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Sermon for the Second Sunday after Christmas

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The Rev’d Virginia Holleman Christmas 2, Year C – 01/02/2022 Jeremiah 31:7-14 Psalm 84:1-8 Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19a Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23 In the Name of God, Father, Son & Holy Spirit.  AMEN. My father was a West Pointer, a career military officer.  He was always fair but as a child I did not always think of him as being warm or loving.  I think he was but it wasn’t always apparent to me as a small child.  He was very strict, and he could be stern when we didn’t live up to his standards; what was apparent though was that his word was as good as gold, and if he thought we had been wronged he set out to make it right, and he could be as protective and defensive as any mother bear with her cubs.  Today we call that integrity, but to me as a little girl it meant…

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Sermon for The Second Sunday of Advent

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Christopher Thomas Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent, Year C – 12/05/21 Malachi 3:1-4 Canticle 16 Philippians 1:3-11 Luke 3:1-6 “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness…” Who said, “Who, me?” “Turn.” I am fascinated, captivated, motivated by this notion of “turn.” Oh, you can call it “repent,” or “metanoia.”  But for me, it’s as simple, and yet as complex, as “turn.” “Turn” is pivotal to the God-story! I’m more specifically interested in what motivates “turn.” Journey stories, all of our stories, are fraught with “turn,” twists and turns, ups and downs, forward and back,…

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Sermon for The Feast of All Saints

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Christopher Thomas Sermon for The Feast of All Saints, Year B – 11/7/21 Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 Psalm 24 Revelation 21:1-6a John 11:32-44   I AM.  I AM.  I AM. Immortality Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there, I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the softly falling snow. I am the gentle show’rs of rain I am the fields of ripening grain. I am in the morning hush, I am in the graceful rush of far-off birds in circling flight I am the starshine of the night. I am in ev’ry flower that blooms I am in still and empty rooms I am the child that yearns to sing: I am in each lovely thing. Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there, I did not die. Clare Harner Lyon I am Resurrection and…

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Homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

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Stephen Waller Homily for Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, Proper 26 – 10/31/21 Ruth 1:1-18 Psalm 146 Hebrews 9:11-14 Mark 12:28-34  From the Book of Ruth: “Where you die, I will die — there will I be buried.” Can you see them?  Do you sense their presence among us here this morning?   My friends in Christ and Thomas the Apostle they are, indeed, here with us today for our Eucharist…they are here with us for every Eucharist. The Book of Common Prayer tells us that “Life is changed, not ended” when we die to this life.  We are today and always are surrounded by a great Cloud of Witnesses…by those who have entered into the nearer Presence of God.  They show up at every Eucharist…not sleeping in as some of us are on occasion tempted to do. Can you see them?  Have you ever seen them?  Can you? The…

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Sermon for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

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Christopher Thomas Sermon for Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, Proper 25 – 10/24/21 Job 42:1-6, 10-17 Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22) Hebrews 7:23-28 Mark 10:46-52 Draw us in the Spirit’s tether; for when humbly, in thy name, Two or three are met together, Thou art in the midst of them: Alleluya!  Alleluya!  Touch we now thy garment’s hem. How do you define sin? “Well, I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so.  But I know sin when I it when I see it…”[1] Seriously, as a Christian, a confessed follower of Jesus Christ, you really ought to have a good, working definition of what you think sin is.  What constitutes sin, for you?  Is it a standard of abiding by rules and laws, maybe the Ten Commandments, or…

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Sermon for the Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

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George R. Sumner Sermon for 21st Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, Proper 24 – 10/17/2021 Job 38:1-7, (34-41) Psalm 104:1-9, 25, 37c Hebrews 5:1-10 Mark 10:35-45 All human societies have rites of initiation, things you have to go through to qualify for something or other- boot camp, HR intro, spring training, frosh week.  You can surely think of examples in your life. For most of us clergy, at least of my vintage, this included something called CPE, clinical pastoral education. It meant long hours in a nursing home or a prison or a psych ward or somewhere similar, including on call weekends with a beeper if someone should die.  And then, in small groups, it meant processing what you had experienced, and submitting yourself to critique about how your own family of origin, affected how you see things. A little self-awareness is a good thing in a priest. It having…

