“Easter.” Such a dense word for us, with no lack of layers worth excavating, especially during the season itself. Many of you will know that the word began as the name of a pagan fertility goddess venerated as Ēostre. Or Ostara, if you were from Germany. The devout English historian, the Venerable Bede, he wrote […]
Sermon Topic: Easter
“You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
I have been reflecting on the virtual-reality world that most of us have been inhabiting over the past few weeks. In New York, it is commonplace to do things electronically – from ordering groceries to take-out food. Corporate businesses use conference calls routinely. Yet, now we seem to inhabit a world interfaced via a computer […]
Christ's Resurrection Changes Everything
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen. We are all here today because of an event which occurred in Jerusalem nearly two thousand years ago sometime between midnight and sunrise on the first Easter Sunday. No one saw it happen, but happen it did: God raised […]
To Be Continued
When was the last time you tried to get somewhere, only to be caught in one of those construction zones in which the sidewalk is closed and the noise is unbearable? There are those signs posted all over the place: hard-hat area, construction zone, or sidewalk closed. I really don’t like the barriers that make […]
One Word.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia! You see how easy that trips off the tongue? We know the end of the story and that means that even on Good Friday, we hear the Passion Gospel and even see that through the lens of the Resurrection. But to truly understand today’s Gospel, […]
When things are dark, God acts.
Over the past week, Archbishop Rowan Williams has explored with us how the trial and death of Jesus transforms how we understand and exercise power. One of his most striking addresses, before Tenebrae on Wednesday, described the silence of Christ and how silence, especially in our noisy world, can become liberating so that we can […]
Alleluia, the Lord is Risen
For at least some of Jesus’ friends, the first Easter morning had started very early, while it was still dark and quiet. It is hard for me to imagine the toll that the events of the previous week had taken on them. Everything had been tied up in Jesus. All of their hopes had found […]
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
I wonder how many of you are afraid of the dark. There is something about being awake in the night and not being able to sleep; somehow worries and concerns become amplified in the middle of the night. When I was younger, I would listen intently to the noises of the night and sometimes they […]
Would You Like to be Famous or Immortal?
A couple of years ago The New York Times ran an article entitled “Who’s more famous than Jesus?” (March 14, 2014) It was an article on a newly launched website called ‘Pantheon’ in which a team of designers, engineers, and scientists worked together to quantify, analyze, measure and visualize global culture. It’s fascinating; you tap […]
Hopeful Living
For many of us it is hard to understand the feelings of those who have lost loved ones in violent circumstances. As we celebrated the mass of Resurrection only a few hours ago, a suicide bomber walked into the children’s’ area of a park in Lahore, Pakistan, where families with children were enjoying their own […]
