Words of the Mouth and Meditations of the Heart

Sermon for Pentecost X, 2025, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY Text: Luke 12:49-56 This morning’s Gospel reading doesn’t sound like Jesus as he appears in other passages we’ve read, and this isn’t the first time we have run across this change in tone. This is the challenge of reading all four Gospels all the way through, where we are confronted with Jesus not being as consistent as we want him to be. He is human like us, yet divine like God, and it is this mystery of being both that we wrestle with as we encounter the human and the divine. It can be disorienting where we want the predictable consistency of the Jesus we want to see. The reading starts with Jesus saying he is bringing fire and division, and compared to the gentle love expressed in the Beatitudes, that makes it even more challenging. My first thought on hearing of fire and division is to think of our present political and cultural times, but I’m not going to go into that. That fire and division...

Sermon for Pentecost IX, 2025, delivered at St. Alban The Martyr Episcopal Church, Morehead, KY Text: Luke 12:32-40 In 2008, I finished a slightly masochistic pursuit of a Masters degree in Biochemistry while working full time, raising two children, and volunteering for the Red Cross. Then, 9 years ago, as we were clearing out our house in preparation for moving across town, I came across boxes that had my notes and exams and thesis rough drafts. I knew that I had the degree, that I didn’t need my notes any longer, but I fought the decision to throw them out. They represented three years of hard work and sacrifice, three years of wondering if I had what it took to graduate, three years of putting a lot of things on hold. They had value from my emotional and mental investment in achieving a goal and proving to the world that I was smart enough. I wasn’t going to sell them, but Jesus’ words to the rich man in this morning’s Gospel have run through my mind when I think back to that time. ...