Sermons (Page 57)
The Feast of Mary, Mother of Our Lord
Today we honor the life and witness of Mary, Jesus’s mother. And, one of my more memorable experiences with Mary was at The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. In this massive Roman Catholic church, there are a variety of side chapels. And, each chapel has a different aesthetic and many of the chapels depict Mary in a different manner. There was Our Lady of Hungary Chapel with a Hungarian mosaic of Mary; there was Our Mother of Africa Chapel with a bronze statue of Mary portraying the African-American story from slavery to today; and there were chapels portraying Mary as Filipino, Mexican, Indian, Croatian, Chinese, Irish, and so many more. I think that was my first foray into idea that social location influences and directs our understanding of scripture. That is, I never realized that an individual’s gender, race, social class, age, ability, sexual orientation, and background could impact or even influence someone’s view of Scripture. Sure, I was only an eighth grader, but I cannot believe it took me fourteen years to realize that…
Tenth Sunday After Pentecost
GOOD MORNING Wicker Park Lutheran Church! It’s been about a week and a half now that I have been Vicar here. In that time, I’ve had the chance to share with several of you about my journey to seminary and my call to ministry. In these conversations I’ve just shared the bite-sized/ nutshell version of this story. But in the longer version- and with more time- I would tell you about stormier times in my faith- times that I felt hurt by the church, and wanted to abandon the church all together…
Ninth Sunday After Pentecost
In years past, this gospel story was one of the easier ones to preach. It has great connections to the gathering of God’s people in the Hebrew Scriptures from Moses to Elijah to Elisha; it’s an easy connection to when Jesus broke bread gathered around a table with his disciples at the Last Supper; and it naturally focuses us toward our shared meal at the table of Holy Communion. But this year, it’s different. This time around, the world has changed. You and I, we are not gathering together, we are not able to legally gather with twelve other friends to celebrate at a restaurant, and we are not physically gathering at the table of Communion…