Category: Sermons

Sermon Delivered at Church of the Good Shepherd
Fort Lee, New Jersey,
Sunday, March 7, 2021, at 8:00 and 10:00 a.m.
By the Rev. Stephen C. Galleher
The Ten Truths

“Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our soul…” (Collect, Lent III)
“‘I am God, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of a life of slavery.
No other gods, only me.” (Exodus 20:1-3)
I cannot tell you what a joy it is for me to be back among you wonderful people, under these
trying, even tragic circumstances and in such fearsome and confining days. I understand your
priest in charge, Fr. Shearer, is taking longer than he wishes to recover fully from this COVID-
19 virus, and I know that we all continue to hold him in prayer for a complete recovery. And I
know, too, that many of you are badly missing in-person worship. I get it; but there is an
intimacy to these Zoom squares we find ourselves in, and I hope we can take advantage of this
closer proximity.
Today’s Old Testament reading is the full display of the most familiar passages of
Scripture, namely, the Ten Commandments. I’m not happy with the word “commandments” to
describe these timeless sayings. How about “Ten Truths,” for that is more likely what they are,
pointing to road directions, happy tips on how to keep straight on the highway, to prevent us
from straying onto the shoulders and wrecking. Another metaphor is of the sailboat. The Ten
Commandments or Ten Truths are designed to adjust our sails. When they work well in guiding
us, it’s all smooth sailing!
I was discussing these truths with some fellow clergy earlier in the week, Fr. Wade Renn
being among them. Fr. Renn described these truths as evidence of God’s love for us. It is like a
love letter or a letter home from father giving us advice that can sustain us for a lifetime.
I would like to hazard a quick run through of these truths and see if we can’t soften them
and even make them more relevant to our present lives and circumstances. For after all, how
many of us actively acknowledge and adhere to these precepts? To be honest, I confess that these
truths do not play a vivid part in my everyday life. In truth, they play little to no part at all. This
doesn’t mean that they have had no indirect influence on me. Of course, they have. And I assume
they have had an influence on each of you as well.

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But we probably give them more value in the abstract than we do personally. And have
you heard about the Eleventh Commandment? “Thou shalt not COVID thy neighbor’s wife.”
You thought that was corny? Listen to this: Did you hear the story about the young
minister who had just started at the local Episcopal church? Like many younger clergy, he was
environmentally-minded, and so he rode a bicycle to worship. After a month of preaching, he
finds his bike gone, and he thinks a member of his congregation must have stolen it.
So, he goes and talks to an older preacher to ask for advice. The wise minister tells him,
“This Sunday I want you to preach a sermon on the 10 Commandments, and when you get to the
“Thou shall not steal” part, really hit it hard. The offending person will feel guilty and will repent
and bring your bike back to you.”
“That’s a great idea”, the young preacher says.
So, a week goes by and he runs into the older preacher who asks him if the sermon
worked.
“Yes and no”, says the young preacher. “I preached on the 10 Commandments just like
you said, but when I got to the part about ‘Thou shall not commit adultery,’ I remembered where
I left my bike.”
Truth #1: I am the Lord your God, and the only God. You see: there is no commandment
here, just a bold, wonderful statement. God is it. God is everything. There is no other, there is
nothing other. As the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins says, “The world is charged with the
grandeur of God.” Do we feel it? Have we experienced it? How often? One hopes that we live
with this sense of awe and grandeur! God’s reality and God’s presence is everything; in fact, it is
everything we need.
Truth #2: No other Gods, only me. Isn’t that something? Nothing else, no one else need
take priority in our lives over this transcendent and yet ever-present God, who is nearer to us
than our own heartbeats: unto whom all hearts are open. Keeping this God close to us is the glory
of living.
Truth #3: And we must take abuse the sacred name of God with our silly profanities. Be
careful to respect the holy name of God. In fact, the Jews do not speak the holy name (Yahweh:
see, I said it!): it is just that sacred. We honor God’s name by honoring all of life, all of creation.
Truth #4: Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. Keep a time holy for God, set
aside a sabbath time, a time of rest. The Jewish Shabbat is from Friday’s sundown till

