Proclaim by Word and Example

  This sermon was preached for the Feast Day of St. Mark's on Sunday, April 21, 2024 at St. Mark's, East Longmeadow. The texts for this sermon were: Ephesians 4:7-8,11-16,  Mark 16:15-20, and  Psalm 2:7-10. A book from my own childhood has made it into our nightly bedtime routine a lot lately. It’s called “Rocks in My Pockets.” It’s a sort of folksy parable about a poor family who lives on the top of a very windy mountain with very rocky soil. Their grandpa tells them they must always keep rocks in their pockets at all times or else they will be blown away by the wind. The rocks have other uses, too: the resourceful family uses them as balls thrown back and forth, they rub them in their hands every night during storytime, they even warm them in the fire and use them as foot-warmers on winter nights. They are ordinary rocks pulled from the earth of their mountaintop, but over time, the rocks become smooth and shiny and beautiful.  Rocks in My Pockets by Marc Har...

This sermon was preached for the third Sunday of Easter and the baptism of Joseph Matthew, Sunday, April 14, 2024. The text for this sermon were: 1 John 3:1-7,  Luke 24:36b-48, and  Psalm 4. Whenever I meet to prepare a family for baptism, I ask the parents and godparents to choose the question from our baptismal covenant that they like best and are most excited to teach their child or godchild about. In the case of our baptizand today, both his mother and his godfather had the same answer. They loved the sixth question, which is actually the most recent question added to our baptismal covenant: “Will you cherish the wondrous works of God, and protect and restore the beauty and integrity of all creation?”  Joseph’s mother, Jenn, lit up as she spoke about teaching Joseph to cherish the littlest of God’s creatures - even the ants that get in the house! Greg lit up as he spoke about teaching Joseph to appreciate the wonder of natural phenomena. He can’t wait to bring hi...

  This sermon was preached for Sunday, April 7, 2024 for the second Sunday of Easter. The texts for this sermon were: 1 John 1:1-2:2,  John 20:19-31, and  Psalm 133. In my childhood church’s Sunday school classrooms there was a chart on the wall with all of our names and little boxes with dates for putting stickers in for all the Sundays you were there in class. The stickers on my and my sister’s rows were neatly placed in just about every other column, for just about every other week, because the other weeks we attended my father’s Catholic church. I remember wondering what happened on those Sundays we weren’t there. Wondering if we only half belonged - even though my name being there on that list meant I surely did belong for real.  I’ve heard many stories over the years from folks whose Sunday schools had perfect attendance awards at the end of the church school year - and I’ve also heard other, heat-breaking stories about being shamed, subtly or not so subtl...