Proclaim by Word and Example

  This sermon was preached on Sunday, January 31 for a joint online service with St. Andrew's and St. Michael's. The text for this sermon was: Mark 1:21-28. A week or so ago, I was honored to baptize a dear friend’s newborn son. It was just the four of us—baby Jack, his parents, and me—around the small font in the chilly garden, but it was no less real or special. Though we kept the service brief, I took the time to go through the movements of the liturgy with my friends before we began. In every preparation session with parents, there’s that awkward moment when we get to the renunciations – one of the two sets of three questions we ask the parents and godparents to answer on behalf of their child. The questions, you may remember go like this:  “Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?”  “Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?”  “Do you renounce all sinful desires t...

This sermon was preached for Sunday, January 20, 2021 for a joint St. Andrew's and St. Michael's online service. The texts for this sermon were:  Genesis 1:1-5 ,  Acts 19:1-7 ,  Mark 1:4-11 , and  Psalm 29 .  We are a covenantal people. Since the publication of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, the Episcopal Church has made it our practice to regularly return to the fundamental oath of our faith: the Baptismal Covenant. We say it whenever we participate in a baptism or confirmation. We rise to recite it year after year on the most special of Sundays: Easter, Pentecost, All Saints’ Day, and today, the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord.  As Episcopalians, the baptismal covenant constitutes the heart of what we believe it means to be Christian. We begin at this statement of faith, at these five questions. This is where the Gospel of Mark begins, too. Not with the baby in the manager, but with Jesus’ baptism. The voice crying out in the wilderness is the voice cal...