Harrowing Of Hell

Category: Kingdom of God

Alertness and the Crisis in Gaza

Sermon | August 10, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. Good morning. I’m glad to see you here. As I mentioned last Sunday, the topic on the table today is Gaza. I know this probably won’t be a sermon that meets everyone’s expectations. In fact, I’ve already received a pile of emails with opinions and information to “help” guide

Truth in a Post-Truth World

Sermon | June 8, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. I was watching the news the other day and I heard something that might startle you… Out of the mouth of a national leader I heard something I quickly perceived, based on a smattering of history, a little bit of science, and some common sense… I heard a bald-faced

Joseph’s Mother

Sermon | May 11, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. I recently returned from my annual retreat in Montana, where I gathered with six men I went to seminary with. We’ve been praying together for 25 years. Once a month we talk by phone, and once a year we gather in Montana to review our lives, to wrestle with

Identity and the Reversals of Life

Sermon | April 13, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. Well, here we go: the church’s annual soul-churning, week-long emotional roller coaster ride. It begins today, a day of ironies and paradoxes, of parallels and reversals.  Today we begin on a high note. I find it thrilling to enter into the scene in which Jesus rides triumphantly into Jerusalem,

Guardians of Grace

Sermon | March 30, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. Part of my job as your priest is to pray every day. I use the Daily Office. It’s a rhythm of prayer and scripture reading that places me inside the unfolding story of God. It’s fascinating, sometimes challenging, sometimes consoling, but always insightful. I want to thank you for

Look Around

Sermon | January 6, 2025

To watch the sermon click here. One year ago, I visited Seattle for the first time since moving to New England several years prior.   On that same visit, I preached from this pulpit for the first time in nearly seven years. It was a whirlwind of a weekend. But two things really stand out

Christ the King of Peace

Sermon | November 24, 2024

To watch the sermon click here. Twenty years ago, I was a student at the Episcopal seminary in Austin, Texas. During that time, I remember spending a long weekend visiting my parents in Ponca City, Oklahoma–the town where I grew up. Ponca City is what I consider to be the buckle of the Bible Belt.

Truth Revealed Through Humility and Gentleness

Sermon | August 4, 2024

To watch the sermon click here. “We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and blown about by every wind of doctrine,  by people’s trickery, by their craftiness and deceitful schemes.” (Eph 4:14). I’m quoting the Bible. Who says the Bible doesn’t speak into the reality of the world as it is today? Paul, in his