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Sermon for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost, "A Widow's Mite: Praise or Lament," Mark 12:38-44

Sermon 11/7/21   Mark 12:38-44 A Widow’s Mite: Praise or Lament Last week in worship, we thought about All Saints Day and Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. These celebrations are about, in part, remembering people who have died, people who have been a part of our lives, and part of who we are, both individually, and as a congregation. But these celebrations are broader, too, than remembering our own personal saints, the ones who we knew in person. These celebrations call us to think of the saints of the whole Church - not just in this congregation, but all those who have shaped us. A favorite quote of mine comes from Native American poet Linda Hogan, “Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.” We think about the love of thousands that shapes us in this place, in this season.  I’m new to Christ Church - I started worshipping here because Mark invited me when I started back at Drew for the PhD p
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Sermon for the Twenty First Sunday after Pentecost, Year B - Mark 10:35-45 by Brigid Dwyer

My friend, Brigid Dwyer, a current Drew STM student, gave me permission to post her fantastic sermon, which she preached today at St. George's Episcopal Church, in Maplewood, NJ . I really love her take on James and John in Mark 10:35-45. I encourage you to give it a read!  In the name of the One, Holy, and Living God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. The ordination process is grueling. Today, it takes years  just to get to seminary, but in earlier days, you could be  already enrolled and taking classes and be told “no thank you,”  or “not yet.” It is certainly not something you start flipping  the script on lightly. And Jonathan Daniels did not do that lightly. In March 1965 he voluntarily took a semester away  from Episcopal Divinity School to return to Alabama, where he  had been helping in the fight to end segregation. He knew this  might cost his ordination, but he was prepared to sacrifice  even that, and so much more, to faithfully carry out the work  of the Kingdom of Go
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Sermon, "Rough Draft Prayers," Psalm 124

  Sermon 9/21/21   Psalm 124 Rough Draft Prayers Years ago I took a unit of CPE, Clinical Pastoral Education, and I worked in the NICU, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, of a local hospital. It was often heartbreaking work. And I still remember a conversation with one family, whose newborn was fighting for his life. I remember them talking to me about praying to God and that they wanted to just pray for God to save their baby, heal their baby, but...they wouldn’t let themselves pray for that. They didn’t think they could ask God for that, but that they could only pray for God’s will to be done, even if “God’s will” turned out to be that their child would die. I was still learning how to best listen and how to respond when people are inviting you to share in their pain in such profound ways. Their willingness to talk to a 23 year-old chaplain intern about their ailing infant was a sacred gift to me that I didn’t take lightly. I was learning, trying very hard not to tell people what
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Sermon for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, "The Two Ways," Psalm 1

  Sermon 9/14/21   Psalm 1 The Two Ways As a young child, I was a diligent Bible-reader. An obedient child, I heard at church that I should read the Bible every day, and so I did just that. I also heard that people really loved the Psalms - many people I knew listed it as their favorite book of the Bible. So I was eager to read the Psalms - but honestly, I found them a bit boring . I hadn’t quite developed an appreciation for poetry yet I think! I didn’t read them very attentively. Rereading them as an adult, I did find a few favorites, but overall, I’ll admit that I’ve remained mostly less-than-enamored with them. With some notable exceptions, I noticed a theme in the Psalms, in these prayers: God, I’m really faithful to you, and my enemies are really awful. So, please bless me, and please smite them. Destroy them. Defeat them. Thanks! And oh yeah - I praise your name and stuff.    I’ve been thinking a lot about the Psalms and our relationship with our enemies . Who are our enemie
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Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, "Imitating God," Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Sermon 8/8/21 Ephesians 4:25-5:2 Imitating God For many years before we merged with our nearby conferences to become the Upper New York Annual Conference, I was the Conference Youth Coordinator for the North Central New York Conference Council on Youth Ministries - CCYM. One of the tasks of the CCYM every year was to interview candidates for the Mission of Peace, a trip for young people from the Northeastern US to visit young people in countries around the world, to build relationships, connections, and peace. The interview team was made up of youth leadership, past trip attendees, and a couple of adult advisors. Well, one year, there were only two candidates who applied, and we had three positions we could fill from our area. We were going to interview them anyway, but a bad winter storm meant we had to cancel our interviews, and we decided to go ahead and affirm the candidates for the trip, even without the interview. They went on the trip, had a great experience, and came back rea
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Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, "One," Ephesians 4:1-16

  Sermon 8/1/21 Ephesians 4:1-16 One This summer I’ve been taking a  tutorial with my advisor - I'm currently working on my PhD at Drew Theological School, studying Christianity and Ecology with a focus on Animal ethics. In my tutorial, we’re spending a lot of time thinking about Christians who are concerned about the environment and climate change and what motivates them, and conversely, what motivates Christians who are distinctly not concerned about the environment and deny that climate change is happening. I’ve learned that studies show a couple of things that I find kind of disconcerting and discouraging. First, Christians are actually less likely to care about the environment than the population as a whole, and more likely to deny that climate change is happening or that climate change has human causes. But second - and this is the one I’ve really been chewing on - the biggest predictor of whether or not someone prioritizes care for the environment is not faith or religious
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