SERMONS
"The Holy Spirit is Here" Sermon by The Rev. Brad Landry February 2, 2025 Our offering plates are too small. Our altar is too small. We are placing just a fraction of what we owe to God on this altar. From the nations, to Birmingham, to your grocery store, to your school. What we experience here is that light that enables us to shine in the darkness, to be the body and blood of Christ. To know that the Holy Spirit is not only active in Simeon and Anna, or the apostles or Jesus. The Holy Spirit is here, the Holy Spirit is here.
"God Has Sent Us" Sermon by The Rev. Brad Landry January 26, 2025 If God's vision is to become our vision to embody Christ's transforming love, we must resist with love the forces that seek to commoditize our divisions. The spirit of the Lord God is upon us, the body of Christ. For God has anointed us in our baptism to bring good news to the poor. God has sent us to proclaim release to the captives. God has sent us to give recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free. God has sent us to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. My friends, today this scripture can be fulfilled in your hearing. Today, this scripture can be fulfilled in your doing. Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your being. The body of Christ.
"Join Us at the Party" Sermon by The Rev. Cindy Carter January 19, 2025 If we focus too much on the details of a story, and it is very detailed, the details of the miracle, if you will, then I am afraid we might miss the bigger point. We may miss the sign, the showing of something very important about the true identity of this one who was born in a manger. Sort of like seeing the trees, but missing the forest. Trying to figure out all the details of the story, but missing its meaning. So how can we avoid the trap of focusing on the story's details and miss its significance? At a wedding in Cana of Galilee, Jesus turned water into wine to point us to the glory of his father, a God who I believe absolutely loves to hear the laughter of God's people, and who desires God's children to live their life together in a spirit of celebration and abundance. In her book 'Searching for Sunday', Rachel Held Evans wrote this, "The church is God saying, I'm throwing a banquet and all these mismatched, messed up people are invited here. Have some wine, join us at the party where the wine never runs out. And the best is saved for last." Amen.
"With God's Help" Sermon by The Rev. Brad Landry January 12, 2025 In our Old Testament reading, it says that God calls us each by name. God knows our name in this name of grace. Though it seems like it was only yesterday, we find that today is the day. Today is the day that we recall Jesus's baptism at the River Jordan. Though it seems like it was only yesterday. Today is the day that we remember our own baptisms. We don't say God will do it all. God has this figured out and I don't have to do a thing. God will take care of it. We aren't saying that. In this beautiful alchemy of grace, in one breath we say, I will. And we merge our wills with God, as we say, with God's help.
"The Word Has Become Flesh" Sermon by The Rev. Brad Landry December 24, 2024 The irony is that despite our best efforts, words sometimes fail to convey the enormity of God's love brought to life on a scale we can behold. When our words won't quite get at the profound simplicity of it all. We sometimes must break out in song, as did Blessed Simeon, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, and the angelic chorus. When words won't quite capture it. We sometimes must turn to poetry or liturgy or art. Or maybe, like Mary, we simply grow still, treasuring, pondering these things in our hearts. So on this Christmas Eve, dear friends, we proclaim that profound truth. The word has become flesh and dwelt among us. What more is there left to say?
