Sermons from the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

A sermon by the Rev. Joyce Keeshin

A sermon by the Rev. Melanie W. J. Slane

A sermon by the Rev. Philip DeVaul

A sermon by the Rev. Gary Lubin

"Before those days, when I was called a servant, I felt
owned, but now I don’t mind the title because I know who I serve."


Readings

"This world is begging to hear your story. This world wants all
of you, the fullness of you, your life begs for it for all of you, the fullness
of you to show up in this life. The people around you we want you for who you
are. We want all of you. […] Remember who the center of that story is, the center
of your story is not you, thank God. The center of the story is Jesus. […] In
the midst of his being killed, Jesus is able to look upon the world and say, Father
forgive them."


Readings

"Jesus came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him. When he reached the place, he said to them ..."

"Allow yourself to be blown over by extravagant love. When you love people for who they actually are you begin to understand the truth of who God actually is."

The Rev. Gary Lubin

"I chalk it up to God's free grace but for which God pays a dear, dear price; and this is all because God intentionally comes to us as the other."

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

"... and in those moments we will find a God who even when we are far
off has compassion on us and loves us, knowing we won't love Him the
same in return."



Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

"We are all human. We are one human family. We all are vulnerable and we all seek safety. We do the best we can in the midst of the unexpected accident, the violence, the loss, disasters that are created by man and disasters that are just coming about – that we have no idea about. We use are gifts and our skills to the best of our abilities, and we have to know we still have our limits. We cannot know everything. We cannot anticipate everything. We cannot wrap the one’s we love in bubble wrap. There will be difficulties. There will be challenges. We are human…"

Luke 13:1-9

"Jesus is getting down in the manure, in the muck, with us, and for us, and about us. He’s showing us, even in this parable, what it looks like to live lives of love. Not to skip the dirty parts, the dark parts, the hard parts, but to roll our sleeves up and get down in it. Not to allow the things that are difficult in our lives to distract us from why we exist, not to allow the great tragedies and injustices we see to dishearten us in such a way that we forget God’s presence, not to allow our own failings, and our own mistakes, and our own things that we do wrong, to get in the way of the recognition of why we exist. We exist as a people who spread the love of God in this world.”

Exodus 3:1-15
Luke 13:1-9

“Sometimes we have to break the rules, even break the law, in order to obey God’s law of love. Think of people like Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, and take notice that all of these people are either women or people of color. […] I think sometimes we assume that breaking the rule or breaking the law will be detrimental to us, but sometimes we have to be bold. […] Sometimes breaking the rules shows us the way of love."

Genesis 15:1-12,17-18
Luke 13:31-35

"Jesus is real love, and real love embraces us as we are, come what may. Real love embraces this world, puts to death our petty – our shallow – idea of what love is and raises us up into new lives of reconciliation, of love and redemption, lived out in our every day life here. Jesus tells us to pick up our cross and follow him, and we do not follow Jesus into the imagined past. We follow Jesus into the death of our idea of the way the world works so that we can live in the resurrected present.”

Luke 13:31-35

"This passage makes us consider how we might be given the world, and then forced to figure out how to carry it all on our own. […] But more importantly, it urges us to consider the alternative to evil – the path of grace and obedience, discipline and faith, that Jesus chooses when confronted by evil himself."

Luke 4:1-13

"Understand that real relationship, with people who are different than you, in Christ’s kingdom requires all of us to give something up of ourselves, and requires all of us to recognize God’s presence in other people who look, think, act, believe, and speak differently than us. It requires it. Drawing people into Christian community isn’t about making more people like us… it’s about expanding our understanding of what ‘us' is."

Romans 10:8b-13

“[…] if you want to understand intimate relationship with God, look no further than the person in the mirror. Look no further than the person right in front of you. It is our deep yearning as a people of faith in this church to know Jesus and to grow in love – to develop and to engage in and to draw nearer to God – to develop and engage in deeper connection… holy connection and communion relationship with God."

"I invite you this Lent to notice the moments in your lives. Notice the moments that stand out – the moments where something shifts. Notice God’s presence in those moments."

Exodus 34:29-35
Luke 9:28-36, [37-43a]

"Non-violent response to injustice is not about compliance, it is about resistance. An act of non-violent resistance is not about being a doormat, it’s about being a door – a gateway to a greater truth… a higher power. Non-violent resistance is, in fact, one of the most powerful symbols of Christian love modeled most profoundly by our savior as he hung on the cross and said ‘Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do.’ Today’s Gospel lesson is not about being a pushover. It’s about urging people toward love – love modeled for the oppressor as a better way."

Luke 6:27-38

"This isn’t about you becoming a better person. This is about recognizing who you were made to be, which is different. This isn’t about you aspiring to become better, more, or greater. This is about you understanding who you are right now. You are a person made to love your enemies.”

Luke 6:27-38