Category: Sermons
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Holy Cross Day
September 14, 2025 Earlier in the Prayer of the Day we prayed “to those who look upon the cross, grant your wisdom, healing, and eternal life.” To those who look upon the cross, grant your wisdom, healing, and eternal life. There are plenty of crosses to look at in this space. When the processional cross…
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Lectionary 22, Year C
August 31, 2025 Earlier this year, the talented young actor Timothee Chalamet’ created quite a stir when he accepted the Screen Actors Guild of America award for best actor for his performance as Bob Dylan in the movie Out of Nowhere. In his acceptance speech, Chalamet’ spoke candidly: “I can’t downplay the significance of this…
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Lectionary 18
August 3, 2025 The farmer in Jesus’ parable was quite content. He had a bumper crop that year. The harvest yielded more, much more, than what he needed. It was such a good year that he wondered what he would do with all that abundance. So, it led him to have a conversation. A conversation…
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The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost + Lectionary 16, Year C
July 20, 2025 Hospitality is a beautiful thing. Be it hosting coffee fellowship after church, putting on a dinner or event in the parish hall, or entertaining friends or neighbors in your home, when we engage in hospitality, relationships are enriched and others are treated as honored guests. The Bible is filled with stories of…
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The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
July 13, 2025 Like all of Jesus’ parables, the Parable of the Good Samaritan can be viewed from many different angles. Today I want to consider two: the view from the road and the view from the ditch. In taking the view from the road we see a man beaten up and half-dead on the…
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The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
July 6, 2025 (Year C) Every Sunday following the recessional hymn, the Deacon or Assisting Minister stands next to the baptismal font to declare “Go in Peace. Serve the Lord.” This liturgical action is called the dismissal but it could just as easily be called the commissioning. A dismissal declares that we are free to…
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Saints Peter and Paul
June 29, 2025 When I teach confirmation, I ask those who are about to affirm their baptism to engage in a little project. I ask they choose a favorite saint. Together, we look at the calendar of lesser festivals and commemorations to explore the lives of the saints. The lesser festivals are for biblical people…
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Fourth Sunday of Easter
May 11, 2025 “”Therefore, we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised, so we also might walk in newness of life.” These words are inscribed on the floor along the perimeter of the square beneath the baptismal font. The baptistery is what we first encounter when we…
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The Third Sunday in Lent
We still get the paper edition of the Seattle Times every morning. The other day I was going through my morning ritual and when it came time to start reading the newspaper, I was taken aback. I’m not always taken aback. Like most of us, I’ve become accustomed and maybe even numb to bad news,…
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The Second Sunday of Lent
One spiritual practice I recommend during this season of Lent and pretty much anytime is the practice of lament. Prayers of lament go back to ancient times. Many of the psalms are psalms of lament. To lament is to complain. We lament as we grieve, lamenting the death of a loved one. We lament over…