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A sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent
March 12, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: Romans 5:1-11 What would be enough? What would be enough to correct, to rectify, to make up for, to forgive all of my past, present, and future wrongs? What would be enough to make the world right again? What on earth could be enough?
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A sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent
March 5, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: John 3:1-17 Molly and I are quirky in a lot of ways, I suppose, but here’s one example: At one point, we had named all of our plants. There’s a little fir tree in a planter outside our front door; its name is Douglass. We had Iggy the Azalea. Rick and Judy Hampton once gifted us an aloe vera plant; its name is John Wayne. But the strangest one of all is our apple tree. It’s in our front yard, at one corner of our house. It’s old for an apple tree; you can tell just by looking at it. It’s twisted and its bark has been formed by all kinds of weather conditions. Its name: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree. A sermon preached for the First Sunday in Lent February 26, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11 Something is wrong and must be put right. That will be like a mantra for my sermons in Lent. But before we get there, I want to take us to the popular comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes” from my first Christmas, December 23, 1990. Calvin: I’m getting nervous about Christmas. Lent is a time for self-examination. A time to see where we’ve missed the mark, where we have fallen short. But here, at the start of our journey into self-examination, we might stop to worry with Calvin. We’re good, upstanding citizens, good Christians, even. But maybe good is more than just the absence of bad. Maybe there’s something deeper at play that we need to pay attention to.
A sermon for Ash Wednesday
February 22, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: II Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 In parish halls and church basements across the country, week after week, something amazing happens. A group of people gathers to confess shortcomings and failures; they ask for support from one another; they love each other through their triumphs and their slip-ups; they recommit themselves to following a new way of life. I wish I could say this happened in the Sunday liturgy. Sometimes it does. But far too often we are too proud, too self-obsessed, or maybe too fearful to admit just what we are. We are too often more concerned with convincing others (and ourselves) that we have it all together instead of confessing that we’re sinners. No, I’m talking about groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Food Addicts Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Sex Addicts Anonymous, Pills Anonymous. Folks come to these groups because they are ready for a change and they need help. They come to confess their sins. They come, not because they have everything figured out, but precisely because they don’t. A sermon for the Last Sunday after Epiphany
February 19, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: Exodus 24:12-18; Matthew 17:1-9 Today we come to the edge of Lent. We get in our final alleluias before we enter the penitential season. We soak up the last of Epiphany before entering the forty-year wilderness with the children of Israel to hear and live the calling to covenant with God. And before we journey to Jerusalem, to the cross, with Jesus and the disciples, Jesus takes us, along with Peter, James, and John, up a mountain. Here, at the edge of Lent, we catch a glimpse of the far side: Easter morning. A sermon preached for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
February 12, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: Matthew 5:21-37 Whenever you read a gospel passage like the one we have today, you can feel the room go tense and the words just hang in the air until they crash to the floor in a big heap. So let’s name that tension and sense of discomfort. Jesus is talking about divorce, and it makes some of us, if not all of us, uncomfortable. Some of us have been divorced. We all know people—people we love and cherish—who have been divorced. Jesus is not flexible on the idea of divorce, but we know that divorces happen in our world. Relationships end for all kinds of reasons, many of them good and even holy reasons. I’m the child of divorce, and I thank God that my mother finally found the courage to leave an abusive relationship behind. A sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
February 5, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: I Corinthians 2:1-16 Poor St. Paul. It’s not quite Lent, but our readings from Corinthians have been giving us a taste of what is to come. The church in Corinth was a troubled church. They had all kinds of divisions, all kinds of rough places, and I imagine all kinds of difficult personalities. They have divided into cliques, political parties almost–team Paul, team Peter, team Apollos, team Christ. They don’t share Holy Communion together, but only with their particular clique. They are polarized, refusing to come to fellowship if those people are going to be there. A sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
January 29, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: Micah 6:1-8; I Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12 Do you ever overthink? Overthinking is a hallmark of anxiety, and sometimes I have anxiety. Maybe you do, too. We want to hold on to control, and when that control starts to slip, we get anxious and begin to overthink. This can impact any part of our lives, but it can certainly impact our spiritual life. We start comparing ourselves to others. We fret about doing everything just right. At the end of the day, we wonder if we really are enough, if we are worthy of God’s attention, God’s goodness, God’s love. A sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany
January 22, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: Isaiah 9:1-4; Matthew 4:12-23 “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness--on them light has shined.” We hear those words from the prophet Isaiah spoken to a people in deep darkness–in exile, suffering, hopelessness, despair. Isaiah is telling them it won’t always be this way. Light is coming. A sermon for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany
January 15, 2023 The Rev. Mark Nabors, Vicar Readings: John 1:29-42 Today Jesus shows up, and John the Baptist points to him, saying, “Here is the Lamb of God.” Jesus shows up by the riverside, and John the Baptist sees him for who he is. I wonder how often Jesus has shown up on the riverside of our lives, and we have missed him? |
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