Notes and further reading for Maundy Thursday

This was one of those sermons where I cut out way more than I included in the final version. This Lent has been a fruitful time of discussion in our various adult formation venues about good, evil, human nature, Jesus, and the Eucharist. More than one sermon’s worth! Maybe more to come during Easter as we live into our Eucharistic calling… but in the meantime, some articles that were hovering in the background for me in this sermon included:

 When the Good do Bad, David Brooks in the NYTimes

What Drives Some People to Do Horrific Things and Others to Be Good?, by Miki Kashtan

 And always when it comes to sacrifice and nonviolence, the theories of Rene Girard as so ably expressed by Paul Neuchterlein.

This Lenten conversation has inspired me to make my Easter season reading:

The Feast of the World’s Redemption: Eucharistic Origins and Christian Mission

Peace,

Kate

Sermon for 2nd Sunday in Lent

Lent 2

The Rev. Kate Ekrem

“The promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.”

This is important, this is a major theological moment. Where does our salvation, our life purpose, lie? Is it following the law, following the rules, doing the right thing, making correct moral choices, or is it simply having faith? A question that wars have been fought over, that people have burned at the stake for. Faith, or works?

This may seem like a dusty old question that’s not so important to us as it was to, say Martin Luther and other people who lived 500 years ago, but I don’t think so. Just this week I was on the phone with a friend

Sermon for Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday

The Rev. Kate Ekrem

Today, Ash Wednesday, in one small way we have a tendency to do the exact opposite of what Jesus is telling us to do in the Gospel passage. Jesus says “Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them.” And he also says, “When you fast, put oil on your head (which is how people got ready for a party in those days) and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father.”

And yet, most of us, myself included, will walk around the rest of today with a smudge on our forehead.

Sermon for Last Epiphany

Last Epiphany February 19 2012

The Rev. Kate Ekrem

Peter is a blurter. There are so many times in Gospels where he talks before he thinks: “Let me walk on the water with you, Jesus.” And the same person who was the first to blurt out, “you are the Messiah, Jesus” was also the one who said, “I do not know the man.”

He’s gotten an especially bad rap for this blurt, “Let’s make dwelling places, Jesus.” Over the years Biblical commentators have said Peter is just wrong and bad for wanting to build a dwelling place up on the mountain,

Sermon for Annual Meeting

Sermon for Annual Meeting: January 29, 2012

The Rev. Kate Ekrem

Well, here we are.  You’re stuck with me now!  But I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to the year to come. This is going to be an exciting year for Redeemer. The past year has also been an exciting one, as we talked through all the things we needed to, to make our decisions. We dug deep, really deep, and we found bedrock, shared visions and values that can form the firm foundation of our ministry going forward.  

Someone asked me, what’s the difference, what will be different now that we have a rector instead of a priest-in-charge. Officially, there may not be that much difference in the job description, but the job of a priest-in-charge is to look to the past, help facilitate healing, help a parish to get their feet back under them. And the job of a rector, I think, is to look to the future, to gather the vision of what can be, what God is calling us to be next.

Sermon for Social Justice Sunday

Sermon for Social Justice Sunday: January 15, 2012

The Rev. Kate Ekrem

Over Christmas, my extended family visited Hanover New Hampshire, home of Dartmouth College, and saw “Occupy Hanover”, a collection of tents and boxes and students and signs on a street corner. My kids were curious, and asked what it was.  Now, my family does not share the same political viewpoints in all respects, so there was sort of this pause, as we thought about who was going to answer the kids, and what each of us might say.  I think they got some good answers, but it also caused some interesting conversation between us and it sort of seemed to boil down to, how are we responsible for each other? Do we just do good on an individual basis, giving to charity and volunteering, or should our government, our society, somehow be structured so that people don’t fall between the cracks, so that larger resources are there for those who need them, or does that somehow force us to take care of each other, and is that a bad thing or not?

Sermon for the Baptism of our Lord

Sermon for the Baptism of our Lord: January 8, 2012

The Rev. Kate Ekrem

Today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles reminds me of a great Episcopalian joke. I sort of collect Episcopalian jokes. This one is about a visitor who came to an Episcopal church, from another denomination. He loved the service and the music and during one of the particularly uplifting hymns he began swaying and waving his arms in the air. People sort of turned around and stared, and one of the ushers came over and told him, you’ve really got to stop that. He said, but I’ve got the Spirit! To which the usher replied, well, you didn’t get it here.