"Mother's of God" Sermon by The Rev. Cindy Carter December 22, 2024 Today’s Gospel reading is the second part of the story of a young woman named Mary found in Luke, Chapter 1. A young woman – a teen-ager, really no more than a girl - living in the small town of Nazareth, going about her business as she anticipated the completion of her marriage to a local carpenter. In the first part of the story, the part we sang about a few minutes ago, this young woman suddenly, unexpectedly was greeted by an angelic messenger named Gabriel, who told her that she had been chosen to bear God’s son. An event called the Annunciation in the Church. In the portion of this story that we have read today, Mary has “made haste” to go visit an older kinswoman named Elizabeth, who is also carrying an unexpected, miraculous child. An event called the Visitation in the Church. (Spoiler alert: the child Elizabeth is carrying will grow up to be called John the Baptizer.) No doubt. Mary and Elizabeth had much to discuss. This two-part story (the Annunciation and the Visitation) has inspired writers and artists and musicians for more than two thousand years. For preachers, the focus for sermons based on this two-part story is most often Mary. Faithful Mary, who said yes to Gabriel’s amazing and surprising message. Brave Mary, who lived under the oppressive rule of Rome, the most powerful country on earth and yet spoke the radical, even revolutionary, words we recited/sang a few moments ago. Words about scattering the proud, bringing down the powerful from their thrones, sending the rich away empty. Brave Mary, feisty Mary, delivering a message of justice and basically saying to those who would oppress Mary and her people, to any oppressor, “bring it on.” Joyful Mary, who like her Hebrew foremother Hannah, could not help but sing when she glimpsed the immensity of God’s love and power. Mary – faithful, brave, joyful. These are all appropriate and valid ways to interpret the story of Mary that we read in Luke, Chapter 1. I’ve preached these sermons before. But, today, I’d like to suggest that we move from making Mary the main character in this story to making God the main character, the primary focus of our attention in this story. What can we learn from this story if we focus on God’s role? Well, first, we see that is God – not Gabriel, not Mary - who initiated the action in this story. God was certainly not passively watching here. God was the moving, the driving force. God was actively at work – not only in sending the angel Gabriel to Mary but in devising the plan that the angel will share with this young girl. I think we also see that God invited others to be God’s partners in the action. God sent a messenger who invited Mary to play a part in bringing the great gift of incarnation to the world – bearing God, allowing and enabling God to become like us, to bring us back to God, and to show us what it means to be truly human. Note that I used the word “invite” here. You see I don’t think there was anything forced and even pre-ordained about Mary’s answer to this invitation. I’ve often wondered how many other young women might have already said “no” to the costly and risky invitation that Gabriel brought to Mary. But, perhaps that’s a discussion for another time. What we do know is that God was active, and God invited others to be God’s partners in the action. No matter how you look at it, it’s a beautiful story, isn’t it? But, I wondered. I wondered, as I changed the focus in the story from Mary to God - Is the God of Mary still active and at work in the world? Is the God of Mary still inviting people to be partners in this work? Does the God of Mary still send the message, “You are favored by God; God wants to do great things through you”? Do we think God is done interrupting people’s lives to use them for the health of the world, or is God still doing things just like when the angel Gabriel was sent to deliver a message to that teen-ager named Mary? Well, we’re Christians. We believe in God. So, of course, the answer is “yes” to all these questions, isn’t it? But, maybe we should hold on a minute, before we answer too quickly and too easily, let’s think – like Mary no doubt did – about what that “yes” means. You see God’s invitation can be unexpected, even sudden; God’s invitation can interrupt our lives in ways we cannot even imagine; it can quite literally turn our world upside down. God’s invitation may be to do something risky and costly, even painful. It may be an invitation to which our initial response may - like Mary - cause us to be perplexed, fearful, confused, troubled, and feeling more than a little bit inadequate for the task we have been asked to do. This morning, as we come to the end of this time of preparation called Advent, as we anticipate our celebration of that great gift of the Incarnation, I believe that God is indeed still active and at work in our world, still looking for partners - for hands and feet and minds and hearts - to join in God’s work. Meister Eckhart, who lived around 1300, wrote: “What good is it to me that Mary gave birth to the son of God fourteen hundred years ago, and I do not also give birth to the Son of God in my time and in my culture? We are all meant to be mothers of God. God is always needing to be born.” My friends, we have all been favored by the God of all creation and are invited to share in the meaningful work of loving and caring for the world God has created. To carry the light of the incarnate Christ in this place, in this time. On this last Sunday of Advent, may we pray in the words of Bichop Deon Johnson of the Diocese of Missouri - AMEN.
"The Practice of Prophets" Sermon by The Rev. Brad Landry December 8, 2024 Now typically when we hear the message of the prophets, we think of the heavy hitters, right? The major prophets, the minor prophets. But two things that I have learned about a prophet through the catechesis of the good Shepherd, our own atrium is that if you spend enough time there, you will learn these things.. about a prophet. A prophet is one who listens. A prophet is one who listens intently to God. When the prophet speaks, it is not the prophet's own words, it is a thus saith the Lord, and that thus saith the Lord is only possible after having sat in silence to be still, to know that God is present, and to be attuned to the voice of God.
