Sensual Asceticism

Readings for the First Sunday in Lent (Year A) Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11 Psalm 32 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church Eureka on Sunday February 22, 2026. There’s a scene in C. S. Lewis’s science fiction book Perelandra in which the hero of the space novel named Ransom travels from Earth to […]

The Mysterious Conversion of St. Francis

Readings for Ash Wednesday Isaiah 58:1-12 Psalm 103 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 This homily was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on Ash Wednesday, February 18, 2026. Your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Ha pater sou ha blepon en to krypto apodosei soi. Your Father (pater) who sees […]

It Is Good for us to Be Here

Readings for the Last Sunday after Epiphany (Transfiguration) Exodus 24:12-18 2 Peter 1:16-21 Matthew 17:1-9 Psalm 2 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church Eureka on Shrove Sunday February 15, 2025. “It is good to be here. It is good for us to be here.” During an ecumenical event in Sacramento last month, Roman Catholic priest […]

Christian Unity Based on a Question

This article was published in the Times-Standard on Saturday February 7, 2026 as “A Question to Propel Us Toward True Christian Unity” By the Rev. Daniel DeForest London, Ph.D. The week of Jan. 18 to 25 was the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, a week bookended by the Feast of the Confession of St. […]

Q: How Long? A: Behold, the Lamb of God!

Readings for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany Isaiah 49:1-7 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 John 1:29-42 Psalm 40:1-12 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on January 18, 2026. In March of 1983, the Irish Rock band U2 released their third album, titled “War”; and the opening track of the album is called “Sunday […]

Our Baptism, Belovedness and Behavior

Readings for the First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of Our Lord Isaiah 42:1-9 Acts 10:34-43 Matthew 3:13-17 Psalm 29 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on January 11, 2026. Today is the feast day of the Baptism of Our Lord (when we baptize Theodore Alex Zheng); it is also the […]

An Epiphany Sermon inspired by Lancelot Andrews and T. S. Eliot

Readings for the Feast of the Epiphany Isaiah 60:1-6 Ephesians 3:1-12 Matthew 2:1-12 Psalm 72:1-7,10-14 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on January 6, 2026. Since we celebrated his feast day in September during a Sacred Saunter, I’ve been regularly praying the Private Devotions of Lancelot Andrewes, the 17th century Anglican bishop […]

The Magi as Proto-Anglicans

Readings for the Second Sunday after Christmas Day Jeremiah 31:7-14 Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a Matthew 2:1-12 Psalm 84 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on January 4, 2026. Happy Eleventh Day of Christmas! Tomorrow night will be this season’s Twelfth Night, which is the name of that Shakespeare comedy in which the character Duke […]

Private Devotions of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes for the Seventh Day (Saturday)

Private Devotions of Lancelot Andrewes for the Seventh Day (Saturday) 1. Creation O LORD, be gracious unto us: we have waited for You: be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of trouble.[1] Blessed are You, O Lord, who rested on the seventh day from all Your work, and blessed and sanctified this day […]

Private Devotions of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes: The Sixth Day (Friday)

Private Devotions of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes for the Sixth Day (Friday) Introduction Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kind…[and] let us make humanity in Our image, according to our likeness”…and there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. – Genesis 1:24, 26, 31 […]