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Saturday’s. The day of rest from God’s work of creation. For the Christian, we focus on Sunday,
the symbolic day of Christ’s resurrection. Just like the diastole of the heartbeat, when the hearts
refills with blood after the emptying done during systole, all of us need time to rest and to be
with the silence in which our lives are enshrined.
Truth #5: Honor your father and mother. Even for those without a father or without a
mother, this truth points to the heritage that each of us lives in. The Chinese know how to honor
their ancestors. By focusing on the fact that each of us comes from a long lineage humbles us
and helps us recognize our part in a grand succession of families and friends. We must honor
them all. We must make our families a sacred place of respect and acknowledge our larger
family. It isn’t just a question of blood lines. It is a question of identification and compassion for
every living human being.
Truth #6: No murder. In fact, the deeper meaning is to prohibit killing of any sort.
Killing is a form of dishonoring of the name and creation of God. A friend of ours tells the story
of his mother who was dying of stage four lung cancer. As she struggled and was near death, he
sat beside her and thought, “I thought how I could have saved her suffering by just putting a
pillow over her head. It was only this sixth commandment, the proscription on killing, that
stopped me.” Yes. This is a vivid example, is it not, of referring to a commandment to guide us
in our living. The wider scope of this truth is to refrain from hating, bullying or injuring others.
Truth #7: No adultery. But surely this truth is more than this. Be a trustworthy partner in
everything: in friendships, in business, in normal human relationships. Be a “true blue.”
Truth #8: No stealing. We steal when we think we must have something to make us
happy or secure. Be careful in plundering the possessions of others, for in so doing we are
chipping away at our own integrity.
Truth #9: No lies about your neighbor. This is the meaning of that obscure phrase, “Do
not bear false witness against your neighbor.” All gossip and slander have behind it an
insecurity: we built ourselves up at someone else’s expense.
Truth #10: Do not covet. Not just your neighbor’s wife, but anything. Excessive desire
eats the soul and prevents us from being grateful for what we have. We become so fixated on
something out there that is not ours and in acquiring even more of what we do have, that we
forget who we are, where we are: little children under the stars. Stop hankering for things you
don’t have, and probably don’t even need.

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So that’s a rushed summary of this most famous list of truths or commandments.
But I ask you, Do you live by them? In one sense, of course you do. But I suggest that the
way of Jesus is much clearer and much simpler. This truth is found in the summary of the law:
we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and soul and we are to love our
neighbor as ourselves. The Prayer Book concludes: “On these two commandments hang all the
Law and the Prophets.” So, we need go no further and no deeper than this. Love of God, love of
self, love of neighbor. Are these not one love?
And if you want an even more condensed version of this summary, use the Golden Rule:
“Do to others as you would have people do to you.” This profound truth antedates Judaism and
Christianity and, in fact, is found in almost all of the world religions.
“O love, how deep, how broad, how high! It fills the heart with ecstasy.”
Faith, hope, love abide. And the greatest of these is love.
Amen.

By Rev. Robert Shearer

My beloved friends. When last we spoke on Ash Wednesday, I left you with two certainties on which to stand relative to death.

The first certainty on which to stand is the certainty that at death our bodies and all the functions that have an electro-chemical basis will dissolve into their original state. Or, as the Ash Wednesday liturgy states, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” This is the first certainty, solid and sure, a certainty that we can stand on.

My mind puts colors on such certainties, and this certainty is, for me, the color of dust, the color of earth.

The second certainty is hope. As the Burial Office declares, “In the sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life.”

So we need to talk about hope, and especially about what we call hope but in fact is the exact opposite.

