December 16, 2018 Advent 3
A few weeks ago my clergy colleagues and I were cracking each other up, sharing a meme on Facebook, based on today’s Gospel reading. The context of it was the whole “Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays” thing, a faux controversy that riles people up for no discernible reason. In the past, we clergy have often…
December 9, 2018 Advent 2
At the Wednesday Eucharist this week, in our discussion of the weekly readings, we ended up in a deep and important discussion about the word “peace.” I had planned to focus on this image of the ‘refiner’s fire” in my sermon, sharing with you something I learned this week about how there is a tradition…
December 2, 2018 Advent 1
Happy New Year! No, I did not skip a page in my calendar and think it’s now January. In the church, our new year begins on the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is a peculiar way to begin a year, don’t you think? It doesn’t start with The Big Event: we don’t start our new…
November 11, 2018
lt-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font- One hundred years ago today, World War One, “The Great War,” “The War to End All Wars,” ended. At 11:00 (at Trinity) Walter Leino will ring Trinity’s bell, as part of a great state-wide chorus, to mark this auspicious anniversary. 100 years since the Armistice, the end of hostilities, the hope…
November 4, 2018 All Saints Sunday
I read this week that the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh where the synagogue shooting occurred is the same community in which Fred Rogers lived and worshiped. So it is, literally, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. I don’t know if he rubbed off on them while he was alive, but the stories I’ve heard about how people…
October 14, 2018
A man runs up, throws himself at Jesus’ feet and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. Notice in Mark he is not introduced as a rich man—that’s from one of the other Gospel’s renditions of this story. Nor are we told he’s young. He hasn’t been sent by the Pharisees to try…
October 7, 2018 St Francis
As I looked back through old sermons this week, I was astonished to discover I have never done a St. Francis sermon here before—not even in the year when St. Francis Day fell on a Sunday! It made me so glad that I had decided to do so this year, as part of our remembrance…
September 30, 2018
<!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:romn; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:”BakerSignet BT”; panose-1:2 11 5 2 5 3 9 3 10 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:135 0 0 0 27 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal,…
September 23, 2018
<!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:”BakerSignet BT”; panose-1:2 11 5 2 5 3 9 3 10 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:135 0 0 0 27 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal,…
September 16, 2018
The other day, a parishioner said to me that he wants to “walk in the light” but it’s just so darned dark right now! Political chaos, storms, fires and explosions…He just has a hard time maintaining a sense of positivity. He doesn’t know where to look for hope. I hear him. I feel the same…
