Prayer is one of the most fundamental aspects of our spiritual life and it is the one aspect with which more people, especially those who have grown up in a more liturgical rather than evangelical denomination, find that they struggle. Prayer is a foundational practice of the Jewish faith from which we have deep spiritualContinue reading “Proper 12 2022”
Tag Archives: God
Trinity Sunday 2022
Today is Trinity Sunday. I am not going to try and offer you a comprehensible definition of the Trinity. The Trinity is a mystery that must be accepted by faith if one accepts it. What I do want to do is look at the development of our statements of faith, our creeds, and explain howContinue reading “Trinity Sunday 2022”
7 Easter 2022
There is so much fear, grief, anger and frustration going on right now and I confess that I don’t have the answers to make it stop. The last school shooting hit close to home for me. I was born one town over and the Episcopal priest in Uvalde is a dear friend of mine. OthersContinue reading “7 Easter 2022”
5 Easter 2022
This is the fourth sermon in our series on the Revelation of John. We ended last week at the end of chapter 8 with four of seven trumpets having been blown bringing about the destruction of 1/3 of the earth and sky after the last of seven seals were broken. Chapter nine begins with theContinue reading “5 Easter 2022”
4 Easter 2022
For those of you who might have missed the last couple of weeks, I have been preaching from the Revelation of John. This will be the third sermon in this series. We will be reading from the Revelation as our second reading throughout the Easter season, but we only get snippets of the book andContinue reading “4 Easter 2022”
3 Easter 2022
Today I want to begin by talking about the letter seven in Biblical texts. In Hebrew the root of many words, especially verbs are made up of three consonants and not until the 6th century AD were vowel points added to aid in the reading of text. The word “seven” in Hebrew has the exactContinue reading “3 Easter 2022”
7 Epiphany 2022
When we talk about stewardship in the church you can see people’s eyes sort of glaze over. They pat their wallet to make sure it is safe and secure, and they begin to look at their watches to see how quickly they can escape. Today’s gospel is a continuation of Luke’s Sermon on the PlainContinue reading “7 Epiphany 2022”
3 Epiphany 2022
Who is Jesus of Nazareth? This is a question that comes up over and over as we study scriptures. Those who have been participating in our Wednesday evening study of the gospel of Mark will hear Jesus ask the question “Who do you say I am?” in this week’s readings. Those who have been participatingContinue reading “3 Epiphany 2022”
2 Advent 2021
I have a little book called “The Bishop is Coming!” (Paul V. Marshall). It contains among other things check lists of all those things you need to know to have the bishop’s visit go smoothly, for everyone to look and feel like they know what they are doing, and to make the visit special andContinue reading “2 Advent 2021”
23 Pentecost 2021
Have you ever thought about how confusing we must sound to the rest of the world when we say “God is love”, “Love God.” Love your neighbor.” Without any further explanation? I googled songs with the word love in the title and here a just a few of the top hits: “Stupid Love” (Lady Gaga);Continue reading “23 Pentecost 2021”
The Rev. Beverly Patterson 