Sermons

The Third Sunday of Easter

May 1, 2022

Jim Walsh spoke of his struggle to write his recent reflection on Easter, “A Rising Song” for the Inward/Outward blog where he is a regular contributor, and a moment of unitive consciousness that came upon him in the process.

The Second Sunday of Easter

April 24, 2022

Good morning!

I am preaching today because I opened my big mouth. A few weeks ago, in one of our Celebration Circle mission group meetings we were discussing the new Easter liturgy we were working on, someone raised a question about certain phrases and I vigorously defended them. Before I knew it, I was signed up to preach this Sunday. I didn’t even know what the Scriptures were until after our mission group meeting was over.

Luckily, the gospel lesson is about Thomas. I have always had a kind of affinity for Thomas. I know he is pejoratively called “Doubting Thomas,” but it always seemed to me that he just said what everyone else was thinking. He just opened his big mouth and said it. So, I feel a certain amount of kinship with Thomas.

Easter Sunday

April 17, 2022

As we turn to the gospel text assigned for this morning (Luke 24:1-12), we see that there is NO resurrection appearance of Jesus here. (AND of course no Easter eggs, Easter bunnies or Easter bonnets either.) In fact, Luke’s gospel seems, on the surface, pretty bleak. Just an empty tomb and some frightened women.

Can you imagine what it was really like for those Galilean women, picking their way through a stoney graveyard, barely able to see in the early morning light and fearful for their lives? And what they found was a gaping hole where the heavy stone had been rolled away. Nothing more.

But then two men in dazzling clothes DO suddenly appear – scaring them out of their wits. Their dazzling clothes provide a clue — these are angelic messengers.  “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” they ask. “He is not here, but has risen.” And then their instructions: “Remember…. Remember….”

Palm Sunday

April 10, 2022

I’m glad to see you, Lucas, old friend, and here in Jerusalem! But this is a busy time for me. It is time for Passover, the festival the Jews call Pesach, Pascha, in Latin. Jews are coming into Jerusalem as they do every year, mostly from the eastern half of Mare Nostrum: from Judaea and Galilaea of course, and from Syria, and Cuprum; from Aegyptus, Creta, and Cyrenaica. But some from other parts of the Empire.

The Jews say that the Passover commemorates how a leader named Moishe freed them from slavery in Aegyptus more than a millennium ago. They say their god performed miracles, somehow killing every firstborn Aegyptian male and drowning the Pharoah’s army that was chasing them. It had to be miraculous, because Moishe had no army! In every crowd of Jews during this Passover, someone starts talking about how their god – whose name they are forbidden to say – will drive out our Roman army and bring world peace. Once I said to one, “If so, your god will have to perform another miracle, since you have no legions.” He just smiled, and said, “The Holy One will provide us a Mashiach, a leader.”

The 5th Sunday in Lent

April 3, 2022

Good morning! Good morning to all of you in this room with me, and all of you in the Zoom room! How good it is that we are all together! Who among us could have predicted this, two years ago? “Thus says the Holy One,” according to Isaiah, “Forget the events of past, ignore the things of long ago! Look, I am doing something new!”

We’re coming up on the Passover holiday. Jews from all over Palestine are traveling to Jerusalem because that’s where you go, to the holy city to purify yourself for the holiest time of the year. Jesus, too, is on his way to Jerusalem with his disciples, even though they all know that he’s in serious danger: the people in power, the religious leaders, feel threatened by him.