Letter & Spirit: Following the Law

This reading is an invitation to use the letter of the law to help us understand how to be safe, and the spirit of the law to embrace the freedom that God has given us. 

Be the Hen in the Fox House

  Recently, I’ve spent some time binge watching some of my television shows that I got behind on in recent weeks. I know that it’s Lent, and I should probably have considered giving up the time I spend watching television to do something more useful. However, I confess to you, my brothers and sisters, that…

Come to God with Open Hands

When I was about 21 years old, I travelled to a different country on my own for the first time. I landed at the Heathrow Airport in London and hailed one of the square black cabs. The driver was an older man who had been driving a cab for many years.  He asked me a…

God Helps Us Grow

Last week, my family drove to Southern California down Highway 5.  It’s a long drive, about seven hours. So I spent a lot of time looking out the window.  A lot of that land is agricultural land… and we saw farms that grew almonds, avocados, kiwis, olives, and all sorts of things. Several times, I…

The Most Well-Known Verse

In the Episcopal Church, there hasn’t traditionally been a huge focus on memorizing versus of scripture. And yet, there are a few verses of scripture that are so well known that we recognize when someone says the chapter and verse. I checked some sources, and John 3:16 came in fourth on the list the most…

Lessons in Authority & Healing

I started my weekend on Friday afternoon. My family decided to go to the movies. We decided that we were going to see X-Men: Apocalypse  (No fear, I promise you that, since the movie just opened, there will be no spoilers in this sermon.) As we drove to the theater, I noticed that many of…