There was quite a lot happening at this church yesterday. We had a back to school parking lot carnival, where we hosted more than 100 kids and their families thanks to the amazing work of our ECW led by Vicki Washington. After our Juneteenth Block Party, Vicki worked with Ebony Stone from Voices of Promise and Never the Less to give the neighborhood another fabulous event. Kids were getting their hair cut and braids done, Eating shaved ice and hot dogs, Visiting community org

Sermon 7.26.26 Organized Religion Our gospel says that um the scribes will bring out what is new and what is old. And I take that as a challenge to bring out something new. People often we read this this this passage, there's going to be a separation of the good from the bad. There's going to be a separation of the good from the bad. And I wonder we all do that, right? We all separate good things from bad things in order to live our lives. And uh one of the things I've been

Before there was the Stonewall, Before there was a Pink Pony Club, where boys and girls could both be queens every single day, There was a “disorderly house” at 12th and F streets in Washington DC, a legal euphemism usually associated with brothels, where – according to the Washington Post – a man dressed in “a gorgeous dress of cream-colored satin” yelled at an arresting officer, “you is no gentleman.” According to research by Channing Gerard Joseph, during the massive cultu

May I speak only to the greater glory of God. In the name of the Father, the name of the Son, and the name of the Holy Spirit. Amen. <Please be seated> I’m a bit of a science fiction buff. I love movies like Star Wars and The Matrix. I’ve enjoyed reading books by Asimov, Heinlein, and Herbert. I like the gritty dystopian stories that ask the tough questions or make you question our reality and I like the shiny, hopeful stories that paint a picture of a fantastic new wor

Good Morning St. Andrew’s Happy Trinity Sunday, or as I like to call it, the day where we all try our hardest not to be modalists. May 31st is also the day 45 years ago that I was baptized in the name of the trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and welcomed into the household of God. When I was living in Lincoln Nebraska after college before I really became reintegrated with my faith life, I remember driving on the main street through town, “O” Street. And when you got to

“Believe in God, Believe also in me,” Jesus says, “for I have prepared a place for you.” Today, as we lay Gloria Holmes Riley to rest, confident in the holy habitation that Jesus has prepared for her from the beginning of creation, I’m moved to preach to you: Gloria in excelsis. To strive for excellence, to be excellent in all that you set yourself toward is a truly difficult thing to do. It is difficult, because in order to even set yourself on the path requires attention to

The 20th century monk, Thomas Merton, said, “At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God… this little point of nothingness… is the pure Glory of God in us… His Name written in us… It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and crue

The 1970’s R&B group the Sylvers once sang, “Just when I thought it was over, just one look at you, and here I go again.” I think this is probably true of all weeks, but in a week where so many things seem to be happening on so many fronts, And we can’t even keep track of how many things have been happening in the world around us, From Royal state visits from the sitting British monarch to the aftermath of last weekend’s assassination attempt to new revelations about the way

As we move into the second week of the Empty Tomb, I’m moved to ask the question: How do we deal with the absence of Christ? This Easter, so far, has been a very strange one for me, I wonder if it has been for you. The Joy of Easter, the Joy of having the church more full than it has been in more than half of a decade. The Joy of welcoming more people into the household of God in one day through baptism than we have done collectively in the last 13 years. The Joy of the music

Alleluia, Christ is Risen! Good Morning, Church! On Easter Day of 1742, Handel’s Messiah was played publicly for the first time with its famous Alleluia chorus. Alleluia…. It was played in 1863 after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Alleluia…. On the first day of this millennium, it was played at sunrise on the island of Kiribati, the Polynesian island closes to the international date line, making it the first music, the first sound to usher in the 21 st century

“Since the Law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach. Otherwise, would they not have ceased being offered?” Pope Leo, this past Palm Sunday, made the bold claim that God does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war and pray for things like “overwhelming violence.” Those who play war games with other people’

One of the things that I continue to be challenged by in this world is my desire to speak and to be heard. In a church with so many educators, I imagine that I am not the only one who has had this desire. As a priest in a congregation who had many people attend the No Kings Protests yesterday, I imagine that I am not the only one who wishes those in power would listen to our voice. As one who has been adopted into the legacy of the Civil Rights pioneers and those who were not

Do you ever find yourself in a place of struggle, where you have options of how you can respond to a situation in your life, but you really don’t know what to do? Find yourself in an obscurity, and know how much you need the light? It seems to me that one of the key distinctions that is being made in our Gospel passage this morning, is the distinction between certainty and humility; of pretending to see clearly, and keeping a sense of awe and wonder for what is possible in th

Today is a day, when we need water from a rock! From the Mountain of Despair, a Stone of Hope; Living water from the Rock of Ages. The magical thing that sometimes comes out of our church’s practice of following a lectionary calendar, in which we repeat cycles of readings every three years is that it is often possible to look back 3,6,9, or 12 years and consider what was happening in the world the last time these particular readings were the selections of the day. We can asse

Good Morning St. Andrew’s, I have to say that I am a little disturbed this morning. And even more so when I hear, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” I’m disturbed because I realize how often we fall short of being a great nation. The show Westworld has a tagline that comes to mind this morning, which says, “these violent games have violent ends.” The premise of the show is that humans have creat

I’m interested to know how everyone’s Lenten disciplines are going. We’re through the first half week, We have our traditional Scripture readings about resisting temptation, About Jesus spending 40 days in the Wilderness (just as the Hebrew people spent 40 years in the Wilderness before finding the promised land), We’re reminded that we have almost all of Lent to go before Easter. So, How’s it going? However you are doing, just remember that the most important thing is not wh

Sociologist Arlie Russel Hochschild coined the phrase “deep story,” to describe our embedded cultural narratives-often mythological in nature-that we tell ourselves about ourselves. James Baldwin said that “history is not merely something to be read,” but that it shapes our identities and that it lives within us, so that we can learn how to understand our presence and grasp our future. In this third Sunday of Black History and Black Future month, I’m moved to preach to you: Y

Sermon Begins @ 20:56 Today, Jesus is talking to us about being salty, about not losing our flavor. Now, does anyone else think that it’s strange that when we have Jesus telling us to stay salty, that no one ever talks about Lot’s wife from Genesis 19? Do you remember the story? They are escaping from Sodom and Gomorrah and they are instructed not to look back. But Lot’s wife looks back and she turns into a pillar of salt. So, Jesus tells us not to lose our saltiness, but app

Sermon Begins @ 22:14 This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about people who have gone before. This week, we have lost both our beloved Mary Herring of St. Andrew’s and The Rev. Deacon Top Borden, who served so faithfully at St. Simon of Cyrene, our sister church in Lincoln Heights. We also buried Jeanne Hayes on Wednesday morning. Last week, I learned of the passing of a dear friend in St. Louis, David Everson, who was the first person to sign-on, when I floated the idea of st

Sermon Begins @ 17:50 The strange and sometimes disheartening thing about getting out of normal life for a little while (and tell me if you’ve had this experience) is that the world doesn’t slow down. Vacation, it turns out, is not an escape from the world, because even while you’re on vacation, you’re still in the world. Biblical Scholar NT Wright, who is the retired Bishop of Durham in England, has done a series of interviews recently with American evangelical podcasts. In