Sermons

Christopher Thomas Sermon for the First Sunday of Lent, Year A – 3/1/2020 Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 Psalm 32 Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11 One of my favorite movies of all time is the 1983 cult comedy classic, “National Lampoon’s Family Vacation.” “…Family Vacation” records the ups-and-downs, the trials and temptations of the quintessential American family, the Griswolds. At first glance, the Griswolds, Clark and Ellen, seem to have everything that good, clean 1980’s living can provide – a beautiful home, two seemingly well-adjusted kids, and a dog. They have it all, right down to the proverbial white-picket fence. What, oh what, could possibly make this scene any better? How about a road trip! To Walley World, of all places, that nirvana of theme parks, where happiness and joy abound, the streets are lined with gold, there are no lines for rides or bathrooms, and all things are pristine and perfect! Well,…

Christopher Thomas Sermon for Ash Wednesday, Year A – 2/26/20 Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 Psalm 103 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Have you ever had the opportunity to touch and to feel ashes? Ashes are kind of grainy, but as they get smeared around, they tend to have a kind of oily, greasy type quality. Ashes are the vestiges, the remains, of something that was. In their very creation, ashes have given up everything that identified what they were in their previous form and content, retaining only their most basic, elemental content. Something that was, at once, distinctly identifiable, say, maybe, a palm branch, woven by human hands into a palm cross, carried around or displayed somewhere for a year, meets the fire of furnace, and, in an instant, forfeits it’s green or brown shaped cross identity, returning to…

Christopher Thomas Sermon for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A – 2/23/2020 Feast of the Transfiguration Exodus 24:12-18 Psalm 99 2 Peter 1:16-21 Matthew 17:1-9 “I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is really only one logical conclusion. I need darkness as much as I need light.” – Barbara Brown Taylor, “Learning to Walk in the Dark” Transfiguration. The notion, why, the very idea, that something, or someone, or some ones, can come into contact with another something, or someone, or some ones, and be changed. Fundamentally, radically, altered, changed, meta-morphosed, from a cellular level, out, is mind-boggling to me. My brain dances with excitement. Transfiguration. Things are moving in ways we cannot begin to ask or imagine, but we should, and we must imagine! Why…

Christopher Thomas Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A – 2/16/2020 Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Psalm 119:1-8 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 Matthew 5:21-37 Because in my weakness (really, it’s my humanness), I can do nothing (nothing good, that is) without you. Give me the help of your grace, that I may keep our covenant, thereby pleasing you in both my intention and in my action. Amen. Intention, and action, and grace. So, as I have said before, it is my great privilege to go, to use Tom Long’s metaphor, to the well of scripture, week after week, to see what the Great Good News, the Word (Capital W, Logos) has to say to us, for you and my individual lives and contexts, and also for the wider setting of our communal life that we can and will live together here not only on our corner of Inwood and Mockingbird, but…

Christopher Thomas Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A – 2/9/2020 Isaiah 58:1-9a Psalm 112:1-9 1 Corinthians 2:1-12 Matthew 5:13-20 I found myself wondering, this week, as I wandered, through the Gospel, God’s great good news, which is my great honor and privilege to do, week in, and week out on your behalf. I found myself curious, as I so often do, about this notion of light. Now, I know, theologically speaking, because that’s what we clergy types do, right, we think and speak theologically, conversating with and about God, that God IS the source of light and life. It all comes from God; it all belongs to God, and it all goes back to God. I think we can agree that light, and everything that it illuminates, is God’s, not ours. We’re just small parts of the bigger picture. Now, that being said, my curious little…

Christopher Thomas Sermon for the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord, Year A – 2/2/2020 Malachi 3:1-4 Psalm 84 Hebrews 2:14-18 Luke 2:22-40 “At This Table” by Idina Menzel & Jonas Myrin, 2019 At This Table: Everyone is Welcome Everyone is Seen Everybody Matters No One Falls Between At This Table: You Can Say Whatever You Can Speak Your Mind Everything Is Forgiven There’s Enough for Everyone At This Table: There Will Be No Judgement Mercy Has A Seat We’re All Sons and Daughters There’s No Place I Would Rather Be At This Table: Everyone Is Welcome Everybody Cares Everybody Matters Come, Pull Up A Chair Come As You Are Remember That the Door is Always Open Come As You Are The Perfect Gift That You Can Bring Is Your Heart Come, Come As You Are I can’t believe we’re actually here, that this day, this moment, this split…