Category: Sermons

Sermon – Ash Wednesday
February 17, 2021

In the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.” Words from our Burial Office which are said standing over the grave with real ashes, if there was a cremation; with the body in the casket that is soon to deteriorate into dust.

These words are a stark reminder of the true human condition. We are composed of chemicals, all arising out of the earth. Bones, muscles, blood, the brain and nervous system—all if broken down are simply chemicals. And chemicals, in their form found in nature, are dirt. And dirt, if you live in a semi-desert, Is dust.

The traditional Ash Wednesday words are, “Remember O man thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return.” The emphasis here is on “remember.”

Everything in our world has a beginning, middle, and an end. You and I woke up one day in the middle. Sometime between 6 to 18 months we became conscious of the world around us, of mommies and daddies, of comfort and discomfort, of hunger and thirst. We could look back a little, so we were in the middle—not that we knew it.

Then, sometime in our childhood and adolescence, some significant person died. Where did they go? What happened to them? A usual answer is given—“They’ve gone to heaven.” But where is that?”

A flurry of answers and explanations  cluster around the child and, by the time of adulthood, one or two are accepted, enough to shelve the issue for the time being. But death hangs out there, a true mystery, a black hole. To an observer, when a person dies, it is as though someone switched off the TV. The program disappears into the ether and the set continues to disintegrate. It is the end.

Well, but maybe not quite. There’s one aspect of human beings that mystifies scientists and ordinary people alike. “Consciousness.” Scientists have not found a connection between consciousness and the physical, material body.

When we sleep, consciousness disappears, only to return when we awake. What causes a 9-month-old to “wake up?” Sometimes called “soul.” Sometimes called “spirit.” This aspect of humanity finds no basis in chemistry. And there is considerable evidence that conscious can and does persist.

So we are left with two concrete certainties:

1) Death is the end of the body and everything associated with it. The end. Period. And,

2) From the Burial Office: “…with the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life…” We are left with Hope. What makes it sure and certain is our commitment to the possibility of life after death.

Ash Wednesday invites us to meditate on these things.

Amen.

Sermon
By Rev. Robert Shearer
Last Epiphany • February 14, 2021

In the Name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
My beloved friends. This is Black history month and I would like to
address the issue. I am not competent to talk about black history itself, but
I can talk about the other side of the street, the experience, life experience,
of a white boy from the Pacific Northwest and Texas.
The sermon will not be the kind I usually preach, an “expository,” based
on the lessons for the day, usually on the Gospels. This sermon will be
more in the form of a “witness,” or perhaps a “confession.” My profound
hope is that you will be able to hear it as the Word of God, for it is in
God’s Name that I deliver it to you.
I grew up until the age of twelve in Western Washington State, the far
Northwest. In the late 30s and 40s that was a pretty white society; I only
ever saw one African-American in the whole time. And even then I never
actually met him or knew his name—just saw him at a distance. I was
envious because he was different in my child’s mind “different” was special
and I desperately wanted to be special. 
When I was 12 we moved to Dallas, Texas. The culture shock was severe.
Segregation was still in full force and I found it outrageous, but under the
impact of the culture I accommodated myself to it. So as far as face-to-face
contact, there was none; the situation was the same as in Washington
State—I lived in a white society and never met a black person. Not in
church, not in school, not in the grocery store or the department stores
where we shopped.
I did imbibe however, a certain southern defensiveness, so that when I
returned to the Northwest for college, I took with me Confederate flag.
Somewhere I had found an old saber and I mounted the saber and the flag
on the wall of my room. It was just an adolescent defensive statement of
defiance and also staking a claim to difference. Again however I still didn’t

