Proclaim by Word and Example

This sermon was preached on Sunday, March 29 for Palm Sunday at Grace Episcopal Church. The Gospel for this sermon is:  Mark 14:1-15:47 . “She has done what she could…whenever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” Every Sunday we hear Jesus’s request that we remember his new covenant whenever we break bread and share wine together. In this Gospel, in Mark’s passion, Jesus asks us to remember something else—his anointing by the woman from Bethany. Her name has been lost to history, and, if we let her, she’ll disappear back into this long Gospel passage today as well. I might have passed by the importance her bold gesture, too, had I not encountered her just the other day at the high school, when some of our Peace team members and local clergy joined in a teen-led discussion helping friends in need. Our group started out by listing the problems our friends were facing—everything from the girlfriend who’s not e...

This sermon was preached on March 8, 2015 at Grace Episcopal Church. The texts for this sermon were:  Exodus 20:1-17 ,  1 Corinthians 1:18-25 ,  John 2:13-22 , and  Psalm 19 . On Thursday morning, the lights in the office started flickering strangely. Carol, our church administrator, and I had just enough time to exchange a look before the fire alarms began blaring. Thanks to twelve years of public schooling, my reaction to fire alarms is very well ingrained. I mentally ticked off the rules in my head: no time for coats and bags, leave everything behind, walk calmly to the nearest exit, don’t reenter the building. When I was little and frightened of the scary noises, the fire drill instructions were like a promise. Follow the rules and everything will be fine. Today’s Exodus passage presents perhaps the most iconic rules of Western civilization. The Ten Commandments. A foundation of stone for the Israelites stand on in the desperate confusion of the desert wildern...