Our hands were numb from the coal black waters and the repeated stings of the small clear jellyfish shredded in the net’s thin monofilament lines. We were well into the cold fall day, pulling nets at the mouth of the Klawock river, seining the late run of sockeye salmon that the local natives depended upon as a source of tradition and food.
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey later changed his name to Douglass after claiming his freedom. He was a great orator, writer, abolitionist, minister and statesman. Even after the civil war ended and the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, he continued to fight for human rights and equality, including women’s rights.
It’s the elephant in the virtual room, as evident as the mask on my face. It dictates the format and form of our worship; it saturates the news; it affects each of us in individual ways.
In a week full of losses– from Buddhist master Thich Nat Han to the performer Meat Loaf, a week when Russian troops surround the country of Ukraine and Mitch McConnel separates black voters and “Americans,” even as we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King (whom we will honor later with one of his favorite songs), Covid remains the story of the day.
This morning we hear again the story of how Jesus transformed water into wine. This is a sermon in which we will remember the water.
St. Aelred was a twelfth century English monk and the Abbot of Rievaulx for twenty years until his death. Aelred was a prolific writer, and, until the twentieth century, primarily known for his historical writing.
Today’s sermon explores ways chosen families memorialized in the documentary film “Paris is Burning” and the TV series “POSE” teach us about the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.
I was truly humbled to be asked to be with you today to share some reflections on the Rev. Florence Li Tim-Oi, the first woman ordained to the priesthood in the Anglican Communion. Some of you may be familiar with her story, and many of you may not. She’s a bit of a personal hero for me for a number of reasons that I’d be grateful to share with you.
Given the events of this week, I hope you will indulge me for just a moment to begin this sermon by retelling the story of the three wise men as if told by the Golden Girls.
Sophia Petrillo opens our tale:
Picture it, Jerusalem, first century, and three kings are following a star.
Author Annie Dillard in perhaps her most famous essay tells the story of a man named Larry living on one of the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington. According to Dillard, Larry was attempting to teach a stone to talk. Larry’s futile efforts, she suggests, are the result of the silences we moderns live with. There was a time when the world was full of voices. Gods and goddesses spoke from sacred caves and through shamans and prophets, prophetesses and crones.
Over 25 years ago in a small village in Southeast Alaska, my hometown, a place on the edge of nowhere, as far from the center of it all as you can possibly get, raised the first totem pole ever raised there in modern times.
Copyright © 2020 St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church
St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church
[email protected]
651.228.1172
60 Kent St N, St. Paul, MN 55102-2232
Map & Directions