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know any blacks. If there were a black at the small college I was attending,
I never met him.
From my lily-white college I went to another pocket of whiteness, General
Seminary in New York. Again only white men were at the seminary, either
students or staff. I still had that Southern defensiveness , but I graduated
and returned to Dallas where I was ordained and given a brand new
mission to grow. After a year it was clear to me that I did not know what I
was doing so I excepted an Assistant’s job in Kentucky, an upper-middle-
class suburb of Louisville—again in a white envelope. There were blacks
around of course, but they were servants and they had work to do and I
never got to know them. I was offered a chance to fly to Selma for the
great march but I turn the bishop down knowing that it somehow would
not go down well in My parish. It was not, after all, something I cared
about anyway. 
And then came the moment of transformation. There was some interfaith
clergy meeting where I met a very nice Black man, a minister in the
Disciples of Christ Church. We went out for coffee afterwards. I asked
about his family and said I would like to meet his wife at some point.
“Oh,” he said, “that I won’t be possible. She will not be in the same room
with a white person.”
I was shocked, stunned, appalled. It was unfair! She didn’t even know me. I
had done nothing to her and just because of my skin color she wouldn’t be
in the same room. And then, by the grace of God, I found myself flipped
around and standing in her shoes, this lady I didn’t even know. In her
shoes she was mistreated only because of the color of her skin and I got it.
From then on, it was matter of slowly unwinding the cultural drift I had
grown up in.
In one of those I wonderful ironies that God places in our lives, I got a job
in New York City in no other place than Harlem. There I served in two
churches and discovered the other side of being not in the majority. About
that experience I can only chuckle. But I am very grateful for it, because I
have served in mixed congregations ever since in New Jersey and New
York.

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So, looking back over my young life prior to the shocking event of the lady
who would not be in the same room with me, what was missing, what was
wrong, why was I so totally out of the loop? 
The clue to be found is something I said when I declined to go to Selma
Bridge. It was not something I cared about. And there it is. I didn’t care. 
Jesus’ great commandment is to love one another—“As the Father has
loved me, and as I have loved you, so you should one another.” Love is
about caring. The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite is “not caring”
and it is one of the Seven Deadly Sins—acedia in Latin. The opposite of
love is indifference. Love is caring, entering into the life of another,
empathy, yes. 
Love is about getting into the shoes of another. You’ll never understand
another fully, but you can look at the world through their perspective. You
can see where they’re coming from. And we can act when they ask for
help.
The Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. is a saint in our calendar and
now a hero for me. He gave his life for this possibility of us human beings
loving each other. And we can go to extreme lengths to do just that.
Amen.

Sermon
By Rev. Robert Shearer
5 Epiphany • February 7, 2021
Isaiah 40:21-31 • Psalm 147:1-2, 21c • 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 • Mark 1:29-39

In the Name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My beloved friends! I am so glad to be back with you this morning, after a
month of tussle with COVID-19. I am still very limited in what I can do, but
creeping back into activity, slowly, slowly, seems to be the way to go. I am
glad to be back!
I would like to talk about God this morning. About the ways we experience
God, about the ways we cope with our inability to see God, about the ways
we have invented, with our earthly limitations, to deal with that which is so
powerfully important to us, but also so far beyond us.
Isaiah this morning reminds us of what we’ve heard before, that God is
outside and above the creation in which we live. Then Isaiah stretches that
understanding, urging us to see God in ever-expanding terms, bigger and
bigger.
“It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are
like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and
spreads them like a tent to live in; who brings princes to naught, and
makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.”
This is the external God, the God who is beyond all limitations that
Creation imposes on us, transcendent, not a part of the Creation, but its
Creator. This is the God whom Isaiah encountered in the Temple,
powerfully present but with angels obscuring his form with their wings.
The one to whom the angels sang,
“Holy, holy, holy! Lord God of the armies of heaven! Heaven and earth
are full your glory!”
I want to suggest that Isaiah’s vision of God is an act of imagination. Since
this God is beyond all experiencing, it takes poetry to wake us up to what is

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possible. This is God Almighty, the Master of the Universe, Creator of all
that exists.
The Prophets introduce us to another side of God, the One who is loving
and compassionate, who cares about justice for the poor and who calls the
well-off to pay attention to their responsibilities. This is not particularly a
tender, gentle God, but a God who cares passionately about righteousness
on the part of his people, stern but just.
So far, the versions of God we have talked about are an external force. But
the God whom Moses encounters on Mt. Sinai is profoundly personal, an
experience that shakes Moses to the core and changes his life forever. The
God who spoke from the burning bush is similar to the God Isaiah
encountered in the Temple—both are external but personally experienced.
Visions, perhaps, but no simple dreams; they are life-changing and
powerful.
And then there is the God that Jesus became familiar with, a fatherly,
loving, wise presence who taught Jesus and guided him during the whole of
his life. This God whom Jesus called Daddy—“Abba” in the Aramaic that
Jesus spoke—this God was a loving presence, forgiving and nurturing,
growing the children in his household and remaining faithful to them
regardless of their bad behavior or rejection, always ready to welcome them
back.
It was this God that Jesus communed with in today’s Gospel, going up to a
deserted place to pray. This God, intimate and personal, gave him his
mission in life. And when his disciples searched him out, he said, “Let us
go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there
also; for that is what I came out to do.”
Someone once said that there is a “God-shaped hole” in us, waiting to be
filled. My own experience of God that has been with me my whole life is of
a Presence, just out of sight, but always there. In both of these
instances—God as a defined emptiness, a “hole,’ and God as an
undefinable, unseeable “something”—both of these are interior
experiences, versions of God that might be called “imminent” as opposed

