Sermon 5th Sunday after Epiphany
Mark 1:29-39

I used to meet regularly with a group of women in ministry for fellowship and support. Sometimes we would have speakers; sometimes we just met.  Over the years, we did a few journaling workshops led by a paid facilitator.  They weren’t what I typically think of when I think of journaling: writing about your deepest darkest secrets and frustrations, fears and quandaries. That kind of journaling just never worked for me...I write and I write and at the end of it all, its just me and the paper and no answers, and I usually don’t feel any better. 

These workshops tapped a more creative side of the spirit.  They invited us to reflect on life in a way that’s more playful, more indirect.  We usually ended up writing about serious things but not head on, not so directly. read more ...

Sermon notes for Epiphany IV, Year B
Texts:  I Corinthians 8; Mark 1: 21-28
Delivered at St. Matthew’s, Hillsborough, NC by Brooks Graebner, Rector
January 29, 2012

 

The Gospel for today records the first act of Jesus’ public ministry in the Gospel of Mark.  Here we witness Jesus striding into the synagogue in Capernaum and restoring order from chaos.  The action is dramatic and decisive; Jesus confronts a demon and expels it with a single command.  It makes folk marvel; they immediately sit up and take notice.

 

A few years ago, Dickson gave me a painting by a local artist I’ve long admired.  It was a 20 year anniversary present.  It’s called the prince of the ocelots; it’s a regal looking fellow with three ocelots at this feet.  The canvas stood on our mantle since then.  This fall though we decided to have our prince framed and enlisted Edward Wright to help.  Just before Christmas, the prince was finally unveiled and hung above our mantle.  And its magnificent, even more so than before.  The frame brings out colors and textures and we’d never noticed.  Not that they weren’t there, but the framing drew our eye to them, gave a new dimension.

In a similar way, having Christmas day fall on a Sunday, followed the next Sunday by the Feast of the Holy Name, brings a different dimension to the Christmas season.  I wonder how many of you, before today, had ever heard of the Feast of the Holy Name or the story from Luke that goes along with it.  It’s not that the church doesn’t recognize it every January 1, but it rarely comes on a Sunday and so most of us have never heard of it.  It’s story gets lost in the midst of Christmas angels and shepherds, of no room at the inn and a babe swaddled and lying in a manger, of wise men traveling from the East.

 read more ...

         I was inspired by Brooks’ sermon last Sunday. You may recall that he preached on the message: ‘Stir up your power, O Lord’. That message was echoed in the first line of the collect for Advent III, and Brooks, of course, used one of Chris’ wooden spoons as a pulpit prop to make his point. (Hand whirling to indicate the force of that wooden spoon J!)

         I thought of asking miriam for some instrument from our kitchen to assist my homily this Sunday, but then decided against it. Instead, I decided to use a story about our kitchen attic. It’s a true story. It happened last week.

 read more ...

In our reading from Hebrew Scriptures today, the prophet Zephaniah forecasts the Day of the Lord -- a fearful day when God will wipe out all the inhabitants of the earth.

This prophetic passage is a scary warning, but it’s not clear what the warning is about. The description of those who deserve punishment is vague – exactly who does God mean by those “who rest complacently on their dregs”? It makes me think of the aftermath of a truly decadent party, with the participants lying around snoring amid overturned wine cups and dirty dishes. God will search out these disgusting people with lamps – an image that suggests the party went late into the night hours.  Animal House translated back to the Old Testament!  The prophet wants to make his audience question their own behavior – perhaps they have not been quite so disgusting, but maybe they wish they had been invited to the party. Maybe it’s lucky they weren’t!

 read more ...

Steve Jobs and Fred Shutterworth.  Both names in the news headlines last week.  Steve Jobs is one most of you recognize.  Founder of Apple computers. he died last week at the age of 56 of pancreatic cancer.  

Fred Shuttlesworth you maybe never heard of.  I hadn’t.  He too died last week, at the age of 89.   He was a pivotal leader in the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama.

 read more ...

