Sermons

Today is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord and, by association, the feast of all our baptisms. We celebrate the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry just as we celebrate baptism as the beginning of our ministry. May we dream of a church that is serious about God’s love.

The challenge for us is to find ways to celebrate the presence of God in the ordinary moments of everyday life—through the smile of a friend, the sharing of a meal, or the beauty of good music. Here’s a challenge: Keep the crèche up, or at least a part of it—perhaps a shepherd—to remind us throughout the year of God’s breaking into the ordinary and our invitation to live a radical gospel.

God's answers are here, in the words you already know how to speak. They have come, but they have come softly like small mercies. We might overlook as we search the skies for the grander miracles we desire. So, wait, anticipate, seek, look, and find. The answers are there for our finding. Are we willing to accept them? Will dare the joy of living them? 

Peace, when sought for its own sake, is elusive; but, when we seek to be peacemakers for others, it comes back a hundredfold. “It is in giving that we receive.” The best way to discover peace for ourselves is to seek to create peace in our family and in our workplace, and among the poor, struggling, and oppressed. John the Baptist challenges us to prepare for the arrival of Christ by bearing fruit worthy of repentance, and so we end where we began. What are we will to do for

The world was created beautifully, with a divine vision set before us, but along the way, we have broken some things. It matters, though, that what has been broken can be made whole! There is hope and a promise. In the midst of the stormy voyage, with bristling winds and frothy seas, we can set our eyes on a godly vision, where the sword shall not be lifted and war learned no more. It matters that we can catch sight of the shore and walk in the light of the Lord.

Part of the work of All Saints’ Day is to name the reality of death. Uniquely, we celebrate those who have gone before us. We name death as the ultimate hegemony – each one of us will one day die. We mourn it. We try to cheat it. We may fear it. We envision it as a beast rising up out of the sea. The larger truth, however, is that in Christ Jesus, the firstborn of the dead, death has been overcome. The saints — the holy ones — sit as inheritors of God’s kingdom, with death no