"Odd" Sermon by The Rev. Cindy Carter December 1, 2024 A quote attributed to Flannery O’Connor, the Southern writer and devout Roman Catholic, tells us, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd.” Now I don’t know the exact context in which this quote was originally used, but I do know that it never feels more true to me than it does during the season of Advent. It’s a season in which the truth of our religious tradition can certainly make those of us who are Episcopalians seem more than a bit odd. We don’t have our poinsettias out yet; we won’t sing Christmas carols until December 24 th ; and our nave is blue instead of red and green. Advent is just plain odd. Advent doesn’t fit our culture at all. Out in the world, it has looked, sounded, and smelled like Christmas for quite a while now. And, if Advent is truly supposed to prepare us for the celebration of Christmas, then perhaps we should have done Advent sometime early last fall – like way before Halloween. Whatever the church is doing here, it just doesn’t seem to fit the world in which we live, does it? You see, in our religious tradition, Advent isn’t about shopping, decorating, baking and cooking, partying, or rushing around. Advent is about watching, preparing, waiting, anticipating. During the season of Advent, we are preparing to commemorate the birth of Jesus. But, we are also anticipating Christ’s return. We are people who live in the “already – not yet.” Jesus has come and God’s kingdom on earth has already been initiated. But, that kingdom has not come in its fullness yet, not yet, not until Christ comes back in power and glory. Already – not yet. And, no season captures this reality, this tension, better than Advent. Advent invites us to sit with the uncomfortable reality that Jesus hasn’t fixed everything yet. I tend to think of these four weeks waiting for and anticipating Christmas as a spiritual discipline, an exercise if you will, that builds our spiritual muscles for the really challenging task of waiting for the return of the risen Christ in glory, when everything will be fixed. A time of waiting that no one can predict its length or when it will occur. The early Christians in Thessolonika to whom Paul wrote in the letter we heard today felt a whole lot of tension about the already not yet. They knew that Jesus had indeed come, and they believed that Jesus was coming. But, they believed that Jesus was coming back soon, very soon. So soon that no believers would die before Jesus came back. Then waiting for Jesus to return got really hard because believers began to die and Jesus had not come back. How could they keep waiting? This is one of the primary situations that caused Paul to write the letter from which we’ve read this morning. And, we heard how Paul encouraged them. …may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. Jesus is coming with all his saints - but not yet. Keep waiting, Keep watching. Advent is indeed a very odd season. So, what are we to do with this odd season that begins the church year? Well, we could just forget about waiting, join the world in its mad rush to December 25 th , and consider Advent to be a quaint,charming vestige of church history. The Advent wreath is a lovely custom and all that, but we’ve got shopping to do, gifts to wrap, parties to attend, cookies to bake, Santa to see, cards to write, trees to decorate, and on and on. We could do that, and a lot of us will do that. But, I’ve concluded that while it may be an odd season, Advent is perhaps more necessary today than ever before. We live in a culture, where people can give thanks for all their blessings on Thursday and then rush out on Friday to grab up some more stuff. In fact, we don’t even have to wait and leave our homes to do our shopping on Friday. We can now shop on-line all day and all night, beginning on Thursday. In that kind of culture, we desperately need an alternative way of looking at things and doing things. Because our culture is not very good at watching and preparing and waiting and anticipating. Now, don’t worry, I am not going to begin a rant about not putting up your Christmas tree early (yours may already be decorated and glowing in your living room and that’s great). Or avoiding singing even one Christmas carol before Christmas Eve (I love Christmas carols). Or not going to any Christmas parties before December 25 th (parties can be great) What I would like to recommend is that we all do something truly odd and counter—cultural, and take Advent seriously this year. That we use this next 23 days to watch, to prepare, to wait, to anticipate - in whatever way each of us sees fit. To find there is real joy in waiting. Maybe we can make a vow not to overcommit, to give ourselves some quiet space to prepare our hearts and minds. Are there things we don’t absolutely have to do, places we don’t absolutely have to be, so that we can open our lives to God just a bit during these days? So, we don’t wear ourselves out physically, emotionally, and spiritually - arriving at church on Christmas Eve too tired, too frustrated, too sick of what the world defines