Sermons - The Rev. Meredith Kadet Sanderson

My five-year-old's current favorite book reminds us (every night!) that dreams "are meant to make you seem as if you don't know up from down." That's right—because the Gospel Jesus gave us is God's dream, turning the world on its head. Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A (January 22, 2023). View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day: Third Sunday after the Epiphany P...

What are you looking for? This question Jesus asks is a question to hold on to, and to ask ourselves again and again, in this season after the Epiphany when we learn what it means to follow Jesus. Sermon for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A (January 15, 2023). View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day: Second Sunday after the Epiphany Preached at St. James’ Episcopal Churc...

The Dutch theologian Henry Nouwen has written that there are three lies about our identity that most of us will take on over the course of our lives: I am what I have, I am what I do, and I am who others say I am. But our true identity is found in baptism. Sermon for the First Sunday after the Epiphany, the Baptism of Our Lord, Year A (January 8, 2023). View the scripture readings and the Collect...

As you begin this new year, know that you are held in the arms of God, and that you are named beloved of God, and member of the body of Christ. Sermon for the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus (January 1, 2023). View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day: The Holy Name Preached at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. A video of our whole 10 am service for the Feast of the Holy N...

This is the story of how God came into the world to live among us, to live as one of us. And it's worth noting that God chose to come into the world in a very particular time and place and way—and not in some other way. God came into the world where there was just a little bit of room for God. And that was enough. Sermon for Christmas (December 25, 2022) View the scripture readings and the Collect...

Joseph had a plan—a good, righteous plan—to quietly send Mary and baby Jesus away. And then God showed up. On the fourth Sunday of Advent, we contemplate in Joseph’s story a God who keeps coming back to us until we say our fullest “Yes” to God’s call. Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent (December 18, 2022) View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day: Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A P...

If even John the Baptist has questions about Jesus, then we, too, can accept our seasons of doubt and uncertainty. Also! The difference between joy and happiness. Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent (December 11, 2022) View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day: Third Sunday of Advent, Year A Preached at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. A video of our whole 10 am service...

In the Advent season of preparation, we separate what is necessary and nourishing from what is not needed. Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent (December 4, 2022) View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day: Second Sunday of Advent, Year A Preached at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. A video of our whole 10 am service is available here .

In Advent, "We begin in the deepest dark, in quiet and peace, with that attention to what burns unceasingly within us. And in that quiet, we let it grow, and we grow and it grows...until on the holy night of Christmas, it's enough to light us all up and set us all on fire." Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent (November 27, 2022) View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day: First Sunda...

On seeing the kingdom of God in the most broken and desolate places. Sermon for the Last Sunday after Pentecost, Christ the King (November 20, 2022) View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day: Last Sunday after Pentecost, Christ the King, Proper 29, Year C Preached at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. A video of our whole 10 am service is available here .

Jesus Christ is the bridge from nightmare to dream, and we are his Body. Sermon for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost (November 13, 2022) View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day: 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 28, Year C Preached at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. A video of our whole 10 am service is available here .

Our ministry here and now is knit by God into the vast and eternal fabric of the Body of Christ.

Pause and give thanks for the gifts God has placed in our hands, even just for a time.

Forgiveness is the basic move of Christianity. But we can't do it on our own.

The parable of the unjust steward is the fourth in a series of parables that praise “bad stewardship”—letting go of what we think we need to hang on to.

There are so many hymns about being lost and getting found. We sing some of them in this week's sermon on the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:1-10). And we reflect on how God is better at finding than we are at getting lost.

St. Augustine had a friend who he loved “as if he should never die.” His insight is that when we really love, we go ALL IN—we don’t calculate the cost—which, when we love what dies, will be grief. Jesus’ invitation in today’s Gospel is that we love everyone recklessly, unreservedly, and without calculating the cost.

Think of someone who helped you, believed in you, and wanted the best for you. Think about the gifts—tangible and intangible—that you received from them. Now I have one question. Did you repay them? No? Maybe that's how it's supposed to be.

What, besides having my coffee just the way I like it, gives my life weight and meaning?

On the spiritual practice of asking for what you really want.

Mary, Martha, and the one thing that is necessary. Also, this is the only sermon preached on July 17th 2022 anywhere in the world that doesn't mention the New Fancy Space Telescope images!

Thanks to the producers of The Lagniappe for inviting me to opine about cats, politics in sermons, and more, and also allowing me to attempt to explain the transitional diaconate. The Lagniappe is a podcast created by leaders at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Chenango Bridge, NY.

On going all out in a display of foolish love.

On following Jesus when there are other things we’d rather be doing.

What would it be like to cast off every influence that is not God?