All of these sermons were delivered in the Abbey Church. To make it easier to find a certain topic or lectionary day, click one the blue tags below (Holidays, Sundays Year A, Sundays Year B, Sundays Year C). The sermons are posted in order of their calendar date, so not all in the same lectionary year are together – keep scrolling down, and you will find more from earlier calendar years.
Other sermons can be found on our YouTube channel.
Many of Abbot Andrew’s sermons are posted on his blog.
Proper 26 Year B
Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Hebrews 9:11-14
Mark 12:28-34
November 4, 2024 Abbey Church Abraham
Faith or works, Love or Action, Mary or Martha. These oppositions are false and harmful. Faith produces Works, Love is Active, Mary starves without Martha. If all we do is send “thoughts and prayers” when we could go further with actions to help solve a problem, that means that we are thinking about ourselves and praying with gratitude that we are ok, rather than caring about the people with the problem.
On the flip side, action without prayer can be dangerous, because it often springs from hasty decisions based solely on our own narrow viewpoint. Loving God, our neighbor, and ourself takes work and wisdom. Faith without works is just as self-centered as works without faith, because dead faith gives us a false security because we feel protected and special, while dead works gives us false security because it addresses symptoms while ignoring causes.
Of course, life is messy. Sometimes, something needs to be done, and there is not a lot of time to pray about it, so we simply do something, hoping it is the right thing to do. Other times, something needs to be done, but we are not in a position to do anything, so we just send “thoughts and prayers”, hoping that at some point we can actually do something. Those are good reactions, because at least we are doing what we can at the time with the best intentions.
Maybe the best way to live with the messy problem of life is to put our faith and work into action all the time – not just when needed in big dramatic situations. We can pray everyday. We can do small good things for people everyday. Doing so makes us people of Faith and Works, Love and Action, Mary and Martha. It prepares us for times when big faith and works is needed and it makes us and the world around us better, even if no big problems ever occur.
Faith and Works are not in opposition, because they both spring from Grace. God gives us the ability to Love and Act, and to put our Faith to Work. Without God’s Grace, we can do neither. Grace is always there – we just need to stop resisting it. It is scary only on the surface. Love God, love our neighbor, love ourself. We have all the tools we need to do that, and even the crudest attempt is a good start. The outcome is up to God. Our job is to just do it. It will seem to us that we fail often, but God’s Grace is big, and it is all we really need. Love God, love our neighbor, love ourself. We all really want that, and every attempt is a success. AMEN
Acts 8:26-40
I John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8
April 28, 2024 Abbey Church Abraham
There are many lists of laws and rules in the Old Testament, and they do not always match up exactly. Most of the lists work with the idea that God exists in such a different level of reality that we need to meet certain criteria in order to connect with God and not be obliterated in the process. There are certain things we must do and possess and other things we must not do and possess in order to safely commune with God. Being good to other people is high on most of the lists of things to do. Being free from involvement in things associated with beginning or ending lives is also high on most lists: recently touching a corpse or having sex or menstruating must be avoided in order to safely be in God’s presence. Being healthy is also necessary: having leprosy or missing body parts was an obstacle to communal worship.
So, our first reading this morning is surprising because it is about someone missing some body parts who had been worshiping God and came through the experience safely and positively. His story is a catalyst for all of us to reassess our private lists of rules about who is acceptable to God.
Another good reason to reassess our private holiness checklists is the fact that Jesus shows us that although God does indeed exist on a different plane than we do, God also exists on our level of reality as one of us. So, all those rules about avoiding the messy parts of physical existence don’t carry weight anymore, because Jesus lived and lives all that messiness with us. The part about being good to other people grows in importance, but even that is not necessary. The only criterion we need to meet in order to relate to God is to exist.
Our existence give us the right to commune with God, and also the right to reject God. We can be a branch on the Jesus vine and thrive, or we can go our own way and wither. What we cannot do is decide whether or not others can also be on the Jesus vine, and they cannot decide for us. We simply need to stay on the vine and make room for others. AMEN
II Samuel 7:1-11
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38
December 24, 2023 Abbey Church Abraham
Many people think that Advent is too short (especially this year.) Many of those same people consider Advent to be their favorite season – sitting in the dark, waiting for Jesus to show up. Those two actions (“waiting” and “showing up”) describe our relationship with God: God acts and we receive. God does everything – the term for that is “Grace”. Of course, whenever we speak of either God or humans, things get tricky. Yes, God does everything, but in order for us to receive the Grace to the most benefit, we need to do something (even simply waiting is doing something.)
