Sermons from St. George's

What is it that we miss when we aren’t quite sure what we miss, but we nevertheless intuit a gap, a space, a hole in our lives, in the world? What we miss may actually be a lingering presence of sorts: the living God poised perhaps yet again to do a new thing. From Easter Sunday 4/21/19.

At Easter the Gardener calls each of us, like Mary from the Tomb, so that we might grow like a plant around the Trellis of his Cross, emerging out of the ground towards the life-giving Son. From The Table on Easter Sunday, 4/21/19.

Here is the promise of Easter. Here is the reality that baptism immerses us in. The age old story, the story of failure and fear, the story that has haunted our days and, for so many of us, has defined our old selves – that story, and we along with it, have been put to death. We’ve been buried, plunged deep, with Christ in his death. And with Christ’ resurrection, a new story is being written. From the Great Vigil of Easter on 4/20/19.

Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, knowing that evil, pain, and death were being defeated, knowing that salvation was coming into the world to rescue the shipwrecked, Jesus said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. This is what glory looks like. This is how the shipwrecked are saved. This is God dealing in sovereign, rescuing love. This is how your new life is given to you – It is a gift of love. It is a gift of grace. It is a gift for the world. From the Good Friday service on 4/19/19.

When the hour came, Jesus took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. (Luke 22:14) Here in this meal, Christ takes simple elements of the earth, and transforms them into the bearers of the kingdom of God. The bread and wine—taken, blessed, broken, poured out, and given—they bespeak his redemptive work: his mingling with this broken Creation, his submission to it unto death, his transformation of it by his sacrifice, and his reweaving and renewing of it through his resurrection. And we are invited here to encounter this mystery—not just to observe it or ponder it—but to participate in it.

The Passion Narrative presented by members of St. George's Church, followed by a short homily. From the 8:45am service on Palm Sunday, 4/14/19.

I believe that Christian communities most committed to faithful worship are those that end up doing the most good for the world. You rarely start with “do-goodism” and end up at the feet of Jesus, at the foot of the cross. You end up with works-righteousness and a lot of burnout and frustration when you realize “the poor you will always have with you”… and the rich too and all their problems. Sermon from the 8:45am service on 4/7/19. John 12:1–8 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

If God does not exist, then we have what we have and we should fight tooth and nail to protect it and to get more, because life is a zero-sum game. But if the God revealed in the cross and resurrection is real, then even bread and wine—and all the stuff of life—can become vehicles for his infinite and abundant grace; we are free to give, to serve, to love without hope of a return on our investment. Sermon from The Table on 4/7/19.

“This is more than a poignant fable encouraging us to be better parents. This is more than a tug at the heartstrings in order to get us to be more gracious and more forgiving. This is a shocking story about the lengths to which the father will go in order for his children to experience reconciliation and restoration and life.” Sermon from the 8:45am service on 3/31/19

What I have come to learn - and what I hope the elder son comes to learn as well - is this: I am powerless to root out my feelings of resentment and unfairness about the way life sometimes goes… Only God can root out feelings of resentment and unfairness. But I can take responsibility. For what I can do is place myself in a position for God to do that work of rooting out. I can make the decision over and over to return to this story, this gospel, this church, this worship… to return to this Father, and to that other Son whose welcoming embrace extends from the hard wood of the cross. And in that perpetual homecoming, undying gratitude defeats standoffish resentment every time. Sermon from the Table service on 3/31/19

Lent is a time in the church year when we attend to the rocks in our lives: the rough spots in our personalities, the unwanted habits, thoughts, and behaviors, the rocky relationships. We ask God to disentangle them from the roots of our lives. As those rocks surface and are removed, we realize we can breathe again. After being pressed down for so long, we can stand up again. After carrying so much for so long, we can rest again. This is the beginning of a new flourishing. This is the beginning of a new season of fruitfulness. (Luke 13:1-9, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13) Sermon from 8:45am on 3/24/19.

