Category Archives: Sermons
Mar. 18, 2012 Lent 4 “The Bronze Serpent”
Chapter 18 of the second book of Kings tells the story of a young king named Hezekiah who came to the throne in Judah at the age of twenty-five. It was around the year 700 B.C., three hundred years after the golden age of King David, and Israel had split into two kingdoms: the Northern …
Mar. 11, 2012 Lent 3 “The Cleansing of the Temple”
The gospel passage about the cleansing of the Temple always has a jarring feel to it, I think, because Jesus seems to be acting much more human than we are comfortable with. We know that Jesus is compassionate, that he is humble, that he is wise, that he has authority to heal diseases and cast …
Mar. 4, 2012 Lent 2 “Take Up Your Cross”
I’m going to ask you to imagine that you have a good friend named Bill. You’ve known Bill for thirty-five years, ever since you lived on the same street when your families were both young. Bill drove you to the hospital in the middle of January, in his pajamas, when your first child had appendicitis …
Feb. 26, 2012 Lent 1 “God in the Slums”
Yesterday the girls and I braved the snow and wind to drive down to Syracuse to see a performance of Les Miserables. It’s the first Broadway musical I’ve ever seen and if it’s the only one I ever get to see, I would have chosen this one, because the story is so profound. The plot …
Feb. 22, 2012 Ash Wednesday “Lent is about giving up chocolate”
Lent is about giving up chocolate. For a lot of people, maybe for most people, the first thing they think of when they think of beginning the season of Lent is that it’s about giving something up, something that they really like so it is hard to give it up, because it’s not virtuous unless …
Feb. 12, 2012 Epiphany 6 “I Am Willing – Be Clean”
We’ve been doing quite a bit of talking lately about reaching out to our neighbors, trying to share our faith with the people we live with or shop with or work with or attend meetings with. And I know I’ve mentioned before, the best and most natural way for us to share our faith with …
Feb. 5, 2012 Epiphany 5 “Let Us Go On”
The gospel reading from Mark today shows Jesus’s ministry getting off to a perfect start. Jesus and his disciples – it’s just a small group so far – have come to Capernaum. This is their home town, the little village by the sea where they grew up. Their friends and family are here. And things …
Jan. 29, 2012 Epiphany 4 “The Bridge of Authority”
Just a few years ago, a tourist boat set out on an excursion, filled with cars and passengers on vacation. But when the boat left its port, the doors were not shut properly so that by the time they reached the open sea the water began to pour into the boat. Very soon there was …
Jan. 22, 2012 Epiphany 3 “Fishers of Men”
Today in the gospel of Mark we read about the day when Jesus walked alongside the Sea of Galilee. There were probably dozens or hundreds of people out fishing, selling fish, salting fish down so it could be stored away, repairing and cleaning nets, fitting out the boats, because this was a fishing community – …
Jan. 15, 2012 Epiphany 2 “Nathanael meets Jesus”
As you read in the Bible, one of the things you begin to notice is that the writers don’t seem to be inspired by God to sugar-coat the characters or disguise their faults. Whether it’s the chosen nation of Israel or the judges, the prophets or the apostles – we get to see them, warts …
St. Philip's Episcopal Church 