“Eureka” By Edgar Allan Poe

Readings for the Twenty Second Sunday after Pentecost (Year A) Proper 25 – Track 2 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on Sunday October 29, 2023. Our Scripture readings today focus on the heart. The Book of Leviticus commands God’s people not to harbor any hate in their hearts, especially not for […]

Behold, the Image of God

Readings for the Twenty First Sunday after Pentecost (Year A) Proper 24 – Track 2 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on Sunday October 22, 2023. Twenty years ago, I was given this cross when I first visited the Holy Land. The cross is made from the trees of the land, the […]

“Don’t Worry, Be Happy”

Readings for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A) Proper 23 – Track 2 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on Sunday October 15, 2023. Here’s a little sermon that I wrote I’m going to try to preach it without note Don’t worry be happy Don’t worry be happy In this life, […]

Practicing Kenosis in the Face of War (with leonard Cohen)

Readings for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A) Proper 22 – Track 2 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on Sunday October 8, 2023. This morning’s sermon is about the reality of war, a call to humility, and the power of poetry or perhaps more simply it’s a call to a […]

The Joy of the Owl God

Readings for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A) Proper 21 – Track 2 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on Sunday October 1, 2023. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be in alignment with the same wisdom that was in Christ Jesus who did […]

Protection against “the Evil Eye”

Readings for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A) Proper 20 – Track 2 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on Sunday September 24 2023. Several years ago, I picked Ashley up at the SFO airport after the holidays when we were first dating and drove her back home to Berkeley over the […]

The Process of Forgiveness

Readings for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A) Proper 19 – Track 2 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on Sunday September 17, 2023. Last Sunday, our Scripture readings invited us to choose life. Today our readings remind us that choosing life means choosing forgiveness. Rabbi Joseph Gelberman, who lost his […]

Supporting the Saint of Hopeless Causes

A reflection on St. Judas Thaddeus inspired by the oil painting of Fr. George Leonard Shultz (1896 – 1971). This same reflection was published in the Times-Standard on Saturday September 16, 2023 as Supporting the ‘Saint of Hopeless Causes’ Since the fall of 2020, I have been offering reflections on Father Shultz’s paintings of the 12 apostles, which […]

Riders on the Storm

“There is nothing more praiseworthy in friendship than loyalty, which is its nurse and guardian.” – St. Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship Jacob was my fellow rider on the storm. The two of us spent a lot of time on the road together; and one of my favorite memories of him was in 2001 when […]

Turning Towards Life’s Open Windows (THe Hebrew LEtter “HE”)

Readings for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A) Proper 18 – Track 2 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on Sunday September 10, 2023. It’s good to be back indeed! After 15 consecutive Sundays away, it’s good to be back. One of my goals when I arrived here almost six years […]