Sermons

Christopher Thomas Sermon for Easter Sunday, Year 4 – 4/4/21 Isaiah 25:6-9 Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 Acts 10:34-43 John 20:1-18   “Mary!” The day, like so many others, began in such sweet, deep, bitter, sad sorrow.  So many of them do.  The days, I mean.  So disconnected.  So anxious.  So full of longing. To see, to smell, to touch, to hear, to taste, ah, to know. To know my beloved. My beloved spirated, saying unto me, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away with me!” Oh, to hear that bidding, but one more time. But, who knew? Really, seriously, who knew? She did not know.  She could not see, him, Love, through her tears, her sorrow, her weeping, that love stood there, right in front of her, as plain as the very nose on her face! “Mary!” I can imagine, can’t you, that it was electric, that moment…

Christopher Thomas Sermon for Maundy Thursday – 4/1/2021 Exodus 12:  1-4, 11-14 Psalm 116:  1, 10-17 1 Corinthians 11:  23-26 John 13:  1-17, 31-35  “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” The Sacrament of Discomfort Tomorrow will be your last day on earth, your final moments of human existence, and your exit is going to be messy and painful, fraught with deception and betrayal.  How do you choose to spend your last evening? The Very Rev. Mike Kinman, former Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis calls it the “Sacrament of Discomfort.”  Several years ago, I found myself in one of his workshops at which he discussed this phenomenon.  The subject was race and reconciliation, and…

Christopher Thomas Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year B – 3/21/21 Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 119:9-16 Hebrews 5:5-10 John 12:20-33   Set me as a seal upon your heart as a seal upon your arm. For love is strong as death! Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. Set me as a seal upon your heart as a seal upon your arm. For love is strong as death!   Song of Songs 8:6a, 8:7a   Song of Songs (Song of Solomon) has got to be my favorite book of the bible.  (Ok, they’re all good, for different reasons, but for today’s purposes, it’s Song of Songs, the story of passionate love, frightening love, the kind of love that reaches in to your chest cavity and grabs your heart, massages it around, refusing to let go.  That kind of love is deeper, and wider, and stronger,…

Christopher Thomas Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year B – 3/14/21 Numbers 21:4-9 Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 Ephesians 2:1-10 John 3:14-21 Rejoice ye with Jerusalem; and be ye glad for her, all ye that delight in her: exult and sing for joy with her, all ye that in sadness mourn for her; that ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations. Psalm: I was glad when they said unto me, We will go into the house of the Lord. Happy Laetare Sunday! Rejoice, and be glad! This Sunday set aside to rest, refresh, regroup, “mother,” in the midst, in the middle, to be exact, of our Lenten journey, the time between “ashes-to-ashes, dust-to-dust,” and “Christ is risen, the Lord is risen, indeed!”  Hit the pause button on our inward search for the intersections of self, and God, where we fit into the great “Creator/creation” schema of things, our…

Christopher Thomas Sermon for the First Sunday of Lent, Year B – 2/21/21 Genesis 9:8-17 Psalm 25:1-9 1 Peter 3:18-22 Mark 1:9-15 “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.  Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light Day, and the darkness God called Night.  And there was evening and there was morning, the very first day.” –     Genesis 1:1-5 You know how this story goes.  You’ve heard it, we just read this passage, a few weeks ago, back on the first Sunday after Epiphany.  I’d be willing to make wager that, like the 23rd Psalm, you can…

Christopher Thomas Sermon for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B – 2/14/21 2 Kings 2:1-12 Psalm 50:1-6 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 Mark 9:2-9   “Trans-“ “Trans-“ From the Latin:  Across, over, beyond. Implications of a journey.  A trip.  A path.  A course. To destinations, as of yet, previously unseen, unheard, unknown. At the very least, to me… Trans-formation Trans-substantiation Trans-literation Trans-plantation Trans-gender-ation (I just made that up to see if you were paying attention.) Trans…journies…trips…paths…courses…curiosities Today’s journey is the mountaintop experience that Jesus takes Peter, and James, and John (and you and I) upon, as we trek up Mount Tabor once again.  But why?  Why this Epiphany, this theophany, why now?  We know, don’t we, that God is among us, Immanuel.  The star landed over Bethlehem, pointing the way.  He’s right over there, multiplying fish, feeding masses, curing and healing the sick, giving sight to blind folks, why even…