The gospel and epistle readings today speak of challenges. Whether of the fig tree or of Israel in the wilderness. Challenges come in two ways: as temptation and as a test. Temptation is the strong desire to sin or do wrong. A test is a tough situation to prove our love for God, and our trust in him. Temptation is usually from Satan. Test is usually from God. To deal with temptation; go away from the individual, object and venue of temptation, and stay away. To deal with a test; confide in your pastor, family or friends. In both cases of temptation and test, always pray together, read the Bible more and get attached to church group and activities. (Luke 13:1-9, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13) Sermon from The Table on 3/24/19.

The return of trust after a “dark night of the soul,” after the experience of deep disappointment and grief, may be the hardest reality to realize. Yet it is a great miracle God can give us. Sermon from the 8:45am service on 3/17/19. (Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18)

As Jesus goes to Jerusalem, he is not only following in the trail of all the faithful prophets who have gone before and been killed; he is blazing a new trail, transforming that vicious cycle into a virtuous one, one that calls forth greater and greater flourishing and abundance as we follow in his path. Sermon from The Table on 3/17/19. (Luke 13:31-35)

John 3:16–21 The Rev. Dr. Jeremy Begbie is Director of the Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts (DITA) and a long-time friend of St. George's. This sermon from March 10, 2019 at 8:45am is part of the St. George’s partnership with DITA.

Jesus isn’t merely our model, he is our message. He is uniquely the one who could fulfill God’s vocation, defeating Satan, because he was God incarnate, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. Sermon from The Table on 3/10/19.

"Ash Wednesday is not about glitter, it is about ash. If we understand this, we understand the way to true freedom, true life, true love, and true grace - the grace that saves sinners who cannot save themselves. We fast in Lent to learn to feast on God alone." Sermon from the Noon Ash Wednesday Service on 3/6/19

Sermon from The Table on March 3, 2019

Sermon from the 8:45am service on March 3, 2019

We cannot see the tree that is latent in the small seed being sown into the ground. Had it not happened before, we could not imagine an acorn becoming an oak tree. So it is with the resurrection, this new creation reality. Had it not happened before, we could not imagine any other life, any other world, than that which requires us to exact vengeance on our enemies, and to see relationships as transactional enterprises, or as threats or fears to manage. But resurrection, it has happened before—in Jesus Christ, who sowed the seed of his own body, going into the ground and dying, only to rise again in glory and splendor, transforming his body of dust into the glorious life-giving spiritual body that makes the whole creation new. Sermon from the 8:45am service on 2/24/19.

For me, as for generations and generations of Christians, the Bible tells the story of definitive reality about our world because its entire narrative arc, from beginning to end, leads us to Jesus the Christ. The Bible is not the only place to come near Jesus. But you will not fully recognize him anywhere else if you do not know him through Scripture. Sermon from the 8:45am service on 2/17/19.

Clint Wilson: Sermon by St. George's Nashville

As we see in the Gospel, and in Isaiah, and throughout God’s story, God uses people where they are, and with the talents they have.... All of us are called to serve as ministers and members of the body of Christ, and to share Jesus in our boats, in our context, in our neighborhoods, in our studies, in our professions. So where has God strategically placed you? What abilities and opportunities and relationships are around you that God can use? Sermon from the 8:45am service on 2/10/19.

As these stories of Simon Peter and Isaiah show us, encountering this abundant life—this utter glory and magnificence—can be a terrifying thing, as the holiness of God bears a stark contrast to the dividedness of our hearts. But as these stories go on to show us, if we can bear to meet the gaze of this One who reveals his glory to us, if we can let the burning coal touch our lips, it will not only be our undoing, but it will be our remaking, our transformation, our healing. Sermon from The Table on 2/10/19.

Does the Church have the courage to create a culture of life — where the immigrant, the poor, the disabled, the elderly, and the pregnant mother who finds herself between a rock and a hard place — are mystified by the glorious beauty of life in Jesus Christ, as shown forth in the love of the local Church? Sermon from the 11:15am service on 2/3/19.

