Words of the Mouth and Meditations of the Heart

June newsletter article On Monday, May 12th, 59 white South African farmers (Afrikaners) arrived in the US, because according to the President, they were being persecuted in South Africa. They were said to be political refugees, despite no news of any sort of persecution being reported inside or outside of South Africa. While they are a minority, making up around 7% of South Africa’s population, they own around 80% of the farmland, giving them continued economic influence after losing political dominance with the end of apartheid. Shortly after their arrival, the Episcopal Church refugee relocation service was asked to help with settling the Afrikaners as a requirement of a refugee settlement grant from the government. Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe released a statement saying that the Episcopal Church would not provide assistance because, “In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa...

 Sermon for Easter VI, 2025, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY Text: John 5:1-9 Clay and Christopher were a gay couple that my wife and I knew in Bloomington, IN in the mid- to late-1980s. Christopher was from West Virginia, and a high church Episcopalian. Clay was Eastern Orthodox, and had grown up here in Louisville. They were both graduate students at IU, and had been together for about 10 years when we knew them. They were a wonder to me, being a newly-wed. About thirty years later, Kim looked them up, and was shocked to see that they had moved to Pennsylvania, and that Clay had died first in 2010, then Christopher a few years later. We strongly suspected that they had died of AIDS, and having known them in the later 20th century, we knew that there were people who blamed them for their own deaths, and said that an HIV infection was a moral sentence from God. If I had a wish for them, it would be that they were still alive, and that their dignity had been...

 Sermon for Easter III, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY Text: John 21:1-19 I love you all. I really do. This may be a surprise to some who I don’t know very well, and that is because love occurs in the context of a relationship. I have good relationships with many people here, but with some others I have more of a passing relationship. But I love you just the same. There is the question of what do I mean by expressing love for all of you? Do I feel the same way about everyone? That is the issue we face with the gospel reading this morning, specifically toward the end where Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” The problem with the English language is that we have few words for love: adore, love, affection, fondness, and friendship, and they don’t exactly fit the Greek words for love that Jesus and Peter use. We have to explain what we mean when we say “I love you” to someone. Those Greek words of love used in the reading are agapé, meaning an unco...