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.
To a world pregnant with hope and torn by division, come Lord Jesus. Amen.
Today is the third Sunday of Advent: Gaudete Sunday – the Sunday of Rejoicing – derived from the Epistle-based Introit for today’s Mass: Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, Gaudete: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, Rejoice.”
Sermon by the Rev’d Jered Weber-Johnson, December 5, 2021 for Saint John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, Saint Paul, MN Advent 2, Year C There was
A Sermon by Jay Phelan, Intern for Holy Orders on December 3, 2021 for St. John’s the Evangelist Episcopal Church, Saint Paul, MN. By the
A Sermon by The Rev. Barbara Mraz for St. John the Evangelist Episcopal church, St. Paul, Minnesota November 28, 2020, First Sunday of Advent, Luke
A sermon preached by the Rev. Jered Weber-Johnson for Saint John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, Saint Paul, MinnesotaNovember 21, 2021 – Last Sunday after Pentecost/Christ
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