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to the external “transcendent” versions of God. Immanent and
transcendent—God experienced from within and God experienced as
outside oneself.
So, which of these versions of God is the correct one? Which should we
validate and cling to?
Let me say that none of these can possibly be God. Each of these is a
feeble stab at speaking of God. But they are the best we can do. We are the
mere “grasshoppers” that Isaiah call us in today’s first lesson. We can no
more grasp and understand God than a grasshopper can than know and
understand us human beings.
Yet we try. Why? Why attempt talk about a God who cannot be spoken of
with any sense of accuracy? It is because we can do no other. For those of
us who know God, even a little, God will not let us go. In whatever
version, and there are surely many more versions than the ones I’ve
mentioned here, God continues to poke at us, to speak to us in dreams and
wake-up calls, in conversations with others, in events natural and social.
God will not let us go.
Amen.

By Fr. Jim Warnke

Sunday January 31, 2021 Sermon

Author of the world’s Joy
Barer of the Worlds Pain.
In the midst of all our distress let Unconquorable gladness dwell.
For you are the End and the Beginning,
You follow us and you go before.
You are the Journey and you are the Journeys End.
Amen

In our gospel reading we see that Jesus astonished his hearers in
the synagogue at Capernaum because he taught with authority and
because even the evil spirits obeyed him.
Imagine the poorest least educated person you have ever met.
That was Jesus self-presentation to the people of his times. Imagine
his teaching that the Kingdom of God was near, at hand even, and
accessible to everyone at all times and places. That was indeed the
message. That was beyond expectation for anyone who heard him.
Gods Kingdom was far off and not yet come for them. Access to god
was in the Temple in Jerusalem and only through ancient rites of
prayer and sacrifices offered there. And, the kingdom was open to
everyone, especially the poor and not just the learned and those who
kept the ritual purity and the fine points of the Law. This is what
Jesus taught and it was indeed a “new teaching” for them.

And, just who was this fellow? Where did he get all of this? If
Jesus was like most of the Galileans of his time, it is likely that he
could not read. And it is unlikely that he had studied with the great
teachers in Jerusalem. So who was this fellow?

And, the scribes taught by references to the scriptures and
used them as a way of teaching about God. Jesus taught about
God and used that teaching to explain the scriptures in new and
unexpected ways.

Then, Jesus did what he often does in the Gospels. He

teaches not only in his words but his deeds of power, he
commanded the demon to leave the possessed man. Words and
actions that is how Jesus taught.

And, those who have heard the words and seen the
acts of power wonder and talk among themselves about just who
this fellow might be.
And so it is today. So it is here and now. The same Jesus,
now risen, teaches in words and in acts of power. He teaches us
in the words of the Gospel and of the other scriptures. He
teaches us in prayer and worship. He teaches us in the words of
brothers and sisters here in the beloved community. He teaches
us, he speaks to us, if we just open our eyes and our ears and
listen for him so that we might listen to him.

And, he exhibits his acts of power. Do you think that
there are no healings today? I myself was diagnosed with cancer
two years ago. I have diabetes, kidneys despise, glaucoma, and
actually died ever so briefly in the ER two years ago from a

massive coronary attack (the nice Doctors were able to bring me
back to life) and a good deal more. Anyone of you who does not
believe in healing miracles has not been in a hospital or a cancer
center lately. Our society is filled with healers who have
inherited Jesus healing ministry whether they know it or not.
And, the demons of mental illness are daily exorcised

in psychotherapy rooms day by day.

And, the words of power come to us if we just listen

the deeds of power are with us if we just notice.

