Words of the Mouth and Meditations of the Heart

Sermon for Pentecost IX, 2026, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY Text: Matthew 13:31-33,44-52 This morning’s gospel reading is a scattershot of parables that illustrate the kingdom of heaven, and there does not seem to be a connection between them. In fact, the commentaries I read as I prepared this sermon say to not try to bring them all together, but instead pick one and focus on it. I am known for not always reading the instructions first, which earns me looks of exasperation. But, I think there is a theme here, something that links these separate illustrations of the kingdom of heaven together other than just being illustrations of the kingdom. The theme has three parts to it. The first is the butterfly effect, the second is sorting out what is in the kingdom, and the third is what leads us to the kingdom. The butterfly effect is an older mathematical theory that says that small, seemingly insignificant changes in a large, random environment creates large...

Sermon for Pentecost VI, 2026, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY Texts: Psalm 145:8-15 , Romans 7:15-25a , Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 If you are like me, of a certain age, and grew up in the church using the 1928 prayer book , the sentence toward the end of the gospel reading will be familiar, and I can still recite it by heart: “Come unto me all ye that travail and are heavy laden and I will refresh you.” It was one of several scriptural quotations said right after the absolution of sins, and they were called the “comfortable words.” I didn’t appreciate the Elizabethan English that the 1928 prayer book preserved until I read Shakespear’s plays in high school. I also glossed over the word “travail” until one day during the service I realized what it meant: it came directly from the French verb travailler, meaning to work, or to labor, and suddenly the sentence made sense to me. It was an invitation from Jesus to bring our laborious burdens to him so that we coul...