Sermon for Pentecost May 27 2012

Sermon for Pentecost, May 27, 2012

By the Rev. Kate Ekrem

Can any of you young people, I’m just asking people under 12 here, tell me what is the birthday of our country? (After some hesitation, several children said “the 4^th of July” including our 4 year old baptismal candidate). Can any of you tell me what is the birthday of the church? (One child guessed Christmas.)  It’s actually today, The Feast of Pentecost.

When I was a kid my dad always made me read the Declaration of Independence on the 4^th of July, it’s often printed in newspapers that day for that very purpose, and here on Patriot’s Day we re-enact the events that began our country. We do that because it’s so important that our children understand, that we understand, what our values are, what our forbears fought for and died for.

That’s the same reason we re-enact Pentecost today.

Sermon for Rogation Sunday by Kathy Mockett

Rogation Sunday and The Giving Garden

 by Kathy Mockett, Lead Giving Garden Shepherd

I need some helpers up here with me on the steps.  I have 7 bags that need to be opened.  But here’s the hard part.  You need to be patient and wait till I talk to the big kids first, then we can open the bags.

In the Gospel reading Jesus appoints his disciples to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. To bear fruit that will last could mean to bear children, or, using the fruits of your love to help your neighbor who may not have enough to eat, or, thinking about today, Rogation Sunday, it could mean to be God’s stewards of this Earth to make sure that the plants we plant today and the fruit we harvest this summer, will also provide seeds for us so we can plant more plants the following year.  Let’s keep this thought in mind for a few minutes.

Kate asked me to give a little history of The Giving Garden and how it started.

Sermon for Music Sunday by Bernadette Colley

Sermon May 6 2012

MUSIC SUNDAY-Fifth Sunday of Easter

Church of Our Redeemer Episcopal

Lexington MA

“Finding a fountain, and crowing…”

by Bernadette D. Colley, Music Director

Back in January, at a concert of the DeVaronistas chamber choir, I  heard for the first time a delightful spiritual, which the choir walked in singing  to open their second half. It was a catchy tune with a joyous affirmative refrain. I asked one of the members I knew for a copy of it, I went home with the song stuck in my head for the rest of the evening, and on Monday morning put the score in my “definitely use this someday” folder. The choir just sang it for you as this morning’s anthem, “His Name So Sweet.”

In mid-March Kate invited me to give the Music Sunday sermon. With a nod toward personal growth and ‘stepping out of my comfort zone’, in a moment of weakness, I said “Why not? sure I’ll do it. ”  Even though I felt honored to have been asked, less than 30 seconds after staff meeting while walking back to my office, a voice inside was screaming “WHAT were you thinking?”

Sermon for Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday, April 8^th 2012

The Rev. Kate Ekrem

One of the things we have learned, this past week as we walked in the footsteps of Jesus on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, is that sometimes we have to just stop. We can’t fix ourselves. Our Lenten disciplines have failed to perfect us, giving up beer for Lent actually did not make me lose a single pound, I’m not a better person than I was on Ash Wednesday, in Holy Week we learn to be passive recipients of God’s love, all we can do is let Jesus wash our feet, and feed us, and sit at the foot of the cross and receive God’s outpouring of love.

But then comes Easter. You know it’s easy to get caught up in whether we believe in a real resurrection or not, was Jesus’ body raised from the dead, or was it just a spiritual thing the disciples experienced, is it literal truth or just a metaphor. But resurrection is not, really, something to believe in.

Notes on Easter Sermon

I went to Newsweek to try to find a sermon illustration for this sermon, as Newsweek almost every year prints a cover article on "did the Resurrection really happen or not?" I meant to poke fun at this habit of theirs. Instead, I found a fantastic article by Andrew Sullivan which inspired other parts of this sermon. It's an Easter sermon itself and well worth reading.

Peace,
Kate

Sermon for Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday April 5, 2012

The Rev. Kate Ekrem

Here we come to it, the center of all we do and who we are. On the night before he died, Jesus did two things: he gave his friends bread and wine, saying, this is my body, and this is my blood, and he washed their feet. Then he told them, do this in remembrance of me, you also should do as I have done to you. It’s all right there, in this, tonight, as we remember this event of the Last Supper.

Just as our Jewish sisters and brothers remember the seminal, core event of the Passover this week, we also remember this pivotal, seminal moment, this core event of our faith.

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