#sermon

stmatts admin

Oct 2, 2018
4 min

Would that All the Lord’s People Were Prophets!

One of the ministries PB and I have helped to start in the parishes we’ve served is a visitation ministry. It involves training lay people to go out in pairs to people’s homes or assisted living To visit with them and pray, and in some cases, to bring holy communion. Doug was one of these. I suppose in some ways he was an unlikely candidate. He had been raised in the Lutheran church, but after he came back from Vietnam, he quit going. Doug had seen some action while he was ov

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stmatts admin

Sep 27, 2018
4 min

Defy the Pecking Order

Jesus seemed to know of their argument. And so he sat down, in the position of a rabbi, and began to teach them. First he taught them with words: Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” And to make sure they got it, he gave them an object lesson. He brought a child near and said, “Whoever welcomes one such child welcomes me.” For us to understand his lesson, we need to know the pecking order of the 1st c. First were free men. They had all the pr

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stmatts admin

Sep 24, 2018
3 min

The Beginner’s Mind

To me this passage has an important message: that those of us who assume roles of leadership, governance, and instruction— also need to take on the role of student. We need to pause and listen to others, assuming that we have something to learn. Zen Buddhism calls this “the beginner’s mind”— Putting aside your expectations, getting curious, and opening yourself to learn in whatever circumstances you find yourself in. There is wisdom in understanding just how little you actual

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stmatts admin

Sep 9, 2018
4 min

Hypocrisy

That’s is deal with hypocrisy: there is a fundamental mismatch between behavior and values. The Greek word hypocrite was technical term for a stage actor—someone performing under a mask. Likewise, a hypocrite according to Jesus was someone who put on a public face of religiosity, but didn’t act according to spiritual values, and then had the nerve to criticize others for their lack of follow through. Jesus had no patience for religious hypocrisy, because it twisted what was a

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stmatts admin

Aug 26, 2018
4 min

Jesus and the “Dones”

Some of these people who are done with church, or “Dones” as they are called, have nonetheless found meaningful spiritual connections. One former pastor now builds community in his neighborhood, helping people trim trees, Organizing block parties to get to know each other, listening to neighbors’ joys and frustrations over a cup of coffee. Many, however, are still searching- Searching for that place where they can find connection to God and the world, the place where they can

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stmatts admin

Aug 20, 2018
5 min

Abide In Me

“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” My friend Martha moved to New Orleans this summer. We have been friends for over two decades, functioning like adopted family for each other. Martha is an Episcopal priest, so she also had to leave her congregation in New Canaan. As she was talking about saying goodbye to them, she said, “When you leave someone, you don’t just say goodbye—you entrust one another to God.” I consider Martha something of

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stmatts admin

Aug 5, 2018
5 min

The Good Old Days

Remember the good ol’ days? Everyone’s got some time in the past that seemed the best of times. Whether it’s the carefree days of high school or a growing family; Perhaps it was in a particular job or at a time when the living was easy. Everyone has a time they are nostalgic for. For me, it’s the early years of raising my kids. After Stephanie, my second child, was born, I paused my work life and stayed home with the kids. This was of course an opportunity to spend more time

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stmatts admin

Jul 29, 2018
3 min

Feeding, Healing, and Abundance

This week I had the privilege of visiting with Dr and Mrs Baker, two of our homebound members. Part of the ministry of our congregation is bringing a little taste of church to those who can’t get here. I always enjoy these visits, hearing stories, singing, and sharing communion. This week, however, when I opened up my communion kit, I was surprised to see only two wafers in there. I had done a visit earlier in the day, and had restocked the wine, but somehow forgot about the

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stmatts admin

Jul 28, 2018
5 min

Don’t Play in the Rest

My first year at college, I had to opportunity to play French horn in Stravinski’s Rite of Spring. The Rite of Spring is a seminal 20th century orchestral work, and it is a challenging piece. It changes meter every few bars, throwing rhythmic motifs around the orchestra as if it were a tennis ball at Wimbleton. One rehearsal we were laboring over a particularly difficult section. It has the entire orchestra playing same rhythm, peppered with 8th rests: (sing) Inevitably, a ha

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stmatts admin

Jul 1, 2018
5 min

Who Touched Me?

