Mount Calvary Sermons

SECOND SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS 2016 JEREMIAH 31:7-14 A prayer for the New Year’s Day:Dear LordSo far this year I've done well. I haven't gossiped, I haven't lost my temper; I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent. I'm very thankful for that. But in a few minutes, Lord, I'm going to get out of bed, and from then on I'm probably going to need a lot more help.Amen. We’ve buried 2015, that poor, sad old man. He had it coming. His grey beard hadreached his waist, his memory was wrecked, his aching body is now mercifully out of its misery. Some grieve his passing. Some celebrate that he is now at rest. On Thursday morning we heard the cry of a newborn, with all the hope and excitement that miracle brings. There she is in her diaper, still too young to have opinions, too fresh to have experienced great sadness, too innocent to have witnessed horror. How do you feel as you gaze down into her crib? Like every brand new creature 2016 has within

CHRISTMAS EVE 2015 LUKE 2:1-14 Twas the night before Christmas and all through the land People were travelling at Caesar’s command. He’d passed a decree that ruled they should go To their birthplace, their hometowns, their faces to show; So the Romans could count them and know just how much Their Empire was wealthy and mighty, and such. So Mary and Joseph, her hubby-to-be, Set out from their village to David’s city, Where Joseph was born and where he was bred, “Along with gazillions of others”, they said. For the crowds were so thick and the folk were so numerous, People were pushing and jostling and humorless. They eventually got to the front of the line, Where a pen-pusher was sitting, taking his time. “Now here is a family of two, to be sure”, Said the bureaucrat counting, to the man by a door “No wait”, called the counter, “it’s clear that another will soon be arriving with father and mother. Have you got any room in that tavern of yours?&r

The World Awaits Promises promises. They said there'll be snow at Christmas.They said there'll be peace on earth.But instead it just kept on raining,A veil of tears for the virgin's birthI remember one Christmas morning,A winters light and a distant choir,And the peal of a bell and that Christmas tree smell,And their eyes full of tinsel and fire They sold me a dream of Christmas.They sold me a silent night.And they told me a fairy story'till I believed in the Israelite.And I believed in father Christmas.And I looked at the sky with excited eyes,'till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn,And I saw him and through his disguise I wish you a hopeful Christmas.I wish you a brave new year.All anguish, pain, and sadnessLeave your heart and let your road be clear.They said there'll be snow at Christmas.They said there'll be peace on earth.Hallelujah, noel, be it heaven or hell,The Christmas you get you deserve. As I read these song lyrics 40 years after Greg Lake sang them from the dizzying heights of Number

THIRD OF ADVENT 2015 LUKE 3:7-18Turns out I’ve been doing it all wrong. 22 years I’ve been ordained. Do you know how many Sunday services that is? Rhetorical question - don’t take out your phones and open the calculator app. That’s a gazillion sermons I’ve preached. And this week I am in despair. I feel like the guy who has been pushing his lawnmower around his yard for 20 years and just discovered it has a motor. Because this week I’ve been reading John the Baptist’s method of preaching; and I now understand that I’ve been too nice to you. John begins his sermons with, “You brood of vipers”. So, I’ve been praying about this, and I think we should try it next week. We’ll process in, as normal, then I’ll turn and face you and I’ll say “You brood of vipers”, and you all reply “And also with you”. “You’re a bucket of snakes”. “As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be wor

But deep down his doubts are as real as hers, his anger just as strong. That curse. At times it threatens to overwhelm them. Elizabeth bears the pitying glances of the ignorant with quiet dignity, betraying a depth of grace that befits her noble heritage. When she married Zechariah there was such joy and hope – two priestly families joined in blessed union. But then, slowly, after months turned to years, it became clear to the whole city that God had not blessed them, but had pronounced the curse. Now the years had turned to decades, and those decades had calcified into a cold, dead state of permanence. These are unenlightened days. Jesus will come and rip away the curtain that prevents people from seeing the true, full heart of God. But for now, superstition enslaves people with the lie that God is displeased with childless couples; they must have done something very wrong to be denied the blessing of offspring in an age when the survival of people too old to work depended on having adult children to s

