The Day of Pentecost May 31, 2020 Acts 2: 1-21 I Corinthians 12: 3b-13 John 7: 37-39 I love to visit botanical gardens. I am not particularly drawn to the flowers and the trees, so much as the glass houses constructed to recreate the diverse ecosystems of our world. At Kew Gardens in London, or…
Easter VII – Ascension May 24, 2020 Acts 1:6-14 I Peter 4:12-14 John 17:1-11 Luke tells us that the ascension took place from the Mount of Olives. This mount is almost eight hundred and twenty meters (three thousand feet) high. From the summit, you can see a panoramic view of the city of Jerusalem. The…
Sixth Sunday of Easter May 17, 2020 Acts 12:22 – 31 I Peter 3:13 – 2 John 14:15 – 21 The account of Paul’s visit to the Areopagus in Athens is one of the stories in which I find myself feeling a bit sorry for this often-maligned Apostle. He is on his Second Missionary Journey,…
Easter IV May 3, 2020 Acts 2:42-47 I Peter 2:19-25 John 10:1-10 The first funeral I took at St. Esprit took place two months after my arrival. It was for a former member of the Vestry of the church, and the scion of a prestigious New York family. He had had rather a colorful life;…
EASTER III Sunday, April 26, 2020 Acts 2:14a, 36-41 1 Peter 1:17-23 Luke 24:13-35 I suppose we all possess an item or two that we would describe as ‘keepsakes’; a piece of jewelry, an ornament or even a letter or a card. We save these little objects or letters to remind us of someone…
Second Sunday of Easter / Huguenot Sunday April 19, 2020 Acts 2 :14, 22-32 I Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-31 This April marks the four hundred and twenty second anniversary of the signing of an edict by King Henry IV of France granting French Protestants freedom from persecution. The Edict of Nantes was the first political…
Easter Sunday April 12, 2020 Acts 10:34-43 Colossians 3:1-4 Matthew 28:1-10 Well, I have to say that this is one of the strangest Easter Days I have ever experienced. None of us could have predicted that this is the way our Lent would end! It is hard to believe that only a few…
Lent V March 29, 2020 Ezekiel 37:1-14 Romans 8:6-11 John 11:1-45 The story of the priest and prophet Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones is one of the most graphic in the Hebrew scriptures. I well remember looking through a huge Bible at my grandmother’s house, illustrated by Gustav Doré. I suppose I must…
Lent III Sunday March 15, 2020 Exodus 17:1-7 Romans 5:1-11 John 4:5-42 Before modern plumbing and individual water supply to houses and apartments were invented, people were obliged to fetch their water from common pumps. These pumps were often the source of the outbreak of waterborne diseases like cholera, typhoid and dysentery. Today, in those…