​​​​​​​​​​St. Andrew's Episcopal Church

If you want to know what the kingdom of God looks like, Matthew gives us a glimpse in the most ordinary place imaginable: a tax booth. Jesus walks up to someone everyone else has written off — a collaborator, a cheat, a man whose reputation is beyond repair — and instead of condemnation, Jesus offers an invitation. ‘Follow me.’ And before anyone can catch their breath, Jesus is at a dinner table surrounded by people polite society avoids. The holy is happening in the wrong pl

This is Trinity Sunday. God in three persons--Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is an ancient story about St. Augustine. One day he took a break from writing about the Trinity to walk along the seashore. He came across a child with a little pail, intently scooping up a pail full of water out of the ocean, walking up the beach and dumping it out into the sand, then going back down to scoop out another pail of water to pour into the sand. Augustine asked the child what he

In the reading from Acts, we just heard about the only so-called drunken escapade ever mentioned in Scripture where there wasn’t a hangover. Nobody passed out. Nobody failed a DUI test. Nobody said things they later regretted or woke up in the wrong bed. There were no kegs of beer in Jerusalem that morning, no empty wine vats—nothing distilled by human hands to lift one’s spirits. This wasn’t a few of the naughty frat boys cooked to a crisp. It wasn’t the wild all night post

I want to begin this morning by asking your prayers for the rector and congregation of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills. Before I was aware of the sad situation the rector shared via video, I chose one of my favorite hymns, “King of Glory, King of Peace” which we will hear during the time of Communion. It is sung by the choir of All Saints Church. Earlier this week, the church received two threats: that a bomb was planted somewhere in the church and was set to de

About 20 years ago, the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Paul’s in San Diego opened its doors to the family and friends of a thirty-one-year-old gay businessman who served as Vice-President of the San Diego Human Dignity Foundation and the Greater San Diego Business Association. His premature death during a ski vacation from an altitude-induced heart attack stunned the community. The Roman Catholic bishop of San Diego refused him burial, to the shock of the grieving family. It st

Most of us know the Emmaus road more than we’d like to admit. It’s the road we walk when some news has broken our hearts. The road we take when the future we counted on has collapsed. The road where we replay everything we thought God was going to do… and wonder why it didn’t happen. So, when Luke says two disciples were walking away from Jerusalem, we understand. They weren’t just traveling. They were grieving. And it is on that road — the road of disappointment and disor

It’s Easter morning, and the world looks exactly the same… until it doesn’t. The headlines haven’t changed. The griefs we carried yesterday didn’t magically disappear overnight. The people we worry about are still on our hearts. And yet—into this very real, very un‑fixed world—Matthew dares to tell us that a stone has been rolled away, that death has been interrupted, that God has already begun something we cannot yet see. Easter doesn’t wait for the world to be ready. It bre

A little boy was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch. The little boy was curious and asked, "Why do you have that palm branch, dad?" "You see, when Jesus came into town, everyone waved Palm Branches to honor him, so we got Palm Branches today." The little boy replied, "Aw shucks! The one Sunday I miss is the Sunday that Jesus shows up!" Well, Jesus shows up every Sunday in the Gospel,

This is a story full of delays, grief, disappointment, tenderness, and—somehow—hope. It is a story where people who love God still suffer. It is a story where Jesus shows up late. And it is a story where death does not get the last word. When Jesus finally arrives in Bethany, his friend Lazarus is dead. The professional mourners have already come. The casseroles have already been delivered. The house smells like grief. And Martha meets Jesus with one of the most honest prayer

The woman he meets at the well is a Samaritan regarded by the privileged as a half-breed and a pagan, yet even women associated with the religious leaders of the day were not permitted to worship with men and had no place or voice in public life. She would have been suspect to her Jewish peers. Respectable women made their trips to the well to draw water in the morning—and in groups. She, however, shows up at noon—evidence that she was not welcome among the ladies who gather

