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Sunday, November 3, 2024 - No one dies alone

This sermon was preached for All Saints' Day, Sunday, November 3, 2024. The texts for this sermon were: Isaiah 25:6-9,  Psalm 24,  Revelation 21:1-6a,  and  John 11:32-44. My grandfather died five years ago this past Wednesday, on October 30. At the time, I remember being so grateful that it was a quote unquote “good death.” Stephen Honan was surrounded by all his children and his beloved wife in the end. I had anointed him and prayed those powerful prayers of release and peace, and Psalm 23, too. I took great comfort in how close his death was to All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ and All Souls’, too, holding on to the hope that in some mysterious way, his passing was made easier by the thinning of the barriers of this world and the next. In good Irish tradition, our family gathered around his body, cousins, uncles, aunts, and there was joy and life there, too. Two of the littlest great-grandkids had just begun to walk - a sign that the great family my grandfather began was continuing
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Sunday, October 27, 2024 - Take heart

This sermon was preached for Sunday, October 27, 2024 at St. Andrew's, Ayer. The texts for this sermon were:  Job 42:1-6, 10-17,  Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22),  Hebrews 7:23-28, and  Mark 10:46-52. So I’m not a fan of the horror movie genre in general but I do love dystopian fiction. One monster that featured in both science fiction and Halloween-y stories is the zombie - the reanimated undead who go around trying to eat and/or infect people. If you watched or read any zombie stories, then you know there’s this classic trope that happens in pretty much every zombie flick. One member of the hero’s party - the friend, the mom, a survival buddy - gets bitten by a zombie but they don’t tell anyone. It’s only later, at a particularly dramatic moment, that they reveal they’ve been bitten but by then it’s way too late - now they’ve endangered everyone by hiding their wound. Maybe they even start turning into a zombie right then. I love how the trope is played out in the zombie parody movie, Shau
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Sunday, October 20, 2024 - Right-sized

This sermon was preached for Sunday, October 20, 2024 at St. Andrew's, Ayer. The texts for the sermon were: Job 38:1-7, (34-41),  Psalm 104:1-9, 25, 37b,  Hebrews 5:1-10, and  Mark 10:35-45. Last week on our family walk, my two year old and three year old were pointing out every huge truck that passed by - dump trucks, crane trucks, and carry-car trucks, always a favorite. “That truck is almost as big as my head!” my daughter would exclaim. “That truck is as big as my head!” my son would reply excitedly.  It’s not until four or five years old that most children are really able to understand “big,” bigger,” and “biggest” - and not until seven years old when most kids will consistently be able to order a sequence of objects by size. It’s why really little kids will try to fit their whole bodies into tiny matchbox cars. And why a toddler will often tell you that a tall, thin glass has more water in it than a short, fat one, even if they just saw you pour the same amount of water from
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Sunday, October 13, 2024 - The Double Loss

This sermon was preached for Sunday, October 13, 2024 in St. Andrew's, Ayer. The texts for this sermon were: Job 23:1-9, 16-17,  Psalm 22:1-15,  Hebrews 4:12-16, and  Mark 10:17-31. Appalachia has been on my mind and heart and prayers quite a bit lately, especially the swaths of Tennessee and North Carolina hardest hit by Hurricane Helene. My own first encounters with the region were in high school, when my church youth group served with the critical home repair ministry, the Appalachia Service Project, for a week each summer. Later in college, I worked as a summer staffer for that same ministry, this time hosting the groups of churches who’d rotate through our center each week to do basic repair work on homes and trailers in the surrounding hollers. As staffers, we’d oversee and assign the multi-week projects, so we’d get to know the families we were serving pretty well. That summer - that work and those relationships - forced me to confront the heart-breaking complexities of Ame
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Sunday, October 6, 2024 - Nourish & Strengthen

This sermon was preached for Sunday, October 6, 2024 at St. Andrew's, Ayer. The texts for the sermon were:  Job 1:1; 2:1-10,  Psalm 26,  Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12, and  Mark 10:2-16. That is not the Gospel I would have chosen for my first sermon with my new church, if it was up to me. It’s a doozy on any Sunday but especially when you don’t know the people you are preaching to very well. I don’t know who among you has been hurt by divorce, and who has been saved by it. I don’t know who struggles with the boxes of male and female, or who has been wounded by the Church’s historically strict vision for what marriage should or can be. I don’t know how this passage has been preached or interpreted to you before - full judgment or with abundant grace. But if this passage feels like a bit of a trap, it’s because it is one. The Pharisees pose this question about divorce to Jesus precisely because it was contested and controversial, in their day and still in ours. The leaders are asking not so
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Sunday, September 15, 2024 - Goodbye

This Goodbye message was shared for my last Sunday at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in East Longmeadow, MA.  This goodbye has been really hard for me. I’ve shared that from the pulpit in each of my sermons this past month and also in personal conversations with many of you. This was my first church, really, in so many ways. My first two Holy Weeks as a solo priest. 7 burials, 2 weddings, 16 baptisms, 106 sermons. So many of you let me into your lives in profound and meaningful ways. I waited with you in hospital waiting rooms, anointed you while you held your newborns, prayed you through your loved ones’ last breaths, puzzled through church finances over your shoulders, and pronounced your first kisses as married couples. You embraced my children - teaching them songs, celebrating their many noises during worship - you even gave my daughter the bed that will carry her through toddlerhood. You taught me the quirky St. Mark’s traditions, old and new - the Craft Fair, the 5k, Christmas
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Sunday, September 8 - Until we're blessed

This sermon was preached for the second Sunday of Creation and the baptism of Patrick Wayne on Sunday, September 8, 2024. The texts for this sermon were: Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23,  Psalm 125, and  Mark 7:24-37. In her book on the Bible, titled Inspired, Rachel Held Evans retells the pivotal story of how Jacob became Israel. On his way back home, Jacob wrestled long into the night with a mysterious figure, refusing to release the stranger even when he dislocated Jacob’s hip, even when dawn was breaking. Jacob won't let go of the stranger until he blesses him - blesses him with a new name, Israel, which means he who struggles with God.  Rachel Held Evans leans on the story again as she tackles the hardest parts of scripture. She writes, “I'm still wrestling, and like Jacob, I will wrestle until I am blessed. God hasn't let go of me yet.”  I won’t let go until you bless me. Jesus wants us to hang on, too. Throughout his ministry, Jesus praises persistence. He instructs his
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