We’re celebrating baptism today, but we’re also putting the focus on the youth of our parish. Today is Youth Sunday. The youth are so much a part of St. Paul’s: their gifts, their talents, their very presence is a gift to us. So the youth today are taking part in the liturgical ministry, the things we do here on Sunday, including preaching…
Worship. Serve. Grow.
Worship. Serve. Grow.
Sermons (Page 89)
I would like to begin by sharing just a brief thought about my experience of being a witness, as we have all been witnesses, to what has been happening to our brothers and sisters in Haiti. My wife and I were particularly struck by the stories we heard on the news. This was two days and three days respectively after the earthquake had hit. And the story we kept hearing and the frustration we kept hearing was about was this sense of mounting outreach that was growing but simply couldn’t hit it’s target. Planes were in the air but there was nowhere for them to land…
We find ourselves in the season referred to as Epiphany, that season where God’s presence is shown forth to the world. Today’s readings are about the baptism of Jesus, one of those first moments in the Gospels where Jesus’ life is beginning to expand and reach beyond just his intimate family, but into the world. And so we gather on this Feast of the Ephiphany for our annual meeting…
According to the parish website, our liturgy this morning is a contemplative celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Now in my experience and perhaps some of yours, a contemplative eucharist can mean several things. It can mean perhaps candles and incense; it can mean Celtic music, or music from, say, the Taize community in France, or it can mean no music at all…
“Breathe!” Did you ever have someone say that to you? “Breathe!” It usualy comes at a time when you’re not breathing too well. You’re stressed out, you’re worried about something, your anxiety level is rising, you’re actually breathless, and someone says, “breathe!” I’ve heard that said a few times to me, “breathe!”
Jesus was definitely a person of wisdom. And part of that wisdom had to do, I think, with Jesus’ ability to not think in kind of a dualistic way. In other words, Jesus was not someone who saw the world in either ors: either this or that. But Jesus was much more able to see the world in terms of this and that…
This morning is the one year (exact to the date) anniversary of Care n Share’s Hand Blessing Service. And therefore this is going to be the second annual day of thanksgiving for the Care n Share ministry. It is indeed a day of thanksgiving for all of you, for all of our volunteers who care so well for one another…
Hebrews 2.6-8
But someone has testified somewhere, “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet.” So writes the author of today’s epistle…
In my adventures every summer to the Appalachian Mountains for our annual Appalachian Service Project trip, I picked up a piece of wisdom that’s one of the mottos of the young adults who teach the youth on these trips, and those of us who have limited construction experience. A motto to help us get through our particular situations when we are trying to fix something. The motto is this: “think like a raindrop.”…
A couple of weeks ago I was preaching on Sunday and I shared a teaching on the Eucharistic Prayer that we say on Sunday, and I got so many responses to that, asking for more teaching things like that, to better understand what it is we do when we gather together like this on Sunday…