Sermons

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April 25, 2012

A Walk with Jesus

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[This is something I have used for Palm Sunday/Good Friday off and on for years.  With retirement looming June 1, I'm not sure I'll have the opportunity to use this again.  So I'm sharing it here.  Permission is given to use this, but only if I'm given credit as the author.]

After dinner, you and your friends go for a walk, and stop in the park.  You ask them to wait for you, while you go away by yourself and think about what’s coming down.

It’s not a pretty picture.  It fills you with dread.  Your soul is so filled with sorrow that it almost leads you into despair.  If only there were some other way …  ”Father, take this cup from me …  But no, this is why I’m here:  to do your will.”

In your distress, you return to your friends, seeking some comfort from them, from their presence — there is so little time.  And they’re sleeping for God’s sake.  Couldn’t they be there for you this once? (more…)

 

March 25, 2012

We Wish to See Jesus

Posted by johnmangels under Jesus, Looking for God, Sermons, St. George's | Tags: , , , , |
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Ok – this started out as an idea that didn’t quite gel.  Then I got a real start at my clergy writing group.  And it evolved into this sermon:


So, here are these Greeks, these Hellenists, these outsiders to the Jewish faith.  They’ve been hearing about Jesus.  There’s just something about Jesus … (more…)

 

January 15, 2012

Evangelism and Spiritual Direction

Posted by johnmangels under Looking for God, Sermons | Tags: , , , , |
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Preached (without any notes at all) about evangelism and spiritual direction this morning.

Talked about how we all have had bad experiences of being evangelized that color how we think about what many Episcopalians refer to as the “E’ word.  I shared how in college some guy came on campus talking about the pigs and the Christians (are you a Christian, or are you a pig?) …  After a couple of minutes of this I left.  But not before telling the speaker that I considered myself a Christian.  And for the first time in my life he had made me embarrassed to admit it.  (Two people in the congregation had had good, as well as bad experiences of being evangelized.  Everyone had bad experiences.) (more…)

 

December 23, 2011

The Shepherd, Jacob

Posted by johnmangels under Christmas, Sermons | Tags: , , , |
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This is my sermon for the Vigil tomorrow night:

My father named me Jacob, after the patriarch — for all the good that does!  What good is a name like that to a shepherd?  People today forget that Jacob himself really was a shepherd.  They refer to their leaders as shepherds.  But they mean it figuratively.

They look at real shepherds with contempt, and go out of their way to avoid contact with us.  They call us thieves behind our backs — and even sometimes to our faces.  But they wear our wool and eat our meat all the same.

Shepherds live hard lives in some ways, exposed to the hot summer sun and the cold winter winds, fighting off wild animals, working throughout the day and night when necessary.  I’m told we also smell.  I wouldn’t know.  But they say we pick up the odor of our charges, and people of breeding turn their noses up when we are near. (more…)

 

November 20, 2011

Christ the King (Sermon)

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I think we have a problem when we talk about Jesus as our king — analogous, perhaps, to the problem we have when we talk about gospel love.  We simply don’t use the words “king” and “love” the way Jesus used them.

For us, in every day American English, the word “love” is about what we feel.  For Jesus, the word “love” was an action verb about what we do.  We want to pair the words “love” and “hate” as opposites.  I suspect pairing the words “love” and “kill” would come closer to being opposites, as Jesus used the word “love.” (more…)

 

November 9, 2011

All Saints’ Day Sermon

Posted by johnmangels under Communion, Personal, Saints, Sermons, St. George's | Tags: , , , |
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“… Do not go gentle into that good night
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

“Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so …
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
and death shall be no more …”

I thought of these words, from Dylan Thomas and John Donne respectively, when my friend and colleague, Marcia, died just before this All Saints’ Day.  I think they capture some of the tension I feel between my sense of loss and anger when someone dies and my belief in the promise of fullness of life with God in the communion of saints. (more…)

 

August 6, 2011

Peter Walks on the Water — We do too!

Posted by johnmangels under Looking for God, Sermons, St. George's | Tags: , , , , |
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Actually, when I wrote this sermon (for tomorrow) I titled it “Jesus Walks on the Water.”  but my sermon writing is somewhat stream of consciousness (often) and I ended up somewhere unexpected.  Reflecting on what I had written, I found myself thinking about how we, like Peter, walk on (or at least in) the waters of faith.  So here it is:

Be honest now.  What would you do – how would you react – if you were in the middle of a stormy lake, in a small boat, and you saw Jesus walking on the water towards you?

Or is this so common an occurrence that you don’t have to think about it? (more…)

 

July 15, 2011

Turning Your Life Over To God

Posted by johnmangels under Looking for God, Sermons | Tags: , , |
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This is my sermon from July 3 (in Ft. Bragg):

Paul talks in our reading from Romans this morning about not being able to do the good that he wants to do, but doing evil he doesn’t want to do instead.  I’ve been thinking, since last week, about what it might mean to turn my life over to God and let Jesus live in me.  And I’m thinking, really, that these are just two sides of the same coin.  On my own, I always fall short and miss the target.  But when Jesus lives in me, suddenly that’s changed.

Some of you may be more familiar with the twelve step version:  admitting your life is out of your control and turning your life over to your higher power. (more…)

 

April 22, 2011

Easter 2011

Posted by johnmangels under Easter, Sermons, St. George's | Tags: , , , , |
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This is what I think is going to be my Easter sermon this Sunday, so members of my congregation may not want to read it (before then):

One phrase that really caught my attention in the Daily Office readings this past week was from John’s gospel:

“The truth of the matter is, unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.” [John 12:24 The Inclusive Bible] (more…)

 

March 27, 2011

Sermon for Lent 3 Year A (The Woman at the Well)

Posted by johnmangels under Bible, Sermons | Tags: , , , |
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This is the sermon I didn’t give this morning in Fort Bragg:

This morning, we hear the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.  Like many stories of Jesus’ life, this is a story about expanding the boundaries of who counts with God. (more…)

 

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