Words of the Mouth and Meditations of the Heart

Sermon for Epiphany VII, 2025, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY Text: Exodus 34:29-35 , Luke 9:28-43a In memory of Mildred, who read my sermons. This is the last Sunday in Epiphany, a season that is longer this year than we’re used to, and a lot has happened during it. Epiphany starts with the visit of the three wise men, or Jesus’ baptism, which we read this year, and that was two months ago, so it is not part of the “feel” of the church or the service this morning. But, here we are, having heard who Jesus is revealed to us through his baptism, his first sign at the wedding in Cana, reading from Isaiah in his synagogue, Simeon’s prayer of release from life at the sight of the infant Messiah, and now the revelation of Jesus’ identity in the glory of God and in the company of Moses and Elijah. Every week, we have heard Jesus being revealed as the Son of God in a different way, all signs that the kingdom of God is near. And now, in this scene of unearthly tran...

Sermon for Epiphany V, 2025, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY Text: Luke 5:1-11 Twenty years ago, I started a three-year quest that led to a Masters degree in Biochemistry. I took one class at a time, and would leave my lab job for an hour to an hour and a half on class days, and then return to finish my work day. There were two other lab techs I worked with, and after I left that lab job, I learned that they both went for their Master’s degree. One of them told me that once she saw me do it, she realized that she could do it as well. I had no idea that they were paying attention to me, watching me juggle a full-time job, classwork, and raising a family. In June of 2020, we started our food collection service here at St. Paul’s to help Calvary church downtown keep their pantry open during the pandemic. The area around Calvary had recently become a food desert when two grocery stores had closed, and people found themselves without many options between social ...

Newsletter article, January 2025 On December 23, 2024, President Biden commuted the federal death sentences of 37 death-row inmates in a politically motivated move against incoming President Trump. What actually happened was that President Biden changed the death sentences to life in prison without parole, so those convicted will not be released from prison, ever. For those 37 people, their sentences have become similar to sentences given in Western European countries for the same crimes. For many Americans, this may have seemed like an absolution of the crimes committed that led to the sentence. For murder and other serious crimes, Leviticus 24:19-20 is interpreted by us to build laws of equal retribution, and Jesus’ call for non-violence in Matthew 5:38-41 is ignored. We have heard the anguish of families of murder or manslaughter victims when the verdict on the perpetrator is handed down, and it is not death. Even if a death sentence is carried out, I have to wonder if the pain of a...

Sermon for the second Sunday in Epiphany, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY Text: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 , John 2:1-11 Jesus and his mother are at a wedding. The conversation between them is actually funny, in the same way that the preceding paragraph in John’s gospel is. In that passage, which we didn’t read, Phillip finds Nathaniel under a tree, and tells him about this guy Jesus, from Nazareth, and what he has been teaching. Nathaniel quips, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” So, I imagine that Jesus’ and his mother’s conversation went something like this: Mary: Oh no, they’ve run out of wine, and the party just got started. Jesus: Maybe they miscounted invitations. Mary: You know, you could make more wine for them. Jesus: I’m not ready, and besides, I’m just a guest here. I’m not the main attraction. Mary - to a steward: Listen, my son can fix your wine problem, just bring him those jars. Jesus: Mom! What did I just say? Mary: Show me some honor, so...

Sermon for the first Sunday after Epiphany, or Jesus' baptism, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY Text: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 Everyone here this morning has been baptized, I assume. If you haven’t, come see me and we can arrange that. But it’s a safe assumption that everyone here has been baptized once in their life. Yet, we participate in other people’s baptisms, and if there aren’t any, we will recite and renew our baptismal covenant at least once a year, on this, the first Sunday after Epiphany. It’s not that our baptism has expired or gone stale. There’s no time limit on God’s eternal grace given to us. We perform this renewal to remind ourselves of the importance of baptism in our life, and review our part of the relationship with God that begins with baptism. As we will hear throughout this year in reading the Gospel of Luke, the kingdom of God is a central theme, which for Luke is imminent and nearby. We can almost reach out and touch i, it is that cl...

 Sermon for Christmas I, 2024, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY Text: John 1:1-18 On Christmas Day, I realized that I was responsible for today’s sermon. This shouldn’t have been a surprise because I make the sermon schedule, but so much else was going on that it slipped from my attention. That's my story. We just heard the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke four or five days ago on Christmas Day and Christmas Eve, and it is very familiar to us. We have Luke to thank for some of the details that we see everywhere in images, movies, and crêches because it tells us where Jesus came from. There is another version of Jesus’ birth in the Gospel of Matthew that focuses on Joseph resolving the problem of being only engaged to Mary, who was pregnant. It has the three wise men visiting from the East, but not the manger scene. It tells a different story than Luke, and presents Jesus’ identity from a different perspective. The Gospel of Mark starts with Joh...