Luke 12:13-21
A few years ago, I joined a couple of other priests from our diocese and worked with a consultant for a couple of years learning about what is referred to as family systems theory. There is a rabbi, Rabbi Edwin Friedman, who has taken a lot of what we’ve learned of family systems theory and put together a book called Generation to Generation to help clergy to understand congregational life…

Luke 11:1-13
I returned home the middle of last week, from Groton, Connecticut where I was with my daughter Elizabeth. I think I shared with you a couple of weeks ago that Elizabeth and her husband Danny live in Groton where he’s in the Navy at a submarine base. He’s what is referred to in the Navy as a “nuke.” He’s been trained in nuclear energy. All these subs are powered by nuclear power…

Luke 10:25-37
In my first year of seminary, many, many, many years ago, my class began each day with meditation. We gathered in a small chapel and the spiritual director of the seminary led us through this meditation. It was a meditation that’s based on what’s referred to as the spiritual exercise of Saint Ignatius, sometimes referred to as Ignatian Spirituality…

Luke 7:36-8:3
I want to share some thoughts with you, particularly on that Gospel reading we just heard. The Gospel reading really spoke to me this past week. If I can do some name dropping: yesterday was the ordination of Ann Hodges-Copple as our new Bishop Suffragan, and our Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts-Schori was the principal consecrator…

Acts 16:9-15
It’s the end of the semester for a lot of our college students. My oldest daughter Elizabeth is going to be graduating this Friday from UNC Greensboro with her master’s in music education, and then on a couple of days later with her husband Danny to Connecticut where they will be living…

Acts 9:36-43
The Acts of the Apostles. We’re going to hear quite a bit from that book during the season of Easter. It’s a book that is read, traditionally during Easter because it talks about those early acts and the lives of those followers of Jesus immediately after the resurrection…

John 13:1-15
During these services of Holy Week, as a homilist or preacher, sometimes it’s better just to stay out of the way of the service. Let its power and symbolism speak for itself and communicate something to us. I would like to share a couple of thoughts on the liturgy this evening…

Exodus 3:1-15
It was just a little over 30 years ago that I had an opportunity to take a trip to the Middle East. The group that I was with, I remember this vividly, flying out of New York to Amman, Jordan…

Good evening. It’s good to see you all here as we come to the end of a day and the beginning of the wondrous season, the season of Lent. I would bet you that you’ve never started the season of Lent with a banner that says JOY – brightly colored. I want to put that a little bit in context…

There was a book that I had to read for a course that I was taking in college (I was majoring in sociology) back in 1973. The book was called The Denial of Death. It was written by Ernest Becker who was a cultural anthropologist. The idea of the book was this: one of the things we find difficult to accept is death…