Nothing will be impossible with God ~ Sermon by the Rt. Rev. Shannon MacVean-Brown, the Bishop of Vermont

Nothing will be impossible with God

Sermon by The Rt. Rev. Shannon MacVean-Brown, the Bishop of Vermont

"I pray that as we venture forth into this new time that God has led us to ... that we would be like Mary with an unconditional yes to God's invitation to join in the work of reconciliation," said Bishop Shannon in her sermon on the fourth Sunday in Advent. "May we be emboldened by God's trust in us to be bearers of the word. For nothing will be impossible with God."

The Rev. Peter M. Carey 4th Advent - Sermon 24 December 2017

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

4th Advent - Sermon

24 December 2017

St. Augustine begins his “Confessions” with the important notion that we are restless until we find rest in God.  

'Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord,

and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.'

~Augustine of Hippo

To be at home, to be at rest is a theme that echoes throughout the Hebrew scriptures.  On the seventh day of the creation of the universe, even God rested, and in so doing, God blessed the Sabbath, and blessed us with the real gift of being at home, at rest.  Later, when God speaks to David about establishing a house and a home, the Lord hints at three meanings, at least.  

• The meaning is about a literal “place” where God may abide,
• but also the establishment of a home for his chosen people,
• and also an establishment of the “house and lineage” of David.

Of course, even the casual reader may note the juxtaposition of the house of the Lord, the Temple, which was built by David and Solomon but then God’s own son, Jesus being born into a place that was no house at all.

The house of the Lord built by David and Solomon was heavily stratified, there were many many doors, many thresholds to cross.  Many many requirements for followers of Yahweh.

Then we have the story of Jesus from the first chapter of John.  Followers of John the Baptist ask Jesus: “Where are you staying, where to you abide?”  Jesus responds with a deeper answer than merely where he was staying the night, instead, he answers with the verb which signifies a deeper sense of abide - that is, where will they find Jesus, where will they experience the depth of his being, where will the encounter the living God.  He answers, “Come and See”. Jesus is the master inviter who tells these followers to, “come and see” where I abide.  Come and see!

“The Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

The place where Jesus abides is a place open to us.  Of course, the word abide is very similar to the word abode – home, household, a place of rest, refreshment, welcome, safety, hospitality, gratitude, thanksgiving, and repentance and conversion.

To abide is to be present, to really “be” in a place, not to just pass through, but to really stay there.   To abide in a place means that we also need to abide with the folks around us.  To abide with someone is to really be with them.  When we are given the present of another’s presence we feel the blessing of that person, but also, through them, we can feel Christ’s presence in our lives.

Of course, to be fully present with another when they are in pain, suffering, or heartache can be quite a challenge.   So, the word abide signals a timeless quality of place – where Jesus abides is that timeless and eternal place where we might “come and see” the blessing that God has given us. Abiding in a place can point to the abode where God lives – the place that is open to us, if we cultivate the awareness of God’s presence.  The word points to a sense of timeless presence, the gift of abiding alongside someone; the gift of presence to those in need, those in heartache, those in suffering.

As we eat follow Jesus’ command to “eat my flesh and drink my blood” we do “abide in him, and he in us.”  Christ has given us the gift of the real presence of him in our lives.  We partake of the “bread that came down from heaven” and “the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

We pray today, “Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself.”

We abide in Christ and Christ abides in us.  We are given “rest for our souls.”  Through the gift of the Eucharist we are offered the gift of God’s presence in our lives.  We are made one with God, and he is one with us.  We are made one with God, we are also made one with one another.  We also offer each other the gift of invitation, the gift of hospitality to others.  And, so we offer others the gift of presence, of healing, of caregiving, for we are one in the Spirit with God, and one in the Spirit with one another.

'Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord,

and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.'

~Augustine of Hippo

Trinity Sunday Sermon - The Rev. Peter M. Carey - 3 June 2012

Trinity Sunday Sermon

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

3 June 2012

Emmanuel Episcopal Church

Greenwood, VA

For with your co-eternal Son and Holy Spirit, you are one
God, one Lord, in Trinity of Persons and in Unity of Being;
and we celebrate the one and equal glory of you, O Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Awe can cause us to experience God in tangible ways. 

Have you ever camped out while a thunderstorm roared?  Have you ever climbed a snowy mountain when a blizzard kicks up?  Have you ever hunkered down during a hurricane?  Have you ever battened down the hatches when a storm arises and you are at sea?

Perhaps you have not had these experiences, but I remember all too well one time when my brother and I were out with my dad on our wooden 12 foot sailboat and a storm came up.  I was about 8 and Paul was about 6.  My dad had us go forward under the small covered area in the bow of the boat and he covered us with raincoats and ponchos.  The storm roared, the boat was pushed this way and that, and we were terrified, but my dad had a calming presence nonetheless.  He probably was nervous as well, but he was highly functional and quite “matter-of-fact” about the storm and the rain and the fact that we were out on the water during it all. 

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters

The God of glory thunders

the Lord is upon the mighty waters

The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice

The voice of the Lord is a voice of splendor.

