Alleluia! Christ is risen! Mark was the first person that we know of to write down the story of Jesus’ life. In fact, it is from the beginning of Mark’s account of Jesus’ life that we get the name for these kinds of writings: “The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ” is how the book of Mark begins, and “Good…
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Is there anything as amazing as what we celebrate tonight? I’m not talking about Jesus rising from the dead, as amazing as that is. If that were the whole story of Easter, it would be a short tale, and few would be celebrating tonight. But Easter isn’t about the miraculous resuscitation of a first-century rabble-rouser. It’s about the…
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The haunting, aching cry that begins the Twenty-Second Psalm, the psalm Jesus cries out from the cross, speaks of terrible, existential aloneness. What are we to make of the Son of God, who, we are told, says these words from the cross as he dies? And what are we to make of the…
Sometimes there are words in the readings that just sort of stop you short. Sometimes it’s just the pronunciation, but often it’s a word or a name that is obviously important in the context, but whose meaning is so obscure to our modern ears that we’re just baffled. “Paraclete” comes to mind, that word for “advocate” that we only use any more…
I am so honored to be standing before you today, this third Sunday in Lent. I was not expecting Bill’s invitation to preach at all, but during our weekly lectionary get-together, which includes pastors of several denominations, Bill asked me and I immediately accepted. So, here I am. And I am going to challenge myself by attempting to connect the dots between…
The fortieth chapter of the book of Isaiah begins what is often called “Second Isaiah.” We call it that because the book of Isaiah seems to have been written in three parts, by at least three different people, at three different times in the history of the Jewish people. The three sections are marked by changes in message, changes in vocabulary, and…
This week’s sermon was delivered by the Rev. Tommy Rogers. Since August 2011, the Rev. Thomas S. Rogers III has been the Episcopal Chaplain to the Johns Hopkins Hospital. His most recent parish responsibility was as the Associate Rector of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Frederick, Maryland.
The reading from First Corinthians is kind of disturbing, isn’t it? Paul seems convinced that the last judgment is coming soon, and he directs the followers of Jesus to live as if the only thing that matters is the present moment, and everything that is concerned with the future – weddings, funerals, hopefulness, and even grocery shopping, should be set aside to…
Today both our first lesson and our Gospel lesson are stories about being called – Samuel is called by God to prophesy to Eli, and Nathanael is called, first by Phillip and then by Jesus into discipleship. And calling may well be on many of our minds these days. This church is in the middle of a search for a new Rector,…