Easter Day Sermon: Empty Tomb, Empty Hands

Easter Day 2022Penelope Bridges Alleluia, Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia! You may be familiar with the British tradition of giving chocolate Easter eggs at this time of year. The truly traditional egg is a large hollow egg (think ostrich egg or larger) made of your favorite variety of chocolate: Cadbury’s Dairy … READ MORE…

The Sunday Sermon: Palm Sunday 2022

Rev. Richard Hogue Jr.St. Paul’s, San Diego4/10/2022             Today is the first Palm Sunday in three years that we’ve been able to fully engage with this liturgy. The highs and lows of it all feel more tangible again, for me at least. There is a great divergence between these extremes. Where at one moment we … READ MORE…

The Sunday Sermon: God’s Extravagant Love

Fifth Sunday in Lent, April 3 2022Penelope Bridges This story from John’s Gospel comes out of the blue for us today, after many weeks of walking through the Gospel of Luke. It might be helpful to know the Scriptural context of this extract: had we been following John, we would have just read the stunning … READ MORE…

The Sunday Sermon: Hide us under the shadow of thy wings

Rev. Richard Hogue Jr.3/13/2022 This gospel passage, though only five verses long, offers a veritable kaleidoscope of ways to view it. Jesus’ references agrarian symbols with mentions of a fox, a hen, and a brood of chicks while also being alerted by the Pharisees of a murderous plot of Herod’s hatching, all the while Jesus … READ MORE…

The Sunday Sermon: Turn Aside to see the Wonder

Third Sunday in Lent, March 20 2022Penelope Bridges There’s news, and then there’s gossip. Rumors have always abounded, especially in tense times of invasion, conflict, and war. Atrocities are reported but not always substantiated. We want those we consider our enemies to be monsters so that it’s easier to hate them; we are too ready … READ MORE…

The Sunday Sermon: Temptation

Dean penny bridges preaching at pulpit

First Sunday in Lent,March 6 2022Penelope Bridges Immediately after his baptism and commissioning by God, Jesus goes on an extended retreat in the wilderness. If your experience of the wilderness is the Southern California desert, I want you to know that the Judean desert is different. I have driven through that desert, and it is … READ MORE…

The Sunday Sermon: Blessing and Pressing for Change

Rev. Richard Hogue Jr.St. Paul’s Cathedral, San Diego2/13/2022           There is an immediacy to this gospel that extends from the promise of God’s love into our present moment. It penetrates the mundane with a pronouncement that defies what we perceive to the be the “natural order of things.” Jesus is upending what we consider normal, it … READ MORE…

The Sunday Sermon: The Power of Prophets and the Nameless

Rev. Richard Hogue Jr.St. Paul’s Cathedral, San Diego1/30/2022 ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ When I try to put my feet into the shoes of someone listening to Jesus when he said this at the synagogue, I imagine it is an utterly baffling statement. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus is a known quantity … READ MORE…

The Sunday Sermon: One Body/Un Solo Cuerpo

January 23, 2022, 3, Epiphany, Cathedral DayPenelope BridgesOne Body/Un Solo Cuerpo For seven or eight summers, my sons attended an Episcopal sleepaway camp in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Each year I made the trip twice to drop each child off at his age-appropriate camp. At the end of each camp session, we parents would … READ MORE…