We need to follow Jesus...who calls us to leave our comfortable pews and serve. We need to follow Jesus...who calls us to tell the world the Good News that conquers death. We need to follow Jesus...who calls us to love our neighbor, even when our neighbor is hard to love. We need to follow Jesus, who calls us to dine with tax collectors, beggars, and sinners. We need to follow Jesus, who calls us to reach out to others across the boundaries of race, color, college football team, and anything other dividing wall we try to throw up.

Hope Springs Eternal

Follow Jesus (a sermon for Proper 9B 2021)

But, when Jesus touches the unclean thing, the power is reversed. This is the power of Jesus’ touch. To make that which the law declares as unclean to be clean. To take that which the world casts out and bring it back in.

Jesus’ Touch (A Sermon for Proper 8B, 2021)

They didn’t know the whole plan. They just knew the next step Jesus was asking them to take: Get on the boat and cross the border that lies between what you know, where your comfort is, and that which is wholly other to you. Theirs was a response of faith, not fear.

Faith and Fear (A Sermon for Proper 7B, 2021)

In today’s parable, we’re invited to see how God is always at work in our lives, like a seed scattered upon the earth. As a seed does its seed thing, so the kingdom does its kingdom thing. We may not understand it. Outward appearances may even suggest God is absent. It may look like nothing is happening. We sleep and rise. We wait. We trust. We hope. We pray. We go about the ordinary work of life. Yet within that ordinariness, the life of God has already been planted in each one of us. One day it sprouts. It grows. The invisible becomes visible. The full harvest was always there, hidden in the seeds. It may have been invisible but it was never absent. We now see what has always been.

More Than You Can See (A Sermon for Proper 6B 2021)

It’s alright if the world thinks you’re a little weird, because family even loves the weird ones.

The Family Table (A Sermon for Proper 5B 2021)

For God so loves Nicodemus. For God so loves you. For God so loves me. For God so loves the whole world...that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but may have eternal life.

For God So Loved... (a sermon for Trinity Sunday 2021)

Jesus comes to us - behind any locked doors we try to put in the way- and gives us his peace. Then he gives us his power to do the kinds of things that mere humans can’t do, the kind of things that Jesus was doing. Things like defeating our own selΟshness, loving other people, tending to the sick and suΜering, breaking down walls of division, and reconciling the world.

Unlock the Doors (A Sermon for Pentecost)

And what if we took our cue from Jesus? What if we came to the thresholds in our life trusting that Jesus Christ is with us. In the joy and in the sorrow. In the hope and in the despair. In the living and in the dying. Jesus is with us...always with us...at the threshold. And we know that Easter is always on the other side.

Thresholds (A Sermon for Easter 7B, 2021)

God’s love knows no boundary. God’s love knows no division. God’s love knows no “us” and “them.”

There is Only Us (A sermon for Easter 5B, 2021)

The Frightening Message of Easter

It’s rather like being on the roller coaster of our salvation story: the joyous wine of the banquet mixed with the bitterness of betrayal; the shame and agony of crucifixion answered with the unbelievable promise of life beyond the grave.

The Story Isn’t Over (A Sermon for Maundy Thursday, 2021)

Jesus chose to give in a world that takes. Jesus chose to love in a world that hates. Jesus chose to heal in a world that injures. Jesus chose peace in a world at war. Jesus chose to give life in a world that kills. Jesus offered mercy when others sought vengeance, forgiveness when others condemned, and compassion when others were indifferent.

The Way of Jesus (A Sermon for Lent 2B)

At the deepest level our Nazareths are about our understanding of God. We just can’t see how anything good can come out of Nazareth. We cannot believe that God can be present, active, and revealed in Nazareth, whether it be another person, a relationship, a situation, or our own life.

Can Anything Good Come Out Of Nazareth?

St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church (Columbia, S.C.) Luke 2:31-52

Growing Up and Leaving Home

Christmas this year has been isolating for many. Maybe it was for you. But the Good News of God in Christ is that the Word has become flesh and dwells among us. The Word isn’t just present in the big fancy church services, or the wonderful family dinners, or the Christmas parties. God is not just with us on the days when our calendars or homes or hearts are full. God is with us in the everyday, mundane, isolated moments. God is with us in the joy and the sorrow. God is with us in the dark and the light. God is with us in death and in life.

God Is Always With Us (A Sermon for Christmas Day, 2020)

Stories of hope in the Church (and some sermons along the way).

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Hope Springs Eternal

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