St. Paul & St. Andrew's Sermon and Prayercast

"Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."  Matthew 11:29-30. As Jesus was forming his community in ancient Palestine, his leadership contrasted greatly with the imperial leadership that oppressed his people. To be a leader offering ease and rest, gentleness and humil...

“You are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot.” – Matthew 5:13   In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells his followers – tells us – to stay salty. As we celebrate LGBTQIA+ Pride this month and this Sunday in particular, it feels like a fitting exhortation. After all, Ston...

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword." - Matthew 10:34 That saying of Jesus has got to be among his most controversial. Really, Jesus? Aren't you our Prince of Peace, who departed from your disciples with the words, "Peace, I leave with you, my peace I give to you."? And didn't you chastise Peter, saying, &q...

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” - Matthew 9:37-38 Every summer as a kid, my mom would load our family in the car in the early morning and we’d go blueberry picking. She had a whole system - a belt around our waist holding a plastic ice cream bucket at our hips, and rows...

Friends, We're carrying a lot right now. There is so much hurt in our lives, in our communities, and in the world. This Sunday, we'll gather with a gospel story that invites us to look honestly at that reality and to consider what healing might require of us. We'll also hear the ancient invitation to return to the Lord. Returning to God is part of how we heal. We come back to the So...

Then God said, ‘Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness…So God created humans in God’s own image, in the divine image, God created them… – Genesis 1:26-27 Friends, It is always a bit of a mystery and a miracle to me the ways the suggested texts of Revised Common Lectionary manage to speak to the specific moments or contexts in which they land on any given Sunday. This Sunday, th...

“Among the disciples were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples.”  - Luke 8:2-3 Friends, What a joy it is to be back in NYC and worshipping with you all this Sunday! I grew up at St. Paul & St. Andrew, and you will always be my church family. This community nurtured and encouraged me, teaching me from...

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth.” — Acts 1:8 Friends, This Sunday, we mark the Ascension, the day forty days after Easter when, according to Luke’s Gospel and the Book of Acts, the risen Christ is taken up into heaven. In both tellings of the story, the disciples are called to become witnesses — to carry forw...

"Some of the people then joined Paul and became believers, including... a woman named Damaris." - Acts 17:34 Nearly every chapter in the Acts of the Apostles speaks of women disciples and apostles, including this mention of Damaris, who joins Paul as he departs from the city of Athens. By my count, this includes more than a dozen individual women who are lifted up and named, plus another...

"The people were constrained from donating any more , because what they had already given was more than enough to finish the work." - Exodus 36 In Exodus, we read the strange tale how during the building of the Tabernacle, all the people are asked to donate what they can to the effort, and soon their generosity overwhelms the workers. 'We have enough!' they say to Moses. '...

"Then Cleopas and his friend told what had happened on the road, and how Christ had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread."  - Luke 24:35 Luke’s tale of the encounter of two disciples with the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus is a powerful reminder that Easter is not a 'one and done' event, but an ongoing experience that impacts each of us. Those disciples, one...

“Then Jesus said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ ” - John 20:27 I always thought the passage of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances to the disciples was fascinating, and so funny that we, as many generations of readers, gave Thomas a nickname enshrining his doubt. Really, Thomas just wanted the same proof of...

In Matthew's Gospel, resurrection happens multiple times, for multiple sets of people! First, of course, for Jesus. Before the story even starts, before the women get to the tomb, before the angel opens the tomb, Jesus is already up. Jesus is already gone. Resurrection then comes to Mary Magdalene and 'the other Mary' (how would you like to be known through the centuries as the &apo...

“The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!’” — Matthew 21:9 Palm Sunday is sometimes framed as a victory parade—a foreshadowing of resurrection. And it’s true that in the Roman Empire, palms symbolized conquest and power. But in Jesus’s Jewish context, palms meant something else. They wer...

As Lazarus emerged from the tomb, Jesus told the crowd, "Unbind him, and set him free." - John 11:44 If it has meaning, resurrection is always a collective experience. We are all involved in the process of moving beyond the fear of death, and the denial of death, even the worship of death, into God's powerful way of loving and living. We see this in the story of Ezekiel in the valle...

Hi Friends, For more than 40 years, a woman named Sally Winey has been repairing old teddy bears that people send to her from across the country. These bears arrive worn thin, missing eyes, with torn seams and fading fur. But to the people who send them, they aren’t just toys. As Sally says, “That bear’s been with them through everything.” Instead of discarding them, she carefully takes them apart...

Friends, You may have caught on that John chapter 4, the story of the encounter of Jesus with a Samaritan woman at a well, is a favorite of mine, since I reference it nearly every Communion Sunday. The truth is, I come to that story to drink, rather than preach. I need the idea that Jesus offers us living, spring-fed spiritual water, rather than the stagnant water of a well. I come to Jesus to be...

"Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil..." Matthew 4:1 The devil is clever. Devil in Greek is διαβόλου ( diabolos ), one who 'throws-across', or 'casts-through'; in other words, one with the ability and the will to distract us, tempt us, test our resolve.  Matthew's gospel describes three temptations. Jesus is tempted by mon...

Dear Friends, This Sunday, we’ll gather at the threshold of Transfiguration, a moment in the church year that invites us to look up and around, to notice what’s shining.  We’re invited to remember that the holy happens here, too, even in our messed up, hurting world.   We, as followers of Christ, work hard to stay alert to what is breaking in our world.  And there is so much.  But faith also calls...

"You are the salt of the earth; but if salt becomes tasteless, can it be salty again?" - Matthew 5:13 Friends, In the collection of sayings we call the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls us away from blandness, challenges us to resist tastelessness.  As people of faith, as companions of Jesus, we may be moved to do and say things that rub some people the wrong way. And that can lead to tro...

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" - Micah 6:8 Friends,  These days, I find myself asking the question often, “How are we to be in times like these? " And surely I’m not alone in asking this. This week’s lectionary brings us to a passage in Micah that maybe some of you...

"Immediately, they left their nets and followed Jesus" - Matthew 4:20 Friends, Those words from the gospels are so familiar. Jesus gathers disciples, and they 'follow' him. This week, I would love to consider a different understanding of the word we translate follow. The Greek word ἀκολουθέω (akoloutheo) can mean 'to follow' -- but a different, and maybe better transl...

Please join Pastor K Karpen in a moment of prayer, from the January 25, 2026 service at St. Paul & St. Andrew in New York City.

He said to them, "Come and see.” — John 1:39 Friends, In this week’s gospel text, Jesus encounters a couple of strangers. They’ve been hearing the chatter—about Jesus, about who people think he is—and they’re curious. Noticing that curiosity, Jesus extends a simple invitation: “Come and see.” He doesn’t tell them what they’re supposed to think or believe. He doesn’t try to persuade or control...

Please join Pastor K Karpen in a moment of prayer, from the January 18, 2026 service.