as “Christmas” truly to commemorate the coming of Jesus more than 2000 years ago, much less to think about Christ’s return in power and glory. Maybe we can make a vow to be in worship on the four Sundays of Advent (you’re here today, so you are already 25 % of the way to that goal)? To give ourselves a space once a week to get away from the Christmas sights and sounds that are all around us. To come to a place that is a bit more quiet, a bit more holy. Maybe to take on a discipline of more time for prayer each day, more time to read scripture or some devotional material. To learn more about Jesus, what he taught and lived, and how we can be people of God’s kingdom. If you are looking for Advent reading material, check out the display of wonderful books in the cloister. For scripture readings, I often suggest reading portions of the prophets for Advent, since they are all about waiting and watching and expecting. Maybe we can make a vow to be engaged in ministries of service during this time, to help move God’s kingdom a little closer to its fullness here and now. If you are looking for ways to be of service this Advent, be sure to check our weekly outreach e-mail. Perhaps you could invite someone who is not so happy this holiday season or someone who is alone and lonely to come with you to one or two of our many events at All Saints during Advent. Or perhaps you could send notes and cards to people you have not seen at All Saints for a while just to let them know you are thinking about them. Maybe they have been ill, or unable to leave their home, or whatever the reason they have been away – I am sure they would be delighted to hear from you. Maybe we can be a little more mindful, more awake, in each moment of each day – seeing Jesus in the faces of those around us, recognizing the image of God in all our brothers and sisters. Even seeing the image of God in ourselves. So, this morning I invite us all, and that includes me, to take Advent seriously this year; to risk being counter-cultural, to risk being a little bit odd compared to the rest of the world; to watch, prepare, wait, and anticipate. On this first Sunday morning of Advent, may we hear the voice of Jesus say, “I am coming soon. Wait. Watch. Be ready.” AMEN.
"Beauty All Around Us" Sermon by The Rev. Brad Landry November 17, 2024
"Seeing" Sermon by The Rev. Cindy Carter November 10, 2024 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty…” What can we say about this poor widow and the offering she made? How are we to interpret this small story in Mark’s Gospel? Well, there seem to be two popular ways for preachers to interpret the story. One is the interpretation that the destitute widow is an ideal symbol for Christian generosity. I fear that this interpretation may very well be strongly influenced by the time in which this story appears during the church year. And, I don’t mean near the end of the liturgical season after Pentecost, but rather during the part of the year called “stewardship season” for many churches. Now, I admit that this interpretation doesn’t feel quite right to me. First, Jesus doesn’t appear to praise this widow, but rather simply describes what she is doing. Second, to suggest that we all emulate this widow in our giving is probably unrealistic (even for a preacher to ask) because it is unlikely that any of us will give every penny we have. In the end, using this widow as our model may simply serve to condemn us if we don’t give our all, rather than to inspire us to do more. Let me say that I am not criticizing preachers who interpret the story with the widow as a model for sacrificial giving. It just doesn’t seem right to me . A second interpretation shifts the focus from the poor widow a bit to the scribes, who Jesus discusses at the beginning of our reading for today. As Jesus taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses…” Here Jesus indicts religious leaders, the scribes, who oppress the poor, who “devour widow’s houses.” In this second interpretation, we could say that the scribes should be caring for the poor widow, instead of taking all she has given in the offering box. Perhaps we might go so far as to say that the religious leaders shouldn’t even accept this poor widow’s offering. Indeed, Jesus might say that the widow is giving too much . Well, I may think this interpretation fits the scriptural context better, but it still doesn’t feel quite right to me. Because, in the story of the poor widow, Jesus doesn’t condemn the rich for their large gifts, necessarily direct his comment about giving to the religious leaders, or praise the widow for the gift of all she has. Once again, he simply describes what they are doing. But, this second possible interpretation doesn’t feel quite right, quite true to me either. Working on this sermon has been one of many times when I have experienced a sense of wrestling a text into submission. And then…and then… I read a commentary, written by one of my favorite preachers, that included “another way of hearing this (story).” This is what he wrote - What if Jesus isn’t using her (the widow) as an object