November 9, 2008 (Pentecost 26, Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25) It is good to be back at St. Aidan’s after my week at CREDO. (Read More)
November 2, 2008 (All Saints, Matthew 5:1-12): When I was in elementary school, I was in this performance jump-roping team called the Kangaroo Kids. (Read More)
October 26, 2008 (Pentecost 24, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8): This is kind of a rare month of preaching for me. This will be the second time in just three weeks that I have preached on the epistle. (Read More)
October 5, 2008 (Pentecost 21, Exodus 20:1-20): At our parish retreat at Shrine Mont this summer, I had an interesting discussion with some others about rules and decision-making. (Read More)
September 28, 2008 (Pentecost 20, Matthew 21:23-32): I think it’s time we did some talking about which candidate good Episcopalians should vote for in the uncoming election. (Read More)
September 21, 2008 (Pentecost 19, Matthew 20:1-16): It just isn’t fair. This is an interesting week in our nation’s history to be raising the question of what constitutes fair business practices.(Read More)
September 14, 2008 (Pentecost 18, Exodus 14:19-31): Our Old Testament story for this morning is one of the biggies. God parting the sea just in time to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians. But it isn’t a simple, rosy exodus story by any stretch of the imagination.(Read More)
July 27, 2008 (Pentecost 11, Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52): I have a good friend from college who has her PhD as a school psychologist... (Read More)
July 13, 2008 (Pentecost 9, Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23): A good story is a powerful thing... (Read More)
July 6, 2008 (Pentecost 8, Matthew 11:16-30) During this season running up to the presidential election, it’s interesting to see how inconsistent our expectations for the candidates can be. (Read More)
June 29, 2008 (Pentecost 7, Genesis 22:1-14): What do we do with this story about God asking Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac? (Read More)
June 22, 2008 (Pentecost 6, Genesis 21:8-21) There's this old story about a guy who has a nice looking garden.(Read More)
June 15, 2008 (Pentecost 5, Genesis 18:1-15): Quite a while back, the Washington Post ran an incredible feature story called “Pearls Before Breakfast.” (Read More)
June 1, 2008 (Pentecost 3, Genesis 6:9-8:19): Last Sunday we went into D.C. to see Rolling Thunder, the huge procession of motorcycles that rides through the city every Memorial Day weekend.... (Read More)
May 4, 2008 (Easter 7, Acts 1:6-14): This morning, we look on while Jesus is lifted up and taken out of the disciples’ sight by a cloud. It makes for a strange image, doesn’t it? (Read More)
April 20, 2008 (Easter 5, Acts 7:55-60):Our first reading this morning is a little bit gruesome – the stoning of Stephen. (Read More)
April 13, 2008 (Easter 4, John 10:1-10): I started this morning thinking about something that was for a long time a real problem, but is now fast becoming history. (Read More)
March 30, 2008 (Easter 2, John 20:19-31): Why can't every Sunday feel like Easter Sunday? (Read More)
March 23, 2008 (Easter, John 20:1-18): Shortly before Easter last year the Discovery Channel aired a documentary by people that claimed to have found a 2000 year old tomb holding the bones of Jesus and his family. (Read More)
March 22, 2008 (Easter Vigil): This night is a line of contrast between light and darkness, between life and death, between hope and despair. And it is along that line that we find signs of the depth of a great reality we might otherwise miss altogether. (Read More)
March 16, 2008 (Palm Sunday, Matthew 26:14-27:66): For people used to hearing small digestible slices of scripture each week, the story we just heard may seem like too much to take in. (Read More)
March 9, 2008 (5 Lent, John 11:1-44): Somewhere in the last few years I have run across a great photo of Mary and me in front of a house we owned in Memphis. We are sitting on the front steps behind a huge pile of the ugliest, faded gold, sculptured carpeting you can imagine. (Read More)
February 24, 2008 (3 Lent, John 4:5-42): I have to begin the sermon today with a disclaimer. In fact, the whole sermon may be a kind of disclaimer for what you can expect from the church. (Read More)
February 17, 2008 (2 Lent, John 3:1-17): Just call me Nicodemus.... (Read More)
January 27, 2008 (3 Epiphany, Matthew 4:12-23): “Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.” “Immediately.” Oh my! (Read More)
January 13, 2008 (1 Epiphany, Matthew 3:13-17, Isaiah 42:1-9):I hope by now, you have all figured out the Jesus can be a whole lot of trouble. (Read More)
