Sermon
The Silence and Solitude of Saint Bruno – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Br. Curtis Almquist
In the eleventh century, a teacher and priest named Bruno founded a new monastic order in the Chartreuse Mountains of southeastern France. These monks would be called Carthusians. As new Carthusian monasteries were established, they would be called “Charterhouses,” retaining their connection with their origins in the Chartreuse Mountains.
Bruno was not following the pattern of Benedictine monasticism where the monks live, pray, and work together in a common life.1 Bruno’s monks would be more like the Christian hermits of the fourth century in the Egyptian and Syrian deserts. The Carthusians would be semi-hermitical – that is, hermits, somewhat – monks living alongside one another in small individual cells where they alone, in silence and solitude, would pray, study, tend their garden, eat, and rest. Read More
It is in Giving that we Receive – Br. Keith Nelson
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Br. Keith Nelson
Feast of Francis of Assisi
Preached at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
What do we have that we can truly call our own, that is not a gift from God, our Creator?
Gratitude for the gift of life itself, embraced moment by moment, opens us to God’s infinite horizons.
In the same way, forgetfulness that all that we have and all that we are is a gift diminishes our spirits: in attitudes of self-reliance and self-sufficiency; in a mentality of scarcity, competition, or possessiveness; and at its worst, the failure not only to give others their just share but the impulse to take by force, or presumed privilege, what belongs to God.
At its heart, today’s somewhat difficult parable is a pointed reminder of the consequences of this forgetfulness in the face of God’s astonishing generosity.
First, it may help to grasp the thorns of this parable directly.
This passage has been read as a Christian justification of supersessionism: the claim that Christians have replaced Jews as God’s covenant people. This reading casts the vineyard as the house of Israel and its tenant farmers as the Jewish people. This reading must be rejected as both presumptuous and deeply harmful. The history of such interpretations and their consequences must be repudiated. Read More
Stripping Naked – Br. Lain Wilson
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Br. Lain Wilson
Feast of Francis of Assisi
Job 39:1-18
Galatians 6:14-18
Matthew 11:25-30
Happy Saint Francis Day, everyone! It’s truly humbling to be able to preach on Francis, a saint who has meant and means so much to so many.
Francis was born into wealth and privilege in the Italian town of Assisi, where his father was a prosperous silk merchant. He lived the life of a pampered young man of the late twelfth century, a period of immense cultural flourishing. Yet, by his late teens and early twenties, the shadows of that prosperity and flourishing began to weigh on him. Stories tell of his giving lavishly to beggars and of selling his father’s property to repair physical churches. He sensed a barrier between the haves and have-nots, the result of a system that benefited his family. This growing awareness all culminated in his great renunciation of his patrimony, where, as one story tells it, he stripped himself naked, casting off the very cloth that was the foundation of his own family’s wealth. Read More
Taking Rejection with a Grain of Salt – Br. Jack Crowley
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Br. Jack Crowley
In our Gospel today, we heard Jesus use the word “reject” four times in one verse. Jesus was warning his disciples that they would experience rejection in their ministry. Jesus warned them that people would not only reject them personally; they would reject their message and the one who sent them. To put it in more vulgar terms, people will reject them and the horse they rode in on.
I’m sure we all have some experience of rejection: professional rejection, romantic rejection, academic rejection, medical rejection, or even familial rejection. It’s nearly impossible to get through life without encountering various forms of rejection. Jesus, whom I admire dearly, dealt with rejection all the time. Jesus did not sugarcoat this reality to his disciples; he knew the rejection he experienced would happen to them as well. Read More
Point Together – Br. Luke Ditewig
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Br. Luke Ditewig
Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels
Today we remember angels. Mysteriously other, these outside, beyond, heavenly beings worship before God’s throne, fight evil, and come bearing messages. Ascending and descending, when seen, angels catch our attention. We ask in today’s collect that they “may help and defend us on earth.” We are not alone. Angels help us. They provide and protect. Glimpsing them reminds and reassures us.