Proper 9; Year A Texts: Zechariah 9, Romans 7, Matthew 11
All three lessons today concern people trapped in present circumstances and yearning for some form of rescue or release. In Zechariah, the hoped-for release is from foreign occupation—possibly from Alexander the Great. This was a chronic issue throughout the period we call ‘2nd temple Judaism,’ when Palestine was repeatedly subject to foreign domination—whether Egyptian, Greek, or Roman. The deep yearning for peace is expressed in the desire to see a ruler enter Jerusalem on a donkey instead of a war horse. And we see this scene enacted in the gospels when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. read more ...

Karl Barth, the noted Swiss theologian, once remarked that sermons should be written with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. At Virginia Theological Seminary, while I was a student there in the 1980s, there was a course offering based on Barth’s premise entitled “the Bible and the New York Times,” which in turn became the title for a book of sermons by Episcopal Priest Fleming Rutledge. read more ...

In a recent New Yorker article, entitled “Creation Myth: Xerox PARC, Apple, and the truth about innovation,” Malcolm Gladwell traces the story of how Steve Jobs took the idea of the computer mouse from the Xerox corporation and applied it in his own computers, thereby launching the Apple empire. [New Yorker, May 16, 2011] The reason for titling his article ‘creation myth’ is that Gladwell wanted to tell the story in a way which showed that the creation of the mouse was not, strictly speaking, the work of the Xerox labs, but was rather the creative collaboration of Xerox, Steve Jobs, and Dean Hovey, the man who took the idea of the mouse and made it practical. In other words, the “creation myth” is the simplification of the notion of creation itself: that it is a self-contained and self-sufficient activity at the beginning of product development. Rather, says Gladwell, creation is an ongoing series of events, involving different kinds of innovation, so you can’t actually say you understand the creation of the computer mouse until you see what ALL the players contributed. read more ...

Bob Weatherspoon had stature, and in more ways than one. Of course, there was his physical stature. You couldn’t help but take notice of him, and basketball coaches like Bones McKinney certainly did. But that wasn’t the only way Bob measured up. In our church, we ask parents to help their children grow into the “full stature of Christ.” And if anyone I know attained full Christian stature, it was Bob Weatherspoon.
Now, Christian stature isn’t measured like physical size. You can’t get out the tape measure or the scales. It’s measured in acts of kindness and words of comfort and encouragement. It’s measured in little ways as much as big. read more ...

Sermon for Easter Day April 24, 2011
Delivered by Brooks Graebner, Rector
Gospel Text: Matthew 28:1-10

Matthew the Evangelist offers the most dramatic of the Resurrection accounts in the New Testament. The opening scene is replete with earthquake and blinding light, an angel rolling back the stone and announcing to the women present, “Jesus has been raised from the dead.” But when the women encounter Jesus himself as they depart the tomb, there’s no such impressive accompaniment. Matthew reports only that Jesus offered them a simple greeting and then repeated for emphasis the angelic message they’d just heard: “go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
 read more ...

4/17/16
Sermon- Palm Sunday, Year A
Lisa Fros-Phillips
Several years ago I heard an interview with John Irving, well known author of books like The World According to Garp, Cider House Rules and Hotel New Hampshire. In the interview he was asked about the process of writing, how it is he actually writes a book. He has a curious practice. He always begins with the very last line of the book. He writes it sometimes years before writing the rest of the book. And he never changes it. This is his starting point. And from there he creates and fills in the story. read more ...

Caleb Tabor
Genesis 12:1-4a, Psalm 121, Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, John 3:1-17
How is it that you deal with change?  Do you welcome it?  Do you see it as an inevitable part of life?  Or, do you absolutely hate it and run from it at every turn?  Change is an interesting concept.   I don't go so far as some do and declare that there is absolutely nothing in this universe that remains unchanging, but it does not seem that the universe is written in stone either.  We, in the Episcopal Church, have a rather tense relationship with change.  We are a fairly fluid theological body.  Look in any congregation and you are bound to find a diverse variety of thought, which is good.  That seems to be much of the point.  You will also find, if you look through the theology of the church, that one of the pillars upon which our faith is built is tradition.  It is like Barbara Brown Taylor said, we both live in and argue with our tradition.  There is nothing wrong with this, but we must understand, as a basic principle of living, that things change.  Time passes and change happens.  For good or for ill. 

 read more ...

Lisa Frost-Phillips
Leviticus 19: 1-2, 9-18, Matthew 5:38-48
A month or so ago, as Brooks and I were looking at the preaching schedule for February Brooks asked if I’d like to preach today, on the day we were to dedicate the piano given in memory of Eloise Hudspeth.  I had met the Hudspeths last summer and officiated at Eloise’s graveside service.  I said I’d be delighted.. 

