Words of the Mouth and Meditations of the Heart

 Sermon for Lent I, 2023, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY  Text: Matthew 4:1-11 The readings this morning deal with two sides of temptation, and two responses to it. It's not by accident that we start Lent with these readings, because Lent is as much about confronting temptation as it is about self-denial. If we didn’t deny ourselves of something during Lent, we wouldn't have to deal with the temptation to break our Lenten fast. But, temptation goes well beyond Lent, and is a daily challenge. In the garden of Eden, God pronounces a command to Adam and Eve: do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This is a commandment similar to the Ten Commandments in Leviticus: You shall not. In reality, though, Adam and Eve are given a choice: obey God, or make their own decision. Their decision to follow their own will leads to a complicated outcome of their decision. They have exercised free will, that is, the freedom to determine their fate and ...

In planning this service, I worked with Dean Timothy (at Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville, TN), working out the details including how I would participate. He was pleased when I said that I would like to participate as a deacon, as clergy in the Episcopal Church. I explained to him that in the days before my mother died, my ministry turned to her, my brother, my sister, and other family members present, providing them pastoral care when possible. I sought to bring a quiet, calm peace to an emotionally difficult time, and to witness the transition from life to death as a holy, sacred, and loving time. So, we felt it was appropriate for me to continue that ministry and deliver the homily today, and I am grateful to Dean Timothy for this opportunity. But, this isn’t about me. I may be involved in this story, but it is not my story. I first got to know my mother in late May, 1963, and while I don’t remember our first encounter, I have heard that it was painful. Over the next years and dec...

 Sermon for the 6th Sunday in Epiphany, February 12, 2023 Text: Matthew 5:21-37 As I read through the Gospel of Matthew in gathering my thoughts, I noted that there are three chapters of Jesus’ commandments in Matthew’s Gospel, that is, chapters 5 - 7. The Beatitudes that we heard two Sundays ago are at the beginning of his commandments in Matthew, and last week we heard Jesus say that he didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. The reading we heard this morning is a continuation of the commandments, with clear instruction regarding adultery, divorce, and lust, among others. These readings call to mind the image of Jesus acting like a traffic cop, pulling people over and writing them tickets for breaking a law. It makes us anxious about the things we do in daily life; did something I said or did in the moment break a law? Will I be punished? Life can be a perilous journey when we are always checking every little thing. It’s hard to reconcile this image of Jesus as the tra...

The following below is what I wrote for my parish's monthly newsletter, and shares my experience in caring for my mother in her last days with us.       As I and my siblings were taking care of my mother in her last days, I was reminded of the concept of time that I learned about several years ago. In our lives there are two kinds of time we experience: chronos and kairos. Chronos is the one we are most familiar with, the measure of time using chronometers and clocks. It is the basis of regulation, organization, and recording of events in our lives. Kairos is less familiar and is a qualitative measure of time as the opportune, or right moment. In religious life, I have heard it referred to as spiritual time, when we wait and then just know when the time is right to act on God’s call, or when we have patience waiting for God to act in God’s time.      My mother had appointments defined by days and hours, but the progression of her cancer w...