Weekly Sermons & Rector Blog

To Bethlehem; to Bethlehem, we have come.

2011-12-24T14:38:29+00:00

And, of course, this Christmas, tonight, and tomorrow, new memories are being made; a Carol sung, pure and exquisite; an old friend; warm, endearing words exchanged; a first Christmas for a new grandbaby; a candle lit, a face aglow, eyes agleam.

The Pointer’s Point

2011-12-11T18:05:38+00:00

More than fifty times, in his published writings, Barth refers to the Grunewald image; and, indeed, usually, it is precisely in reference to John, and John’s relation to the figure of Christ; as he points.
Barth (and Grunewald before him) understood John’s sole purpose to be to serve as a pointer to Christ, a reference to Christ, a witness to Christ.

Keep Alert, Awake, and Watchful

2011-11-27T15:53:27+00:00

On any given day, there are those things that would get our attention; those things that would bring fresh perspective; those things would remind us of what is most important, what is most true. If, that is, if we but notice. We never know when those things, those experiences, those people might come. And so it has always been, so it has always been.

A Theological Reflection on the Ministry of the Church

2011-11-20T12:28:10+00:00

The Rule of 72

2011-11-13T18:47:31+00:00

The Rule of 72, they call it. It’s a rule of thumb to figure how long it’ll take to double your money. If you know you can get 5%, on your investment, then you divide 5 into 72 and that tells you: it’ll take roughly 14 and ½ years to double your money. That’s the Rule of 72. Now, sometimes an investor doesn’t want to wait 14 and a ½ years, or however long the Rule of 72 tells you that you have to wait and so increased risks are taken. And sometimes you win, and sometimes you loose.

Walk the Way of a Servant

2011-10-30T10:08:51+00:00

We all want, in the words of St. Paul, to “lead a life worthy of God.” A life worthy of God. Un-like the lives of the false prophets, of Micah’s day, or the false teachers of Jesus’ day, the scribes and the Pharisees, teachers of the law. Their lives are un-worthy of God, we are told, in no uncertain terms. In their hypocrisy, they serve, not God, not God’s people, but themselves.

Just A Little Past 5:00

2011-10-26T18:07:26+00:00

We Need the Pharisees

2011-10-23T10:08:03+00:00

He might have ignored them. And, if he had, if he had ignored them, would we even know what a Pharisee is? Surely not. We, you and I, know what a Pharisee is precisely because Jesus took the time to respond to them. But why? Why, especially when their challenges to Jesus so often have an air of petulance and self-satisfaction? Why did Jesus dignify their challenges, their questions, their resistance, by engaging them?

Not Getting Lost in the Metaphor

2011-10-09T10:08:45+00:00

Most learning doesn’t come on schedule; it just comes. And so it was the summers I worked on my uncle’s place, out in the country. I learned how to plant a cypress sapling. I learned how to melt old paint off old wood. I learned to appreciate Bob Dylan. I learned all sorts of things. And it was during one of those summers that Charlie Holmes told me, very earnestly, that it was important “not to get lost in the metaphor.”

Word from Grace Street - Maps: Geographical & Otherwise

2011-09-21T17:45:25+00:00

Posted by Wallace+

"In the mid-17th century, Spanish seafarers sailed up the west coast of the Americas to what is now known as the Baja peninsula. The cartographers of the time simply drew a straight line up from the Strait of California to the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Vancouver Island and Washington state. Consequently, the maps that were published in 1635 show very clearly that California was an island. For 50 years, then, the years of the most constant, most crucial explorations of the California coastline, those maps went unchanged because someone continued to work with partial information, assumed that data from the past had the inerrancy of tradition and then used authority to prove it. Finally, after years and years of new reports, a few cartographers, the heretics, the radicals and the rebels, I presume, began to issue a new version, and in 1721, the last mapmaker holdout finally attached California to the mainland. But - and this is the real tragedy, perhaps - it took almost 100 years for the gap between experience and authority to close. It took almost 100 years for the new maps to be declared official despite the fact that the people who were there all the time knew differently from the very first day." - Sister Joan Chittester, O.S.B. (from On Being with Krista Tippett)

Where are the gaps in our lives between experience and authority? Where do our "maps" not match up with reality, with the reality both within and around us?

For the adventure that awaits, may God grant us both imagination and courage.