Picture the Jordan River, its waters moving sluggish under a sun that burned the skin and split the stones. Around you, a crowd of dust-worn faces, their eyes hollow with the weight of what they’d seen. There in the shallows stood a man, cloaked in camel’s hair, the sandstorms of the desert etched into his […]
Sermon Topic: Baptism of Our Lord
The Baptism of Our Lord
The Wonder of Baptism
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. I fear sometimes—well not sometimes, actually quite frequently— I fear that we, that we the church, have a hard time leaning into wonder. That we’re suspicious of wonder. That we don’t quite trust the wonderful. We don’t really know […]
Unexpected Epiphanies
One does not have to have the keenest powers of observation to notice that Christians are a quarrelsome bunch. We argue over everything there is to argue about, from the profoundly serious to the embarrassingly trivial; we argue about things speculative and things prosaic; the sacred and the profane. To paraphrase Ecclesiastes, Of the making […]
Look for stars and mountains!
The glory of God made manifest.
From the earliest of days the feast of the Epiphany has been marked by three wonderful stories that speak to us of the revelation or manifestation of God’s glory which is the very meaning of the word “epiphany.” We have heard the story of the wise men, the magi, searching for the King of the […]
Trinity and Epiphany
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. I’m sure I’m not the only one who counts himself lucky this afternoon to be here for this service. The readings and prayers are those customary for this season following Christmas, but the Epiphany music of this service is a unique gift […]
Christ's Three Epiphanies to Us
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Like the Procession we do on Advent Sunday, this first Sunday after the Epiphany is a summary of the season of Christ’s epiphanies, (or manifestations, or revelations) of his Person. We focus on three which are celebrated in Tradition and […]
Epiphany Pilgrims
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen. An epiphany is a manifestation, in today’s case a manifestation of Christ’s glory. The Church’s faith is one of many epiphanies, reaching back to the beginning of ancient Israel, when the Lord revealed himself to Moses and to the […]
On Some Necessities of Baptism
It was the practice in the early church for those desiring to be baptized to undergo a long catechumenate during which they were very thoroughly instructed in the Christian faith. On this, the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, I offer this short catechism dealing specifically, as they relate to baptism, with the indwelling […]
A Sermon for the Baptism of Our Lord
From the earliest days, the church has been embarrassed about baptism, or more particularly by the way that it was instituted by our Lord. And you can probably guess what is the difficulty. If Jesus is sinless, and we must remember he is, why does he submit to baptism which was expressly offered for the […]