All Jesus is telling us today from the gospel passage is to believe in him and to believe in the scriptures. He wants us to trust him and to also trust the scriptures for our salvation and also for our healing, just the same way he told his own folks of men and women in Nazareth who were doubtful and skeptical of his mission to save and his power to heal. Some of us are witnesses of how Jesus saved us and changed our lives, and of how he healed us. We are witnesses of how he saved us from things that weighed us down, and of how he brought us out of places we never thought we could ever come out from. All Jesus is asking you to do is to have faith in him, to have faith in the scriptures. Sermon from The Table on 2/3/19.

We don't read the Bible primarily to gain knowledge, or wisdom, or life-coaching, or trivia answers for life's questions. We read the Bible to know Christ, for the sacred words point us to the Word, who is our very life. Episcopalians must pursue being people 'of the Book,' who are nourished by sacred Scriptural words and who live under God's authority. Sermon from The Table service on 1/27/19.

The dying of our wish-dream allows us to move forward and live in real community. As we hold in tension the vision of community God has given us with the reality that is before us, we learn to walk together and take responsibility for making it work. We learn to hold each other with a sort of delicacy, knowing full well that in our love we are holding, not the best and strongest pieces of each other, but the most vulnerable and broken pieces of each other. We come together as people united, not by our goodness and strength, but rather united in our weakness and need. "We are beggars, it is true. Alleluia, alleluia," Martin Luther proclaims. Sermon from the 8:45 service on 1/27/19.

Mary says to the servants, “do whatever my son asks of you.” Do you? What is Jesus asking of you this day? Where has the wine run out? What if the Son’s request of you this day is to open up that part of your life to him with this simple but powerful prayer: “Lord, fill this empty place. Pour yourself into me like water poured into those stone jars. And make in me new wine.” Sermon from the 8:45am service on 1/20/19.

God knows we cannot survive running on empty. And so he is right now filling you. Because he knows you can’t fill yourself. He is filling your jars full. Sermon from The Table on 1/20/19.

It’s not what you do that defines who you are. It’s who you are that defines what you do. Sermon from the 8:45am service on 1/13/19.

"Baptism does not deny our natural family ties—it honors them, and elevates us and ours into a broader family. Indeed, we are designed to love our own flesh and blood, but in this new family, we love even the stranger as family, because as Christ reminds us, in the stranger, we may encounter none other than Christ himself.” Sermon from The Table on 1/13/19.

"The wise men came to visit Jesus, but they didn’t stay. Whatever happened to them? I think we are left to wonder if they were truly converted by this experience or not. Perhaps they came and worshiped and gave presents but didn’t really give their lives to Jesus. Perhaps that sounds a bit like Christmas for us… for me. But I give the wise men great credit: there are a lot of stars in the sky to follow. The wise men chose the right one to go and seek out." Sermon from the 8:45am service on 1/6/19.

"We were made for wonder and joy and love, and this Child that the wise men sought actually came into the world seeking us, giving himself on the cross to restore in us the life and peace we were made for. “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.” May the light of his love dispel the fog of fear that so often clouds our vision, and may we, with the wise men, come with wonder and joy to find our home in him." Sermon from The Table on 1/6/19.

“The Word became flesh, intermeshed his divine nature with our humanity, so that our lives—so often disparate, confused, muddled with hopes and fears—might be intermeshed with the presence of this One who loved us into being, and who brings all those disparate parts of our lives together in the fullness of grace and truth.” Sermon from the 8:45am service on 12/30/18.

Sermon from The Table on 12/30/18.

"Jesus’ birth pulls us into the point of intersection between heaven and earth, between God and humanity. We call this place “glory.” Mary and Joseph are in it. The shepherds are in it. We want to be in it too." Sermon from Christmas Eve, 2018 at the 5:30pm service.

"In the presence of this child, I have learned that I am guilty—I am selfish, sinful, and I want my own way. But thanks be to God that in a child, grace overcomes guilt. Those who have received the Christ-child, will learn also as Mary & Elizabeth did and as all true disciples do, that there is only one innocent person on the hill, the one who will hang on the hill of Calvary.” Sermon from 12/23/18 at the 8:45am service.

