We are approaching the end of Ordinary Time. We have been working our way through Matthew’s Gospel, and now we find ourselves near the end of the Gospel and the end of Jesus’ ministry. Here in Matthew 21, Jesus has returned triumphantly to Jerusalem. He has been to the Temple already, and driven out the money changers and the people selling animals for offerings. In these last days of his ministry, he will be confronted multiple times by the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the chief priests and elders of the people. They will try to trip him up, to make him say something they can arrest him for. We read about the first in this set of challenges this morning.
Continue reading “Trinity 16 Sermon”Sermon on Matthew 20.10-16 (Trinity 15, 2020)
St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church, Trinity 15, Sept 20, 2020 Canon Claude Schroeder
As Christians, we believe that through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of His Son Jesus Christ, and sending of the Holy Spirit, God has established his heavenly kingdom, which is his reign and rule, on this earth and in our midst, thus fulfilling the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Unto us a child is born, into us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders.” (Isaiah 9.6)
That is something in these politically turbulent and indeed chaotic times, and in the upcoming election season, we do well to remember. The government of this world rests upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ. God rules in the kingdoms of men, a kingdom which operates according to an alternative politics, known as “forgiveness” and “ humble service,” and an alternative economics called “gift” or “grace.” Our Christian calling consists into bearing witness to this kingdom, into which we have been baptized as active participants.
Continue reading “Sermon on Matthew 20.10-16 (Trinity 15, 2020)”Forgiveness
St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Trinity 14, Sept 13, 2020
Canon Claude Schroeder
Sermon on Matt. 18. 21-35
Peter came to Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often am I to forgive?”
Peter’s question to Jesus in our lesson today follows on naturally from the instruction Jesus gave his disciples in last week’s lesson: “ If a fellow member of the church sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained a brother.” (Matthew 18. 15)
This is the real test of Christian community. And it’s when, out of love, we go and speak to the person who has wronged us, and engage in the hard work of reconciliation, and restore the relationship. We do so not only for the sake of the relationship, but for the sake of our Christian brother or sister.
Continue reading “Forgiveness”Sermon for Trinity 13 – September 6, 2020
St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Canon Claude Schroeder (Matthew 18. 15-21.)
The idea that people should “self-isolate” or “social distance ” is something that not only runs contrary to the social nature of human beings, created for relationship with God and with one another, in community, but also runs entirely contrary to the understanding of the New Testament that salvation, our healing from the infection and wounding of sin, and our rescue from the power of death, is communal experience.
We may sin alone, but we are saved together.
This is what makes this season of “self-isolation” and “social distancing” doubly painful for Christians. Today as we celebrate the Holy Communion at St. Mary’s for the first time in six months, we are painfully aware of those who are not and cannot be with us.
Continue reading “Sermon for Trinity 13 – September 6, 2020”My Wound Incurable
Sermon for St. Mary’s Anglican
Date: August 30, 2020
Scriptures: Jeremiah 15:15-21, Psalm 26:1-8, Romans 12:9-21 and Matthew 16: 21-28
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts together, be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
My Wound Incurable
A number of years ago now I saw the movie Field of Dreams and was intrigued by the story it told about Ray, an Iowa corn farmer with only a limited number of acres. One day when Ray was out on the tractor he heard a voice that told him he should build a baseball diamond in the middle of his field. Uncertain, afraid and yet feeling strangely compelled to do so, Ray began ploughing under the young corn and marking out a ball diamond being assured by that same, strange voice which said: “If you build it, they will come!”
Continue reading “My Wound Incurable”Sermon – Eleventh Sunday After Trinity
Rev. Nathaniel Athian Deng Mayen
Matthew 16:13-20
Dear beloved brothers and sisters, the gospel reading today invites us to appreciate our collective identity, the Church as the inheritance of God, in which we find our eternal rest.
Who are you? This is a very common question, especially from the people who want to put others down. It calls into question the whole essence of a person: human ancestry, country of origin, attitude, or ability to react against injustice and oppression…The stakes are even higher and more pressing when you are a foreigner, an immigrant, a refugee, a person with disability, a person of Aboriginal descent, or any other person that is different in the dominant culture, whom a lot of people have little understanding about their identity and loyalty. Jesus Christ takes on all these oppressed identities: He comes down from heaven. He is not of this world. He is a refugee.
Continue reading “Sermon – Eleventh Sunday After Trinity”Sermon 2020-08-16
There is a video on YouTube I like to watch from time to time called “Cosmic Eye”. It begins with an image of a smiling woman lying on the grass. From there it pulls out, straight up into the air, and continues out, encompassing the park and city she lies in, then the continent, the planet, the solar system, and right out of the Milky Way, past our galaxy and its nearest neighbors, to what we can only guess is what the universe looks like, because it is too far away for us to ever see or get to. The video then zooms back down to the smiling woman again, then carries on into her, through her laughing eye and into her body, carrying on down through her cells and into her DNA, and on down to the quarks we also have to imagine exist, because we can’t see them either!
Continue reading “Sermon 2020-08-16”What Are You Doing Here?
Homily for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity—9 August 2020
The Reverend Gene Packwood
Jesus,
it’s good to be able to meet with you here in your Father’s house again. Thank you. And thank you for coming to meet with us so faithfully wherever we were over these last few months. Now please open the Scriptures you’ve set for us today to show us where we are, where you’d like us to be and what you’d like us to do when we get there…in The Name of The Father and The Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“What are you doing here?” says the Lord to Elijah in the 1 Kings passage. Twice! (1Kg19.9, 13) And twice Elijah responds.
Continue reading “What Are You Doing Here?”Sermon Trinity 8
St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church, Trinity 8, 2020, Aug.2, 2020 Canon Claude Schroeder
“Ho!” cried the prophet Isaiah, “Ho!”
Ho?
What is this “Ho?”
That isn’t a word is it?
Turns out, “Ho,” as it appears in the 55th Chapter of the Book of Isaiah, is a call for attention to something that has been seen, as when sailors say,” Land, Ho!”
Look! There it is!
Continue reading “Sermon Trinity 8”Sermon for Trinity 7 – July 26, 2020
Canon Claude Schroeder
Lectionary:
Matthew 13. 31-33, 44-52, Psalm 119. 129-136, Romans 8. 26-39 1 Kings 3. 5-12
In today’s Gospel lesson from the thirteenth Chapter of St. Matthew, “Jesus put before them, that is his disciples, another parable.” But as it turns out, Jesus set before them not another parable, but another five parables, for a total of seven parables here in the thirteenth Chapter of St. Matthew.
Continue reading “Sermon for Trinity 7 – July 26, 2020”