Today is Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the Church. Pentecost is a Greek word meaning fifty. So we celebrate Pentecost 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus. The readings for today so beautifully dovetail together, giving us a great view of what transpired on that first Pentecost morning…
Have you ever seen the show Myth Busters? In the show, these two guys take on something that people accept as true and try to prove that it’s not true. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they don’t. They’re using the word myth as it is usually used in our culture and society to mean something that’s not true. But in theology and spirituality we often use the word in a different way…
Perhaps you noticed a similarity between two of the scripture passages we read this morning. The first we heard of Paul’s encounter with Lydia, Paul having heard in a vision an invitation to go to Macedonia where he goes and in Philippi he meets Lydia on the Sabbath…
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be accepable in your sight, O God our strength and our redeemer. Amen. I would like to reflect with you this morning upon our collect for the day. The collect for the day is on your scripture handout, and I’m using the language from the contemporary because I saw it as a kind of formula for the Christian life…
Oftentimes when you hear me preaching or teaching, I use the image or the phrase “the journey.” Many of our other clergy use it as well. The journey, or spiritual journey. And when we think of a journey, oftentimes we think of going from here to there, to where I’m not yet. Kind of a linear understanding of the journey…
This past January at our Diocesan Convention, the delegates, priests, and representatives from throughout the Diocese of North Carolina did something that I think is really exciting. Right next to our convention floor in a great big ballroom was set up a Stop Hunger Now workstation. And Bishop Curry set forth the ambitious goal for us to package 100,000 meals over the course of our two-day convention…
It was a disaster. There’s no other way of describing it. A disaster and a nightmare. That’s how I think this week we call Holy Week could be described. As we try to enter into the life of these early disciples of Jesus, who experienced this incredible week with Jesus. What’s the context of their experience?
The Feast of Palm Sunday is not a day that is a celebration in itself, but rather is part of something larger. It’s quite different from many other celebrations. For instance there’s the Feast of Pentecost, there’s the feast of Christ the King, there are Sundays where we come together because that Sunday is celebrating a particular event. Palm Sunday is quite different…
So often when we read the Gospels and we see Jesus being talked about, oftentimes he seems to be in the midst of a relationship with people. Out of relationships comes this discovery of who He is and who God is and what Jesus is about – the kingdom – the teachings of what he’s about. Today I want to share with you a story of an experience I had a couple of weeks ago…
It seemed to me that this day would be a great day to talk about faith. Here we are at our annual “in-gathering” – at the time of year when we are all invited to make a decision regarding our financial commitment to St. Paul’s. Throughout the year, all of us are given countless opportunities to participate with our time and with our talents in various efforts here at St. Paul’s. But today’s invitation is a pledge of monies…