lesson; what if Mark isn’t trying to derive from her story a theological argument. Perhaps the narrative point on which this passage turns isn’t the comparisons between her and others, or between her offering and that of others, but rather centers on the… fact that Jesus notices her… whatever it is that he wants his disciples to learn from her, perhaps the first lesson is simply to notice her. To see her. To acknowledge her person, her being, her plight, and her offering. She is not, in the end, an object lesson, but a person. Easily unseen, even invisible, yet worthy of Jesus’ attention, and ours. And, there it was. That was the interpretation that felt right and true to me. The first parish I served after seminary was St. Anne’s in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Lee’s Summit is a city founded in the late 1800s, which is now a large, thriving suburb of the Kansas City Metro area. It is the home to two hospitals, a very large retirement community, and a community college. St. Anne’s was a parish founded in the 1990s. When I arrived, it had an average Sunday attendance of around 60, and a very large debt. As a young (young in years since my ordination, not young in the number of birthdays I had celebrated), young, enthusiastic priest, I was excited when I heard about a possible outreach opportunity for St. Anne’s. It was a program in which we could partner with the food bank in the area, Harvesters, to provide food to food insecure children on week-ends – when they didn’t have free breakfasts and lunches at school. It was called BackSnack and looked much like what Homewood Helps does here. It wouldn’t cost us anything but time and effort – just the kind of outreach a small church with a big debt needed. Harvesters would deliver to the food to St. Anne’s. We only had to put the food in backpacks, deliver the backpacks to a school on Friday, pick up empty backpacks on Monday, clean them, and repeat. Perfect, I thought. So, I excitedly presented my brilliant idea to the Vestry. All we needed was a Title One school in Lee’s Summit with which to partner. (Simplified definition: Title One schools have a certain percentage of needy students, typically measured by the percent of students who are eligible for free and reduced lunches.) At that meeting, every member of our Vestry looked at me and said – sounds great, but we don’t have any Title One Schools in Lee’s Summit. I quickly replied – well, that may be the case, but can I do a little research? (Let me say that perhaps I should have done more research before my presentation, but any way...a lesson re-learned) Lo and behold, after doing my research, I found that there was a Title One elementary school just a few miles dowm the street from St. Anne’s. Parishioners at St. Anne’s have been packing Backsnack bags for children in that school weekly for well over a decade now. I don’t know about you, but many times I, am like that Vestry. I don’t see those around me because of my lack of knowledge, my ignorance, and not because of any sort of bad intention. But, with a bit more knowledge, that church’s awareness grew and they saw a specific group of hungry children in their community. And, with seeing, they have paid attention to their needs. I hope and pray I can be like them when my awareness needs to be sharpened. Now, I don’t know about you, but at times it isn’t lack of knowledge that keeps me from seeing others, no, many times I simply refuse to see others or at least I don’t try very hard to see them. Perhaps seeing them will make me uncomfortable, and I don’t like feeling uncomfortable. Or I refuse to see others, because I am afraid of them, and I don’t like being afraid. Or I refuse to see others, because I don’t agree with them and I think they don’t agree with me and, thank you very much, but it’s just better not to truly see them and get too close. Or perhaps most sadly I refuse to see others because of my own arrogance. I assume I know everything that I need to know about a person or group already. Why do I need to see them more deeply? The example of Jesus seeing this poor widow in the Temple, perhaps not seen or noticed or seen by anyone else that day, calls me, calls us to see others. It sounds so simple; yet, so many in our world. deeply need that simple gift of being seen. I believe Jesus summons us to consciously put ourselves in situations where we can get close enough to people and groups that we can truly see them. Even when we are uncomfortable or afraid or think we know everything already. Not to make them “causes” or object lessons, but to see them as children of God, human beings worthy or our attention, our understanding, and our love. Who are we not seeing as we go about our daily lives? Who have we forgotten, ignored, or overlooked, that Jesus invites us to notice, to recognize, and to honor? Jesus sees them, and Jesus calls us to see them, as well. Paraphrasing St. Teresa of Avila, we are the eyes through which Jesus looks with compassion on this world that he created and loves so dearly. May we open both our physical and spiritual eyes and see. Amen.