Back in the 80s when I was working for the Bishop of Rhode Island, I was driving home after a late meeting in East Greenwich, a town about 45 minutes from home. It was a dark and rainy night; autumn leaves scattered on the road, making it slick and visibility was poor. Driving along at 45 or 50, these words floated across my mind—“I sure hope no one steps out in front of me. There’s no way I can stop.”

This is not hope. This is “wishful thinking.” It is a close cousin to resignation, a submission to the way things are.

On that dark and deserted road, hope returned and I slowed down. Where there is hope, there is action to allow that which is hoped for to flower. I think of hope as a sort of anchor, a golden anchor, that we throw into the future. The anchor has a tether they we keep taut. “I hope that my child will turn out!” “I hope that I’ll get a promotion in the next round.” “I hope to get over this sickness.”

These are not wishful thinking. Successful child, job advancement, getting well—these are anchors in the future to which we hold fast, upon which we stand. They are sure and certain.

So, when it comes to death, one certainty is ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The other certainty is hope—the hope of the resurrection to eternal life. Just as the certainty of hope is our anchor in this life, so our hope for life eternal is our anchor in the next. Amen. Sent from my

February 21, 2021

By Deacon Virgina Jenkins-Whatley sermon

Mark 1:9-15

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Amen

Today’s gospel covers a lot of ground in a few verses. Generally speaking, we hear of Jesus’s baptism on the First Sunday after Epiphany and we hear the account of the temptation on the First Sunday of Lent. This means that several weeks have gone by between the two accounts and we don’t always see the connection between them.

Before Jesus’s baptism by John the Baptist, John was encouraging baptism to his followers so that they would repent and change their ways. He said that they needed to be cleansed because the Messiah is coming and he will wash you with more than water. The Messiah will baptize you with the holy spirit.

When Jesus appeared before John, John knew that Jesus had no need of repentance and said, Jesus, I should not baptize you, rather you should baptize me. Just as the cross and the resurrection was on our behalf so was Jesus’ baptism on our behalf. Jesus saw Johns’ baptism as a way of putting Himself completely under the law. Jesus was crucified as if he was a sinner, and he was also baptized as if He were a sinner. 2Corinthians, “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. It was not a baptism of repentance of His sins but a baptism of repentance for my sins and yours.

John immersed Jesus into the Jordan and as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” 

In baptism God says definitely, clearly and eternally, “You are my child. I am pleased to have you in my family. My favor, my grace is upon you.” We know that we may stray from time to time but we have a loving and forgiving God that will always welcome us back with open arms.

One moment the Holy Spirit was descending on Jesus and the next moment that same Holy Spirit was driving Jesus out into the desert in order to confront the devil. All of this was before He did any teaching or miracles and called any disciples.

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.  It is as if the moment the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus as a dove. Jesus was in perfect agreement with the Holy Spirit and readily journeyed into the desert.

The idea is that this is an intentional confrontation with the devil. We should think of Jesus as eager to do battle for us and the Holy Spirit encouraging Him into that battle. The leading of the Holy Spirit teaches us that this was not some random encounter between enemies. instead the temptation was part of the intentional plan of God as Jesus begins his public ministry.

There are not many details of the actual temptation other than it was 40 days long and Jesus was friendly with the wild animals.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who carries away the sin of the world. It is said that he carried the sin of the world into the desert even though he himself never sinned. He endured and triumphed over every temptation of the devil. If the devil could have gotten Jesus to sin just once, he would no longer be able to carry our sins. Jesus took our sins to the cross. He is our substitute. He was tempted just as we are tempted. He also experienced our pain, our sorrow, our frustrations. He experienced it all except that He never sinned.

After enduring the temptations of the devil in the desert, He began proclaiming the Gospel. Because Jesus endured temptation without sin, His Gospel proclamation is just as valid for us today as it was at the time of today’s reading from the Gospel.   “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.

Amen

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.”

3

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.

4

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.

5

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.
1

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.
2

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”.

3
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