Sermons
"Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us." The word advent means arrival or coming. During this season of Advent we prepare for the three comings, the three arrivals, of Christ.
Listen to or read the Rev. Bingham Powell’s entire sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Advent by clicking “read more.”
Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures, says the gospel. Don’t you wish you were there? Don't you wish he was here, now, to open our minds to understand the scriptures? The bible, so central to our faith and worship, has been used to promote colonialism, genocide and war, racism, slavery and sexism, greed and hatred and disregard for the creation itself. Some find within it no redemption, and turn away. But we, guided by the Holy Spirit, and made one with the post-Easter Christ, find within it freedom and justice, truth and equality, and a world ruled by sacrificial love. We will either regard the Bible as some old relic or as the most precious pertinent thing in the world.
Click Read More to read or listen to Ted’s entire sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Easter.
I want to start my sermon today with a story. It is a story about a priest named Marc Nikkel. Marc was one of my dad’s priests in the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, although he was not serving in the geographic boundaries of the Diocese because he was a missionary in Sudan. Marc spent the better part of the last twenty years of his life in Sudan, going there initially in 1981 to teach at the Bishop Gwynne College, an Anglican Episcopal school. Along the way he felt a call to the priesthood and so returned stateside for some coursework and to get ordained. Then he returned to Sudan as a priest.
Click “Read More” to read or listen to Bingham’s entire sermon
Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” In the Gospel today Jesus is getting at an idea he is going to flesh out further later in the Gospel. It is the idea that in other people we can find Christ. In this section it is all about welcoming Christ in the stranger, and that in the act of hospitality you are welcoming Christ. Later on, in Matthew 25, he expands that even more: I was hungry and you gave me food; thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was naked and you clothed me; I was in prison and you visited me; I was injured and you bound me up; I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
This is a season of manifestations, but it is not just about manifestations. It is also about how the people respond. How do they integrate into their lives what they have just experienced? How does that manifestation transform into an integration into their very being? So we will hear stories like the Magi—how they responded by the giving of gifts? How did the disciples respond? They responded by dropping everything and following him. Simeon responded by knowing that his life is now at peace and he is able to go because a promise has been fulfilled. Peter, James, and John respond by wanting to hunker down and dwell in that moment and build booths, tabernacles, and dwelling places for the three of them. These are all ways people responded to the experience of encountering Christ in this world.
