My youngest daughter is getting married in May. My wife recently went to support her; there is a lot to do and seemingly endless choices. However, nothing had prepared me how best to deal with the numerous emails, texts, and face time sessions about the Mother of the Bride outfit! “What about this color? Do […]
Sermon Topic: Choosing
The importance of "having the fullness of our humanity engaged."
“There was once a sculptor who worked hard with hammer and chisel on a large block of marble. A little child who was watching him saw nothing more than large and small pieces of stone falling away left and right. He had no idea what was happening. But when the boy returned to the studio […]
Wisdom or Folly?
Recently, I was passing the subway entrance on my home from the grocery store. There is a street preacher named Pat who is a fixture in my neighborhood. He was standing at the subway entrance, as he often is, holding signs that proclaimed Jesus saves, and he was preaching to the passersby. Because I tend […]
Rejoice, Daughter Zion
There is a great feast in our two readings today on this feast of Christ the King. Our Old Testament lesson speaks of a Savior – a king who is triumphant and yet humble who will bring peace to the nations and whose dominion will be the whole earth. But whose King shall he be? […]
Will it be Magic, or True Love?
In 1959 the Clovers released a song about a young man who was searching for love. He goes to visit that gypsy with the gold-capped tooth down on Thirty-fourth and Vine. He told her that he had been a flop with chicks since 1956. So, she read his palm, made a magic sign, and sold […]
Charity signifies a turning toward the kingdom of God and its subjects.
The late, great Jesuit spiritual writer, Anthony de Mello, once described the idea of riches by reflecting on a newly married couple: Husband: “I’m going to work hard, and someday we are going to be rich.” Wife: “We are already rich, dear, for we have each other. Someday maybe we’ll have money.” We hear some […]
Getting Our Priorities Right
Anthony de Mello tells a lovely story of a rich industrialist who was on vacation in South East Asia. Late one morning he was horrified to find a fisherman lying lazily beside his boat, smoking a pipe. “Why aren’t you fishing?” said the rich industrialist. “Because I have caught enough fish for the day,” said […]
The Faith of Rebekah
It may have been difficult to tell what was going on in our first reading this evening, from the book of Genesis. We didn’t get very much background or introductory material which would have put it in context. Puzzling as it may have been in isolation, however, what we heard was a pivotal moment in […]
The Race, the Goal, and Jesus' Enemies
Our reading from the latter part of Philippians this evening is packed with a number of Saint Paul’s favorite themes. The Christian life is an endurance race; Paul says he presses on to win the prize which is the high calling, the upward call, which God gives to us in Christ Jesus. This understanding of […]
Confounding Vice by Cultivating Virtue
The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. [Romans 13:12] Our Director of Music, John Scott, and our assisting priest, Joel Daniels and your Curate, Michael Spurlock all profess to be Christians and they all […]
