Kindling a New Fire, Bull Durham style
August 18, 2013
Christ Church Episcopal, Norcross, GA
Proper 15 – Year C RCL
Luke 12:49-56
Those of you who are baseball fans are probably familiar with the movie Bull Durham. For those less familiar, it’s a story about a struggling minor league baseball team, the Durham Bulls. There’s a scene in the movie… when the team is into their season, and at this point, they’ve lost twice as many games as they’ve won, and the coach is struggling with how to turn things around.
After an especially dismal game, the team and coaches head down to the locker room. While the players are getting cleaned up after the game, the usually mild-mannered coach picks up an armful of baseball bats, and throws them wildly into the team shower. They bang onto the hard tile floor and scatter all over the place, sending the towel-clad players jumping; trying not to get hit or fall down! The coach yells for all the other players in the locker room to get into the showers, and starts counting to ten! One Mississippi, Two Mississippi…
Come as you are… You are Enough!
July 7, 2013
Christ Church Episcopal, Norcross, GA
Proper 9 – Year C RCL
2 Kings 5:1-14, Galatians 6:1-16 & Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
When I was young, one of my family’s favorite summer-trips involved the seven of us piling into our wood-paneled station wagon for a two-day drive from Houston to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. A few days before the trip, Mom would pull out the vacation trunk and begin layering in a week’s worth of clothes for five kids and two adults – warmer clothes for the cool Colorado evenings, hiking boots, and various other vacation necessities. She was a master-packer, but even so, when it came time to close the trunk, one or more of us kids would usually need to climb on top to get the lid latched.
I couldn’t help but think of this summer packing ritual, as a stark contrast to the travel mentioned in today’s gospel lesson.
We are told that Jesus appointed 70 to go out to other towns in the region – they are headed out on a journey, but this is no vacation. Instead, Jesus tells them plainly, “I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.” And if that isn’t daunting enough, they are then told to take nothing with them – no purse, no bag, and no sandals.
The Ordination of Priests
June 22, 2013
Bishop Rob Wright’s sermon during The Ordination of Priests at the Cathedral of St. Philip.
The Feast of St. Alban the Martyr
Matthew 10: 32-42
Good afternoon!
From the gospel lesson Jesus says, “Those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” The great preacher and teacher of preachers Fred Craddock said a sermon must be “clear, compelling and urgent.” Jesus hits all three of those marks today: “I bring a sword not peace. I must be to you more than family. Take up the cross and follow me.”
Jesus said these words to his disciples in the first days of the church. Call it the ordination sermon of the twelve. He said these things, I think, because He wanted to be clear: When you boil down church, boil down discipleship, boil down even faith to their bare essentials, church, discipleship and faith are about one thing: the worthiness of God! Without God being worth it all, without Jesus showing us He is more than death, without the Spirit ever with us, neither baptism nor ordination nor any of the suffering that comes with them makes any sense!
Rowing Michael’s Boat Ashore… and down the road!
May 12, 2013
Christ Church Episcopal, Norcross, GA Sermon given as Deacon and Seminarian
Seventh Sunday in Easter – Year C RCL
Acts 16:16-34, Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21 & John 17:20-26
Last Sunday morning, as Ceci and I were standing in the narthex, about to process in for the 8:00 o’clock service, as usual, Jeff began playing the opening hymn. After a few notes Ceci smiled and said, “This is my favorite hymn.”
I turned and looked at her, matching her smile with my own, I said playfully, “You know you say that all the time.” And, while that might be a little bit of an exaggeration, as someone who’s served with Ceci for the past several years, believe me when I tell you, she says it A LOT!
It’s not a judgment – it just points out the fact that singing is an important part of the Episcopal liturgy. WE SING. It’s one of the things that we love to do.
If you don’t believe me, take it from Garrison Keillor, the voice of NPR’s Prairie Home Companion. In an essay about Episcopalians, after sharing a list of ways people make fun of us, he said, “But nobody sings like them.” He shared this experience:
If you were to ask an audience in Des Moines, a relatively Episcopalianless place, to sing along on the chorus of “Michael Row the Boat Ashore,” they will look daggers at you as if you had asked them to strip to their underwear. But if you do this among Episcopalians, they’d smile and row that boat ashore and up on the beach! ….And down the road!
I like that image!
jodygreenwood 