And so open your eyes and your hearts to the Risen
Jesus who is with us here and now. Ask god for the grace to see
and hear him and his mighty works day by day. Pray here and
now for the grace to see and hear him here and now. Be open day
by day and hour by hour to the words of Jesus risen, invisible yet
ever present. Hour by hour day by day in your ordinary lives. He
is with us. He is with you.
Amen. Two years

By Deacon Joanne O’Neill

It has been just a few weeks since Christmas – and the Epiphany
2 feasts central to our faith
If Christmas is the great revelation –

when the Incarnation makes itself known.

Then the Epiphany celebrates the “seeing –

The seeing of what was revealed on Christmas.
On the night of Christmas, just a few witnessed that miracle birth:
the shepherds, the angels, and of course, Mary and Joseph
But the Epiphany is much bigger than that –
It is the feast of the proclamation and manifestation of
What was to come
The child Jesus as the savior and redeemer to people beyond that first small
circle – even beyond the Jewish nation –
Radiating outward to the “gentiles,”
and so to all nations and persons – in all future times
And hopefully, still to us – today.
Christmas – as the event could be fleeting
it means different things to different people.
Some of us prepare for it with a lot of decorating, baking of cookies and
wrapping of presents –

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We spend the day or the week enjoying time with friends and family
For others, it can be a difficult time — for one reason or another,

they are not in the mood for festivities
And prefer to spend the time quietly –
Still others just want to do something different –
Maybe take a vacation – or go to the movies
To change from the old, sometimes more restrictive “traditional” ways.
Certainly we had to do that this year.
But the Epiphany is for everyone. – it has universal appeal.
The word itself has deeply religious roots.
For the ancient Greeks,, epipháneia,
meant something brought to humans by the gods.
So it wasn’t much of a stretch for Christians to adopt the word for the revelation of
God through the infant Jesus to the three wise men.
“something brought to humans by the gods. “

In more modern times – with roots in early 20th century literature,
The word took on a secular meaning
Epiphany: “an intuitive grasp of reality,”
Epiphany – the ah-ha moment – like in St. Paul’s conversion
the instant when the mind, the body, the heart,
and the soul focus together and see an old thing in a new way.”

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This kind of seeing is important in Scripture
It has been echoed in the recent gospels
The Baptism: John “sees” Jesus – and the Father “sees” the Son
The Calling of the Disciples: Jesus “sees” Philip, Simon & Andrew and
calls to them; they “see” him and follow
Jesus is recognized/seen as a new spiritual/religious authority
Word is getting around –
and the crowds come to see him as the healer.

So what does it mean “to see?”
Sight is the most symbolic of the senses:
In its most basic meaning “seeing” is the physical mechanics
of the eye – the physical act of “seeing”
But it also means perceiving/understanding
I see = I understand.

A lot of times, bits and chips of information
are spread before us like those moving images in a kaleidoscope
If we look long enough,
They arrange themselves
into an organized whole –
which then becomes useful information
If we fail to see the whole,
No image is formed,
and we draw a blank.

We say…I don’t see….I don’t get it…I don’t understand.

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OR, we could all be looking at the same item, or situation
And “see” different things.
That’s what Christmas is like –
It provides
a kaleidoscope of sensory images:
The candles, the lights on the trees –
The children in Nativity scene costumes –

The shepherds, angels, the sheep
Then there are the sounds – the familiar carols we all know & love
Silent Night – the First Noel
Or the more classical, medieval sounds like Handel’s Messiah.

But almost immediately these images
Become memories –
Memories soon to be replaced by Super Bowl and the Oscars.
So how can we hold on?
once the stars have realigned…
the shepherds are once again tending their sheep

and all the Christmas decorations are back up in the attic
I received a Christmas card this year…that offers some suggestions
that I wanted to share with you.

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During this Christmas Season….
Mend a quarrel…seek out a forgotten friend…
Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a love letter.
Share some treasure…give a soft answer…Encourage youth…
Manifest your loyalty in the word and deed. Keep a promise.
Find the time. Forego a grudge. Forgive an enemy.
Listen. Apologize if you are wrong. Try to understand. Float envy.
Examine your demands on others. Think of your neighbor first.
Be appreciative. Be kind and gentle. Laugh a little more.
Be deserving of the confidence of others.
Extend your hand to a stranger and the warmth of your heart to a child.
Find beauty in all that surrounds you.
Speak your love. Speak it again. Speak it still once again.

Amen.