It is a common question among the jostling middle schoolers waiting in line. Kids who are clumsy, outgrowing their bodies, still learning about personal space. Kids who are just trying to annoy others by not keeping their hands to themselves. ‘Who touched me’ is about guarding your personal space, your integrity. Like the siblings who draw a line down the middle in the backseat of the car, Like no man’s land in combat, These are fighting words. In Jesus’ day, they were fighti

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stmatts admin

Jun 10, 2018
4 min

The Gene Pool Is Real

It seems like a classic teenage confrontation: The child defies the parent, refusing to obey their rules or submit to their judgment I’ll choose my friends! I’ll decide what I do, where I go, what time I’ll come home! The psychological term is ‘individuation,’ the process by which a young person differentiates herself from family and parent, and becomes her own person. But Jesus is not a teen. He’s 30 years old. This is not a rejection of family or Jesus becoming his own pers

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stmatts admin

Jun 3, 2018
6 min

Sabbath Freedom

Do you remember when you were a kid on the first day of summer? I remember waking up in my bed, thinking to myself, “What I am going to do today?” A limitless horizon stretched out before me: the entire summer. Of course there would be chores to help my mother, and weeding the garden with my dad. But at that moment all I could think about was me and my friends and hanging out at the pool. It was pure freedom. On Memorial Day this week, I sat on our deck with some family frien

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stmatts admin

May 20, 2018
4 min

Spirit, Wind, and Fire

We had a pretty good storm on Tuesday night, didn’t we? Trees were uprooted, power lines downed, four tornados in the state! Even those of us whose towns were relatively unscathed had trash cans and lawn furniture blown about. Many events were canceled or rescheduled, including our final confirmation class! 100 mile winds have to be taken seriously. It’s clear that wind has the power to rearrange things. Not just lawn furniture-- the landscape of our lives as well. That’s wha

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stmatts admin

May 14, 2018
6 min

Red Balloons and Jesus’ Ascension: The Church Being (Re)born

During the years I was a stay at home mom, I taught my daughter Stephanie’s pre-school Sunday school class. For the lesson on the ascension of Jesus, I had a brilliant idea: Since pre-school children often learn by doing, I decided to act out the ascension story with them. First we read it in our picture bibles, and then I brought out a red helium filled balloon w a smiley face on it. I explained that the balloon was Jesus, and that we were going to be his disciples We would

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stmatts admin

May 6, 2018
5 min

No One Has Greater Love Than This

Lynn had a special plate which graced her fireplace mantle. It was given to her at her wedding, and it was inscribed with Jesus’ words from our Gospel lesson today: “There is no greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” It was a keepsake from one of the happiest days of her life. One day a neighborhood friend was over to play with Lynn’s son, And the child knocked the mantle. Lynn was in the room when it happened, and saw the plate wobbling. It was on

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stmatts admin

May 2, 2018
4 min

God’s Love, Skin to Skin.

Over a decade ago, my friends Austin and Maris adopted twins from Russia.They were ½ years old when they came from the orphanage to CT. Maris had read that children who have lived in an institution have some special needs: Birth to year three is all about building trust, but often these children have had little nurturing. So Maris employed some of the techniques she had read about to promote parent-child bonding. She stripped the boys down to their diapers, took off her s

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stmatts admin

Apr 15, 2018
5 min

Ye Are Witnesses

At my alma mater, Oberlin College outside of Cleveland, OH There was controversy every graduation. The controversy was whether to walk through the memorial arch that sits on the town square, which is the official route of the procession to receive your diploma, or to walk around the memorial arch. The arch commemorates 13 missionaries and their 5 children who lost their lives in the Shansi province of China in 1900. The congregational church in Oberlin had been sending missio

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stmatts admin

Apr 1, 2018
4 min

Mark And The Choose-Your-Own-Ending Easter Story

Does anyone remember those choose-your-own-ending books? In these books there were points in the story where you had to make a decision: If you decided to go into the spooky old house, you went to the next page. If you decided to go to the library to research the history of the old house, you went to page 12. In a way, these books were the first interactive media a precursor to video games where your input shapes the story In the choose your own ending books, there were sever

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stmatts admin

Mar 11, 2018
3 min

Snakes in the wilderness

Then they arrived at Mount Sinai. Moses went up the mountain and God gave him the 10 Commandments--- the sign of God’s covenant with the people. But the people worried that Moses was gone so long. They complained that God was no where to be seen. And they made the golden calf to worship. So even though God was angry, and Moses broke the tablets with the commandments God gave the law again, and claimed them anyway as God’s special people. There were many more trials: They didn

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stmatts admin

Mar 9, 2018
5 min

Jesus, Conflict, and 25,000 Meals

That children’s sermon got me thinking about house cleaning. I remember one time when my poor mother had just about had it. I was 16 years old, and we had, Karl, our 6’2’’ exchange student living with us. Karl was eating all the time, and I was always needing to be transported to some rehearsal. My parents were both working outside the home. But despite the fact that there were 4 able bodied people around the house, it was still somehow my mom’s responsibility to see to the h

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