While I don’t think that it was in God’s interest to make the storm upon the waters for us in our little yellow wooden boat, I can imagine something of the power of God through my memory of the power of that storm.  I can also remember something of the care and compassion of God through the care and ability of my Dad through that stormy and worrisome time. 

The Lord sits enthroned above the flood

The Lord sits enthroned as King for evermore.

The Lord shall give strength to his people;

The Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.

Encountering the awe of a tremendous storm is perhaps just a bit of what it must be like to encounter God in all His majesty.  Whenever I read the passage today of the calling of Isaiah from the 6^th chapter of Isaiah, I can only begin to imagine this tremendous scene.  The Lord sitting on a throne, the hem of his robe filled the temple, Seraphs in attendance with 6 wings and smoke and all the rest.  It is tremendously hard for me to imagine this scene, but the glory of God is surely, probably, something as incredible as this.  When I was huddled in the bow of the yellow wooden sailboat, I was hoping that my father would steer us to the solid shore, and that the storm would abate.  When encountering the living God, awe is the only appropriate response.  This is an awe however that evokes fear, but also the sense that God is steering the boat, that the same God who appears in the storm appears compassionately as we are steered to safe shore.  The God who judges us is the God who loves us, afterall.  The God who created us also became one of us through Jesus the Christ, and we are His forever. 

And so, on this Trinity Sunday, we can affirm the way that God is one in three and three in one, though we don’t totally understand this assertion.  We know that the glory of God fills us with awe, but also that the love and compassion of God wraps us up in his arms like a mother hen cares for her children.  The God who created us, and who sent His son to redeem us is also the God who lives and breathes among us as the Holy Spirit.

In Revelation, we read the words, “hear what the Spirit is saying to the people,” and we are privileged to receive the many gifts of the Spirit even in this place and this time.  Just as we know that God is ever-present with us as Father & Creator, and just as we know that we are ever being redeemed and saved through the Son, the Christ, we are also constantly being revived and strengthened through the gifts of the fire and breath of the Holy Spirit.

Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth:

Set up your kingdom in our midst.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God:

Have mercy on me, a sinner.

Holy Spirit, breath of the living God:

Renew me and all the world.

~N.T. Wright

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's 8July09 Sermon in text and wordle

Image created by Peter Carey using www.wordle.net

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's Sermon in text and wordle

General Convention opening
Ubuntu and the Body of Christ – 8 July, 9:15 am
Gift of the Episcopal Church of the Philippines

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate

Four and one-half years ago, I had the great privilege to join in the consecration of a new bishop, one who told an amazing story about the journey that had brought us all to that place on a cold night in Seattle. At the end of the service, Victor Rivera father, the retired bishop of San Joaquin, wrapped the new bishop his daughter Nedi, in his cope. Some of you may not know that while Victor Rivera was bishop in San Joaquin, and for many years afterward, he insisted that women should not be ordained. He didn’t go to Nedi’s ordination as a priest, and he had never taken communion from her, over the more than 25 years that she served as priest. I asked Nedi later how he had come to change his mind. She said to me, “He didn’t change his mind; he changed his heart.”

Ezekiel is talking about a changed heart, but in an even more radical sense he means a heart transplant. Ezekiel is speaking to a disheartened body, yearning for home, aching to be reconciled, impatient to end their depressed and heartsick state. Any parallels?

Heart transplants are at least possible in this era of history – brain transplants aren’t yet – but Ezekiel is also talking about a brain transplant. His people understood the heart not as the seat of emotion, but the seat of decision-making, the critical faculty of judgment that we talked about yesterday.

Look at the passage and listen again. Ezekiel says the body will be disinfected (I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean), and then comes the surgery (a new heart I will give you, and a new spirit). This is about a new way of understanding and acting, new life that comes from living in a new way.

Read the rest HERE

John Chrystostom's Easter Sermon

re there any who are devout lovers of God?
Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!

Are there any who are grateful servants?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Are there any weary with fasting?
Let them now receive their wages!

If any have toiled from the first hour,
let them receive their due reward;
If any have come after the third hour,
let him with gratitude join in the Feast!
And he that arrived after the sixth hour,
let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss.
And if any delayed until the ninth hour,
let him not hesitate; but let him come too.
And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour,
let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.
For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first.
He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour,
as well as to him that toiled from the first.

To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows.
He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor.
The deed He honors and the intention He commends.
Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!

First and last alike receive your reward;
rich and poor, rejoice together!
Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!
You that have kept the fast, and you that have not,
rejoice today for the Table is richly laden!

Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one.
Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith.
Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty,
for the universal kingdom has been revealed.

Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.

Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.
He destroyed Hell when He descended into it.
He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.

Isaiah foretold this when he said,
"You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below."
Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.

Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.

O death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!

Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

The Easter sermon of John Chrysostom (circa 400 AD)

(graphic from Anglicans Online)

hat tip to Heidi at Anglicamp

An interesting idea from Derek the Anglican "What if?"

Here's an interesting idea...(From Derek the Anglican's blog: haligweorc)



"What if?…a bishop or the diocesan offices sent out a note to all the parishes in the diocese on Monday morning, asking them to please send in the sermon preached at the church the previous day?

What sort of uproar would it cause among the clergy, and what do you think the bishop would learn about the quality of preaching, exegesis, and doctrine in the diocese?"