The story of Joseph and Mary being turned away from the inn at Bethlehem is a useful focus for Advent disciplines: making sure that our lives are not so full of ourselves that Jesus has no place to go, and working at recognizing Jesus around us so that we let Him in instead of turning Him away.
So, in a way, at least from our perspective, Grace does sometimes include works. But even our works are a product of Grace: God created this beautiful universe, so we work to stop messing it up; God comes to live with us and in us, so we work to see and serve Him in everyone; Jesus is coming, so we wait in the dark.
Grace plays a big part in the collects for the Sundays in Advent. The first three mention God’s Grace specifically, and the fourth one acknowledges God’s daily presence in our lives and our desire to have a place for Jesus in them.
People have been working on figuring out the relationship between Grace and Works for a long time, and the arguments have not tended to result in good things. So, instead of trying to figure it out in this sermon, we should stick to what we know: Advent is too short. Jesus is already here, no matter what we do. AMEN
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Ephesians 2:11-22
Mark 6:30-34,53-56
July 18, 2021 Abbey Church Abraham
We’re one, but we’re not the same. That does not mean that we should cultivate eccentricities, or allow them to grow into problems. As we grow in Christ (if we are truly growing) our differences become ever greater gifts to the whole, rather than becoming messes that others have to clean up. And true growth in Christ means that he is the foundation – not our own whims and desires. Not allowing our own self-centered impulses to control our lives is not equal to squashing our personalities, nor is it self-hate. It is actually deep self-love: learning about the many aspects of ourselves and laying them on the foundation of Jesus, so that they grow into blessings that help ourselves and the world around us, rather than allowing them to grow into monsters that hurt ourselves and the world around us. Building ourselves on the foundation of Jesus rather than on our own egos also allows and helps other people to grow into their best selves, because it frees them from always having to fearfully clean up the tragedies that our unsaved monsters make.
As we all grow individually, we all grow together in Christ: our healthy differences blending together, making up for each other’s deficits as they make up for ours. The Holy Spirit then fills the structure. But the Holy Spirit has been there all along as the one who builds: it all comes about by Grace. The Holy Spirit shows us our strengths and weaknesses and gives us the ability to lay them all on the foundation of Jesus so that they can be healed.
We’re one, but we’re not the same. And we are not completely there, yet. We all have a lot of growing to do, as individuals, as groups, and as the Church in its universality through time and space. God is infinite, so we might never reach the point where we do not need to grow into a fuller temple. That is ok, we can keep giving each other the slack to grow, as they give us, and we give ourselves. With constancy and joy, every day and every moment we lay our peculiar selves down on the foundation of Christ. And every day and every moment the Holy Spirit works on us and fills us. Every day and every moment. AMEN
Jeremiah 11:18-20
James3:13-4:3,7,8a
Mark 9:30-37
September 23, 2018 Abbey Church Abraham
Jeremiah was given a tough job, and he was rewarded for his efforts by being jailed and ridiculed and eventually dragged off to Egypt – a place where he warned people to not go. His tough job was that of merely telling the truth. He, like almost everyone at that time and location could see that Babylon would soon conquer his nation, as it had conquered all other nations in the area. Even though everyone saw what was happening politically and militarily in the region, many people in power kept their power by assuring others that God would protect their nation, since it was chosen by God. Jeremiah asked the uncomfortable question of why the people in power were praying to false gods rather than the God whom they publicly claimed would help them. He also pointed out the uncomfortable truth that since they had secretly turned their backs on God, God would publicly turn his back on them. We heard a bit of Jeremiah in the first reading this morning talking about his difficult job. He asks to see God’s retribution upon the people who have made his life so hard. Hopefully Jeremiah calmed down later and did the Christian thing by forgiving his persecutors, just like all us Christians here always do.
