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A sermon for the third Sunday of Easter
April 23, 2023 The Rt. Rev. Larry R. Benfield, Bishop of Arkansas Readings: Luke 24:13-35 It is a fact that 20 pounds of grass seed will overseed about 2000 sq. ft. of lawn. It is a fact that those same seeds need daytime temperatures in the 70s and nighttime temperatures in the 50s to germinate properly. It is a fact that a light application of a balanced fertilizer will result in both good root growth and strong blades for newly sprouted seeds. It is a fact that when a lawn is seeded it needs water a couple of times per day until the grass has developed sufficient roots. I know the facts about seeding a lawn because I do research and my undergraduate degree is in Agribusiness.
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A sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter
April 16, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: John 20:19-31 Today is called “Low Sunday.” It’s called that because our numbers tend to be low after our big Easter Sunday. Those who show up today are dragged here by something greater than themselves, by the very Spirit of God pulling them, by grace, to the life on offer in the word and sacraments. But for many, the pattern is Easter Sunday, then we need a break. A sermon for the Day of the Resurrection: Easter Sunday
April 9, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: John 20:1-18 What is a nice Easter? A nice Easter is a day with good weather, a day the Easter bunny won’t have to dodge puddles. A nice Easter is a day when the children, somehow, almost magically, dress themselves in Easter suits and dresses. A nice Easter is a day with a good ham, good sides, good wine, good conversation, and good entertainment. A nice Easter is a day with good hymns, with a good (not-too-long) sermon, and some good flowers on the cross. A nice Easter is a day for good family photos. A sermon for the Great Vigil of Easter
April 8, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: Matthew 28:1-10 Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. The cross comes first, then glory. The cross comes first, then life and peace. The cross comes first, then forgiveness. The cross comes first, then resurrection. Sometimes we want to shortcut everything, go immediately to glory, to life, to peace, to forgiveness, to resurrection. But we can’t. It all depends on the cross. A sermon for Holy Saturday
April 8, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: Matthew 27:57-66 How can we understand what is happening today? Truth be told, we come to the edge of words. God in the flesh has been killed in the most godless way, on the most irreligious tool of torture. There was no legion of angels at the last minute, no sleight of hand. He is dead: laid in the arms of his mother, and then taken to a tomb nearby. A sermon for Good Friday
April 7, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: John 18:1-19:42 Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Every family has its secrets. They’re never spoken publicly, rarely spoken privately. Yesterday evening I introduced us to Brian. Brian was in a car wreck that paralyzed him from the neck down. It transformed his relationship with his wife and children forever. Brian, always the provider, had to learn the other side of love: being provided for. His paralysis wasn’t a secret. The car wreck wasn’t a secret. Most people wouldn’t have even known there was a secret to be had. But there was one. The secret was the answer to that question, the question everyone had been asking the night of the wreck: Why was Brian out driving so late at night? A sermon for Maundy Thursday
April 6, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: John 13:1-17, 31b-35 Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. We pray these words on Fridays in Morning Prayer. They also appear on Palm Sunday, as we enter the church to begin our observance of Holy Week. But I wonder if we’ve considered what it means to walk the way of the cross? We usually don’t really consider that until its meaning is made plain in our lives, until the changes and chances of this life visit us with a cross to bear, with suffering, with pain and hardship. We don’t consider what we’re saying until we are already on the road, walking the way of the cross. A sermon for the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday
April 2, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: Matthew 26:14-27:66 Something is wrong and must be put right. Today we come to the end of our Lent sermon series, in which we have focused on the cross of Christ and how, through the cross, God in Christ does what we cannot and makes everything right again. We come to a final, but far from the final, image: on the cross, Christ, as both priest and victim, makes the atoning sacrifice for all sin. The early Christians would have primarily understood the cross through this lens of sacrifice. Sacrifice and blood make us squeamish today. We are far removed from the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. For our ancient forebears, however, sacrifice was a fact of life. A sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 26, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130: John 11:1-45 “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.” All the former Lutherans will know those words well. A text and tune composed by Martin Luther, this hymn evoques the image of Christus Victor, Christ the Victorious, even in the face of sin, death, and the evil one. Christ Jesus is the right man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing, in whose victory we share. A sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 18, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: John 9 Something is wrong and must be put right. We can’t do it. Only God can do it, and God does it through the cross. Throughout Lent, we have been focusing on this question of how God accomplishes this on the cross. On the first Sunday in Lent, we said we are justified, made righteous through the righteousness of Christ. The cross opens up an avenue of grace for our justification, which we are granted at our baptisms into Christ’s death. Then we saw the cross as recapitulation: God in Christ writing a new story from a new tree, the cross, becoming the new Adam, so that we can share in the new humanity. Last week, we said Christ substituted himself for us, taking the just penalty for our sins so we can be free. Today we see the cross as ransom and redemption: Christ goes behind enemy lines, pays the price for our souls, and redeems us into a new relationship. |
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