Today we celebrate “The Annunciation of Our Lord,” which is a pretty big deal. But as I read the blurb in Holy Women, Holy Men (and thought about the name of the feast) I was struck by a feeling that we didn’t get it quite right! I know. That’s pretty presumptuous of me. But let me explain. (more…)
March 26, 2012
The “Annunciation” of Our Lord
Posted by johnmangels under Church Year, Jesus, Saints | Tags: by John Mangels, Incarnation |Leave a Comment
March 25, 2012
We Wish to See Jesus
Posted by johnmangels under Jesus, Looking for God, Sermons, St. George's | Tags: by John Mangels, Seeing God, Sermons, spiritual search, Writers Group |Leave a Comment
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…)
February 22, 2012
Our Connection to the World Around Us
Posted by johnmangels under Religion | Tags: by John Mangels, Samuel Shoemaker, spiritual search, Wang Wei |[2] Comments
Many years ago, at one of our diocesan conventions, a priest in the diocese was giving his report on a diocesan ministry. Memory, which is often wrong, says it took him about fifteen rambling minutes to do this. I know I was bored to tears long before he was done. But one thing he said, completely off topic, has stayed with me over the years. He explained, with great glee, how his congregation was so impressed by his humility that they presented him with a pin that said “HUMBLE”. Then, he said, when he wore the pin, they took it back! (more…)
February 10, 2012
“Perfection”?
Posted by johnmangels under Looking for God, Monasticism | Tags: Benedict of Nursia, by John Mangels, Joan Chittister, Norvene Vest, spiritual search |Leave a Comment
Maybe, finally, I’m beginning to understand the biblical idea of perfection! (more…)
February 8, 2012
Character and Gift
Posted by johnmangels under Looking for God, Prayer | Tags: by John Mangels, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Prayer, spiritual search, The Monk of Farne |Leave a Comment
Part of me wishes there were simple, clearcut answers.
This morning, with my prayers, I read two things I believe are both true. And there is, to say the least, real tension between them.
I read an excerpt from Harry Emerson Fosdick’s The Meaning of Prayer that talks about helpful prayer only being possible because of the development of character. “[Our] iniquities have separated between [us] and [our] God.” I find myself thinking about Hauerwas when he talks about character: how we live in the ordinary course of our lives determines how we will react, without even thinking about it, when defining choices must be made. (more…)
January 15, 2012
Evangelism and Spiritual Direction
Posted by johnmangels under Looking for God, Sermons | Tags: by John Mangels, Evalangelism, Spiritual Direction, spiritual search, St. George's |[2] Comments
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…)
January 12, 2012
Saints and the spiritual walk
Posted by johnmangels under Looking for God, Saints | Tags: Aelred of Rievaulx, by John Mangels, Daily Office, Mary Slessor, spiritual search, Urban T. Holmes III |Leave a Comment
In one of my books on the lives of saints, which I usually read in conjunction with the daily office, Mary Slessor was commemorated. She was a woman born into a working class Presbyterian family in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1848. In 1875 she went as a teacher to a mission in Calabar, Nigeria, where she served until her death in 1915. What struck me was a couple of phrases from Richard Symonds’ “Above Rubies” (about her life): ”Partly as a result of her lack of formal education, particularly in Presbyterian theology, Mary Slessor took a broad-minded view of local a beliefs and customs when she arrived in Calabar, and as a result acquired an unusual understanding of them.” ”Mary Slessor’s religion is quite as interesting as the work which it inspired. Although she recollected that as a girl ‘hell fire’ had driven her into the kingdom, she found it a kingdom of love and tenderness and mercy, and never sought to bring anyone into it by shock. ’Fear is not worship,’ she said, ‘nor does it honor God.’” (more…)
December 23, 2011
Opening Lines
Posted by johnmangels under Personal | Tags: by John Mangels, Writers Group |Leave a Comment
We were asked, at the clergy writing group, to give the opening sentence of a seasonal sermon we would probably never give in our congregations. Here are my two entries:
It might surprise you to learn that our ideal person of faith is an expectant, unwed twelve year old …
and
Having the magi recognize Jesus’ birth is like having palm reading astrologers give him their seal of approval …
December 23, 2011
The Shepherd, Jacob
Posted by johnmangels under Christmas, Sermons | Tags: by John Mangels, Christmas, Seeing God, St. George's |1 Comment
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…)
December 20, 2011
Christmas Greeting
Posted by johnmangels under Christmas, Personal, St. George's | Tags: by John Mangels, Christmas, Seeing God, St. George's |Leave a Comment
This will be my Christmas Greeting (to come out in early January) for my congregation this year:
The word “incarnation” has been on my mind this past week.
It means something like “in the flesh” or “given flesh” – as in Jesus was born in the flesh on Christmas Day.
But I’ve found myself thinking that we, as Christ’s mystical Body, give flesh to Christ in our own community today.
Our hands are not just our hands: they are God’s hands.
Our eyes are not just our eyes: they are God’s eyes.
We act for God today.
We represent God today.
What we do puts flesh on God for the people around us today – just as Jesus puts flesh on God for us as Christians.
And this idea carries over from the season of Christmas (that runs through January 5th – Twelfth Night) into the Epiphany (January 6) and the season following, which is about what Jesus did in the world.
Jesus wasn’t just born. Jesus acted. Both are necessary parts of God’s incarnation in this world.
In our baptisms, we are reborn (by the power of the Spirit) in Christ. And we are called to act, to incarnate Jesus’ presence, in his Name.
Merry Christmas to you and yours. May we live out the spirit of Christmas in the year ahead.
