St George's Sermon Blog

  Jeremiah 17:5-10 L uke 6:17-26 So we are getting close to the end of the Epiphany Season, and it is particularly long season this year so this week and next we are getting into a rare part of the lectionary.   We have read these lessons from Luke’s Sermon on the Plain exactly once in my career and by my calculations they won’t be back until 2049.   And sometimes I suspect this was intentional.   You see the lectionary was written by pastors and so sometimes I secretly think they did this on purpose because they didn’t want to have to preach on these texts very often.   It’s is much easier to just tuck them away in a deep dark corner, because while this sermon that Jesus gives in Luke is full of some of the Gospel’s most quotable bits, it also delivers a very difficult message.   One that perhaps we would rather not have to think too hard about. We tend to like Matthew’s recollection of this sermon a lot better.   It is longer, much less abrasive ...

  Luke 5:1-11 So this week is all about call stories in the church.   And this always presents a bit of a challenge.   Because professional ministers are always really good at understanding and telling our call stories.   It’s a big part of our formation process for ministry.   But is also creates a problem because I am the only one here today who decided to make a living out of doing ministry, but everyone here is called by God.   Everyone.   And when we hear these big dramatic bible stories and professional ministers talk about life changing experiences, it really easy to decide that they must be all about someone else.   But they’re not.   They’re about you too.   So today we are going to take a close look at the trio of call stories we heard today.   And they all come from very different times and places but they all end up having a surprisingly large amount in common.   Isaiah, Paul and Peter all experience powerful ca...

  Luke 2:22-40 Today, Feb 2 is exactly 40 days after Christmas and so we are celebrating the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord at the Temple in Jerusalem, Candlemas or Groundhog Day.   It is also what is called a cross-quarter day, which means it is exactly half way between the winter solstice and the equinox, start of winter and start of spring, so winter is half over today, but unfortunately that means we still have half to go.   For me this is always a rather difficult time of year.   The fun and joy of Christmas are long gone and all we have left are the bills.   January has been cold, gloomy and snowy, and spring is far away.   The news has been heart-wrenching lately. These are the doldrums of the year with many of our days filled with little more than the mundane tasks of everyday life. It is also a time of year when our faith can feel stretched thin.   It is easy to feel close to Jesus holding a candle on Christmas Eve, easy to see Go...

  Luke 4:14-21; 1Cor 12:12-31a This week, as we continue through the Season of Epiphany, we start to settle back into readings from the Gospel of Luke that will be with us for this whole year and despite this being the pattern we have followed for more than 50 years, they feel especially timely right now.  Because even though the Apostle Luke was almost definitely Jewish and probably had been his whole life, unlike the other Gospel writers, he likely was not from Judea or the Galilee or anywhere in the Holy Land, he spoke Greek as a first language and wrote his Gospel primarily for people living outside of Israel both Jews and Gentiles.  And so Luke, while he knows and tells many of the same stories as Matthew and Mark focuses far more on community and inclusion than his Judean counterparts.  And as the author of the Pentecost story we know so well, he is also far more interested the Holy Spirit and how it is active in the world and the lives of believers.  So L...

  Jesus’ Hour, Epiphany 2 (C) – 2013 January 20, 2013 Katerina Katsarka Whitley In this charming and exhilarating story, Jesus is the protagonist but says very little – only three short sentences – yet the whole story is filled with the light of his Epiphany. The account unfolds before us as images instead of narration. A wedding celebration is taking place and, as was the custom, the wedding is part of a feast. This is obviously a well-to-do family, perhaps the leading family in Cana, a small Galilean village. The first things the writer tells us is that Jesus’ mother is present at this joyous affair. Mary must have been a good friend of the bride’s family, and since the feast is given by the bride’s father, she is an invited guest; later, the bridegroom will take the new bride away from her family and she will belong to his family from then on. So here we are presented with the picture of a wealthy family entertaining the people of the village together with some special friends s...

Luke 3:1-17;21-22 So today is Baptism of our Lord, first Sunday after Epiphany which sets us up for this year’s unusually long Season after Epiphany where we learn more about who this Jesus is and we get to think about what it means to be disciples and children of God. And so we start this season each year by commemorating the Baptism of Our Lord.   It is one of the 4 special days each year where the church holds Baptisms whenever possible and when we don’t, we take time as a congregation to remember our own baptisms and to renew our baptismal vows. And this year we have especially Beautiful lessons.   I mean year C from Luke has all the best lessons anyway, but this week they are particularly great. Because today is a day about promises.   And about God telling us how much he loves us.   It begins with Isaiah, with the reading we heard today that is one of the most beautiful in the Bible.   It is a love letter from God to the people of Israel promising them...

1/5/2025 This week we celebrate Epiphany in the church.   Today is actually technically Epiphany Eve or Twelfth Night the last of the Twelve days of Christmas.   Tomorrow, June 6 is Epiphany but we since Epiphany only falls on a Sunday usually only once about every 7 years and we missed it last year because of the leap year, I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to celebrate this often overlooked and underappreciated holiday.   Because it wasn’t always like this.   Twelfth night and Epiphany have been important to the church for just as long as Christmas Eve and Day.   And in some times and places have far surpassed December 24 & 25th in grandeur and importance.   Until fairly recently, gifts were given not at celebrations on Christmas but for Epiphany, commemorating the gifts the Magi gave to the baby Jesus.   Yet in this day and age, it seems like the Christmas season now begins in mid to late November and ends squarely on December 25 th , wit...