“Stop Whining and Find Something to Do.” Be Christ. No one else is available.
Great sinner that I am, what I adore about Jesus is that he has the audacity to not only welcome sinners like me at his table but he chooses to be seen publicly feasting with my kind and loving us in public. And let’s face it, the stories at the sinners’ table where Jesus is are juicier and we sinners are far more interesting that those seated at the judgy, self-righteous, holier-than-thou tables.
Pax Romana or Pax Christi? You Decide.
A sermon by the Rev. Craig Lemming on August 14th, 2022. In the name of God who calls us to love, to heal, and to serve. Amen. The Rev. Dr. Barbara Holmes, affectionately known as “Dr. B,” preached a sermon on my first day at United Theological Seminary that made an indelible imprint. Dr. B […]
Go and Do Love: Embodying Mercy and Compassion in Our Wounded World
We are walking that treacherous road from Jerusalem to Jericho today. We see and will continue seeing bodies of children in classrooms, women’s bodies, bodies with ovaries, differently-abled bodies, Black and Brown bodies, same-gender-loving, gender-non-conforming, and gender-expansive bodies, all stripped of their human rights, robbed of their dignity, beaten down by colonial evil, and left for dead, if we do nothing.
An Invitation to Come and Find Ritual Healing in the Holy Week Liturgies
Today’s Homily is a brief invitation to enter into and to cross sacred thresholds. I invite you to come to church to participate in and to be fully immersed within the healing power of each of the Holy Week liturgies. Come and inhabit the sacred narratives of the Passion, Crucifixion, death, burial, and Resurrection of Jesus in the Holy Scriptures; through the practice of ancient rituals entrusted to us by our faithful ancestors – the hymns, processions, chanting, foot-washing, consecrations of bread, wine, water, oil, and fire; but most of all, come wholeheartedly to intentionally be with one other.
Say No to Satan: Turn to Scripture, Prayer, Love, and Serving Others
I will be 40 years old tomorrow and even though there is literally no time for me to be reading self-help books, to prepare for my mid-life crisis I researched Arthur C. Brooks’ new bestseller, From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life. Brooks is a Harvard Professor, PhD social scientist, musician, best-selling author, and columnist at The Atlantic. His compelling research reveals and affirms much of the same wisdom disclosed in today’s Gospel and in our Christian tradition of observing a holy Lent.
Stuck in the Middle of Luke’s Beatitudes: Jesus, Pauli and Eleanor
Luke’s account of the Beatitudes reminds me of the chorus in “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” the first track on Michael Jackson’s legendary 1982 album, Thriller.
Baptized, Sealed, and Marked as Chosen Family in God’s Household Forever
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.
Putting on St. John the Baptist’s Rose-Colored Garment of Joy in Christ
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.”
Redeemed Perceptions: Becoming Sanctuaries of God for Each Other
A sermon by the Rev. Craig Lemming for St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, St. Paul, MNSunday, November 14, 2021 – Proper 28 In the name of God who destroys our false perceptions of people and places so that we can see Christ in others and ourselves more truthfully. Amen. I arrived in the United […]
Saint Martin de Porres: Black Christ of the Andes
A Sermon for St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, St. Paul, MNby The Reverend Craig Lemming, Associate RectorFriday, November 5, 2021 at 12:15 p.m. Racial Reconciliation Holy Eucharist Let us pray. O God, by whose gift blessed Martin de Porres persevered in imitating Christ, poor and lowly, grant us through his intercession that, faithfully walking […]
