neither of which is found in the earliest manuscripts. It seems no one wanted to be left on that morning, with the disciples still in hiding and three women fleeing...(read more)

 

Transformed by Remembering (Maundy Thursday 28 March 2024)

“This day shall be a day of remembrance for you...”, declares the book of Exodus, after describing in exacting detail how the people are to celebrate the Passover. “Do this in remembrance of me”, says Jesus, after taking, blessing, breaking and sharing the bread and the wine at the Passover meal with his disciples on the night before he is arrested. “I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you...that our Lord Jesus said ‘This is my body that is for you…This cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this in remembrance of me’”, writes Paul in his first letter to the church in Corinth. 

The word “remember” comes from the Late Latin rememorari, meaning to be mindful of. To remember, then, is to bring something back to mindfulness. The Hebrew in the Exodus passage is zakar, whose meaning is essentially the same. And the Greek in the New Testament is anamnesko, which means “to deliberately recollect in order to better appreciate the effects or intended results of what happened.”

 

So you see, this idea of intentional, thoughtful practice of remembrance lies deep in the DNA of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It is what we are about throughout the church year as we gather Sunday after Sunday to remember our story through the reading of our Scriptures and to remember our deliverance through the celebration of Holy Eucharist.

 

And why do we do this? Because we believe that our communal remembering not only shapes us; it also transforms us....(read more)