There is a particular kind of sadness that comes when something you love may be coming to an end. Not sudden sadness. Not the shock of unexpected loss. The sadness of watching and wondering. The sadness of asking hard questions. The sadness of carrying memories and realizing that the future may not look like the…
Beloved in Christ, When you walk through a forest, you eventually notice what lies beneath: the roots. A hidden network, quietly connecting tree to tree. Scientists tell us that forests “talk” underground—sharing nutrients, sending signals, supporting saplings, even redistributing strength when one tree is struggling. A dying tree can send its remaining resources outward so…
Preached by the Rev. Canon Cathy Dempesy-Sims We know this story, right? We’ve heard it so many times before. The coin. Supporters of the temple and supporters of Rome are each trying to catch Jesus in a compromising situation. And it all leads to the famous scene about to whom does one pay taxes. Jesus…
I want to begin with a question that has been sitting with me all week. What if the thing we’re most afraid of losing is not actually the thing that would save us? Isaiah opens our readings with a song of praise. He says, “O Lord, I will honor and praise your name, for you…
We are squarely in the fall season right now… The light is changing. You can feel it when you leave church this evening. The gardens are slowing down, the fields around us have mostly been brought in, and the nights suddenly feel like nights again. Our ancestors didn’t need an app to tell them the…
Beloved, today’s readings place us right inside the tension between God’s abundance and our scarcity, between God’s wide mercy and our narrow expectations. And in this Season of Creation, when we’re paying attention to how God’s life pulses through the world, these texts remind us that God’s mercy behaves a lot like creation itself: expansive,…
There is a line in today’s gospel that is so short you could almost miss it. Jesus says: “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me.” Just ten words. But in those ten words, Jesus gives us a vision of the Church that is bold, expansive, and deeply hopeful. Because Jesus is not talking about polite hospitality. He…
There are Sundays when the readings feel like a warm embrace… gentle, comforting, full of reassurance. And then there are Sundays like this one. Jeremiah is exhausted. The psalmist is drowning in shame and sorrow. Jesus speaks of division, struggle, and the cost of discipleship. Even Paul, in Romans, talks about dying before he talks…
There is a moment in Exodus today that feels like the hinge on which the whole story of God’s people turns. God says to Moses: “You shall be my treasured possession… a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” Before God gives commandments, before God sends them into the world, before God asks anything of them,…
There’s a line in Hosea today that feels like it could have been written for our own moment: “Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early.” It’s a poetic way of saying: You start strong, but you fade fast. Your devotion evaporates. Your gratitude dries up. Your trust disappears…
There is something wonderfully fitting about hearing the Great Commission on Trinity Sunday. The Church gives us this day each year not to solve the mystery of the Trinity, but to stand inside it… to stand inside the life of the God who creates, redeems, and sustains; the God who is relationship, communion, and love….
There’s a reason the Church has always loved Pentecost. It’s loud, colorful, unpredictable, and full of holy disruption. It’s the day the Spirit refuses to stay politely in the background and instead blows the doors off the room where the disciples are hiding. It’s the day the Church discovers that the gospel is not a…
