Will You Do Me a Favor? (Sermon preached 6 February 2022)

“Will you do me a favor?” When someone asks me that question, I like to think, for a minute, before I answer! I have a friend who, when she is asked “will you do me a favor”, always replies “If I can…” which is brilliant, right? Because it sounds willing, but still, there’s lots of wiggle room. “If I can…” can mean “if I can…think it makes sense”; “if I can…find the time”; “if I can…decide it’s worth my while”; “If I can…live with the consequences.”

 “Will you do me a favor?”Jesus asks Simon Peter in the Gospel story we just heard. They’re standing at the water’s edge on the shore of Lake Gennesaret, which is another name for the Sea of Galilee. Jesus has been looking up at a huge crowd of people, already gathered, with more still coming. He’s seen the two fishing boats down on the beach, and the fishermen who’ve pulled them in, taking care of their nets - and has just climbed into one of the boats.

“Will you do me a favor? Can we put out a bit, so that I can teach from out there? Then everyone will be able to hear me.” It seems like no big deal, to Peter. It’s not as if he has plans for the boat. He fishes at night, so he’s done! All he’ll have to do is sit there ...(read more)

The Epiphany That is Us (Sermon preached 16 January 2022)

Happy Second Sunday of Epiphany! It’s great to be with you, albeit virtually. What a gift technology continues to be, right, as we move through this challenging time.

 Last week in his sermon, Bruce suggested that the Adoration of the Magi, the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, and the Wedding at Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine - the story we just heard from John’s Gospel - these three together form a kind of opening triptych for this Epiphany season, this season of unveiling. Each of these events reveals a dimension of who Jesus is: God’s son, given for all the world; God’s beloved, sent to proclaim good news; and God’s incarnate word, source of life abundant.

 

As we continue on through Epiphany, which will last another six weeks, each Sunday Gospel reading will tell of more revelations. From the synagogue in Nazareth to the shores of the sea of Galilee to the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus will be manifesting who he is and what he has come to do. It is all great stuff...(read more)

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)

The Minority Report (Sermon preached 31 October 2021)

This morning’s first lesson comes from a little book that is easy to miss; tucked, as it is, between two much longer historical narratives, Judges and First Samuel, in the Old Testament. The book of Ruth is like the anecdote you find in a footnote. That bit of backstory having to do with a character who will later become central: in this case, that character is David, Israel’s greatest king.

 

Still, the fact that this small domestic tale about a mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law gets preserved at all, is kind of remarkable. Some say that the wise ones who ultimately determined what would be included in the Jewish canon of Scripture - some say they held on to this sweet story to preserve a minority opinion. A dissenting voice that was raised sometime during the fifth century BCE. After the Israelites who had been carried off into captivity in Babylon had come home to Jerusalem. After they had decided that any foreign wives picked up along the way should go back to where they came from.

 

Ruth was a needed reminder that their tribal God was also an inclusive God. So inclusive that the daughter of an enemy people, who worshiped a different one, a different god, that is, could wind up in their royal family tree...(read more)

The Other Side of Relinquishment (Sermon preached 10 October 2021)

Before my recent sojourn to Alaska for a meditation, writing and kayaking retreat, I had not spent much time around Buddhist monks. But along with us for that incredible week off the grid were two support staff, both vowed Buddhist monastics who happen to be married to one another. 

Soten took care of some of the heavier chores, stoking the wood stove, maintaining the pump and filtration system that brought water into the lodge, and hauling kayaks down to the beach. And Shinei was in charge of the kitchen. She had fourteen of us to feed, three times a day, out of a small workspace with few conveniences: a sink, stove and oven, some pots and pans, and a couple of large, well-aged cast iron skillets. The refrigerator was so tiny that most of the fresh stuff had to be stored in cartons on the floor of the large breezeway where our boots and foul weather gear were also kept. 

Shinei told me later that she had been chief cook, for a year, at the monastery in Oregon where she and Soten lived. Which explained in part how magically, it seemed, she was able to produce pots of steaming cooked oatmeal, fragrant soups, luscious home-made breads, salads, rice noodles with roasted vegetables and tofu, and one glorious morning, two skillets full of fresh baked cinnamon rolls...(read more)