To Marvelous Light

Sunday, May 19, 2019

A sermon on Acts 11:1-18 and Revelation 21:1-6

As many of you may know, I am currently in the process of becoming a postulant to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church. I have been lucky enough to be sponsored for priesthood by this Gambier parish and by Rachel Kessler. The support of the Harcourt community has been invaluable to me thus far, especially because the road to postulancy – though important in aiding discernment – can at times feel lengthy, demanding, and stressful. Throughout the process, I’ve been asked to lay bare much of who I am for the Church to examine. I’ve been asked to tell my life story with honesty and transparency, and to include in that telling, not only my triumphs and the times I have felt closest to God, but also the parts of my story that are hardest to tell – the moments that inspire more embarrassment than pride; the setbacks, the failures, the mistakes, the painful periods, the parts I wish most to hide.

Continue reading “Who Are We to Hinder God?” →

Palm Sunday, April 14 2019

A sermon on the Passion Gospel of Luke

A couple weeks ago, I joined some Rockwell and Deaconess Anne House folks at Holy Communion’s Theology on Tap about Harry Potter. It was a great time – as I’m sure you’ve heard, Mike Angell was wearing a cape! At the event, we discussed some of the spiritual themes of JK Rowling’s masterpiece, and the ways in which Harry’s story has spoken to us throughout our lives. To be honest, I was mostly there for the Harry Potter trivia.

And then someone helpfully and casually mentioned that Harry Potter’s walk to his death in the last book shares some associations with Christ’s own journey to the cross. Harry, like Jesus, had to come to terms with the inevitability of his death. Harry, like Jesus, grieved his destiny. But Harry, like Jesus, chose to selflessly surrender himself to it.

Continue reading “Fear, Choice, & the Way of the Cross” →

Sunday, March 3, 2019

A sermon on 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 and Luke 9:28-36

This past weekend, the United Methodist Church gathered here in St. Louis for a special meeting of their General Conference. UMC delegates traveled from across the country and the world to this state to meet and try to find a way forward on issues of human sexuality – specifically, on the questions of the ordination of gay clergy and same-sex blessings. As a community, they heard testimonies and proposals, and voted on the future of their church. They were open and vulnerable with one another. They said and heard difficult things.

As you may have learned, the outcome of their meeting, though unsurprising, was a disappointing reminder of the divisions that still exist within the body of the church, and of the desire of many to stem the flow of progress toward full inclusion of all God’s children in the life and work of the Church.

We are here this weekend to celebrate Christ’s transfiguration: a joyous occasion, a true miracle. This morning, we tell the story of the Son of Man, revealed in his glory to some of his dearest friends. This is a story of amazement, of God’s beauty and power, of Jesus truly seen for all that he is – our savior and our king. But I cannot help that, as I prepared to speak today, my mind kept returning to the Methodists, and to the events of last weekend.

Continue reading “By Reflected Light: Christ’s Transfiguration, the UMC, & Vulnerability” →

Sunday, January 27, 2019

A sermon on Ezra 3:10-13 & Luke 4:14-21

There is something very spectacular about a beginning. Driving to work on the first day of a new job, hearing a candidate’s opening remarks at the start of a campaign, leaving home for freshmen year of college, watching construction begin on a long-awaited project, getting up to deliver your first sermon – these moments can be exciting, terrifying. Wonderful, hard.

Our readings for this week are overwhelmingly concerned with beginnings: in Ezra, the laying of the foundations for the second temple in Jerusalem; and in the Gospel of Luke, the first recorded sermon of Christ’s ministry.

Ezra’s story in particular does an excellent job capturing the emotional ambiguity that can so often surround moments of beginning, and the truth that, many times, a beginning does not stand alone but in the context of both excitement and disappointment, profound hope and bittersweet sadness. The combination of weeping and joyous shouts that follow the Judeans’ praise of God most likely feels familiar to those of us who have ever had to leave what is comfortable and lovely for a new opportunity, or come to terms with frustrated expectations.

Continue reading “God is not a Realist: On Hope and Proclamation” →