James (whom we heard in our second reading) was given a tough job, and he has was rewarded for his efforts by having his letter belittled by Martin Luther. His tough job was one of telling people that faith produces works. Most of the bitterness of the Reformation has now settled down, so most people on all sides can see James’s point, but there are still some people either using his letter as a weapon against people with whom they disagree, or trying to explain away the parts of it that don’t agree with their party line. Hopefully the many people from so many different denominations that gather together here won’t ever start a fight: Lutherans with copies of the Letter to the Romans, Catholics with copies of the Letter of James, Anabaptists refusing to join the fight, and Calvinists standing back watching, knowing that the outcome is preordained anyway.
Jesus (whom we heard in our Gospel story) was also given a tough job and he was rewarded for his efforts by being crucified. Jesus was surrounded by disciples who don’t seem to have understood him, but who are we to judge – we still don’t really understand Jesus. The resurrection maybe did compensate for the hard time Jesus had, but we are still making his life rough by doing exactly the same stupid things the disciples did, and worse.
The tough jobs we have talked about this morning involve telling people things that might make them uncomfortable. Many times we find ourselves in the same situation – something needs to be said, and no matter what we say, someone will take it wrongly or as an attack, or misinterpret it. We all sometimes need to do the talking, and we all sometimes need to do the listening, and we all do both jobs well sometimes and badly other times. That’s ok, no one is perfect, and usually we all eventually settle down and get along with each other.
Probably, none of us is ever going to be given the job of saying things of such importance as Jeremiah or James or Jesus. When we do sense the need to say something about something, we need to do it humbly, realizing that we could be wrong, and also realizing that just because we don’t like something, that does not make it wrong or bad or stupid. Most people already know all of our preferences, and they really don’t want to hear about them again. It is also important to remember to listen to other people, because even if we disagree with them, they might be right and we might be wrong. It is especially important to remember to listen to people who have said things in the past with which we disagree, or who come from groups with which we tend to disagree, because sometimes they just might say things that need to be said, even if they say it in harmful or hurtful ways. The Kingdom of God comes to the little child (full of questions), not to the people at the front of the line yelling out answers. So, with Jeremiah and James looking on and joining us, we come to this table to be fed by Jesus. He is the one we really need to listen to, and he does tend to use the unexpected person or event as his mouth. AMEN
Wisdom 1:13-15,2:23-24
II Corinthians 8:7-15
Mark 5:21-43
July 1, 2018 Abraham Abbey Church
The little girl and the woman in our gospel story this morning were both healed by Jesus, but it is a safe assumption that they both eventually died. Humans die. Jesus died. Jesus is fully human, as well as fully God. In some unexplainable way, that means that God had also experienced death. Impossible, but true. But, since Jesus is fully God and fully human, it also means that he not only experienced death, he also experienced fully human eternal life.
In our first reading, Solomon says that we are created as the image of God’s eternity, but we choose death through envy. God creates us for eternal joy, but we desperately want so much less, so we kill our eternal joy and try to fill the void with other things, doing anything we can to fill that infinite space with the finite things around us – even if that means taking them from other people. And so sin and death enter the world.
The things around us are not bad; they are good. They are just not God. Anything that is not God is less than God. So, we should take Paul’s advice from our second reading this morning. He is writing to people who have more than they need, asking them to give to people who have less than they need. They are not forced to do so; it is voluntary – giving must be voluntary in order to negate lifekilling envy. Giving is what God does.
It is not easy on the surface, but in terms of eternal joy, it is worth it. Letting go of our finite resource of things, time, and energy opens us up so that the infinite joy of God can fill us. We don’t always freely give of ourselves all the time, and we all know it. That does not mean we are evil. It means we are tired and worried. Jesus knows that; he was also tired and worried, and so doesn’t mind it sometimes when we just give up and have to let Jesus give through us (but even doing that is a form of giving: giving up our self-righteousness). It takes time and work, but mostly it takes grace. So it is a good thing that God is gracious and that God gives. God gives eternal life, and every time we refuse it, God offers it again. AMEN
Deuteronomy 5:12-15
II Corinthians 4: 5-12
Mark 2:23-3:6
June 3, 2018 Abbey Church Abraham
Our scripture readings this morning speak of creation and Sabbath (or in other words: “work and rest”). Sometimes, people say that Christians should meet for prayer on Saturdays rather than on Sundays, because Moses says that people are supposed to meet for prayer on Saturdays. They are wrong – Moses says to rest on Saturday – we just heard that. Prayer can and should be any day including the Sabbath. Christians meet on Sunday to remember and proclaim the resurrection of Jesus. Most Christians also do not work on Saturday (depending on what one classifies as work). And if Christians do work on Saturdays, they are not disobeying Moses, because Moses was giving God’s law to a specific group of people for life in a specific place. Maybe a Jewish Christian currently living in Palestine should be obliged to observe the Sabbath, but there are hints in the New Testament that they are not obligated to do so.
