A View From The Earth

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash Good and Gracious God, we pray that we will accept the invitation that you extend to us, doing your will, and loving you and our neighbor.  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. With a teacher for a spouse and years of serving as a school board member, we receive a lot of invitations.  I’m not certain about Muscatine, but parties for graduations arrive in stacks starting in April and continue through July.  But June through August are the height of the wedding season, so those envelopes show up too.  It’s not uncommon to have six or seven commitments in one day. Uffda! If that’s what was going on in today’s Gospel, we could probably understand a note being penned that offered regrets to the King, Sending along a nice gift or buying something from the wedding registry at Target or Bed Bath and Beyond also would have lessened the blow. Another possible interpretation is that accepting the invitation w...

  Photo by Lasseter Winery on Unsplash O God, be with us today as we look to you as our cornerstone upon which we build our faith. May we always look to you in all that we do. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen The imagery of a vineyard was such a familiar idea in the Bible, but for many people who live in the city, it's a totally unfamiliar process. Our culture makes wine or raisins or juice available year round, so sweat and toil become a type of codeswitching. Codeswitching is a anthropology term. It helps describe the process of navigating through the language, the customs, and acceptable behaviors of a region or location. Baseball caps or dew-rags are preferred in different neighborhoods, and yelling 'Roll Tide' on a Saturday will not generate nearly the excitement here in Iowa as cheering for the Cyclones, Hawkeyes or Panthers. The codeswitching language we see today talks about the spread of the Kingdom of God, but it also...

  Photo by Amanda Jones on Unsplash This is the sermon that was offered up during Eucharist on September 27, 2020 outside on the lawn at Trinity Episcopal Church in Muscatine, Iowa. The Eucharist service was also streamed to Facebook. Services were affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic and all people in person were physically distant and wore face coverings. The scripture readings were Ezekiel 18:1-4,25-32, Psalm 25:1-8, Philippians 2:1-13, and Matthew 21:23-32. Almighty God, Let us go into the vineyard, whatever time of day it might be, and work for you, to do your will.  May we go when you call us, but even if we don’t go then, let us go when we are able so your will is done. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. My parents were card-players.  Avid card players.  They hosted card clubs, attended daytime card groups after they retired, and I’m pretty sure that each one of my children knew that they had a Grandma who was a card sha...

  Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash This is the sermon that was offered up during Eucharist on September 20, 2020 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Muscatine, Iowa. The Eucharist service was also streamed to Facebook. Services were affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic and all people in person were physically distant and wore face coverings. The scripture readings were Jonah 3:10-4:11, Psalm 145:1-8, Philippians 1:21-30, and Matthew 20:1-16. O God, let us remember that we are to labor in your name, to do your will. May we work to love you and our neighbors, remembering that the last will be first, and the first will be last. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In a sermon from 1799, John Wesley, an Anglican priest, spoke about his own guiding principles for life. "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Neither is love content with barely working no evil to our neighbour. It continually incites us to do good: as we have time, and opportunity, t...

  Photo by Kristina Tripkovic on Unsplash This is the sermon that was offered up during Morning Prayer and Eucharist on September 13, 2020. The Morning Prayer service was held via the zoom platform and the Eucharist was held in person with restrictions for St John's Episcopal Church in Dubuque, Iowa. Services were affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the first in a series of sermons on loneliness that St. John's was having for their fall sermon series. Dear God, be with us today, wherever we are, whether we are with family or friends or are by ourselves.  If we are alone, let us not feel lonely, we know you are with us and that there is a community that is here for us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Think about the last time you sat down and had a favorite beverage with someone outside of your family.  Now, that could be Sunday coffee time, since we have one here over Zoom, or it could be a physically-distanced opportu...