Proclaim by Word and Example

This sermon was preached for Sunday, June 30, 2024 at St. Mark's, East Longmeadow. The texts for this sermon were: Psalm 130,  2 Corinthians 8:7-15, and  Mark 5:21-43. It also references the previous Sunday's Gospel, Mark 4:35-41, well as the children's message book for this morning, The Three Questions   written and illustrated by Jon J Muth , that is based on the Leo Tolstoy short story, The Three Questions. Nikolai and Leo the Old Turtle from the children's book, The Three Questions written and illustrated by Jon J Muth, based on the Leo Tolstoy short story, The Three Questions. As many of you are aware, I was recently in the throes of an intense life decision. I reached out to one of my wisest priest friends from seminary, Father Phil Hooper, about what to do. In the middle of tying myself up in knots about all sorts of considerations and details, bombarding him with questions about this and that, he paused and texted back: “Can I give you my honest answer?” Oh boy,

  This homily was preached on Wednesday, June 19 for the burial Eucharist of Irene G. The texts for this service were: Revelation 7:9-17, Psalm 71:1-6 and John 11:21-27.  My name is the Rev. Mia Kano, I’m the priest-in-charge here at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. I had the honor of being Irene’s priest for the last two years of her life. Thanks to her devoted son, David, and her dear friend, Mary, I saw Irene twice a week, every week for a year - then once every week after that on Sundays. Now I’m a pretty new priest. I will always be grateful for the little ways Irene set about teaching me how to be a better priest. She is, even now, teaching each of us one last time. You see, Irene was well-practiced in grief. You don’t get to be almost 87- you don’t love the way she loved - without knowing how to live with grief. Irene walked with some big griefs in her long, love-filled life, and she knew where to turn for reassurance and encouragement - to her God, her church, her friends and her f

This sermon was preached for Sunday, June 2, 2024 at St. Mark's, East Longmeadow. The texts of this sermon were: Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17,  2 Corinthians 4:5-12, and  Mark 2:23-3:6. In Rabbi Sharon Brous’ recent book on faith, community, and connection, The Amen Effect, Rabbi Brous tells a story from one of her days as a seminary student. She describes being in the midst of a joyful worship celebration at the synagogue one Saturday. As the congregation burst into spontaneous dancing, she noticed a forlorn figure making her way to her. The woman explained to Brous that her mother had recently died. The mourner wanted to know if it was okay for her to join in the dancing. As a seminary student, Brous began making all sorts of calculations in her head: Jewish mourning customs would prohibit the daughter from dancing so soon after the mother’s death but at the same time, the dancing was in the context of worship…Finally, totally flummoxed and afraid of getting it wrong, Brous pointed the