read more posts by
Rian Adams
The poem “Contentment” hints at the spiritual depth required to hold our faith without needing all the answers. I’ve known so many people over the years who needed to have their faith “figured out.” Or, I’ve known people who have had their faith fall apart when something or someone challenged their ideas and beliefs. Tragically this happens far too often…
The Law of Love: How Compassion Can Change Your Life. Sermon Fifth Sunday After Pentecost. Sermon for the Fifth Sunday After Pentecost. The Law of Love. By The Rev. Rian Adams – Saint Matthew’s Episcopal Church Have you ever wondered how to spot a hypocrite? It’s possible to spot them in their natural habitat… hiding behind religious rules instead of living the law of love. That happened in today’s Gospel lesson. It mentions three religious leaders who all chose the rules over compassion. A lawyer, a Levite, and a priest. A Lawyer was a…
Sermon: Jump: Trusting God to Heal Our Pride Jump: Trusting God To Heal Our Pride In today’s Old Testament lesson we meet a dangerous man, a military general who led the army of Israel’s biggest enemy, Naaman. He didn’t share Israel’s beliefs, their theology, their God, their politics, or their ethics, yet God was at work in him. He was a stranger, an enemy; but Naaman, had a severe problem. He carried a death sentence in his body… in his skin. He was a leper. Keep in mind, he was…
Grumpy Jesus: Feelings and Focus Have you ever been grumpy? I don’t mean mere frustration; I mean, have you ever been in a place where no one could do anything right? Maybe you haven’t, but I bet you can notice it in other people. That sounds a lot like Jesus in Today’s Gospel reading. The writer paints a picture where Jesus woke up on the wrong side of the bed. That scares some people, but if he can be grumpy, I guess it gives the rest of us hope. However, it’s…
Pentecost Sunday: Unified Diversity. Pentecost Sunday is a strange day on the church calendar because we want to celebrate, but the Acts reading about speaking in tongues and erratic spiritual experiences is a little unsettling. I’ve learned that if we talk too often about spiritual experiences, some people want to assign “labels” to us. Last week someone blasted me on Facebook (it’s not the first time…) for a comment I made on one Bishop Curry’s preaching videos. He preached that we need to stop being ashamed to talk about Jesus, and we need to all become…
Sermon: Seventh Sunday of Easter. Unity with God, Unity with Others. It’s the seventh Sunday of Easter, so I’ll begin with the truth this morning; I intended to preach from the Acts lesson about Paul and Silas in jail. “He’s in the jailhouse now.” was a great title! Then I would make a suitable joke about solidarity with Paul because both of us didn’t care for a jail cell. But there was a persistent nagging I couldn’t ignore. I couldn’t get away from the John passage about…