January 6, 2008 (Epiphany, Matthew 2:1-12): For me, it took an inquisitive 8 year old to help me get into the spirit of Epiphany... (Read More)
December 30, 2007 (Christmas 1): What do you consider solid? What do you depend on? What are the central truths about your universe that are so given....so basic that you don't even have to think about them? I'll go get a cup of coffee and be back in a while to hear your answers. (Read More)
December 23, 2007 (Advent 4, Matthew 1:18-25): The folks in our readings for today couldn’t have had any doubt about God’s presence in their lives. God is speaking, acting, and visiting all over the place. How is God visiting us? (Read More)
December 2, 2007 (Advent 1, Isaiah 2:1-5): Today’s the first Sunday of Advent, which means that it’s the start of our church year. So we can beat the world by almost exactly a month in saying HAPPY NEW YEAR! (Read More)
November 25, 2007 (Christ the King, Luke 23:33-43):Today is the Reign of Christ Sunday. It is a day when we celebrate and give thanks and praise for Our Savior Jesus the carpenter from Nazareth... (Read More)
November 4, 2007 (All Saints Sunday):This past Wednesday, on All Saints Eve, the day school canceled its weekly morning chapel to make room for its annual Halloween parade... (Read More)
October 21, 2007 (Pentecost 21, Luke 18:1-8):I have restarted my exercise regime. I have set myself a goal to walk at least five days a week and get a swim in at least once a week. (Read More)
October 7, 2007 (Pentecost 19, 2 Timothy 1:1-14):Many of you have experienced the fire pit that we got as a present from Holden’s parents. That fire pit has sort of changed the way I think about fire. (Read More)
September 23, 2007 (Pentecost 17, Luke 16:1-13): We probably all know something about flawed heroes. Some of our best heroes have been bandits, or worse. (Read More)
September 16, 2007 (Pentecost 16, Luke 15:1-10): I hate losing things, so I feel like I can relate to the shepherd and the woman in today’s parables from Luke’s Gospel. (Read More)
September 9, 2007 (Jeremiah 18:1-11): Is it too early to talk about Christmas shopping? I realize it’s only September, but I thought I’d try to beat the retailers to the season this year... (Read More)
August 26, 2007 (Pentecost 13, Jeremiah 1:4-10): The cover story of the August edition of the Washingtonian is called “The Secret life of Teens.” It hit all the worst things that kids are facing today... (Read More)
August 19, 2007 (Pentecost 12, Luke 12:49-56): So, Jesus is going to turn family members against each other. Once again the family values folks are having trouble getting Jesus to cooperate. (Read More)
August 12, 2007 (Pentecost 11, Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16):There’s a scene in Alice in Wonderland where the White Queen tells Alice that she is “one hundred and one, five months, and a day.” (Read More)
July 15, 2007 (Pentecost 7, Amos 7:7-17, Luke 10:25-37): Holden just finished remodeling our basement... (Read More)
June 17, 2007 (Pentecost 3, Luke 7:36-8:3): How do you all like my new and improved outfit? Now I get to wear the official uniform of the ordained person. First, there’s this collar... (Read More)
June 10, 2007 (Pentecost 2, Psalm 146): Like many middle class, mainline Christian kids, a lot of what I learned--that is actually paid attention to in such a way that it sunk in---a lot of what I learned about God and the church and people, I learned at church camp. (Read More)
June 3, 2007 (Trinity Sunday, John 16:12-15): Well, for the second year in a row, Easter came a bit late in it’s window of possible days, which means that all the feasts that follow Easter get pushed out a little farther in the calendar. (Read More)
May 6, 2007 (Easter 5, Acts 11:1-18): When I was a kid my family went to St. Anne’s church in Woodstock, a little crossroads north of Memphis. I guess I was about ten when they built a whole new church building on some donated land and moved the little congregation to Millington. (Read More)
April 29, 2007 (Easter 4, Acts 9:36-43): This makes my third sermon in a row that focuses on a reading about ordinary people experiencing miracles. (Read More)
April 15, 2007 (Easter 2, John 20:19-31): In our collect, we ask God to grant that we "may show forth in our lives what we profess by our faith." That, my friends, is a daunting prayer. Is there any hope that we can actually do that? (Read More)
April 7, 2007 (Easter 2, John 20:19-31): After Jesus died, it was all his followers could do to get his body in a grave (the followers that hadn’t deserted him, that is). They chose a tomb close to the place where he was crucified because the Sabbath was upon them... (Read More)
March 18 , 2007 (Lent 4, Luke 15:11-32): The prodigal son.....