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Sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

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Christopher Thomas Sermon for Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, Proper 23 – 10/10/21 Job 23:1-9, 16-17 Psalm 22:1-15 Hebrews 4:12-16 Mark 10:17-31 “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Not murdering, check; no adultery, check; no stealing, check; not bearing false witness, meh; not defrauding folks; honoring the parents, pretty good; showing up for church every few weeks or so; I think I’m even on a committee, but I’m not really sure.  I got this!  I know I have this.  I must have this.  Look how God has blessed me! “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?  I’ve obviously already done it.” “I want to hear you say it.  Please, say the words I want to hear!” “Why, my son, isn’t it obvious, you have all the markers of success.  You drive a great car, you live in a great house.  Your 401k…

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Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

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Stephen Waller Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B-10/03/2021 Job 1:1, 2:1-10 Psalm 26 Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12 Mark 10:2-16 THEN HIS WIFE SAID TO HIM, “DO YOU STILL PERSIST IN YOUR INTEGRITY? CURSE GOD, AND DIE.”  I BELIEVE SHE SAID THESE WORDS BECAUSE SHE LOVED HER SPOUSE AND DID NOT WANT TO SEE HIM SUFFER. NONE OF US LIKES WITNESSING THE SUFFERING OF ANYONE, UNLESS WE ARE DEMENTED.  SUFFERING IS A PART OF EVERY LIFE PRESENT IN THIS CHURCH THIS MORNING.  IF WE HAVE NOT ALREADY SUFFERED, BE CERTAIN THAT YOUR TIME WILL COME.  IT IS PART OF LIFE…TOO OFTEN A LARGE PART OF LIFE. AND NONE OF US LIKES TO TALK ABOUT IT.  WE WOULD RATHER FOCUS ONLY ON THE GOOD THINGS GOING IN LIFE AND DISMISS OUR SUFFERING AS SOME SORT OF MISTAKE.  SURELY GOD HAS NOT INTENDED FOR ANY OF US TO SUFFER.  SURELY GOD…

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Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

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Christopher Thomas Sermon for 18th Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, Proper 21 – 9/26/21 Ester 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22 Psalm 124 James 5:13-20 Mark 9:38-50 “Real power isn’t something anyone gives you.” “Real power is something you TAKE!” Pure prophesy?  Pearls of wisdom in a world shaped and molded and formed by business, pure and simple greed, lust, survival of the fittest.  Divide and conquer, power and control.  Isolate the weak. If you are old enough to have been a fan of the original TV drama “Dallas,” you may recognize the sentiment in Jock Ewing’s iconic words of advice to the “weakling” son Bobby in the face of the power-grabbing JR.  Don’t expect anyone to hand you anything; if you want something, by God, you had better go take it! I wonder if the producers of that show spent much time in 1970’s Dallas? It seems as though they capture the…

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Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

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Allen M. Junek Year B: Proper 18 The 15th Sunday after Pentecost The Episcopal Church of St. Thomas the Apostle, Dallas, TX 5 September 2021 In the name of our loving, liberating, and life-giving God: + Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. “Do not rob the poor nor crush the afflicted for God pleads their cause and lays waste the lives of those who plunder them.” So says the Book of Proverbs, traditionally said to have been written by none other than Solomon, both son of David and king of Israel,  and counted the wisest among men. God pleads the cause of the poor. God favors the poor. The poor are precious to God.   Does God play favorites? Isn’t God supposed to be the God of everyone? Isn’t ours the God of all people? From today’s passage, Proverbs also acknowledges that, “The rich and the poor have this in…

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