St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

“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...

Even In Our Fear, God Is With Us Aimee Fritsch

We go through this journey of the first part of Jesus’s life so we can pattern our own lives on his and better be the Body of Christ. The first steps of this journey more properly belong on Christmas, when we celebrate his birth. That is when his life began, after all. So what are we doing in Advent? Why is this the start of the new Church Year? Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon by clickin...

We rarely talk about the resurrection or eternal life. But it seems quite appropriate this month when we celebrate All Saints and All Souls. As we look around the sanctuary and see the physical reminders, names and photos of loved ones who’ve died. This Great Cloud of Witnesses surrounds us, encourages us and shows us they way to life. And someday, we will be with them in everlasting joy, surround...

Sometimes we use the word saint to be a synonym for being perfect. I think it does a great disservice to these saints, because if you read about their lives or their histories, you learn they were anything but perfect. They were real people like you and me, who had all kinds of challenges and struggles and doubts in their faith. But they were something else. There is a great prayer that sometimes...

A Marian church knows she is the object of gratuitous love, and that God has the heart of a mother. A Marian church does not know the answers before the questions are asked. Her path is not mapped out in advance. She knows doubt and worry, the night and loneliness. She takes part in the conversation but makes no claim to know everything. She accepts that she is searching. A Marian church stands at...

God has a dream for this world, a vision in which everyone can thrive, in which everyone doesn’t have everything they want, but they have at least everything that they need; that everyone can use the gifts that God has given them, and they can find joy and love and grace, have dignity and respect; that every person is given the honor due the image of God that is within them, the image of God in wh...

Today, Jesus is talking to us about all those things that we work so hard to get. Although society tells us otherwise, Jesus reminds us that our lives and our identities are NOT based on the things we’ve accumulated. Sure, we need SOME things, and I know I certainly ENJOY certain possessions. But, like Martha, Jesus reminds us once again that our focus should NOT be on producing, consuming, or acc...

In the Epistle for today, Paul implores us to remain established in the faith, which brings up the question, what is the faith? What is faith itself? There is a popular idea of what faith is out in society, and many churches do teach it. It is the idea that faith is about having the right answer. You need to have the right answer about knowledge, you need to have the right answer about the nature...

In today’s story Martha is distracted, just like us, she has too many things to do, too much on her plate. She is worried and her mind is spinning from one thing to the next. And then Jesus comes along and says: There is need of only one thing. How very Zen of Jesus! One thing? Really? Just one thing? Well, alright, go ahead and tell me what it is then! Listen to or read Ryan’s entire sermon by cl...

Jesus’ usage, indeed the biblical usage, of neighbor refers to everyone, with the emphasis seeming to be on neighbor as stranger. I presume that’s because it comes naturally to be kind to those with whom we already have loving relationships. Listen to or read Sharon’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”

The Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of comfort and care and compassion and love which every single person made in God’s image has the dignity and respect that they were made with. Every single person gets to enjoy and flourish and thrive. It is a beautiful image. This is what those 70 people are meant to go and proclaim, the Kingdom of God has come near. Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon by cl...

I don’t know about you, but I think Jesus sounded rather cranky in the Gospel today. He is not quite the all-loving, all-patient, all-calm, all-compassionate Jesus that we are used to. He is still compassionate, it’s not like he lost it. When the Samaritans reject him and the Disciples wanted to rain down fire upon them and destroy them, Jesus said no. He has compassion on the Samaritans, and he r...