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.
Read More >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.
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.
Read More >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.
Read More >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.
Read More >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?
Read More >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.”
Read More >And, indeed, we come here, on this day, ten years later, on this Homecoming Sunday, seeking the same; seeking the Source, the Source of all we need; the One from whom all blessing flow. We come here, we come home, because, if left to our own devices, we are like the slave who has been forgiven the 10,000 talents. If left merely to our own human nature, it is just too easy for us to harbor wrongs, and to let those wrongs embitter us, and, in turn, poison our lives.
Read More >Where there are human beings, there will be conflict. And where there is conflict, we have our work laid before us; the work of reconciliation, which we have inherited from the saints, from the disciples, and from Jesus himself. The work of reconciliation.
Read More >We construct the most buoyant boat we can with the finest infrastructure we know how to build. We hope and pray that this boat can weather the waves and winds of economic woe and political posturing out there. We crowd into the boat on Sunday mornings and hope for roughly an hour to “float above it all.” But, as our gospel passage this morning reminds us, Jesus is not currently in our boat. He is in the world out there in forms that at first glance might frighten us, like a ghost walking upon the sea.
Read More >St Paul’s Episcopal Church
815 E. Grace Street
Richmond Virginia 23219
Phone: 804.643.3589
Copyright © 2012 St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. All rights reserved.
