Making Room for Sorrow (Blue Christmas Sermon 17 December 2023)

“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)

 

There was no place for them. No room.

 

This year I find myself wondering a bit more about that particular detail of Luke’s Christmas story. Of course, it sets up one of our most cherished, enduring images of Christmas, depicted in art, in song, in countless home nativity sets: the stable with the holy family tucked inside, with animals looking on in wonder, and shepherds humbly kneeling, and the baby sweetly sleeping in his manger bed.

 

But that all takes place after what happens at the inn. After the tired, footsore man comes to the door, asking for lodging. After the innkeeper looks past him to the laboring young woman standing next to their donkey, bracing herself against its flank, breathing through another contraction. After the innkeeper tells them she has no room.

 

The innkeeper is, I imagine, a woman of the world. She has provided shelter for scores of travelers. Some have been delightful and easy guests, who appreciated her hospitality and paid on time; while others have, as Rumi, the poet, would say, “violently swept her house”,[i] leaving chaos in their wake. Over the years she has learned to size people up pretty quickly. And this couple – well, she can just tell. There is trouble ahead for them. She can see that they are marked for sorrow.

And because she has had plenty of her own – sorrow, that is – because she herself has suffered and lost precious things, because she knows how hard that can be on the heart, she’d just as soon they don’t stay with her. Easier to not let them in. She doesn’t have space for that...(read more)

 

The Good News Begins With... (Sermon preached 10 December 2023)

“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”.

 That first line we heard in this morning’s Gospel reading is Mark 1:1. It’s the very first verse of his account of Jesus’ story. And then, after just a quick nod to the prophet Isaiah, at verse 4 we are up to John the Baptist. As my Biblical Studies professor used to say, Mark hits the ground running.

 

No genealogy, no angels appearing to virgins, no cousins getting together to swap pregnancy stories. No star, no shepherds in the field, no heavenly host, no nothing. If it had been up to Mark, there would be, God forbid, no creche to set on Christmas eve. No, for Mark, the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begins elsewhere.

 

“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”. This first verse of Mark’s Gospel is believed by many to actually be its title. But notice Mark doesn’t call it “the good news”. He calls it “the beginning of the good news”. That is important, and we’ll come back to it later.

 

For now, though, Mark is grabbing us by the hand, taking us up to a spot overlooking the Jordan River, and pointing to the crowd gathered on the shore and the masses still streaming down. “People from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem” were going to see John, he says. It’s the 1st century Palestinian version of the 10 West at rush hour...(read more)

Those Who Love Us Into Being (Sermon preached 5 November 2023)

This All Saints’ Day service is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful things we do here at St. Matthew’s.

 

It’s beautiful because of the music…thank you, Choir, Orchestra, Dwayne. It’s beautiful because of the remembering, and naming, of those who have passed into the nearer presence of God, when we read the Necrology in a few minutes.

 

And it is beautiful, especially today, as our world is being torn apart by human violence, and there’s so much heartbreak and grief out there, because we are taking this time out, to come together, and just be here. Be here and remember these ones who have shown, in their lives, the goodness and wholeness that’s possible for human beings; the love, grace, generosity, compassion and courage, that are the imago dei – that of God, in each of us.

 

The Church has been commemorating the Feast of All Saints since the fourth century. Initially it was to honor the “capital S” Saints - apostles and heroes and martyrs. More recently, though, Anglican observance has been expanded to include the “lower case s” saints - those we love and see no longer, who have been especially important to us in our lives. Today we honor them, too.

 

In 1997, Fred Rogers, “Mr. Rogers” of children’s TV fame, received an Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement. In his acceptance speech, which you can find on YouTube, Mr. Rogers reminded that audience, filled with beautiful, creative, incredibly successful people, how important it is to remember those “small s” saints – who have been there for us along the way. The ones who have seen us, and supported us, and encouraged us.

He said to them, “All of us have special ones who have loved us into being...(read more)

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)

What Jesus Does With Just This Much (Sermon preached 6 August 2023)

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself (Matt 14:13). 

On our way to the Feeding of the Five Thousand, a miracle which, by the way, is attested in all four Gospels – everybody knows about it, not just church people –  we might want to pay particular attention to that opening line in Matthew’s account. Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. Obviously, Jesus has heard something. And seeing as how he needs to get away from everyone and everything, it sounds like that something might not be good.

 

Last week he was teaching up a storm. Rolling out parables, one after another, about the kingdom of heaven being like a mustard seed, or yeast, or a treasure hidden in a field, or a matchless pearl. But since then, something has happened. And no, it’s not good. In fact, it is really bad. In the 13-verse gap between last week’s parables and this morning’s story, Jesus has learned of the grisly execution of his cousin, John.

 

Herod Antipas, the Roman puppet governor of Galilee, at his own birthday party, became so enthralled by his stepdaughter’s dancing that he promised, in front of all of his guests, that he would give her whatever she wanted. And, coached by her mother, she asked for...(read more)