Proclaim by Word and Example

This sermon was preached for the Feast Day of St. Andrew on Sunday, November 21, 2021 at St. Andrew's, Wellesley. The texts for this sermon are:  Deuteronomy 30:11-14 ,  Romans 10:8b-18 ,  Matthew 4:18-22  and  Psalm 19 . Part of training to become an Episcopal priest is a stint as a hospital chaplain - and part of hospital chaplaincy training is a practice called “verbatims.” It’s when you sit down with some fellow student chaplains and analyze a conversation you’ve had with a patient. Now, as the name suggests, this is done quite literally word for word. Let me tell you, having your colleagues pick apart your words is just as intense and vulnerable as it sounds. One of my turns, a colleague pointed to a prayer that I had prayed a million times – something like “Be present, God, with this family.” “Hang on,” my colleague said, “Why do you ask God to be present? Doesn’t this imply that God might not be there yet?” I couldn’t stop thinking about his critique as I...

On October 13, a woman was attacked in a Philadelphia subway in broad daylight, in front of several other passengers. [It was widely reported] that the assault lasted several minutes before anyone intervened - although some commuters turned their phones to record the incident. People saw and did nothing.  This is not the first time something like this has happened and it won't be the last. But it garnered national news because people fretted that this type of incident may be the way we are now, after months of self isolation and self protection and the breakdown of social mores. Have we forgotten how to be together in a public place? Who we are in a crowd? T here is a well-documented psychological phenomenon called the bystander effect . Its basic assertion is that people are more reluctant to intervene in an emergency when others are present. In fact, the more people there are, the less likely any individual is to help any other person in trouble.  There are so many barriers...

  This sermon was preached at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Wellesley on Sunday, October 3, 2021. The reading for this sermon is Mark 10:2-16.  I can’t hear this Gospel proclaimed without thinking of a particular moment in my seminary chapel when it came up in the lectionary to be read. In that sanctuary, the Gospel was proclaimed right in the center of the aisle, in the midst of the students and professors. This particular Thursday night, the reader had just gotten to the part of this passage about the parents bringing their children to Jesus, when a squirmy toddler sprang free of his mother’s arms. And as the line “Let the little children come to me” was read, the just-barely-walking child tripped, tottled, crawled straight up the center aisle toward the reader, reaching, reaching with his little arms toward the speaker of Jesus’ words, shrieking with joy. The escapee was soon snatched up by the back of the overalls by his mother but not before my pewmates and I shared a gr...

  This sermon was preached for St. Andrew's Episcopal Church on Sunday, September 12, 2021. The text for this sermon is Mark 8:27-38. This past week the New York Times Arts section ran a story about a new exhibit at the American Kennel Club’s Museum of the Dog. Opening in time for the twentieth anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks, the exhibit memorializes the hundreds of rescue dogs who searched for survivors amid the wreckage of Ground Zero. The dogs ranged from tiny rat terriers to German shepherds and golden retrievers. They and their handlers worked 12 hour days, in some cases for 10 days in a row.  But they found no survivors.  In fact, their desperate search was so fruitless that the handlers had to stage “mock finds” so the dogs wouldn’t get too discouraged.  But the exhibit also commemorates how the dogs served in another way. Anyone who has ever had a relationship with a dog would not be surprised to learn that the dogs became a source of comfo...

  This sermon was preached for the Feast of Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2021 for a joint online service for St. Andrew's, Wellesley and St. Michael's, Framingham. The texts for this sermon were:  Ezekiel 37:1-14 ,  Acts 2:1-21 ,  John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15 , and  Psalm 104:25-35, 37 . In 2008, a small self-published novel by William Young, The Shack , hit the bestseller lists in U.S. The book has caused quite a stir for its personification of the Holy Trinity as three mysterious characters the protagonist converses with and learns from throughout the novel. In particular, it was Young’s depiction of God the Father as a motherly black woman called “Papa” that stuck with me - not necessarily because of how she was illustrated but for this small conversational habit of hers. Every time the protagonist mentions anyone to Papa, God pauses, repeats their name with a smile and remarks in an off-handed way, “I’m particularly fond of him” or “I’m particularly fond of her.” Wh...

  This sermon was preached for the Second Sunday of Easter, April 11 for a joint online service for St. Andrew's, Wellesley and St. Michael's, Holliston. The texts for this sermon were:  Acts 4:32-35 ,  1 John 1:1-2:2 ,  John 20:19-31 , and  Psalm 133 . Over the course of Lent, Episcopalians voted March Madness bracket-style on the saint of the year in the annual “Lenten Madness” contest. This year, Absalom Jones, the first African-American Episcopal priest, won the Golden Halo – a good and righteous choice, for sure. But if I had to pick a saint for this moment we are in right now, I think I’d go with St. Thomas, the star of our Gospel story today. Thomas is left out of Jesus’ resurrection appearance to the disciples in the locked room that first Sunday. When the disciples come to him with what they saw and heard, Thomas responds with his own demand. He tells them, here’s what I need to believe that you say. Your story isn’t enough for me. I need to be in the...

From time to time in my faith journey, when my spiritual well has run dry, I find myself reaching back for resources that have nourished me in the past. This week, I turned back to a book that was given to me that very first Lent as an Episcopalian, five years ago. I want to offer it to you all now because this book turned everything I thought I knew about Lent on its head. Its central message also accords well with the Jesus we met here in the Gospel of John, who’s just been going on about the importance of the Spirit to Nicodemus. Also, since it’s Laetare Sunday – the day we take a bit of a break in Lent to rejoice in God’s mercy and grace – it’s a great Sunday to rethink Lent and let in some grace as well. The book called, very appropriately, "A Season for the Spirit," and it’s written by a local Anglican monk, Brother Martin Smith.  First you should understand that, growing up, Lent was a bit like New Year’s Resolution 2.0 in my family. We’d each take a look at our lives ...