FIRST OF ADVENT 2015 LUKE 21:25-36This morning in a spirit of humility and repentance, in keeping with the beginning of Advent, I thought I would bring some evidence of my sins to show you. Not that any of you need convincing that I have legions of them, but it does me good to bear my soul and beat my breast from time to time. Most of the time I’m fully aware of when I’m sinning, but in this instance I didn’t know until weeks later. It was the winter of 2013 and I received this letter in the mail. I was curious, because it bore an Italian stamp, and in the top left hand corner of the envelope it said, “poste italiene”. Now I had no idea what was waiting for me in the envelope. So I tore it open, read the letter and still had noidea what was waiting for me in the envelope because I don’t speak Italian. I could, however, read the numbers, and one in particular caught my eye. 121 Euros. The previous summer I vacationed in Florence, hired a car, and apparently violated all mann

CHRIST THE KING 2015 JOHN 18:33-37The results are in, and they are startling. I was shocked, and, actually I suspect some voter fraud, because surely this can’t be right. But there it is as plain as day on the website quibblo.com the electorate has spoken and their verdict is clear. Now, the question on the ballot was important. In fact, this is probably the most crucial question facing our nation in these days. My vote went to a candidate that came in only 6th, so I’m not happy. Frankly, I’m perplexed. I can’t help thinking that this travesty of an outcome is a sad reflection of the moral fiber of our nation today. “What was the issue on the ballot?”, I hear you ask. Well, it was the crucial question, “Who is your favoriteSuperhero?” And the winner was Batman. I know. Give the ignorant the vote and this is what they do with it. I mean, he doesn’t even have any superpowers. He is just a creepy rich guy who had a bad experience in childhood. I demand a reco

25TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2015 MARK 13:1-8Before I begin I want to tell you about the aftermath of last week’s sermon. If you were not here you need to know that the Gospel story was the widow who dropped two small copper coins into the Temple treasury, which was all she had, and Jesus declared that she had given more than people who had dropped in larger sums. So, it’s Tuesday morning and Liz is counting the money from the three services last weekend. And she shouts out to me, “Oy, I’ve got a bone to pick with you.” (Because that’s how she talks to me.) So I call back, “What?” (because that’s how I talk to her.) And she marches into my study waving a Ziploc bag full of pennies. 84 of them. Seriously. “Don’t ever preach that sermon again”, she said. Now last weekend there were 245 people in church, which means one third of them had been planning to drop their usual $50 into the plate, but then heard the Bible passage, kept the 50 bucks

24TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2015 MARK 12:38-44 Jesus is fatigued. Drained by his confrontations with religious leaders, exasperated by their stubborn ignorance, sick and tired of the endless pointless debates with foolish people who should know better - powerful men with initials after their names and titles before them. All day he has been on edge. It started the day before when he entered the Temple. Instead of enjoying a place of quiet reverence and prayer, he encountered the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, but without the colourful blazers. Instead of shares they traded doves and sheep, instead of Treasury bonds they exchanged money. He had felt God’s passionate displeasure rise within him many times in his ministry, but this was different. This took the bakery. He could not contain his rage. So, a touch surprisingly you might think, he trashed the place. What would Jesus do? Don’t rule out throwing furniture and making whips. Then this morning hereturns to the Temple and is acco

ALL SAINTS DAY 2015 REVELATION 21:1-6 I want you to imagine that this morning I were handing out vacation vouchers. Each voucher is worth a free week of vacation in one of four places. So you need to choose where to spend your week. Will you choose a city you have never visited before? A bustling, lively metropolis, with interesting tourist attractions, museums and cultural centers, entertainment venues, interesting history and architecture? Or will you opt for a break in the country - a retreat miles from anywhere and anyone, maybe a villa overlooking a vineyard, a cabin deep in a mighty forest, a mountain range, a national park, a cottage secluded by acres of golden wheat? Or would you select a cruise – the Caribbean, a trip up the west coast to Alaska, or maybe the Mediterranean. Or, finally, would you be tempted by an all-inclusive beach holiday, lying on your recliner reading or snoozing, a glass of something cool next to you, before rousing yourself to stroll the twenty yards to the water’s

