St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

God loves us and gives us gifts too numerous to name, more than we can ask for or imagine. It is our responsibility to receive the gifts and pass them on to others. God chose us to be God’s children, and we can live a life where we are ready to respond with generosity and a belief in abundance. Listen to or read Deacon Nancy’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”

Deacon Nancy told us there were more parables to come and here we are! Today’s parables are all about one thing, The Kingdom of Heaven. Would you be surprised to hear that The Kingdom of Heaven, also known as The Reign of God, is the thing that Jesus talks about more than anything else in the gospels? By some accounts up to 126 times! But what is it? And what do today’s parables have to say about...

My first summer in the northwest, back in 1973, the friends I was staying with heard that a strawberry farmer in the area was looking for field bosses for the harvest. Since teachers were highly prized candidates for this role, they suggested I go see Mr. Tsigawa about a job, which I did. After exchanging pleasantries Mr. Tsigawa asked if I’d ever been a field boss. Oh, heavens no I replied. Read...

For today I would like us to consider the Parable of the Hundredfold Harvest. “But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” In first Century Palestine sevenfold meant a good year for a farmer, and tenfold meant true abundance. The words of Jesus u...

The last section of this gospel is truly lovely. “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Ahhh. Sweet, right? What are you carrying today? What’s weighing on you? Weighing you down? Holding you back? This human life can be SO hard. It’s exhausting at times. Our lives are complicated, they are tough, confusing, stressful, overwhelming. Jesus, th...

This morning’s Collect alludes to a famous passage from the epistle of Ephesians: “So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone” (Eph 2:19-20). It’s figuratively a Temple that God is building within us, and th...

WHAT? Let me just double check. Is this really Jesus talking here? Because it sure doesn’t sound like the Prince of Peace to me. Is this the time when I start looking around for the rector to come back, or someone, ANYONE else to preach? Anyone? No? Alright, well, here we go together to try and make some sense of this lectionary selection from Matthew for this Sunday. Listen to or read Ryan’s enti...

As Aimee concludes her year of deacon training with us, she leaves us with a love letter. Listen to Aimee’s sermon by clicking “Read More.”

Today’s Gospel is a big, rich, deep, multi-faceted, multi-layered story. If this story were a meal, it would be a multi-course feast with appetizers, a salad, entrée, dessert, a cheese plate, and beverages with each course. There is a lot going on in this Gospel. I think if we take one step back from this story it gets a little easier. We realize there are four stories, not just one. Each of the s...

Today’s readings offer us several views of the Holy Trinity. That sometimes confusing, always mysterious, human attempt at defining the nature of the Creator of all that is! In the beginning, the great wind of God, in Hebrew, Ruah, moved over the waters and created life. God the Creator, the life-force hovering over the void, bringing everything into being. The animating, creating Spirit of God. A...

On this Feast of Pentecost, fifty days after Easter, we commemorate, we remember, we celebrate the moment when the Disciples were gathered together, and the Holy Spirit came down upon them like a rushing wind and tongues of flame. It empowered them to preach the Good News, and 3000 people were baptized that day. I cannot imagine that number. I am super excited because we have one baptism today. Ca...

A Sermon for the End of the School Year Aimee Fritsch

“Always be ready to give an account of the hope that is within you.” In my first year of Seminary on the first day of my first preaching class, the professor gave us an assignment to prepare a 5-minute speech, memorized, on the hope that is within you. And for that assignment, I told the story of Jonah. Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”

Nurture Your Faith with Hope and Love The Rev. Bingham Pwell

Listen for the Heart of Christ Beating in the Creation The Rev. Bingham Pwell

I’m acutely aware that what we see is only partly informed by the light waves that strike our eyes which in turn send signals to our brains that register as blue sky, green grass or whatever.  The reality is we only see a fraction of what passes before us largely because we tend to see what we expect to see while failing to notice everything else.  Listen to or read Sharon’s entire sermon by click...

Poor Thomas. Poor, poor Thomas. We have nicknamed him “Doubting Thomas”, and I think it is a most unfair nickname. He already has one, Didymus, which means “the twin”, but think of other nicknames people have received. Simon Peter—Peter, the Rock. That’s a good, solid, strong nickname. How about “the Beloved Disciple”? I’m pretty sure John gave himself that nickname, but it’s a good one. We still...

On this day, we celebrate the Good News of that historic moment nearly two thousand years ago that changed the world when Mary Magdalene found the tomb empty and discovered that Jesus had been raised. All four Gospel tell the story a little bit different, but they all agree on two facts: Mary Magdalene was there - sometimes by herself, sometimes with others – and the tomb was empty for Christ was...

But Nicodemus offers us a different model of how some come to the faith. Not one with blinding lights, not one with a sudden transformation, but one that has questions and wonderings and doubts. It is a slow transformation of the heart and mind and soul that eventually gets there when it matters most. Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon by clicking “read more.”

Perhaps like you, I got smudged this last Wednesday.   The 18th, as you may recall, was Ash Wednesday, the first day in the season of Lent. It’s a day that dares us think about this thing called life, but also about this thing called death – a day in which we are reminded of the dust from which we were created and the dust to which we shall return. Perhaps more than anything, though, it’s a day th...

Here we are this Sunday where Jesus tells us to be salt and light. “You are the light of the world.” We too are light as we seek to follow Jesus, to receive, shine and share that divine light in our world. Jesus tells us and shows us how we are to be light, to shine and illuminate our world today. “Let you light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to God.” Our...

The Way of the Cross: The Foolish Power of God The Rev. Bingham Powell These past few weeks, we have been working our way through the opening of Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians. In today’s installment, Paul asks a question that always piques my interest: “Where is the debater of this age?” See, I used to do debate, sometimes called policy debate or cx debate, in high school and college, tr...

There is a thread through most of our lessons. Not in the Epistle, where there is a little insider stuff. The Epistle is rarely selected to match the other lessons, except on special days. Generally, we read through one of Paul’s Epistles, as we are working our way through 1st Corinthians now. The Epistle does not match the other lessons today, but the first reading, the Psalm, and the Gospel are...

The Psalms were important to Jesus. He quoted from them frequently, including on the cross. He very much understood his life in light of the Psalms. Many people throughout generations of the faith have found the Psalms the center of their spiritual life. Almost every monastic community, if not every single one of them, puts the Psalms in the center of their worshiping life. Listen to or read Bingh...

I love this story of the baptism of Jesus and it’s one that I often share with people who are struggling to find worth or forgiveness. In today’s gospel Jesus comes to be baptized by John. At first, John protests, but Jesus insists and John baptizes him in the river Jordan. And just as Jesus is coming up out of the water the heavens break open and the Holy Spirit comes down like a dove fluttering...