4th Sunday in Lent

Readings for Today.

Click here to listen to the Sermon.

Many of us know this parable that Jesus tells today as the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  It’s one of the longest parables Jesus tells. And one of the most complex because of the familial relationships.  No matter how many times we hear it, we find ourselves in it.

Jesus told parables as a way of engaging his listeners in theologically complex ideas.  Parables use a story of some familiar situation to highlight something that doesn’t make sense by the world’s standards.  Parables often illustrate some promise of the kingdom of God, the spreading of which Jesus began and we continue. Notably, parables seldom ‘finish’ the story; they usually leave the ending open, the storylines waving in the breeze, as a way of engaging us in living the next part of the story.

3rd Sunday in Lent

Readings for Today.

Listen to the Sermon.

We know the feeling of horror and disbelief when unimaginably bad things happen to good and innocent people.  When space shuttles filled with the potential of brilliant lives and exploration of the universe explode. When earthquakes and floods, cyclones and hurricanes kill and displace thousands of good-hearted, hard-working families.  When someone walks into the halls of education in Newtown, CT, or Parkland, FL, looking for innocents to slaughter. When people praising God are no longer safe in their houses of worship. How do we find sense in these deaths?

1st Sunday in Lent

Readings for Today.

Listen to the Sermon.

Julien and I watch a series called Lucifer.  The main character, Lucifer Morningstar has a way of looking deeply into a person’s eyes and asking them, “What is it that you truly desire?”  The subject replies with an unconsidered and deeply honest answer. The kind of answer we wouldn’t normally share with our closest friends, much less a very well-dressed stranger who shares a name with the Prince of Darkness.  And, yet, we all have those desires in us – to be loved just as we are, for fractured relationships to be repaired, to end violence in the world, for us and our loved ones to feel safe and secure, to know deep peace.

Did you know the word lucifer means light bearer?  Could the devil be a light-bearer, inasmuch as our answers to his wily questions shed light into the deepest parts of our souls?

Last Sunday after Epiphany

Readings for Today.

Listen to the Sermon.

Epiphany.  It’s a sudden manifestation or realization of the essential nature of something.

Epiphany.  It’s an appearance of a divine being.

Epiphany.  It’s an intuitive grasp of reality through something simple and striking.

Epiphany.  It’s the season of the church year when we see the divinity of Jesus revealed in both simple and striking ways, unveiling the essential nature of God’s transforming and healing love for all people.

It’s hard to say where an epiphany begins.  Does it begin the moment we consciously realize something?  Or does it begin around us earlier, before we can name what is happening?  Or is an epiphany something we can only name later, as we look back on what has happened and tell the story of it?