As the month went along and we began talking about the service, Megan shared her vision of having a whole host of people play the piano as part of the celebration.  And I remember saying, almost as an after thought, how I hoped the appointed readings were  something along the lines of we’re all members of Christ’s body, each with our own gifts to share in building up that body, and thinking how nicely that would fit, what a lovely sermon that would be.  And I think I remember Brooks smiling.

 read more ...

Allan Parrent
Isaiah 42:1-9; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17 
When Brooks asked me to preach today he noted that it was both the day to commemorate the Baptism of Jesus and Anglican Communion Sunday.  He said that in spite of the appointed lessons which focused on the former, I might consider focusing on the latter.  Now while I think due regard should be given to the lectionary, guest preachers generally ought not ignore the rector.

 read more ...

Nancy Vaders
Good Morning. First of all, I just want to tell you all how wonderful it is to be back here at St. Matthew’s-it’s a little bit like taking a deep breath, like coming home. These past five months, I have been serving as the intern at St. Timothy’s in Winston-Salem. I have absolutely no horror stories to tell-the folks there have been so gracious, open and wonderful. They have truly made Mark, Audrey and myself a part of their community, and for that I am extremely grateful. read more ...

The Reverend Dr. Bruce Lawrence
History/Self Discernment/Hope
Recently I was in a barber shop in Manila. The barber – a woman – asked me what I do. I replied: teacher. What, she asked. I could have said: history or religion. I do both. I said: history. Oh, she exclaimed, holding her scissors suspended in mid-air, I‟ve always loved the 19th century. read more ...

Nancy Vaders
Every year, Mark and I make a pilgrimage to Washington DC, just to get away and enjoy the sights and sounds of the city. One of the most important things to me about this trip is being able to go to National Gallery and wander aimlessly for a few hours, soaking up all of the wonderful masterpieces-paintings, sculptures- a true feast for the eye and the heart. read more ...

Allan Parrent
I Corinthians 12:12-31; Luke 4:14-21
One of the hallmarks of our American democratic experiment is its emphasis on the individual. We put great value on individual liberty. We cherish this hard-won value deeply, and rightly so. The value of each individual and the chance to express and develop his or her own God-given human potential to the fullest is not only basic to this nation’s prevailing political philosophy. It is also consonant with the Christian faith which we proclaim and which was itself a major root of democratic political thought. read more ...

Hugh Tilson
Over the last few years, I have developed an allergy to the news. I now limit myself to no more than 20 minutes of news daily because the news is just too much for me to handle-... read more ...

Lisa Frost-Phillips
Ephesians 5:
I want to share two stories I read this week, both about Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who died on Tuesday. Aside from being a Kennedy, she perhaps will be best remembered for her work with people with developmental disabilities and for her founding the Special Olympics. read more ...

The Reverend Dr. Bruce B. Lawrence
Connecting to the woman who connected to Jesus
What do we most want out of life? Success? For some, yes. Wealth? For others, perhaps yes. And fame? Well, that depends. Most of us want recognition but we would probably stop short of wanting Michael Jackson level fame?! After all, MJ had success, wealth AND fame but he lacked something that I hope all of you would put at the top of your wish list: wholeness. Beyond success, wealth and fame, is that not what motivates and animates us most of the time? To be whole, to be all that we can be in whatever span of years God has granted us to mark our life in this world. read more ...

Dr. Allan Parrent
I John 1:1-2:2
“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life.”
Will Willimon, the former chaplain at Duke University, tells a story that took place in a Church History class during his final year in seminary. His professor invited an Orthodox priest to lecture. The priest gave a rather dry talk on the development of the churches‟ creeds. At the end of the lecture a student asked, “Father Theodore, what can one do when one finds it impossible to affirm certain tenets of the Creed?” The priest looked confused. “Well, you just say it. It‟s not hard to master. With a little effort, most can quickly learn it by heart.” read more ...

