Words of the Mouth and Meditations of the Heart

Sermon for Pentecost 12, 2022, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY. Text: Luke 14:1, 7-14 , Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 Reading the Gospel lesson for this morning, I was taken back to when I was about 10 and with my family, my aunt and uncle and cousins, and my grandparents. We were in Williamsburg, Virginia for a family gathering, and had come to a fancy restaurant for dinner. We were in a room with a long table with place settings, and at one end of the table was a large cobra wicker chair. It dominated the room and was the focal point of the table. As we were gathering, I sat down in it, and my grandfather came up to me and said that it was not my chair to sit in. He was going to sit there and I should pick another place. I was chagrined and embarrassed, and I never made that mistake again. I wait until I’m invited to sit down. My grandparents entertained a fair amount and knew all of the rules of etiquette and how to maneuver socially to be visible and near the c...

Sermon for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost, 2022. Delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY. Text: Luke 12:32-40 “Sell all your possessions and give alms.” This is not the first time that Jesus says to get rid of things that people own. There was the rich man who asked Jesus what he needed for eternal life, and Jesus said that he had to sell all of his possessions. Then Jesus said that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to get into heaven. There was also the story of the rich man in hell seeing Lazarus, the beggar who lay sick at the rich man's gate, in paradise. Jesus seems to have it out for the wealthy, subversively saying that they should give up all of their riches if they want salvation. This sentiment doesn’t go over too well in our time, because we take pride in our successes and hard work and measure them with things that we accumulate, things that we show off, things that show we have worth. So this ide...