Words of the Mouth and Meditations of the Heart

 Sermon for Lent II, 2025, delivered at St. Paul's, Louisville, KY Text: Philippians 3:17-4:1 , Luke 13:31-35 Every now and then in scripture, we hear the human side of Jesus, and we hear it this morning as the Pharisees warn Jesus about King Herod. I can just hear Jesus say “You want a piece of me? I’m here for another three days, so let’s go!” It’s a dare for Herod to do something about the disruption in the status quo that Jesus has been making. That might seem a reckless thing to say to a king, but this is the Son of God speaking. It’s an interesting contrast between earthly and heavenly power and authority, where Herod may have physical power over Jesus, but in the end, Jesus has an unearthly power. Jesus uses interesting metaphors involving foxes and hens to talk about where prophets die and who might kill them, mostly in the holy city of Jerusalem. There could be a joke in there somewhere about the fox watching the hen house, except that in this case, Jesus as the hen house ...

 Parish newsletter article as background for this sermon .  For this month’s article, I am focusing on a secular topic rather than share a theological or spiritual perspective. With Lent approaching, there are some things around our view of morality that we need to think about. In my March 2 nd sermon, I will mention/have mentioned a book called The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt. Dr. Haidt is a moral psychologist who has studied and developed theories on what morals are, what they mean, and how we adopt or change them. This was a book that Father Andrew started to read last fall and recommended it to me, and we read it at the same time. It is a very good introduction to morality based on research and it takes attentive reading to capture everything in it. Most of the moral concepts have Judeo-Christian roots, so they were familiar to me and easily applicable to moral teaching in the Jewish and Christian scriptures. This book has added another dimension to my understanding...

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...