A View From The Earth

This short sermon was offered at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on November 26, 2017.  The lectionary readings were Matthew 25:31-46, Ephesians 1:15-23, Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24, and Psalm 100. This Gospel has always struck a chord with me. Once, many years ago, I was helping with a political event in Council Bluffs. While I was outside getting some things from a car, an older man came up to me and asked if he could have some money. I said no. Then he said that he was hungry, that is why he asked for money. I said I had nothing to give to him. He said that was ok and thanked me for my time. As I carried the things I retrieved from the car into the building I thought of the buffet of food that was set up inside. I dropped the things inside the door and went back to look for him. The man was nowhere to be seen. Then the next day in Church, this passage was the Gospel Lesson. The King says “ Come, you that are blessed by...

Planting the Seeds This is the sermon that I preached on May 12, 2013 at Church of the Saviour, Clermont, Iowa.  In addition to it being the seventh Sunday of Easter and the Sunday after the Ascension, our Church also marked it as United Thank Offering Sunday and Rogation Sunday.  The texts used were Acts 16: 16-34; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21; & John 17: 20-26. _______________________________________________ Wow, we are celebrating lots of things today, the United Thank Offering, Rogation Sunday, and the Ascension of Jesus was celebrated this past Thursday. Lots of stuff. But thankfully for you I will keep this short. The story in Acts about Paul and Silas when they went to Philippi has always made me think of the injustices that happen in our world. They were minding their own business but a fortune telling slave girl was following them around shouting who was telling everyone who they really were. Paul, who must have wanted to kee...

This is the sermon I gave at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on December 11, 2011. Readings: John 1:6-8, 19-28 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 Psalms 126 We've all heard the old familiar nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the Kings horses and all the kings men. Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again. You are probably thinking, where in the heck is he going with this, so please bear with me. Humpty Dumpty was this egg who lived in a kingdom. He was cheerful and chipper sitting high up waiting on a wall. Never had the fear of being poached, boiled, or fried. Never had the concern of becoming an omelet or a meringue. Humpty Dumpty lived a good life. Sitting high up, he was able to look down at the townsfolk as they went by. Never had a care or a concern. But one day as he sat up on top of his wall, something happened. Now the story doesn’t breakdown what it was. Perhaps he ha...

The temptations of Jesus. This is the sermon I gave the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on March 13, 2011. Readings: Matthew 4:1-11 Romans 5:12-19 Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 Psalms 32 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. We have entered Lent, it is a time that is set aside for self examination, repentance, reconciliation and restoration. And on this first Sunday of Lent, we hear the readings where Jesus is tempted, Adam and Eve are tempted and sin, and Paul tells the Romans that sin is death. It is a good thing that the Psalm tells us that we can be forgiven of our sins, otherwise this could be a real downer. But, I'm going to focus today on Jesus and the temptations that he faced and what he did about them. If a commercial on the television is to be believed then temptation truly comes in the form of cake or chocolate or chocolate cake, but of course temptation comes in many shapes and si...

A stained glass of St. Paul. He had to keep reminding the Church in Corinth to stay on the correct path. This is the sermon I gave the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on February 13, 2011. 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. The Corinthians self-image was of a spiritually mature congregation, endowed with all the spiritual gifts they needed, well taught and self-sufficient. In fact they were quite similar to some churches today. They thought their learning and their experience of the gifts of God made them better than others. But as Paul looks at them he says Mature? I think not! Spiritual? No! Not spiritual. You could say they’re suffering from what you might call an adolescence syndrome. They think they’re mature, and in some respects they are, but in other respects they’re still acting like children. What they don’t realize is that mere lapse of time doesn’t bring...

Martin Luther King Jr. This is the sermon I gave the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on January 16, 2011. John 1:29-1:41 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. In 1961, one of the abiding symbols of the Cold War and Communism went up between East and West Germany. On November 9, 1989, that symbol came down. I remember watching TV news reports as people celebrated on top of the wall and how they took sledgehammers to break the wall down by themselves. I also remember reading an article about the fall of the Berlin Wall written by a World Methodist Council representative, it quoted a sign that the author saw the day after the wall came down, it read, 'Not the bear, not the lion, not the tiger, but the Lamb; the Lamb wins! The lamb is usually a sign of gentleness and timidity, prone to disaster from many hazards. But for Christians, the lamb is a sign of victory. In today’s lesson, John...

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...

This is the sermon that I gave at the Church of the Saviour Episcopal Church in Clermont, Iowa on July 18, 2010. I want you to note right at the beginning of this sermon the context in which Luke records this incident in the home of Martha and Mary. Luke places it immediately after Jesus has taught the parable of the Good Samaritan. I think that is significant because in that parable the ‘religious people’ are condemned for not doing the practical thing of helping the man lying injured by the roadside. This incident in the home of Martha and Mary seems to teach the very opposite. The context is important because it helps us to understand the meaning and purpose of this story in the Gospel of Luke and in our lives today. Martha and Mary, along with their brother Lazarus, are close friends of Jesus. Their home at Bethany, some two miles from Jerusalem, was a familiar place for Jesus and his disciples to rest and relax. Their home would also be the scene of the miracle of the resurrect...

I've been neglecting the blog for the past few months so I thought I should probably post the sermons that I've done this summer at the Church of the Saviour Episcopal Church in Clermont, Iowa. This is the July 11, 2010 sermon. In every construction trade, in every business, there are standards of righteousness. By the term righteousness, in the context of construction, we mean being correct. Amos, one of the earliest prophets in Israel, used the plumb line as a metaphor for righteousness. Israel was more than “a bit out of plumb” in the days of Amos and Isaiah. The book of Amos records that two years after Amos received his visions, an earthquake struck the area. Josephus, the Jewish historian, believed that the earthquake happened at the same time as Uzziah’s seizure of the role of High Priest and his subsequent bout with leprosy. Amos lived at about the same time as the prophets Isaiah, Micah and Hosea. Under Jeroboam II the kingdom of Israel reached the zenith ...

Today at the Bishop's Committee meeting at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa, we received some very good financial news. It seems that the total amount of pledges has risen by over 26% as compared to last year. I have heard from a number of other local Churches of all denominations with a common theme, congregations are putting less and less in the collection plate. So it is truly a Godsend to be part of a small but growing congregation that doesn't have to worry whether there will be enough money to keep the lights on and the toilet flushing.

This is a sermon that I gave on January 10, 2010 at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa. Don’t you hate it? You are watching a great movie on T.V. The excitement is mounting. You are getting to a really good part. You are sitting on the edge of your seat. Then right in the middle before the plot is revealed or the plot takes a new and exciting twist, a commercial comes on. For the next two to three minutes you see commercials about everything imaginable. We are told that advertisers may buy at least forty time slots on a single station, for a single day, when introducing a new product. No doubt they are on to something. Classic sayings abound. “Plop. Plop. Fizz. Fizz. Oh, what a relief it is.” “Snap, Crackle , Pop.” “Don’t Leave Home With Out It.” "Finger lickin’ good." "Have a break. Have a Kit-Kat." "Just do it." “Built Ford Tough.” The very successful media people have one question in mind: Have you heard? We have heard. We reme...