Words of the Mouth and Meditations of the Heart

Sermon for Epiphany IV, 2024, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY Text: Deuteronomy 18:15-20 and Mark 1:21-28 Have you ever been this close to running out of patience, where you say “If I hear that one more time…?” Whatever it is, you can’t bear to hear it again or you will lose it completely. That’s what the Hebrews are saying to Moses in the reading from Deuteronomy, except that they are not running out of patience, and they are not angry. They are in fact afraid, afraid that if they hear God’s voice again or see a holy fire, they will die. This is not a moment of drama that they are creating to get Moses to do what they want. It is a legitimate fear that has precedent. In the book of Exodus, we read that Moses was pushed into the cleft of a rock as God passed by, so that he would not see the face of God and die himself. So it would appear that the closer God was to people, the closer death was, and there had to be some form of protection, not from God, but ...

Sermon for the first Sunday in Epiphany, 2023, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY Text: Genesis 1:1-5 , Acts 19:1-7 , Mark 1:4-11 We’ve heard a lot about John recently, from a mention last Sunday in the beginning of the Gospel of John as the predecessor, to John the witness in the Gospel of John on the third Sunday of Advent, and then on the Sunday before that as John the baptizer. And it is the same story, where John announces that the Messiah is coming to bring the Holy Spirit. I’ll tell you a spoiler: Jesus does bring the Holy Spirit to the disciples, and to us, and we celebrate that at Pentecost. But, this Sunday’s reading takes us a little farther in that story to hear God proclaim, like John, that Jesus is from God, not of men, and that he is full of the spirit that he passes on to us. And God proclaims this at Jesus’ baptism, an epiphany for the world. Baptism has become a central part of our faith over the past 40 years with the 1979 prayer book, and ...