Church Pulpit Posts

One of the anecdotes that gets trucked out when churches ask for money describes someone who has died and approaches the pearly gates with great expectations. The deceased sees St. Peter standing sentry, and immediately launches in on a list of their virtues. On and on they go, including every good deed, every generous thought. Finally, St. Peter has had enough. “I don’t need to hear any of this,” he says. “Just show me your bank statement and I will have all the information I need.”

            We are often reminded that the subjects of money, possessions, and allocation of resources are mentioned twice as much as any other topics in Scripture. One third of Jesus’ parables have something to do with making right use of our gifts—all of them, financial and otherwise. And “right use,” in biblical terms, is always connected to our trust and faith in God as well as our commitment to justice and support both of those we love and those among us who struggle….

In her book Illuminated Life: Monastic Wisdom for Seekers of Light, Benedictine author and contemplative Joan Chittister works through an alphabet of words meant to open up reflection on holy living day to day. Each short meditation offers a word, followed by a story from the Desert Fathers and Mothers, followed by an application of the word and the story to modernity….

On a Sunday morning when Peter’s mother lay struggling for breath on a hospice bed in her living room in western New York, we called her Episcopal priest, who came to her between services. He took her hands and assured her she was going from love to love. She visibly let go, and she passed away soon after….

In the sermon I preached a few weeks ago, you might remember that I encouraged us to notice where we were holding onto things in our lives so tightly that we weren’t able to open ourselves to God’s love. I definitely need to learn this lesson as well, which is why I was glad to be reminded today of the old story about how to catch a monkey.

The technique involves using a hollowed out coconut that has a small hole cut into it just big enough for the monkey’s hand. Then you slide a small banana inside, and wait for the monkey to do the inevitable — to reach inside and grab the banana…

I was recently on Amtrak going upstate to visit friends, and when I travel by train, I love love love the quiet car. Not every train offers this little moving oasis of silence, but when possible, I always choose to sit there. On this particular trip, it was, and I did. I settled in by a window, put my phone on silent, and prepared for two centering hours without conversation or sounds from electronic devices….

We are called to a life of Servanthood….

…Being a Christian is not about being better than someone else, having a more superior position, nor is it about having power over someone else. Jesus said, “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whomever wants to be first must be slave of all.” (Mark 10:43-44)

Following Jesus we are led into a life of serving others, no matter who we are.  It is a special type of service. The type of service Jesus is encouraging us to live out is one of really serving others, so they benefit….

Being a Christian is about serving others and serving them in the right way, which is with love.

This fall we are exploring the sacraments in our Adult Forum series, and we have started at the beginning, with Baptism. Some of us were baptized as babies, while others were old enough to remember the ritual – but in either case, we have found that there is a wealth of meaning in this ancient sacrament! A few of the various strands of this meaning include a welcome into a parish community as well as into the Body of Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and a radical dying to our old life and rising into the new.

I participated recently in a community meeting where someone reminded those present of the concept of “slow knowledge.” Originally coined by David Orr in the 90’s, the basic premise here is that wisdom is gained in inverse proportion to the rate at which information is ingested. In other words, the faster we try to absorb what’s being thrown at us, the less we will be able to be formed by what we know.

            As we all experience in one form or another, the amount of content available to us and the rapidity with which that content comes to us has only accelerated since Orr first wrote. The idea of engaging information slowly is countercultural, for sure. And yet, Orr makes the argument that we are made to be more intentional in our learning; more experiential and reflective. He cites nature in support of his argument, and writes, “Except for rare episodes of punctuated equilibrium, evolution seems to work by the slow trial and error testing of small changes. Nature seldom, if ever, bets it all on a single throw of the dice.”…