Hugh Tilson
Romans 8: 26-39
The Anglican Bishop, Nate Wright, has written that although Paul’s letter to the Romans is neither a systematic theology nor a summary of his work, it has, nonetheless, contributed to many theological concepts that influenced the evolution of Christian thought.Original sin appears in the 5th chapter, justification by faith alone in chapters 3 and 4, while predestination lurks in chapters 8-11. Embedded in the mix of ideas in today’s reading is a theology of prayer. read more ...

Jean Parker Vail+
Acts 17:22-31 Psalm 148:7-14 I Peter 3:8-18 John 15:1-8
In the Name of God . . .
Before us this morning is one of the most familiar images of the gospels: Jesus’ speaking of himself as the vine, of us as the branches. The emphasis of the metaphor is connectedness, and the benefit to be derived from it. The vine is the source of strength. The well-being of the branch, its productivity in bearing fruit, is clearly dependent on connectedness to the Source. From the vine the branch derives its strength and from the branch, the fruit is produced. read more ...

Lisa Frost-Phillips
Sermon- John 14
Last weekend my family and I ventured into the woods behind our house for one of our spring wild flower walks. We’d been out a few weeks earlier, when the trout lilies had nestled out from the crumpled leaves of fall with their mottled watermelon leaves. But the woods then were still winter woods with open clear spaces between the trees, the trout lilies simply the harbingers of the swath of wildflowers and the leafy trees to come. read more ...

Lauren Kilbourn
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. I had an education teacher once who said if we want to get the point across to our students, we shake things up a bit--change things around from the routine program that our students hear and see to something completely different. I’d say that our liturgy does just that for us today. This whole service is different from small things like beginning the service outside up the hill to more noticeable things like the shift in moods we just experienced. I mean, we started the service raising aloud our “hosannas!” together and singing “All Glory Laud and Honor!” and now we’re reciting together “I am in distress--my body and soul wasted away in grief” in our Psalm? read more ...

Miriam Saxon
What do we do with this day? This day of remembering Jesus’ horrible suffering and his slow death.
Our season of Lent began last month on Ash Wednesday with the remembrance of our own human frailty and the assurance of our own certain deaths. As black ashes were used to mark a cross on our foreheads, we were reminded of our mortality: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return.” In our EOL series that met during Thursday evenings in Lent, we talked about how our Episcopal liturgy is filled with references to death in the midst of life, and life in the midst of death. Such contrasts are found from the Baptism rite through the Burial Rite. Life and death, death and life. But this day feels only dark. Only filled with death. read more ...

Brooks Graebner, Rector
Several years ago historian David Cecelski gave a lecture at Duke about memorable meals he had eaten while growing up in Eastern North Carolina entitled “Love, Death, and Sweet Potato Biscuits.”The entire essay is as warm, wise, and wonderful as the title, and I commend it to you with one caveat: don‟t read it when you‟re feeling hungry or you might just set off for points East in search of some of the places he describes, such as the Croatan Café in Newport, or the Trent Diner in Pollocksville, or the Soul Food Kitchen in New Bern, places where the waitresses call you „sweetie‟ or „honey‟ or „darlin‟ whether they know you or not. read more ...

The Reverend Jay R. Lawlor
Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17
Greetings as we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of our Lord. I am honored and delighted to be with you and I thank your Rector for offering me the opportunity to share the Gospel with you this morning. And our Gospel account from Saint Matthew really begins with Yahweh‟s message as recorded in the Old Testament. In Isaiah‟s text we are invited to reflect on what it means to be a servant; particularly in light of Jesus‟ own Baptism where he expresses his faithfulness to accomplish God‟s Mission in the world. read more ...

The Reverend Dr. Bruce B. Lawrence
It’s all about Food!
This Advent sermon is all about food. It‟s also about an epicurean priest, three spectacular women and one memorable maverick.  The epicurean priest is the Reverend David Anderson. David – or Brother David, as I like to call him - is an Episcopal priest in Pennsylvania. read more ...

Jean Parker Vail+
Genesis 32:3-8, 22-30; Psalm 121; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8a
In the Name of God ....
Curious, isn’t it, that Luke takes such pains to explain what it’s all about before he presents this morning’s somewhat incongruous vignette?
He begins by saying, "Jesus told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart" (Lk. 18:1).
We are to be aware at the outset that what Jesus is talking about is prayer and his expectation that the faithful shall be persistent, perseverant, even importunate in prayer and that we should expect positive results. read more ...