By Deacon Virginia Jenkins Whatley
Sunday, January 17, 2021
John 1:43-51
You always hear people say I remember the first time I found
Jesus and it changed my life. It’s actually the other way around,
He found you and your life changed.
The truth of our Christian story is not that you and I found
Christ but Christ has found us. We do not decide for God. God
decided for us.
At the beginning of our gospel, Jesus found Philip not the other
way around. This is important because the knowledge that God
has sought us out rather than vice versa is crucial in keeping us
humble before God.
When Jesus found Philip he issued a single command, “Follow
me”. Putting Jesus first in your lives is demanded of us
Christians. Sacrifices have to be made in our thinking and way
of life. When he calls us to follow him we have to remember
that He is Lord of all or not at all. You should not be a some
time or part time follower though we get it wrong from time to
time and fall short of the ideal.
We must remember that we are disciples of Jesus. The first rule
of being a disciple is to tell others about Jesus. The first thing
Philip did was find his brother, Nathaniel and tell him whom he

found. Philip and his brother were both found by Jesus but
according to Philip, “they found him whom Moses in the law
wrote about.”
Though you may be happy, enthusiastic and passionate about
sharing the good news about Jesus this can be met with
resistance. You should not lose confidence when your message
is not always welcomed.
Nathaniel like many was cynical and perhaps rude . We are not
to be discouraged by the response we may get from others but
trust that an encounter with God will be life changing for them
too. When it comes to evangelism a simple response of “Come
and see” should be sufficient and let God do the rest. Just keep
saying it.
Will they experience a sense of excitement that sometimes
happens or have an experience of worship that gives them
access to God.
In the passage it states that when Jesus saw Nathaniel coming
toward him, he said of him, “He is truly an Israelite in whom
there is no deceit; Nathaniel asked him, “Where did you come
to know me? Jesus answered, “ I saw you under the fig tree
before Philip called you.”
Friends, we are talking about Jesus. He can perceive your heart
and recognize you for who you really are..Spiritually he knows

the real Nathaniel and all of us. Spiritually He has his hand on
our lives well before our being.
As Christians, we know that peace and blessings can only come
from our relationship with Jesus. The more we allow Jesus to be
the center of our lives, the more we know peace in our hearts
We are called into a life of peace and blessings with God. Jesus
sees us, he knows everything about us and knows our deepest
needs. If we follow him as he says to Nathaniel, we will see
heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and
descending upon the Son of Man.
As his disciples we are found by Him, we are to share our love
and tell others about Him, not lose faith when others are not
receptive and remember that following Jesus means receiving
peace and blessing from God.

Amen

By Deacon Virginia Jenkins-Whatley

Sermon: Sunday, January 3, 2021
Sermon: Matthew 2:13-15,19-23
In the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Most of us can think of times when we wished that a
warning of some kind might have been very beneficial.
Just a hint of what is about to happen that might cause
us to stop and think, pause or do something different to
avoid something unpleasant from happening. Just a
whisper telling us to turn left instead of right.
That is not life as we live it. We live by our faith, act on
instinct and make our own choices. Our decisions,
though guided by God, we make on our own which at
times are not the right ones.
There are people that rely very heavily on their dreams
and one would say that they are delusional. Some may
have judged Joseph in that way.
The past two weeks we have rejoiced in preparation of
and the birth of Christ filled with the glory and the
wonder. In the reading of today’s gospel, leads us from
celebration to a not so pretty picture.
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The reading is based on first, the call on the Holy Family
to go to Egypt, second what happens back home while
they are in Egypt and third, their return to Israel.
The story of Jesus’s birth has spread across the land and
now that the child has received symbolic and important
gifts received from the Wise Men, the family must run
for their lives. A warning in a dream from an Angel of
God hastened Joseph to move his family in fear that
harm would come to the young Messiah and his family
ordered by King Herod.
As we focus on this aspect of Jesus life, we are reminded
that Jesus himself was a refugee and that he understands
the plight of refugees in our time and he has compassion
on them.
In comparision to Jesus, refugees today especially those
coming to America , displaced from their homeland as
well as having their children taken away by politics, war
and poverty, we need to remember that this is integral to
the story of the God whom we worship and remember
our own responsibility towards the refugees in our midst.
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Getting to Egypt did not stop the executions back home
as Herod tried to find and kill the holy child.
He learned that the Wise Men did not tell him the truth
therefore he ordered the killing of innocent boys under
the age of 2 in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas .
Here again in our history there are records of human
trafficking and other evil acts in which children are
brutally abused and killed due to inhumane acts of
cruelty based on religious or political reasoning.
For a third time, Joseph is once again visited in a dream
by an Angel of God informing him of Herod’s passing and
told to return to Israel. Learning that Archelaus, son of
Herod was now in charge who reigned in proximity to his
father, the family would not go to Israel but instead
traveled to Nazareth where they would be safe, so that
what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled,
“He would be called a Nazorean”.

