Week of December 16, 2018
In last Sunday’s sermon I mentioned how we may know a neighbor both figuratively and literally in our lives. The reference was to those of us who currently do some kind of ministry for someone in our community. But I said that we often have more than one neighbor in our lives. Recently, I was…
Week of December 9, 2018
Many, many years ago I was on staff at a camp program being run by another denomination (that will go nameless). They sought to do work projects on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where I had previously lived and worked while in the employment of the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota. My job was to…
Week of December 2, 2018
“Love your neighbor(hood)” is the theme I am introducing this Advent at Trinity Church. It is a term I picked up from the Rev. Cathleen Bascom, bishop-elect of the Diocese of Kansas. For me, it is a reminder that one of the two greatest commandments identified by Jesus has a local context. As we begin…
Week of November 25, 2018
I mentioned at last Sunday’s Adult Forum that thankfulness is at the core of Episcopalian spirituality and discipleship. We do not take Jesus’ teachings to heart out of fear of punishment or a desire to please an impossibly strict God, but because we recognize what God has already done for us. God’s actions are not…
Week of November 18, 2018
Many of you heard the second part of my two-part sermon on the book of Ruth, but for those who missed it I had hoped to make the sermon available on the podcast. Unfortunately the digital recorder we use to record the sermons is missing, so I was unable to record it last Sunday. So…
Week of November 11, 2018
At our last Adult Forum, I asked the participants to rate the strength of the various ministry relationships that Trinity has into three categories: strong, could be better, or needs help. I intentionally didn’t limit the scope of their answers; they could be institutions, groups, etc. Their answers obviously reflected their own perspective, and not everyone agreed…
Week of November 4, 2018
Last Sunday we celebrated (early) the Feast of All Saints, which is actually on Thursday, November 1. At the 8 a.m. service, I mentioned how optimistic it is to celebrate the lives of the saints, a concept that had come from a long conversation I had with some friends about whether we thought the world…