...Last year I took a stab at leading a retreat for a men’s group from a big church in Memphis. They met at the diocesan conference center over Friday and Saturday night to explore their role in the church and to think about what it means to follow Jesus. (Read More)
March 11 , 2007 (Third Sunday in Lent, Year C (RCL), Exodus 3:1-15): Hadn’t Moses’ life been complicated enough? He was abandoned in a basket on the river as a baby while all of the other boys his age were slaughtered by Pharoah’s orders. (Read More)
February 11, 2007 (Sixth Sunday After Epiphany Jer. 17:5-10, 1 Cor. 15:12-20, Luke 6:17-26): Last month there was an editorial in the Post by John Yates, former rector of the Falls Church. You might remember reading it. Among other things, he argued that those of us remaining in the Episcopal Church “no longer believe the historic, orthodox Christian faith.” (Read More)
January 28, 2006 (Epiphany 2007): It seems we talk a lot--I talk a lot-- about God, but not Jesus. It is easy to be comfortable around the notion of God, maybe because God can be imaged as distant or as near, as all around or inside, but not specific. (Read More)
December 31, 2006 (The Eve of the Feast of the Holy Name): Merry Christmas. Or merry middle of Christmas. We still have a whole week more to celebrate. We in the Church have to do our part to keep the Christmas season going, even as slightly worn tinseled trees begin to pile up at the curbs all around us. (Read More)
December 17, 2006 (Advent 3, Philippians 4:4-7): A theme runs through the readings for this third Sunday in Advent. Zephaniah speaks in a time when Israel is living under the rule of a foreign power. (Read More)
October 29, 2006: Home. Two weeks ago on Sunday morning, my old friend John Rice and I went to church at the cathedral in Chester England. Every year or two, I take off for a... (Read More)
October 8, 2006 (Mark 10: 2-16): I am a cradle Episcopalian, and so I have a skewed understanding of most other versions of Christianity, but I know enough to know when something major is being changed. (Read More)
October 1, 2006: Membership has it’s privileges, says an ad for American Express. When you’re in, you’re in. You can bet that a lot of money and time was poured into connecting the idea of inclusion with the business of selling charge cards. (Read More)
September 17, 2006 (Mark 8:28): Jesus: Who do people say I am? The bit of Mark’s gospel we just heard marks a turning point in the story of Jesus’ life and ministry. (Read More)
September 10, 2006: The readings today call us to consider how we treat those who are not a part of our clan, those who seem different... (Read More)
September 3, 2006: Today we get a picture of the faith we hold as a work in progress.....something that is still being understood....still unfolding. Two voices speak to us today about the observance of laws... (Read More)
August 27, 2006: Review of the Bob Dylan concert this past week. Reviewer of questionable fanhood...mentioned a long haired man dancing and holding a flower...takes me back... (Read More)
June 11, 2006 (Sermon for Trinity Sunday): God above us, God among us, God within us. The Trinity is much more than a blueprint for how God exists. (Read More)