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A life lesson for all of us is that though we may
experience joy, amazement, wonders and peace, there
are those experiencing pain, fear,loss and suffering.
We must remember that God does not cause evil but is
present in times of distress in that voice guiding us, in
sending us to safety, in healing our pain and easing our
suffering and always in the presence of our lives.
As we enter this new year, may we continue to pray,
open our hearts and minds and listen for God’s voice for
guidance and comfort.

AMEN

Sermon
By Rev. Robert Shearer
Christmas I • December 27, 2020
Isaiah 61:10-62:3 • Psalm 147 • Galatians 3:23-25, 4:4-7 • John 1:1-18

In the Name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“In the beginning was the Word.” So begins the Gospel of John—very similar to the beginning of the Hebrew Scriptures. It is a reflection of the beginning of the Book of Genesis which says, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”

So both opening verses are about creation, the beginning of all things, the Big Bang, if you will. But how does the act of creation work? What is the mechanism, so to speak, by which something gets created?

In both Genesis and John, it is speaking that generates creation. It is through speaking, through the Word, that something comes into being. It is a word—the Word—that creates.

You can see this in real life. For the most part, we are in the middle of things. As a small child, around the ages of one or two, we begin to notice that we are a somebody, someone different from Mommy and Daddy. And we notice that all that surrounds us was there before we were. In a world of “beginning, middle, and end,” we show up in the middle of things.

Later, we notice that things really do end. A birthday party that was such fun ends, and we are aware of loss—losing the fun, and the birthday, and the party. We were in the middle, and then it was over and we were at the end.

How about the beginning? Well, someone spoke. They said, “We should have a birthday party. Let’s do it!” Someone speaks the Word. Before any real thing exists, the thought, the idea, the possibility has to be born. And that requires the Word. It is speaking that generates being, and out of the being that has been generated, action turns the possibility into reality.

Certainly this is true of this parish church of ours. 150 years ago, this church did not exist. The town was just a country retreat for people living in New York. Eventually a minister from the City who summered here thought to himself, “We should have services in Fort Lee.” So he invited a few people into his living room on a Sunday morning, and the church became a reality. But first, it started with his word, with the possibility spoken to others—just an idea at first, but then made concrete by inviting people to his living room services.

John continues, “… and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” He is indicating that words become independent of their speaker. Our word issues forth from our mouths, and once spoken, they seem to have an independent life, separate from the speaker. We all know the experience of having said something unfortunate—once spoken, we cannot call the words back. And we know the independent power of speaking something that empowers or comforts another—it seems to accomplish its work all by itself, once we speak it.

So it is with God. The Word, John says, was “with God,” that is, separate and independent of God. And yet that word was God’s expression and in a real sense “the Word was God.”

All this is interesting—our words create possibilities and God’s Word does the same. Both for God and for us, we are able to create through language, by speaking a possibility, by bringing something into being that was not there before we spoke.

What is amazing to me is what John says next: “…the Word became flesh and lived among us.” This Word that God spoke in creating everything that exists, this Word came into flesh and blood, Jesus. And he lived in our midst—the Greek word at its root means “he set up his tent among us.”

So what? This is always a great question. So what difference does this make? So what does it mean for you and me?

Since we have been adopted into God’s household and made heirs of him; since we have put on Christ and become his successors in doing powerful things; since we no longer have to labor as victims of our circumstances—since all this, we are powerful beyond any of our expectations.

Thanks be to God who has made us his children and endowed us with the power of the Word.

Amen.

Sermon
By Rev. Robert Shearer
Christmas Eve • December 24, 2020
Isaiah 9:2-7 • Psalm 96 • Titus 2:11-14 • Luke 2:1-20

In the Name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light,” says Isaiah this morning, and he goes on, “those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined.”

It seems that an instance of this phenomenon of light shining in the midst of darkness has come upon us during our Covid-19 pandemic. In the middle of the pandemic, with the winter surge killing thousands upon thousands, sequestered in our homes and restricted from much movement, it has been looking pretty dark indeed.

