St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

I love this story of the baptism of Jesus and it’s one that I often share with people who are struggling to find worth or forgiveness. In today’s gospel Jesus comes to be baptized by John. At first, John protests, but Jesus insists and John baptizes him in the river Jordan. And just as Jesus is coming up out of the water the heavens break open and the Holy Spirit comes down like a dove fluttering above Jesus’ head. And the voice of God speaks: “This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” In this scene we have all of the members of the Trinity assembled. Jesus coming up out of the water, the Holy Spirit coming down and resting on Jesus, and the voice of the parent and creator God affirming, claiming, and assuring Jesus. What’s so powerful about Jesus’ baptism and this amazing Trinity moment, is that it’s an example and prototype for each and every one of us. Listen to or read Ryan’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”

We go through this journey of the first part of Jesus’s life so we can pattern our own lives on his and better be the Body of Christ. The first steps of this journey more properly belong on Christmas, when we celebrate his birth. That is when his life began, after all. So what are we doing in Advent? Why is this the start of the new Church Year? Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”

Sometimes we use the word saint to be a synonym for being perfect. I think it does a great disservice to these saints, because if you read about their lives or their histories, you learn they were anything but perfect. They were real people like you and me, who had all kinds of challenges and struggles and doubts in their faith. But they were something else. There is a great prayer that sometimes gets appointed on these Wednesday mornings services that says that the saints are the lights of their generation. I think that is a much better way to think about the saints. Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon for All Saints’ Day by clicking “Read More.”

God has a dream for this world, a vision in which everyone can thrive, in which everyone doesn’t have everything they want, but they have at least everything that they need; that everyone can use the gifts that God has given them, and they can find joy and love and grace, have dignity and respect; that every person is given the honor due the image of God that is within them, the image of God in which they were made. Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”

In the Epistle for today, Paul implores us to remain established in the faith, which brings up the question, what is the faith? What is faith itself? There is a popular idea of what faith is out in society, and many churches do teach it. It is the idea that faith is about having the right answer. You need to have the right answer about knowledge, you need to have the right answer about the nature of God, or the correct Biblical interpretation, or the morally correct position on some social matter, or knowing the right words to say. That is what faith is: being right. And since faith and salvation are so intertwined, it creates an anxiety about what happens if you fail the test, and the depth of the consequences if you do. In some traditions it is not failing the test, it is about getting any one answer wrong. If you don’t get an A+ it isn’t good enough. What are the implications of that? It can create a huge sense of anxiety in people, even trauma for understanding the faith in this way. Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”

Jesus’ usage, indeed the biblical usage, of neighbor refers to everyone, with the emphasis seeming to be on neighbor as stranger. I presume that’s because it comes naturally to be kind to those with whom we already have loving relationships. Listen to or read Sharon’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”

I don’t know about you, but I think Jesus sounded rather cranky in the Gospel today. He is not quite the all-loving, all-patient, all-calm, all-compassionate Jesus that we are used to. He is still compassionate, it’s not like he lost it. When the Samaritans reject him and the Disciples wanted to rain down fire upon them and destroy them, Jesus said no. He has compassion on the Samaritans, and he rebukes the Disciples for suggesting such a thing. Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”

If there is one essential message in this Pentecost story, it is that we are not as different from one another as we think we are. We are not the stranger we assume we are. We are not the foreigners we fear we are. Our needs are not so different from the needs of others. We are more alike than we are different. Listen to or read Bishop Akiyama’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”