Sermons from St. George's

All Jesus is telling us today from the gospel passage is to believe in him and to believe in the scriptures. He wants us to trust him and to also trust the scriptures for our salvation and also for our healing, just the same way he told his own folks of men and women in Nazareth who were doubtful and skeptical of his mission to save and his power to heal. Some of us are witnesses of how Jesus save...

We don't read the Bible primarily to gain knowledge, or wisdom, or life-coaching, or trivia answers for life's questions. We read the Bible to know Christ, for the sacred words point us to the Word, who is our very life. Episcopalians must pursue being people 'of the Book,' who are nourished by sacred Scriptural words and who live under God's authority. Sermon from The Table service on 1/27/19.

The dying of our wish-dream allows us to move forward and live in real community. As we hold in tension the vision of community God has given us with the reality that is before us, we learn to walk together and take responsibility for making it work. We learn to hold each other with a sort of delicacy, knowing full well that in our love we are holding, not the best and strongest pieces of each oth...

Mary says to the servants, “do whatever my son asks of you.” Do you? What is Jesus asking of you this day? Where has the wine run out? What if the Son’s request of you this day is to open up that part of your life to him with this simple but powerful prayer: “Lord, fill this empty place. Pour yourself into me like water poured into those stone jars. And make in me new wine.” Sermon from the 8:45am...

God knows we cannot survive running on empty. And so he is right now filling you. Because he knows you can’t fill yourself. He is filling your jars full. Sermon from The Table on 1/20/19.

It’s not what you do that defines who you are. It’s who you are that defines what you do. Sermon from the 8:45am service on 1/13/19.

"Baptism does not deny our natural family ties—it honors them, and elevates us and ours into a broader family. Indeed, we are designed to love our own flesh and blood, but in this new family, we love even the stranger as family, because as Christ reminds us, in the stranger, we may encounter none other than Christ himself.” Sermon from The Table on 1/13/19.

"The wise men came to visit Jesus, but they didn’t stay. Whatever happened to them? I think we are left to wonder if they were truly converted by this experience or not. Perhaps they came and worshiped and gave presents but didn’t really give their lives to Jesus. Perhaps that sounds a bit like Christmas for us… for me. But I give the wise men great credit: there are a lot of stars in the sky to f...

"We were made for wonder and joy and love, and this Child that the wise men sought actually came into the world seeking us, giving himself on the cross to restore in us the life and peace we were made for. “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.” May the light of his love dispel the fog of fear that so often clouds our vision, and may we, with the wise...

“The Word became flesh, intermeshed his divine nature with our humanity, so that our lives—so often disparate, confused, muddled with hopes and fears—might be intermeshed with the presence of this One who loved us into being, and who brings all those disparate parts of our lives together in the fullness of grace and truth.” Sermon from the 8:45am service on 12/30/18.

Sermon from The Table on 12/30/18.

"Jesus’ birth pulls us into the point of intersection between heaven and earth, between God and humanity. We call this place “glory.” Mary and Joseph are in it. The shepherds are in it. We want to be in it too." Sermon from Christmas Eve, 2018 at the 5:30pm service.

"In the presence of this child, I have learned that I am guilty—I am selfish, sinful, and I want my own way. But thanks be to God that in a child, grace overcomes guilt. Those who have received the Christ-child, will learn also as Mary & Elizabeth did and as all true disciples do, that there is only one innocent person on the hill, the one who will hang on the hill of Calvary.” Sermon from 12/23/1...

"What if we believed it were true? What if we believed that the Lord rejoices over us with gladness and renews us in his love? What if we believed that we are loved and nothing, not even sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, or even death can ever take that love away? What if we believed it were true? And what if, being so loved, God invited us to make a change, to come back to him, t...

“Jesus shows us that we can never find release by hanging on tighter and tighter. Freedom comes from giving ourselves over to his embrace. Salvation does not come through what we accomplish, but is entirely through what Jesus accomplished. Our life is through his death. And in his resurrection, we see that all the things that attack us will never win. Life wins.” Sermon from The Table on 12/16/18.

By and large, our lives here are good. We are full of life and love and energy. But our lives are also fragmented, divided… And we, only partially seeing, work hard to piece together all our colliding commitments into a coherent whole. So we arrive again here, this time of year, daring to hope that these fragmented lives can be different than they are. John the Baptist would want us to know again,...

Life’s earthquakes shake us because we have believed and lived as if the world is a certain way. But life’s earthquakes reveal the truth. They show us where our fault lines are. They show us where things are not as they seem, where WE are not the people we have believed ourselves to be. Life’s earthquakes can shake us to our core. It’s hard, but only then will we be able to get to the bottom of th...

“The hands of this judge are hands that we can trust to ultimately do the right thing and to put all things in their proper place, because these are the same hands that would take on flesh in a womb and would embrace a mother for nourishment. These hands would reach out to care for a despised harlot and would heal the ear of an enemy. Indeed, these very hands were nailed to the cross so that we mi...

Here we are 100 generations removed from Jesus’ day. And even though many of us pray, “Come, Lord Jesus,” we maybe aren’t so concerned about his coming. We’re pretty sure it’s not happening any time soon. So, instead of raising our heads, as Jesus encourages, we just keep our heads down, going about our business and trying to make the best of things here. But the less we think about Christ’s comin...

The Truth is not just only an idea, a rule, a philosophy, or a religion. The Truth is a person. His name is Jesus Christ. He says, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Believe in him, follow him, and you will be saved. Sermon from The Table on 11/25/18.

All the presenting problems of the world, which the kingdoms of the world would presume to solve, all these are only symptoms of a world divided and enslaved by Sin and Death, and their resolution cannot come from within. “Nothing can save us that is possible: we who must die demand a miracle” (W.H. Auden). And that miracle comes to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Sermon from the 8:45am...

All our temple complexes crumble sooner or later. That is just the way life is. But such unhoped-for steps may nevertheless offer the way into the real Temple, into knowing who God really is as Jesus, and perhaps, we might pray, into the beginning of the Good News. Sermon from the 8:45am service on 11/18/18.

The point is that the poor widow had nothing to give. There is no pretense of self-sufficiency in her before God or others whatsoever. And only in the demolition of self-sufficiency or self-sacrifice as the way to the fullness of life do we find the fullness of life. Sermon from The Table on 11/11/18.

We don’t really like to use the term “saved” in The Episcopal Church; this is a word owned by Baptists, or Pentecostals, isn’t it? Well Yes, and no. It is also a term straight from the pages of Scripture, and it is an essential term for us to hold onto as those who are committed to the authority of Scripture.” Sermon from the 8:45am service on 11/11/18.

Jon Meacham served as a guest preacher for our Prayer Service for National Healing and Reconciliation on Sunday, November 4. We are living in a moment of significant social, political, and civic unrest. What would it look like to unite together with others to pursue reconciliation, healing, and hope amidst all the noise? There is more that unites us than what divides us, and we invite you to encou...