21ST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2015 PSALM 91:9-16I’ve discovered what I want for Christmas. And frankly, it is not something I just want, I need it the way a fish needs water. My life cries out for it. Like a gold bar, it bears the hallmark of treasure that mankind has pursued for centuries. A holy grail that has captivated people’s imagination, inspired their dreams, and stirred their passions. It has released the juices of novelists and whet the appetites of military strategists. In the wrong hands it could be a force for mischief, even evil. In the right hands it could liberate and protect. Regrettably, it has not yet been developed for consumers, so you won’t find it in the shops this Christmas, but I still covet one. It is the invisibility cloak. And it is real. The Material Science department at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, have created it. I don’t have any interest in how they achieved it, so I won’t bore you with descriptions of 50-nanometer-thick layers of magnesi

20TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2015 PSALM 90 Can you hear the cry of anguish? Do you catch the desperate voice? Can you feel the pained petition of the worker hoping, praying, pleading that his labor will be enough? She has sweltered in the heat of the day, lifted, carried, pushed, pulled, dug, sown, dealt, bargained, bought, sold. But will it be enough? He calls to God from a bygone age. He plows dust on his Kansas farm, barren sand where once rich soil thrived and crops flourished. “Prosper the work of our hands. O, prosper the work of our hands.” He groans to God from a bygone age. He hammers at a coal seam deep beneath Scranton, chiseling a living for his family, breaking his back for hisvillage, risking his life for his people. “Prosper the work of our hands. O, prosper the work of our hands.” She pleads to God from a bygone age. She stoops low in pain and humiliation, bowing before King Cotton, picking her white harvest under the brutal sun and under threat of a more brutal lash if

19TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2015 PSALM 8 I was mulling over my sermon this week. I’d decided that I’d preach on thePsalm because it’s brilliant isn’t it? “When I consider your heavens, the work ofyour fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in their courses, what is manthat you should be mindful of him?” It’s stirring stuff. So, I started to think aboutthat question - what are human beings, that God should be mindful of us? Nowin the best traditions of academic research, I knew that to answer this questionthoroughly I needed.... Read the full Sermon here: So what actually is a human.pdf

18TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2015 PSALM 124 I stooped next to his cot, looking down into his warm nest, watching his tiny chestgently rise and fall. We had transformed the spare bedroom into his nursery,impatiently biding our time, waiting for this very night. His second night on earth,his first in the place he would call home. O, the deep sleep of a newborn baby.Is there anything so tranquil, so serene, so perfectly blissful on all of God’s goodearth? A spotless new mind, untainted by fear and hate; eyes that have not seenviolence; ears that are strangers to the sounds of anger; a nose that is yet tosmell the decay of dreams; lips that have never twisted the truth; hands that don’tknow how to hurt. Alex was.... Read the full Sermon here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/3212590/20150927_How_much_is_enough.pdf

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2015 JAMES 3:13-4:3, 7-8 I came across a recipe. Not for food, sadly, but for a church split. It’s like a banana split but not as nice. First, you need 1 church. For best results, ensure that the pastor shall have been at this location for no more than 5 years, having replaced the former pastor who had been there since dirt and was greatly feared and revered by all as the Final Authority. – Begin by placing a church building project in a large container and letting it sit forapproximately 3 years while berating the membership for more funds. – Take one power-hungry music director and stir well. (If possible select a fresh pickedmusic director with dreams of being a traveling evangelist whose wife also plays thepiano.) – Blend in a scandal involving a member of the flower committee whose offeringsprovide no less than 25% of the church’s annual budget. Be sure to fire at least oneother member of the flower committee who was wel

SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2015 MARK 8:27-38 How much would you sell your name for? What’s your price? How cheap are you? Well, ten years ago the 201 residents of Clark, Texas took a vote to change the name of their town - not in itself an unheard of event. But as far as I can tell from reading Wikipedia (you see I’ve spared no expense researching this) it is the only town to change its name to that of a corporation in exchange for an inducement. So next time you’re heading down Texas way look out for the tiny settlement of DISH. And, just like the satellite TV provider who bought the name of the town, it is all in capital letters. So, how much would you sell the name of your town for, if a large corporation came along and wanted to name it after itself? I hope, as people with great taste, that you would drive a harder bargain than the people of Clark (or should that be DISH). All they asked for was a free DVR. Seriously. Gimme a free Video Recorder and you can name our town whatever y

FIFTEENTH AFTER PENTECOST 2015 MARK 7:24-37 Last month, as many of you know, I attended a writers’ workshop in Minnesota for clergy. I was one of twelve participants from many different churches, but I was the only Episcopalian. Now one of my colleagues was a professor of homiletics (that’s preaching) at a Roman Catholic seminary. And I thought I couldn’t pass up the chance of picking her brains. So I went up to her in one our breaks and said, “So, Anne.  September 6th - what are preaching on? Because I have a brilliant sermon. You know how throughout this workshop we’ve been studying metaphor? Well I’ve spotted the metaphor in the Gospel reading for Sept 6th. And I’m going pick up that metaphor on my own one-yard line, side-step the onrushing tacklers, sprint the entire length of the field, score the touchdown, do my end zone dance, and even kick the point after.” And she said, “I hate sports metaphors”. And I replied, “that’s OK, b

THIRTEENTH AFTER PENTECOST 2015 EPHESIANS 6:10-20 A couple of years ago my brother-in-law Paul retired from his job as a police officer in the K9 division. Paul had two working dogs. There was the brilliantly named Fizz. Fizz was a springer spaniel with a personality that matched his name. I don’t know whether dogs can suffer from ADHD, but ifthey can then doggy psychiatrists could have held entire week-long conferences discussing Fizz. Maybe it was the natural energy of the springer spaniel that made him that way, or maybe it was his job. You see Fizz served at her majesty’s pleasure by sniffing out drugs, explosives and firearms. His sense of smell was 100 times more sensitive than that of a human being. Now poor old Fizz had to.... Read the full Sermon here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/3211113/20150823_It_s_war__but_not_as_we_know_it.pdf

ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2015 1 KINGS 19:4-8 It had been the most traumatic few days of his life. As he sat under a bush in the desert he relived the momentous events that had driven him to this point – the lowest trough in his troubled existence. He went over in his mind the events of the last week, wondering if he had done the right thing, if there was something he could have done differently, wrestling with his inadequacies, his  hopelessness. And then there was God – the God he was serving. Wasn’t he actually the God who had deserted him? He had been obedient, he had served God faithfully, risked it all, and now it seemed that God had failed him, abandoned him, left him like wounded quarry to be avaged by predators. Death was now a gentle friend – a kind helper who would soothe his conscience, calm his fear, take his hand, and walk peacefully with him into nothingness. He longed for that oblivion, the end of the conflicts and the fear. He even prayed for it. “I ha

TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2015 JOHN 6:24-35 To listen to some health gurus you’d think that bread would kill you. It’s high in carbs and can spike blood sugar levels, it contains “anti-nutrients”, which sounds really scary. I’d never even heard of an anti-nutrient – but now I have I’m not sure I will ever sleep again. I’m having visions of anti-social particles wearing leather jackboots, menacingly patrolling your sandwich looking for nutrients, and when they find some, beating them unconscious and then drowning them in the mayonnaise. Apparently, even in its non-processed form bread may raise bad cholesterol by a whopping 60%. And so there is now a thriving industry devoted to the slogan “The more you eat bread, the sooner you’re dead.” There’s a satirical email going around that is headed “BREAD IS DANGEROUS”. It goes on to state that according to research .   Read the full Sermon here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_at