Having said all that, Christians should both pray and rest from work. Both things show our total dependence on God alone. Resting from work reminds us that everything comes from God – no matter how hard we work, we can not guarantee any material gain. Prayer reminds us that everything comes from God – no matter how hard we work, we can not guarantee anything. All is gift.
Yes, we should work. Yes, we should pray. And yes, we should at times rest from work. We really shouldn’t rest from prayer, but we should realize that resting from both work and intentional prayer in order to simply enjoy the universe around us is itself a form of prayer (gratefully having fun in the beautiful creation of God.) AMEN
Acts 3:12-19
I John 3:1-7
Luke 24:36b-48
April 15, 2018 Abbey Church Abraham
There is a phrase in our second reading this morning that always catches me, either when I hear it or read it.: “…when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” I used to think that maybe the words had been transposed in some ancient manuscripts so long ago that we now just assumed that the order in our current Bibles is the correct version. I really thought John should have said: “…when he is revealed, we will see him as he is, because we will be like him.”, because God’s job is to make us holy, and then when we are holy enough, we will see everything, including God, as it really is – without the bias and filter of our own sinful greed and fear.
Yes, it is God’s job to make us holy – it’s all grace. And yes, the holier God makes us, the more we see things as they really are (always about God, never about us). But, the holier God makes us, the more we are expected to grow and cultivate the growth – actively doing things to receive the holiness that God is pouring upon us. It’s all grace, but faith and works are also part of the picture.
So, we need to work on seeing God as God really is, and dong that involves also seeing creation as it really is. We need to see everything in its true relationship with God, rather than in its false relationship to us. And of course by “seeing” it is implied that we start living in the truth and treating everything as it truly is in relationship to God, not as it might affect us. There are many ways to do that, and the classical Christian disciplines of fasting, prayer, scripture reading, going to church, etc. are helpful for many people. Other people might need to try something else, but the important thing is that we start seeing things and living life as it really is: without us as the center, but rather with God as the center. Freeing ourselves from the center of the universe is indeed liberating.
So, as we start to see God as God really is and ourselves as we really are and the rest of creation as it really is, what we are doing is actually becoming like God in at least one aspect, because God always sees the truth. It’s all grace, so eventually God will give us a glimpse of Godself as God really is, but God knows that we just can’t handle the truth yet. God is waiting for us to grow to the point that God can safely show us the truth without completely shattering us. At some point in eternity (which encompasses all points), God will be revealed to us, and “we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is”. AMEN
Baptism Year B (first Sunday after Epiphany)
Genesis 1:1-5
Acts 19:1-7
Mark 1:1-4
January 7, 2018 Abbey Church Abraham
No matter how it is described, we really don’t understand the creation of the world. The Biblical account that we just heard in our first reading is beautiful and true, but we still can’t ever fully comprehend it: God spoke, and everything was made. The current scientific account is also beautiful and true, but we still can’t ever fully comprehend it: dark energy and the quantum foam that permeates the universe causes things to constantly pop in and out of existence.
The two baptisms described in our second reading this morning are also things we can’t ever fully understand: how can water be a channel of God’s grace?
The Baptism of Jesus we heard about in our gospel story this morning is also something we don’t understand: why does God in the flesh need to be baptized and have the Holy Spirit come to him?
We don’t understand these things, and maybe we can’t understand these things, but that is ok. We can still try to live in the mystery of these things. We can be thankful for, and wisely use and protect the wonderful universe that God has created. We can realize that we need to change our lives from self-centeredness to God-centeredness, and that we need the grace of God and the Holy Spirit in and around us in order to change and keep changing. We can follow Jesus into and through baptism, even if we do not understand everything about his own baptism. Then, we can follow Jesus in the rest of his life, and even if it does not include crucifixion, it will include death – and only then can we also follow Him in resurrection.
We don’t understand all these things, but that’s ok – we live by faith, not by sight. AMEN