On Palm Sunday, the Rev. Javier Almendárez Bautista discusses Mark 14:1-15:47 (The Passion): “It’s all too easy to draw abstract conclusions about the meaning of Jesus’s crucifixion, all too tempting to simply see it as a God who desires punishment… but that is to miss the drama of the story, to miss the fact that before theologians tried to make sense of Jesus’s sacrifice, the disciples found it important to tell and retell and write down the story as they best remembered it.”
The Rev. Katie Gillett reflects on Jeremiah 31:31-34: “Do you ever take time at the end of the day to recall the day and reorient yourself? When I think of reorienting, I think of turning away from the anxieties, worries, and stress and turning instead to joy and peace.” Episcopal Deacon Katie Gillett is currently attending seminary at Duke University and will be with us learning and preaching until the end of April.
The Rev. Carr Holland reflects on Numbers 21:4-9 and John 3:14-21: “This is a story of God remaining oddly, mercifully just. The Israelites sin, they are punished, they look upon the bronze snake and the cost of their sin is squarely seen. They choose hope, a will to see and change, and they are healed.”
Grace delivers the homily on Youth Sunday, March 4, 2018
Julia delivers the homily on Youth Sunday, March 4, 2018.
The Rev. George Adamik considers Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 and Mark 8:31-38: “God says to Abraham and Sarah in our reading today, ‘Walk in my presence.’ That’s what God is demanding of Abraham and Sarah. Don’t hide like Adam and Eve or walk away, but let us walk towards each another, let us be in relationship with one another, let’s engage with one another.”
The Rev. Javier Almendárez Bautista discusses Genesis 9:8-17 and the story of Noah: “I wonder what it would look like for us to reimagine God back into the picture, to see God as one who is fully invested in the lives of God’s creatures, caring, grieving, remembering, to see God get down and work with us in the dirt, concerned with how our actions impact the world around us.”
Rev. Javier Almendárez Bautista discusses Matthew 6:1-6,16-21. “The Christian faith is full of symbols that you can touch, feel, smell, and taste. The waters of Baptism, that first moment when people are welcomed into our community: they welcome us in, they are the sustaining force of life….”
The Rev. George Adamik discusses Mark 9:2-9 and asks “Why does Mark place the story of the Transfiguration at this point in the Gospel?”. Later in the homily, Fr. George offers a preview of upcoming Lenten activities at St. Paul’s.
The Rev. Carr Holland meditates on Mark 1:29-39 and prayer: “Prayer orients, reorients, orients us again, if we will but stop and yield to its pattern.”