I was told that too much talking can disrupt the stitches that the dentist put in after my molar extraction so this will be a very brief sermon. It’s your lucky day! I dear priest, Father Ken Thomas, used to call tis kind of preaching “just one thought.” The lectionary gives us two stories about temptation and fasting. The first of these is the very familiar one of Adam and Eve in the garden. No need for me to retell it. We’ve heard it loud and clear. The devil tempts Adam

In 1976 a British jazz/blues band named The Manfred Mann Earth Band came out with the song, “Blinded by the Light.” The words and slang (written by Bruce Springsteen) were so difficult to understand that barely anyone really understood what the song was about, but the tune caught on, and by 1977, it had reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 . Years later, when Springsteen sought to illuminate the meaning of his lyrics, he said, they described his time as a young, energetic mus

“They said to him, ‘Rabbi, where are you staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come and see.’” + In the Name of God the Loving Creator, the Light of the World, and the Life-giving Spirit. Amen. John the Baptist is a character who pops up every ear in Advent and appears again today. In the Gospel last week, Jesus sought out John at the River Jordan and asked to be baptized. In John’s Gospel today, John makes an astonishing proclamation about Cousin Jesus: “Here is the Lamb of God w

Alfie is a 1966 British romantic comedy-drama that tells the story of a young womanizer who leads a self-centered life, purely for his own enjoyment, until events force him to question his uncaring behavior, his loneliness and his priorities. Alfie frequently breaks the fourth wall by speaking directly to the camera narrating and justifying his actions. When a health check reveals Alfie has tubercular shadows on his lungs , the diagnosis, combined with his separation

There is a question at the beginning of today’s gospel that has echoed through centuries of religious life. Jesus and the disciples pass by a man who has been blind from birth, and the disciples ask, “Rabbi, who sinned—this man or his parents—that he was born blind?” It is a question that reveals far more about the disciples than it does about the man. It is the question of people who want the world to be neat, predictable, morally tidy. It is the question of people who would

Once upon a time there were some astronomers sitting at their respective telescopes, minding their own business, and gazing up at the sky. Suddenly, they caught sight of one of the largest, brightest, most glorious stars they had ever seen. They were not particularly religious, but they were familiar with the Hebrew prophecies about the promise of a Messiah. They became so captivated by this dazzling luminary that they knew immediately that something powerful was calling them

This First Sunday after Christmas calls for John’s prologue of his Gospel. It is deep in theology and imagery. However, just as I did last year, I choose to observe the eve of the feast of the Holy Innocents which occurs tomorrow. The Massacre of the Holy Innocents. is the biblical narrative of infanticide by Herod the Great , the Roman-appointed King of the Jews . According to the Gospel of Matthew , Herod ordered the execution of all young male children in the vicinity of

Do you remember those lovely photos of yourself or your children sitting on Santa’s lap in the local department store? I’m guessing mine was taken at Bamberger’s in Newark, New Jersey. The photo and store are long gone, but the memory lingers. And the question Santa asked was usually, “And what would you like for Christmas,” to which we would provide our list of the things we hoped we might find under the Christmas tree. Now as an adult, and a senior one at that, my list is

We just heard how Joseph got the same peculiar news that the angel has announced to his fiancée, Mary, but the angel visits Joseph, not in the bright light of day, but rather when he jumps up in bed, in a cold sweat, to be told that Mary is pregnant, not by him, and that he is to accept Mary’s child as his own. I’d like to imagine Joseph’s reaction to that. What might he have to say? Perhaps it would go something like this: Let me introduce myself. My name is Joseph. I’ve b

Father O’Brien was being honored on the occasion of his 25 th anniversary as pastor. A huge dinner had been in the planning for months. Half the town was there and a local politician who belonged to the congregation had been asked to make a presentation to the priest on behalf of the parish. Unfortunately, this politician got stuck in traffic and was late, so the priest decided to fill in the gap by saying a few words about his first days at the parish. “You will understand,