Sunday Sermons

This is a recording from the sermon preached at St. David's Episcopal Church on Sunday, July 12th, on the Sixth Sunday in Pentecost. Rev. Jim Quigley notes that Independence Day is a red-letter feast day in the Episcopal Church and uses it to reflect on loving God, country, and one another. Drawing on the day’s readings from Genesis, Romans, and Matthew, he recounts a family Fourth of July story o...

This is a recording from the sermon preached at St. David's Episcopal Church on Sunday, June 28th, on the Fifth Sunday in Pentecost. In this sermon, Rev. Kristen Hawley invites the congregation to name where the story of Abraham and Isaac meets them emotionally, emphasizing that discomfort, anger, or confusion are all valid responses to this “dangerous text.” She notes the story’s foundational rol...

This is a recording from the sermon preached at St. David's Episcopal Church on Sunday, June 21st, on the Fourth Sunday in Pentecost. Rev. Jordan Rippy begins by acknowledging Father’s Day as both joyful and difficult, then turns to the challenging Genesis story of Hagar and Ishmael, emphasizing how Abraham and Sarah use, discard, and endanger them. Rev. Rippy asks why this “side story” remains in...

Rev. Daniel Bentley preaches his final Sunday at St. David’s Episcopal Church, thanking parishioners and expressing love while reflecting on the biblical pattern of God calling people and sending them, from Abram, Moses, and Isaiah’s “Hineni” (“Here I am”) to Mary and Jesus sending the disciples early in his ministry because “the harvest is plentiful.” He argues that calling and sending is the rhy...

This is a recording from the Children’s Sermon preached by Rev. Kristen Hawley at St. David’s Episcopal Church on Sunday, June 7th, on the Third Sunday in Pentecost, the First Sunday and last of the program year. Rev. Hawley teaches the congregation about God’s mercy, describing it as God’s help that enables people not only to think about what is right but to do what is right. Reflecting on the Go...

Rev. Kristen Hawley preaches for Trinity Sunday at St. David’s Episcopal Church, noting the Church’s long, often confusing attempts to explain the Trinity (including the Athanasian Creed) and emphasizing that people come to understanding in different ways. She connects the Trinity to delight, inspiration, and praise, referencing a staff Easter project in which each person wrote about what helps th...

On Pentecost Sunday at the Celtic Service at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., Rev. Kristen Hawley reflects on why people come to church by comparing church identity to honest branding and slogans. She recounts teaching the Pentecost story in children’s chapel, where a child defines church as “whenever two or three are gathered” with God, and connects this to the Pentecost reading...

Rev. Jordan Rippy describes Pentecost as a principal feast rooted in a Jewish harvest festival and as the fulfillment of Eastertide and the Ascension promise that the Holy Spirit (paraclete, a helper alongside) will be with the church. Noting biblical images of the Spirit—especially fire—Rev. Rippy emphasizes that at Pentecost the fire falls on people, then and now. Through a story about a child a...

Rev. Daniel Bentley’s sermon at St. David’s Episcopal Church (Washington, D.C.) on the Seventh Sunday of Easter reflects on Acts 1, where the disciples ask Jesus when Israel’s kingdom will be restored, and Jesus instead promises the Holy Spirit and names their identity as his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. He emphasizes that Christian life is not primarily a...

In: Abiding in Christ Through Life’s TransitionsRev. Kristen Hawley greets parishioners on Mother’s Day and reflects on last year’s sermon word “with,” introducing this year’s word from the Gospel: “in,” or “abide.” Drawing from Jesus’ promises (“I am in my Father,” “the Spirit will be in you”) and Paul (“In him we live and move and have our being”), she describes “being in” as the central lens th...

Rev. Jim Quigley offers a children’s sermon at St. David’s Episcopal Church (May 3, Fifth Sunday of Easter) using an object lesson about a priest’s stole. He shows a stole made for his ordination by South Sudanese boys, decorated with small feet to remember the “Lost Boys of the South Sudan,” who walked for three years to reach safety; he explains they disliked the label because, though they didn’...

This is a recording from the sermon preached at St. David's Episcopal Church on Sunday, April 26th, on the Fourth Sunday in Easter. On Good Shepherd Sunday, Rev. Kristen Hawley reflects on John 10’s image of Jesus not yet as “the good shepherd” but as “the gate,” setting it alongside the earlier story of Jesus healing the man born blind and the Pharisees’ fearful exclusion of him. Using the theme...

This is a recording from the sermon preached at St. David's Episcopal Church on Sunday, April 19th, on the Third Sunday in Easter. Rev. Jim Quigley reflects on Luke’s Walk to Emmaus, emphasizing that the Christian story must be known “by heart,” not merely by intellect. He describes Cleopas and his companion walking away in sadness until the risen Christ joins them as an unrecognized stranger who...

