Proclaim by Word and Example

This sermon was preached for the third Sunday in Lent, March 20, 2022 at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. The readings for this sermon were:  Exodus 3:1-15 ,  1 Corinthians 10:1-13 ,  Luke 13:1-9 , and  Psalm 63:1-8 . I loved choosing a name for our baby. But the endless musings and debates and suggestions drove my husband up a wall. When I asked him about it, he explained that this was one of those decisions that it was impossible to do perfectly. No name would ever be all that we wanted it to be; every name has its issues. The truth, we discovered, is something closer to this: the child becomes their name, embodies and fills out their name, and yet no name totally encapsulates everything they are or are becoming. Poor Moses would really like to know God’s name. Especially for when people will ask him in whose name he is acting! After all, this strange burning bush has just charged him with an impossible, gargantuan task. It’s only fair of Moses, really, to ask. But the answer God g

  This sermon was preached for the first Sunday in Lent, March 6, 2022 for St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. The texts for this sermon were  Deuteronomy 26:1-11 ,  Romans 10:8b-13 ,  Luke 4:1-13 , and  Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 . Watch it here.  After my son was born, I had to take some time to reacquaint myself with my body and how it had changed. I remember standing in the shower, my first after returning from the hospital, simply thanking it for all it had done for me and my son the last nine months, for all that it had endured during labor.  One of the hardest parts was recognizing that my body was indeed changed forever, that some after-effects of pregnancy and birth are permanent. My abdomen is now etched with the same stretch marks that criss-cross my mother’s belly. There is no erasing them even if I wanted to.  My stretch marks became the final straw that shattered a secret, life-long illusion that if I just tried hard enough, lost enough weight, exercised the right way, my body cou