Feast Days

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The Feast of All Saints

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Sometimes we use the word saint to be a synonym for being perfect. I think it does a great disservice to these saints, because if you read about their lives or their histories, you learn they were anything but perfect. They were real people like you and me, who had all kinds of challenges and struggles and doubts in their faith.

But they were something else. There is a great prayer that sometimes gets appointed on these Wednesday mornings services that says that the saints are the lights of their generation. I think that is a much better way to think about the saints.

Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon for All Saints’ Day by clicking “Read More.”

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A Church Like Mary

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A Marian church knows she is the object of gratuitous love, and that God has the heart of a mother.

A Marian church does not know the answers before the questions are asked. Her path is not mapped out in advance. She knows doubt and worry, the night and loneliness. She takes part in the conversation but makes no claim to know everything. She accepts that she is searching.

A Marian church stands at the foot of the cross. She does not take refuge in a fortress, or in a chapel, or in cautious silence, when others are being crushed. She is vulnerable, in her deeds and her words. With humble courage she stands with the most insignificant.

Listen to or read Ryan’s entire sermon for Mary Sunday by clicking “Read More.”

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Trinity Sunday

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The paths we take on our faith journey are as different and complex as each one of us. The path is smooth or rough at different places. The stumbling blocks for each of us are found here or there. The mountains, valleys, and oases are at different places along the way. If you stop and be still, or if you turn and look around, you can discover that God is with you, delighted to be on the path with you.

Read Nancy’s full sermon for Trinity Sunday by clicking “Read More.”

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Pentecost Sunday

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If there is one essential message in this Pentecost story, it is that we are not as different from one another as we think we are. We are not the stranger we assume we are. We are not the foreigners we fear we are. Our needs are not so different from the needs of others. We are more alike than we are different.

Listen to or read Bishop Akiyama’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”

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What is Truth

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Pontius Pilate was the Roman Procurator of Palestine during the reign of Tiberius. Though he commanded a Roman legion of 4500 soldiers, his was not a plush assignment. Saddled with governing one of the frontier provinces of the Roman Empire he spent most of his time in Caesarea Maritime where the weather was reasonably decent and where he was able to have minimal contact with the stubbornly unruly inhabitants of the region under his control. Only on high holy days did Pilate trouble himself to go into Jerusalem so as to be present should any sort of problem arise. Still, he was the face of the Roman Empire in that part of the world, and as such, he literally had the power of life or death over the people under his control. Yet, for all the trappings that went with his position, it is quite possible that Pontius Pilate would have lived and died utterly forgotten by history had it not been for one fateful day when he crossed paths with a Galilean Jew named Jesus of Nazareth.

Listen to or read Sharon’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”

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The Gift of the Holy Spirit

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In our baptism we receive this amazing power of the Holy Spirit to guide, strengthen, and comfort us on this earth. Just like these first followers of Jesus on that first Pentecost, God and has sent us the gift of the Holy Spirit.

This gift that Jesus calls the Advocate, the Spirit who speaks for us and who champions our cause. The Spirit watches over, protects and comforts us.

Listen to or read Ryan’s entire sermon for Pentecost by clicking “Read More.”

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