Sermon Proper 21 Clean your glasses: Seeing others as God sees them. I heard something kind of funny last week about our eyesight changing. When I visited a family member, there was a cartoon clipping on the refrigerator that read, “I don’t stress about my eyesight failing as I get older. It’s God’s way of protecting me from shock as I walk past the mirror.”  Eyesight is something we sometimes need to protect us from the world, and apparently from ourselves. Jesus suggested that we have spiritual eyesight too. He put a spiritual spin on…

Sermon: “A Welcoming Grace” Five words appear all across America. We print them on books, newsletters, church bulletins, and thousands of search signs. They are the de facto mission statement for an entire denomination. “The Episcopal Church welcomes you.”   We insist that welcoming arms await all who walk through our red doors. Most of the time we do a good job living into our mission. But, it leaves me with a question: “What does it mean to be a welcoming faith community?” Hold that thought, and we’ll come back to it. Jesus…

God’s Not Finished With You Yet! I’m going off-script this morning. I usually preach from the Gospel lesson, but I feel like the Jeremiah reading is timley for us today. Sometimes we need spiritual encouragement. Jeremiah knew that, and he told the story of a potter’s wheel. I hope this sermon today can be inspiring for this congergation.  Hear what the prophet said again:  The word of the Lord said to Jeremiah, “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So…

Everyone’s Invited To The Wedding Reception If you’ve lived through a wedding you know are stressful. What few people realize is how stressful weddings are for the clergy. Although we will never say it with parishioners around, when clergy get together, we inevitably share horror stories and express disdain for weddings.  I’ve experienced that firsthand when a wedding goes wrong. When I say wrong, I really it was a disaster before it began. The mother of the bride, bless her heart, deserved her own T.V. show on T.L.C.  She was a Baptist…

Sermon: Compassion Changes Conditions Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost, posted by Rian Adams I cried when I read the hunchback of Notre Dame. Victor Hugo’s novel is a masterpiece that stays with you your whole life because we see pieces of each character in ourselves. In the beginning, we meet Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame. It is the Festival of Fools in Paris. The crowds elected him the “Pope of Fools” because he was the ugliest person in Paris. They heaved him on a throne and paraded him through the city streets as the crowds mocked him. Then…