Sermons from St. George's

What is it that we miss when we aren’t quite sure what we miss, but we nevertheless intuit a gap, a space, a hole in our lives, in the world? What we miss may actually be a lingering presence of sorts: the living God poised perhaps yet again to do a new thing. From Easter Sunday 4/21/19.

At Easter the Gardener calls each of us, like Mary from the Tomb, so that we might grow like a plant around the Trellis of his Cross, emerging out of the ground towards the life-giving Son. From The Table on Easter Sunday, 4/21/19.

Here is the promise of Easter. Here is the reality that baptism immerses us in. The age old story, the story of failure and fear, the story that has haunted our days and, for so many of us, has defined our old selves – that story, and we along with it, have been put to death. We’ve been buried, plunged deep, with Christ in his death. And with Christ’ resurrection, a new story is being written. Fro...

Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, knowing that evil, pain, and death were being defeated, knowing that salvation was coming into the world to rescue the shipwrecked, Jesus said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. This is what glory looks like. This is how the shipwrecked are saved. This is God dealing in sovereign, rescuing love. This is how your new life is g...

When the hour came, Jesus took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. (Luke 22:14) Here in this meal, Christ takes simple elements of the earth, and transforms them into the bearers of the kingdom of God. The bread and wine—taken, blessed, broken, poured out, and given—they bespeak his redemptive wo...

The Passion Narrative presented by members of St. George's Church, followed by a short homily. From the 8:45am service on Palm Sunday, 4/14/19.

I believe that Christian communities most committed to faithful worship are those that end up doing the most good for the world. You rarely start with “do-goodism” and end up at the feet of Jesus, at the foot of the cross. You end up with works-righteousness and a lot of burnout and frustration when you realize “the poor you will always have with you”… and the rich too and all their problems. Serm...

If God does not exist, then we have what we have and we should fight tooth and nail to protect it and to get more, because life is a zero-sum game. But if the God revealed in the cross and resurrection is real, then even bread and wine—and all the stuff of life—can become vehicles for his infinite and abundant grace; we are free to give, to serve, to love without hope of a return on our investment...

“This is more than a poignant fable encouraging us to be better parents. This is more than a tug at the heartstrings in order to get us to be more gracious and more forgiving. This is a shocking story about the lengths to which the father will go in order for his children to experience reconciliation and restoration and life.” Sermon from the 8:45am service on 3/31/19

What I have come to learn - and what I hope the elder son comes to learn as well - is this: I am powerless to root out my feelings of resentment and unfairness about the way life sometimes goes… Only God can root out feelings of resentment and unfairness. But I can take responsibility. For what I can do is place myself in a position for God to do that work of rooting out. I can make the decision o...

Lent is a time in the church year when we attend to the rocks in our lives: the rough spots in our personalities, the unwanted habits, thoughts, and behaviors, the rocky relationships. We ask God to disentangle them from the roots of our lives. As those rocks surface and are removed, we realize we can breathe again. After being pressed down for so long, we can stand up again. After carrying so muc...

The gospel and epistle readings today speak of challenges. Whether of the fig tree or of Israel in the wilderness. Challenges come in two ways: as temptation and as a test. Temptation is the strong desire to sin or do wrong. A test is a tough situation to prove our love for God, and our trust in him. Temptation is usually from Satan. Test is usually from God. To deal with temptation; go away from...

The return of trust after a “dark night of the soul,” after the experience of deep disappointment and grief, may be the hardest reality to realize. Yet it is a great miracle God can give us. Sermon from the 8:45am service on 3/17/19. (Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18)

As Jesus goes to Jerusalem, he is not only following in the trail of all the faithful prophets who have gone before and been killed; he is blazing a new trail, transforming that vicious cycle into a virtuous one, one that calls forth greater and greater flourishing and abundance as we follow in his path. Sermon from The Table on 3/17/19. (Luke 13:31-35)

John 3:16–21 The Rev. Dr. Jeremy Begbie is Director of the Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts (DITA) and a long-time friend of St. George's. This sermon from March 10, 2019 at 8:45am is part of the St. George’s partnership with DITA.

Jesus isn’t merely our model, he is our message. He is uniquely the one who could fulfill God’s vocation, defeating Satan, because he was God incarnate, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. Sermon from The Table on 3/10/19.

"Ash Wednesday is not about glitter, it is about ash. If we understand this, we understand the way to true freedom, true life, true love, and true grace - the grace that saves sinners who cannot save themselves. We fast in Lent to learn to feast on God alone." Sermon from the Noon Ash Wednesday Service on 3/6/19

Sermon from The Table on March 3, 2019

Sermon from the 8:45am service on March 3, 2019

We cannot see the tree that is latent in the small seed being sown into the ground. Had it not happened before, we could not imagine an acorn becoming an oak tree. So it is with the resurrection, this new creation reality. Had it not happened before, we could not imagine any other life, any other world, than that which requires us to exact vengeance on our enemies, and to see relationships as tran...

For me, as for generations and generations of Christians, the Bible tells the story of definitive reality about our world because its entire narrative arc, from beginning to end, leads us to Jesus the Christ. The Bible is not the only place to come near Jesus. But you will not fully recognize him anywhere else if you do not know him through Scripture. Sermon from the 8:45am service on 2/17/19.

Clint Wilson: Sermon by St. George's Nashville

As we see in the Gospel, and in Isaiah, and throughout God’s story, God uses people where they are, and with the talents they have.... All of us are called to serve as ministers and members of the body of Christ, and to share Jesus in our boats, in our context, in our neighborhoods, in our studies, in our professions. So where has God strategically placed you? What abilities and opportunities and...

As these stories of Simon Peter and Isaiah show us, encountering this abundant life—this utter glory and magnificence—can be a terrifying thing, as the holiness of God bears a stark contrast to the dividedness of our hearts. But as these stories go on to show us, if we can bear to meet the gaze of this One who reveals his glory to us, if we can let the burning coal touch our lips, it will not only...

Does the Church have the courage to create a culture of life — where the immigrant, the poor, the disabled, the elderly, and the pregnant mother who finds herself between a rock and a hard place — are mystified by the glorious beauty of life in Jesus Christ, as shown forth in the love of the local Church? Sermon from the 11:15am service on 2/3/19.