2 Corinthians 13:11-13 On Trinity Sunday it’s awfully easy for somebody like me, a former theology professor, to get lost in some pretty convoluted formulas that might be fun for some people to play with but tend to shut many people out. [...]
Acts 2:1-21 (online here) Who knows what to do with the Holy Spirit? Mystery writer Dorothy Sayers once wrote a tongue-in-cheek catechism back in the 1940s, where she tried to imagine what typical members of the Church of England might answer if [...]
Acts 1:6-14 This is the time when we focus on the Ascension of Jesus, both on the feast day (Thursday) and on the Sunday afterwards. So, big surprise, we get a reading about Jesus being taken up into heaven on both days. [...]
Acts 1:1-11 Jesus is no longer with us as he was before. Jesus is now with us as he never was before. That's what we celebrate on Ascension Day. The risen Jesus vanishes from sight, to empower his followers to find him [...]
Acts 17:22-31 Sometimes how we pray to God and think about God draws us closer to God, but sometimes it gets in the way. Sometimes it might do both. I suspect most of us have a picture of God in the back [...]
John 14:1-14 In the church of my childhood I was taught that, if you want God to welcome you, you have to know about Jesus, you have to believe that he’s your only hope, and you have to ask him to move [...]
Readings online here. The Fourth Sunday in Easter celebrates Jesus as “The Good Shepherd.” In the Roman Catacombs one of the earliest paintings of Jesus depicts a beardless youth carrying a lamb on his shoulders. It’s an appealing picture in some ways. [...]
Luke 24:13-35 If you have ever been to a Taize service, you may have heard or sung this chant over and over again for about five minutes: “Within our darkest night, you kindle a fire that never dies away.” Or maybe you [...]
John 20:19-31 (online here) [As one might infer, this is a sermon preached in my own Episcopal Church.] We always hear about Thomas the Twin and his doubts on the second Sunday in Easter. That, John tells us, is when it happened—the [...]
Luke 24:13-49 The earliest testimonies to Jesus' resurrection had difficulty describing what had happened. It defied everyday categories, and it was life-changing. The only first-person testimony actually comes from St. Paul. In first Corinthians Paul tells us that Jesus forgivingly appeared to [...]