The Feast of Pentecost, June 8 2014 It’s party time in Jerusalem. Jews have come from all over the world to celebrate one of the three major feasts of the religious year: Pentecost. That’s the name St. Luke gives to Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, a celebration mandated by Moses to take place 50 days, … READ MORE…
When Paul visited Athens in the 1st century AD, he visited a city that was bursting with religion. Every street corner had its shrine; the Pantheon of gods and goddesses provided a deity for every personality, every profession, every moral standard. If you wanted your garden to be fruitful you prayed to Demeter, goddess of … READ MORE…
The Very Rev. Mike Kinman, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, St Louis MO, preached the sermon for Dean Penny’s installation: Let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new and that all things are being brought to … READ MORE…
One of my earliest childhood memories is of taking family vacations in southern Austria. We always stayed in the same little town on the Worthersee lake, a place where my father had been one of the liberating Allied troops at the end of World War 2 and where he was always welcomed back as a … READ MORE…
Some of the most memorable stories in Scripture are stories of the road: Abraham’s emigration to Canaan; the Exodus wanderings; the conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus; the encounter between the deacon Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch on the desert road. Today’s story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus is much … READ MORE…
In 1992 a young American Fulbright Scholar was murdered in a South African black township. Amy Biehl had been working passionately against apartheid but fell victim to the rampant political violence and racial distrust of the time. She had been working for peace. What do we mean by peace? And why is it so dangerous … READ MORE…
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Aleluya, Cristo ha resucitado! “He is not here: he has been raised.” We have arrived at last at the joy of Easter. It’s been a long Holy Week, and a long Vigil service tonight, but now here we are, the lights are on, the bells are rung, the Alleluia is back, … READ MORE…
The thing gardeners do during winter in most everywhere in the United States is wait. Tulip and daffodil bulbs lay under snow and ice, dead to the world. Berries and asparagus become dried sticks, barren. In that season Advent prepares us for the hope of Christmas, the hope that light conquers darkness, that the sun … READ MORE…
Today we look upon the one whom we have pierced. We stand before the Cross, with the pitiful body nailed there, and we cannot look away from the horror we have wrought. I don’t like to see suffering. I avert my gaze when the TV drama shows the mutilated corpse. I could never watch when … READ MORE…
As we kneel before the Cross today our prayers may move from the focus on the dying man and his mother, to those who witnessed his death, to the mothers throughout space and time who have suffered the loss of their children. No parent should outlive their children, and yet so many do. So many … READ MORE…