"What if we believed it were true? What if we believed that the Lord rejoices over us with gladness and renews us in his love? What if we believed that we are loved and nothing, not even sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, or even death can ever take that love away? What if we believed it were true? And what if, being so loved, God invited us to make a change, to come back to him, to step out into new freedom, to walk into a new kind of life? This would be the best gift you’ve ever been given, wouldn’t it? Friends, this is the gift God is giving. This is the gift God has for you. Come and receive it. It’s here for you." Sermon from the 11:15am service on 12/16/18.

“Jesus shows us that we can never find release by hanging on tighter and tighter. Freedom comes from giving ourselves over to his embrace. Salvation does not come through what we accomplish, but is entirely through what Jesus accomplished. Our life is through his death. And in his resurrection, we see that all the things that attack us will never win. Life wins.” Sermon from The Table on 12/16/18.

By and large, our lives here are good. We are full of life and love and energy. But our lives are also fragmented, divided… And we, only partially seeing, work hard to piece together all our colliding commitments into a coherent whole. So we arrive again here, this time of year, daring to hope that these fragmented lives can be different than they are. John the Baptist would want us to know again, that this hope is well-founded. Turn, watch, and wait…. Sermon from the 8:45am service on 12/09/18.

Life’s earthquakes shake us because we have believed and lived as if the world is a certain way. But life’s earthquakes reveal the truth. They show us where our fault lines are. They show us where things are not as they seem, where WE are not the people we have believed ourselves to be. Life’s earthquakes can shake us to our core. It’s hard, but only then will we be able to get to the bottom of things. Only then can we see what our real foundations are. The edifices fall, but when Jesus rescues us, he builds for us an even richer and better life. Sermon from The Table on 12/9/18.

“The hands of this judge are hands that we can trust to ultimately do the right thing and to put all things in their proper place, because these are the same hands that would take on flesh in a womb and would embrace a mother for nourishment. These hands would reach out to care for a despised harlot and would heal the ear of an enemy. Indeed, these very hands were nailed to the cross so that we might be free.” Sermon from The Table on 12/2/18.

Here we are 100 generations removed from Jesus’ day. And even though many of us pray, “Come, Lord Jesus,” we maybe aren’t so concerned about his coming. We’re pretty sure it’s not happening any time soon. So, instead of raising our heads, as Jesus encourages, we just keep our heads down, going about our business and trying to make the best of things here. But the less we think about Christ’s coming again, the less we think about Christ present with us, the more our hearts are weighed down with the worries of the world. All too often, we turn from God in order to put our trust in so many other things that have no power to save. Sermon from the 8:45am service on 12/2/18.

The Truth is not just only an idea, a rule, a philosophy, or a religion. The Truth is a person. His name is Jesus Christ. He says, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Believe in him, follow him, and you will be saved. Sermon from The Table on 11/25/18.

All the presenting problems of the world, which the kingdoms of the world would presume to solve, all these are only symptoms of a world divided and enslaved by Sin and Death, and their resolution cannot come from within. “Nothing can save us that is possible: we who must die demand a miracle” (W.H. Auden). And that miracle comes to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Sermon from the 8:45am service on 11/25/18.

All our temple complexes crumble sooner or later. That is just the way life is. But such unhoped-for steps may nevertheless offer the way into the real Temple, into knowing who God really is as Jesus, and perhaps, we might pray, into the beginning of the Good News. Sermon from the 8:45am service on 11/18/18.

The point is that the poor widow had nothing to give. There is no pretense of self-sufficiency in her before God or others whatsoever. And only in the demolition of self-sufficiency or self-sacrifice as the way to the fullness of life do we find the fullness of life. Sermon from The Table on 11/11/18.

We don’t really like to use the term “saved” in The Episcopal Church; this is a word owned by Baptists, or Pentecostals, isn’t it? Well Yes, and no. It is also a term straight from the pages of Scripture, and it is an essential term for us to hold onto as those who are committed to the authority of Scripture.” Sermon from the 8:45am service on 11/11/18.

Jon Meacham served as a guest preacher for our Prayer Service for National Healing and Reconciliation on Sunday, November 4. We are living in a moment of significant social, political, and civic unrest. What would it look like to unite together with others to pursue reconciliation, healing, and hope amidst all the noise? There is more that unites us than what divides us, and we invite you to encounter the hope of God amidst troubling times.