And then comes the news of a vaccine—two or more, in fact—and the possibility of ending the pandemic in six months or so. It is as though a light has been shined upon us. So we lighten-up, get a bit less serious, a little better able to cope with our increasingly complex and worrisome world.

This is the heart of the Christmas message—that when it is darkest, a light can shine. A metaphorical light, of course, which applies to all sorts of conditions of humankind.

In the darkness—in he depths of alcoholism or a failed marriage; the death of a person most loved or a bankrupt business; a burned-down home or betrayal by a friend—into the darkness a light will come.

This is a promise, not just a hope or a “maybe.” It is a solid and unambiguous promise by God and his prophets.

“For a child has been born for us, a son given to us … he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace … and there shall be endless peace … The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”

On this night, a couple of thousand years ago, in a tiny backwater country in the Roman Empire, in a stable with livestock crowding around, an infant child was born.

 who was to become the light of the world.

Amen.

Sermon
By Rev. Robert Shearer
Advent IV • December 20, 2020
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 • Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26 • Romans 16:25-27 • Luke 1:26-38

In the Name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Where does God live? If we were to look around for God where
would we find him (or “her,” or “it”—pick your favorite
pronoun). We would like to know God, to encounter God, to
enter his presence. But where?
We can see in the Bible that the established place of God’s
presence has moved around. In Genesis, God creates the world
from some place outside the world—in heaven, presumably. From
Adam and Eve onward, until Moses, God is a presence, but not
one located in any particular place.
With Moses, we find God in a burning bush, a shrub that burns
but is not consumed, and it is a holy place. For where God is to be
found, that place must be holy.
When Moses leads the Chosen People—slaves in Egypt—out of
their bondage, God orders that a tabernacle be made for his
presence to inhabit. The travelling Israelites lived in tents, so the
Tabernacle was also a tent that could be dismantled and moved.
The tent stayed with the people of Israel until the kingdom was
established under David. As we heard in this morning’s First
Lesson, God says to David in a dream, “I have not lived in a house
since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this
day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle.”
David desired to build a house for God, a temple. But in this
dream, God tells him that a son of his will build a temple, and that
he will have to be satisfied with having a great name for himself
and an established throne that will far outlive him.

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David’s son, Solomon, did indeed build the first Temple, and the
presence of God lived there, his throne on earth in the Holy of
Holies, the innermost room of the temple.
The Temple in Jerusalem remained God’s location into Jesus’ time,
but then a change began to occur. The Temple had been destroyed
and rebuilt two times, and about 40 years after Jesus death the
Romans destroyed the Third Temple and its place on Temple
Mount has remained vacant ever since.
The prophets had said that when Messiah comes, his name will be
Emmanuel. As you probably know, Emmanuel means “God with
us.” The first disciples discerned God’s presence in a human being,
in Jesus, so the location of God’s home shifted from a physical
place of “brick and mortar” to a human being.
Luke, in today’s Gospel reading, tells the story of how this
happened, this coming of God into human form, through Mary,
Jesus’ mother. It is an elaborate story, but the central point is
simple—God became incarnate in a human being.
And then, another shift took place as Jesus’ teachings took hold in
the Christian community of the First Century. St Paul says, “…do
you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within
you, whom you have from God?”
Each of us is the Temple now, and to look for God in a place is to
miss the point. For God lives in us, and we, each of us, are
Emmanuel.
But what about our churches, sanctuaries, cathedrals, and shrines?
Are they not God’s houses? What about our lovely Good

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Shepherd, which most of us are attached to and come to for the
experience of God’s presence?
I think such buildings do provide the opportunity to connect with
the Divine Presence. While the Temple is no longer one made of
stone and wood, but rather we are temples of flesh and blood,
most of us find the sanctuary a physical place where the encounter
with God takes place.
So. the residence of God has moved from outside creation to a
burning bush, and then to a Tabernacle tent, and then to the
Jerusalem Temple, and then to the person of Jesus, and finally to
the body of each of us, and the community of the faithful who
gather in the promise that Christ would be with us—whenever two
or three are gathered together.
God has, over the vast experience of generations of his people,
moved from the remoteness of being outside the Universe to the
most intimate places of human existence—into the lives of each of
us.
Thanks be to God for giving us his Spirit so that we can be Christs
for our generation.
Amen.