A View From The Earth

This is for all my Belgian friends...

Joseph taking Mary and Jesus to Egypt This is the sermon I gave at Morning Prayer at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on January 2, 2011. Scripture: Matthew 2:13-15,19-23 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. Amen. Sometimes,we take the long way home, just to enjoy the scenery and the companionship. Christmas is about a lot of things, but it is at least about getting back home. We sing about it: “I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams. And “Over the river and through the woods.” Over the river and through the woods, To grandmother’s house we go; The horse knows the way to follow the sleigh Through the white and drifting snow When I was young, in my mind's eye, I imagined what the stable where Jesus was born was like. It was a lot like the barn that we had. During the chill of wintertime, it was a warm place where the milk cows stayed. It was a nice, war...

Dream of Joseph by Rembrandt This is the short sermon I gave at Morning Prayer at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on December 19, 2010 Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25 Yesterday, we heard the Bishop's take on today's readings. I'm not even going to come close to the wisdom that he shared with us, but his message raised some thoughts and questions with me. What we have heard here in today's Gospel is Joseph’s story. The struggle of a good and righteous man, the struggle to come to terms with the fact his fiance is pregnant and that he is not the Father. The truth, though, is that this pregnancy was only a part of Josephs dilemma. The rest of the dilemma lay in the fact that God may have a place for Joseph, a place that only Joseph could fill. Joseph, despite being a man of faith, could not believe that God would want anything to do with him, and his simple life. He couldn’t believe that this living God that he worshiped regularly every Sabb...