When Jacob was afraid, he received a dream. Jacob saw angels ascending and descending on a ladder connecting heaven and earth and heard God speaking to him. God, who had seemed beyond and absent, broke through to be present in voice and with the sight of angels. Read More
How Much More – Br. Lain Wilson
Br. Lain Wilson
Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, transferred
Preached at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, Issaquah, Washington
Genesis 28:10-17
Revelation 12:7-12
John 1:47-51
On behalf of my brother Jamie Nelson and the rest of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, I am delighted to be here with you this morning. I am particularly honored to be given the hospitality of your pulpit on this day, the feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, your patronal feast day.
When I was very young, maybe four or five years old, a family friend told me about an experience she had had. One of her sons had died as a young man years before. She told me that, while she was grieving her loss one day at home, a young man appeared, offering reassurance that her son was in a good place, was home with God, and that she didn’t need to grieve anymore. Read More
On Worthwhile Questions & the Mind of Christ – Br. Keith Nelson
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Br. Keith Nelson
Preached at the Church of the Holy Comforter, Vienna, VA
Matthew 21:23-32
Philippians 2:1-13
In this morning’s passage from Matthew, we encounter Jesus posing a question. One of Jesus’ distinctive teaching methods is replying to a question with a question.
The chief priests and elders pose the question: “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” (Matthew 21:23). By this point in Matthew’s narrative, it has become clear that this is not an authentic question, because they are not genuinely receptive to Jesus’ answer. So Jesus skillfully counters the question with a question of his own.
He asks: “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” (Matthew 21:25). Read More
Matthew and Mercy – Br. Luke Ditewig
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Br. Luke Ditewig
Saint Matthew the Apostle
Jesus selected a small group to teach and transform, an unusual assortment including uneducated fishers, among whom Matthew was a striking choice. As a tax collector working for the occupying Roman Empire, Matthew was considered a traitor, an outcast from the Jewish community.
Especially in Jesus’ day, eating together was a sign of acceptance and belonging. Companion literally means sharing bread. The Pharisees asked Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them directly: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’” (Matthew 9:11-13; Hosea 6:6). Doctors serve the sick. They don’t stay away from the one in need. Jesus said: I came for those who need me, so I do not distance myself from them. Read More
Stumbling and Grumbling Towards Love – Br. Jack Crowley
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Br. Jack Crowley
Our readings this morning had a lot of complaining. We heard the saga of the ancient Israelites complaining to Moses and Aaron about their hunger in the wilderness (Exodus 16:2-15). We heard the parable of the workers in the vineyard complaining about their coworkers getting equal pay for less work (Matthew 20:1-16). Food, money, and coworkers – I’m guessing everyone here has complained about these things at some point in their lives, maybe even this morning.
When I was a child, I had a golden retriever named Bailey. We got Bailey the summer I was going into fifth grade, buying her from a firefighter in Keene, New Hampshire. Bailey lived from the time I was in fifth grade all the way through my early twenties.
Now if anyone ever tells you that dogs can’t tell time, that means they’ve never owned a dog before. We fed Bailey her supper promptly at 4:30 p.m. every day. At about 4:15 every day, Bailey would inevitably shuffle into the kitchen and stand there, making eye contact with whoever was in there. By 4:25, Bailey would start exhaling loudly and making little grumbles, barks, and whines. Read More
The Treasure of Christ’s Real Presence – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Br. Curtis Almquist
Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and reburied; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind…” (Matthew 13:44-48).
In the calendar of the Church, we remember today Edward Bouverie Pusey, born near Oxford, England, in 1800, where he was educated and subsequently became Regius Professor of Hebrew and Canon of Christ Church Cathedral. Beginning in 1833, he would become the acknowledged leader of the Oxford Movement, the Anglo-Catholic renewal of the Church of England. Pusey was a writer of tracts; however, he was a most powerful communicator as a preacher: catholic in content and evangelical in zeal for the conversion of souls. Read More