Sermon: Lent 5A
My sermon/reflection for Lent 5 was graciously posted on Earth & Altar. It can be read here.
The readings are:
- Ezekiel 37:1-14
- Psalm 130
- Romans 8:6-11
- John 11:1-45
My sermon/reflection for Lent 5 was graciously posted on Earth & Altar. It can be read here.
The readings are:
(Luke 1:26-38)
“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.”
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
“Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your Word.”
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
Read MoreThe world has changed in the last week. We’re only now starting to wake up to the reality of a pandemic, to the precautions that we’re asked to take, to the restrictions that our governments have lawfully and prudently imposed on us. Amidst all the other blogs, tweets, comments, reports and reflections that have come out in the last week, what can this simple series on the 1962 BCP Collects add?
Read MoreI’m of two minds about the way language of “Christian duty” is obsolete in #millennial post-Christendom. I am convinced that it’s obsolete: I just have two competing reasons why. Human life is complicated and Christendom was complicated, so I’m sure that both are right in different ways and in different circumstances. On Ash Wednesday I explored the ways it may have been meaningful but is no longer; today I’ll explore a circumstance in which this language merely served to obscure reality: misogyny, microaggression, rape culture.
Read MoreA few weeks ago, a Roman Catholic seminarian asked me, “has women’s ordination helped the Anglican Church?” His question was innocent enough, posed with genuine curiosity, and I appreciated his effort to hear the experience of another Christian tradition. Maybe it helps that I understand the sacramental theology underlying Roman (and Eastern) insistence on a male-only priesthood, and that, to a considerable degree, I am in accord with it. Many if not most Anglicans place a strong emphasis on God’s work among us through visible signs participating in Divine Grace. For the Sacrament of Holy Orders, that visible sign is none other than a real human being who shares a nature with the Son of God, who participates in Christ’s ministry as our “Great High Priest.”
Read MoreI’m of two minds about the way language of “Christian duty” is obsolete in #millennial post-Christendom. I am convinced that it’s obsolete: I just have two competing reasons why. Human life is complicated and Christendom was complicated, so I’m sure that both are right in different ways and in different circumstances. I’ll go into one of those ways today, and pick up my second thought in two weeks when I reflect on the Collect for Lent II. (I’ll interrupt this next week with an Ember Day reflection on the Ordination of Women and Ecumenical relations.)
Read More