This is a recording from the sermon preached at St. David's Episcopal Church on Sunday, April 12th, on the Second Sunday in Easter. In this sermon, Rev. Daniel Bentley argues for “Justice for Thomas,” challenging the “Doubting Thomas” label and presenting Thomas as an exemplar of faith who insists the risen Jesus’ wounds matter, showing that Easter does not undo Good Friday but glorifies and vindi...

This is a recording from the sermon preached at St. David’s Episcopal Church on Sunday, April 5th, Easter Sunday. In this sermon, Rev. Kristen Hawley welcomes the congregation and reflects on the challenge of preaching Easter anew, anchoring the message in a House Beautiful quote: “You can’t land at fabulous. You have to experience fabulous all the way through.” Drawing on Matthew’s resurrection a...

This is a recording from the sermon preached at St. David's Episcopal Church on Saturday, April 4th, at the Celtic Easter Vigil. Rev. Daniel Bentley reflects on the phrase “Easter is what God does with things that are buried,” connecting Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection to the image in John 12 of a grain of wheat that must fall into the earth and die to bear fruit. Speaking to the congregati...

Rev. Kristen Hawley welcomes congregants at St. David’s Episcopal Church on Good Friday and invites them to sit with darkness and suffering without resorting to clichés about God. Drawing on her experience accompanying people through grief and addiction, she challenges common atonement theories that portray Jesus’ death as a required payment to Satan or to an angry, transactional God, asking what...

Rev. Jim Quigley reflects with parishioners at St. David’s Episcopal Church on Maundy Thursday after meeting with Steven Rosen, a Jewish spiritual mentor, whose insights about Passover and the Seder deepen Quigley’s understanding of Christian Holy Week. He notes that synagogue attendance is declining similarly to churches and wonders what draws people away from shared ritual into individualism. Qu...

This is a recording from the sermon preached at St. David's Episcopal Church on Sunday, 3/29, Palm Sunday. Rev. Jim Quigley reflects on the Palm Sunday liturgy’s chaotic movement from “Hosanna” to “Crucify him,” noting that the 1979 Book of Common Prayer introduced the Passion liturgy on this day following broader 1970s liturgical reforms. Drawing on his seminary work painting the Way of the Cross...

This is a recording from the sermon preached at St. David's Episcopal Church on Sunday, 3/22, the Fifth Sunday in Lent. In this sermon, Rev. Kristen Hawley reflects on the Gospel story of Jesus raising Lazarus and asks the congregation to consider what “the glory of God” really looks like. Drawing on a story about her child Alec’s joy-filled Halloween costumes—especially dressing as a pizza delive...

Rev. Daniel Bentley preaches at St. David’s Episcopal Church on the Fourth Sunday in Lent about the question of suffering, recalling his chaplaincy internship at a nursing home where a resident asked him why God allows suffering and whether suffering is punishment. He notes that scripture contains differing perspectives on punishment and suffering, and connects this to the Gospel reading where the...

Rev. Kristen Hawley preaches at St. David’s Episcopal Church on the Third Sunday in Lent at the 5pm Celtic Service, reflecting on the Gospel story of the Samaritan woman and the overlooked detail that she leaves her water jar behind after encountering Jesus. She explores wells in scripture as powerful places where God starts something new and where human thirst meets God, noting Jacob’s well as de...

Rev. Kristen Hawley preaches at St. David’s Episcopal Church on the Third Sunday in Lent, centering the Israelites’ desert complaint in Exodus—“Is the Lord among us or not?”—and connecting it to congregants’ own moments of fear, loss, and uncertainty. She recalls a Mr. Rogers episode featuring 10-year-old Jeff Erlanger, whose sense of self blossomed when Fred Rogers asked him, unexpectedly, to pra...

On Sunday 3/1, the Second Sunday in Lent at the 5pm Celtic Service at St. David’s Episcopal Church, the Rev. Jim Quigley reflects on John’s Gospel and Nicodemus’ three appearances (John 3, 7, and 19) to describe a progressing faith: seeing the signs, being intellectually challenged by Jesus, breaking out of an old paradigm, dropping into a new one, and “doing a new truth.” He notes Jesus’ message...

On Sunday 3/1, the Second Sunday in Lent and St. David’s Day, the Rev. Kristen Hawley preached at St. David’s Episcopal Church, noting that not all churches celebrate the day and that St. David is often confused with King David, as depicted in the church’s stained glass. She shared “fun facts” about St. David, including traditions that he was born during a great storm, that a dove would rest on hi...