Sermons

The EPISCOPAL CHURCH of ST. JAMES the LESS

One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism

6/12/2019

Welcome to the Cline family, whose daughter (second daughter) Hannah will be baptized today. Hannah was our baby Jesus in last year’s Christmas pageant. Her older sister Amelia was baptized almost two years ago, in the Parish Hall, where we ...

The Seventh Sunday of Easter

6/12/2019

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! You know I love these quiet holiday weekends and the change of pace for our busy church. Tomorrow I will be giving the blessing at the Memorial Day Parade in the village, so we won’t be doing much here in church, ...

Holy Communion Sunday: Not Angels, but Sheep

6/12/2019

This is a weekend full of transitions, and a busy weekend even by our standards at St. James. And that’s saying something! Yesterday, many of us were down at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine to see Susie ordained a Deacon, and it ...

Listening, Not Fixing: the Example Mary of Bethany

6/12/2019

Today is the fifth and Last Sunday in Lent, and I don’t think I can remember a Lent quite as beautiful as this one’s been. I think this bodes well for the kind of Easter we’re going to have this year! But we’re not there yet. Next time we gather together on ...

Mothering Sunday and Coming Home: A Sermon for the Baptism of Henry Casterline

4/3/2019

Today is Laetere Sunday, the fourth Sunday (and midpoint) of Lent. Laetere means “lightening.” It’s traditionally been a day of reprieve from your fastidiously observed Lenten disciplines. The lighter vestments that I’m wearing are symbolic of the tone ...

Fig Trees and Second Chances: The 3rd Sunday in Lent

4/3/2019

Well, it’s definitely Lent when you have readings like this! Towers falling and cutting people down. Pilate slaughtering innocent men and women as they’re worshiping in the temple. Or, from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: twenty-three thousand idolaters ...

Clear Out Your Larder: A Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent

3/11/2019

“Almighty and everliving God, you hate nothing you have made, and forgive the sins of all who are penitent.” Those are the opening words of Lent. They began our Ash Wednesday service last week: “Almighty and everliving God, you hate nothing ...

Doubting Thomas

4/29/2019

For the past several years, Mother Storm has asked me to give the sermon on theSunday after Easter. It is a little bit of a joke between us, because after the multiple services in Holy Week and Easter, deacons, deacons to be, or curates are often ...

The Surprising Relevance of William Law

4/29/2019

Today we celebrate the feast of William Law, an English priest from the 18th century whose admirers are as diverse as the philosopher Aldous Huxley, the mystic William Blake, John and Charles Wesley, and the writer Samuel Johnson. ...

“All May, Some Should, None Must.” Preparing for a Holy Lent.

3/11/2019

[From the Parish Newsletter March Edition] Lent, the church’s annual season of penitence and self examination in preparation for Easter, begins on Ash Wednesday March 6. In one of most majestic openings of the year, the priest at Ash Wednesday ...