Words of the Mouth and Meditations of the Heart

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...