Tag: Politics (Page 1 of 4)

Satan Is a Bully: Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent – 22 February 2026

February 21, 2026 / eric / 0 Comments

I assume that everyone here has seen A Christmas Story?^[1] It’s hard to live in the Cleveland area and not to know about the 1983 cult classic Christmas movie, and by now, with the Turner movie channel running it as a marathon every Christmas, to have seen it. Do you remember the character “Scut” Farkus? That was the bully who, accompanied by his toady Grover Dill, made Ralphie’s life miserable. Until, that is, Ralphie had simply had enough and exploded, knocked Scut down into the snow, and gave him a bloody nose. This morning, I’m going to try to convince you that that’s sort of what’s happening in today’s gospel lesson.

A rather standard way of preaching the Temptations of Christ is to say that Satan’s point is to raise doubts about whether Jesus is who he thinks he is by casting doubt on his relationship with God, and that Jesus’ rejections of the temptations “prove his identity as God’s divine and beloved son.”^[2] I’m probably a heretic, but I don’t think that’s the point of this story at all; that’s not what this episode is about.

Loneliness and Light: Sermon for 5 Epiphany – 8 February 2026

February 7, 2026 / eric / 0 Comments

“You are the light of the world. … [L]et your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”^[1]

Last week, I read this story on Facebook:

I own a small bakery. Business has been slow. Rent is up. I was thinking about closing. Last Friday, a teenager came in. He looked nervous. He counted out change for a cookie. He was short 50 cents. “It’s okay,” I said. “Take it.” He ate it at a table, looking at his math homework. I walked over. “Quadratic equations?” He nodded. “I don’t get it.” I sat down and helped him for 20 minutes. He got it. He left smiling. The next day, he came back with two friends. They bought cookies. The day after that, five kids came. Apparently, he told the school, “The lady at the bakery helps with homework.” Now, my bakery is the after-school hang-out spot. It’s loud. It’s messy. There are backpacks everywhere, Yesterday, I found a note in the tip jar. It was wrapped around a $20 bill. “Thanks for helping my son pass math. A Mom.” I’m not closing the bakery. I think I finally found my purpose. It’s not cookies. It’s community.

This baker is a light shining before others. I think that both Jesus and the prophet Isaiah would have approved of this baker.

Incarnation and Democracy: Sermon for the First Sunday of Christmas, 28 December 2025

December 27, 2025 / eric / 0 Comments

I’m sure you’re all familiar with Howard Thurman’s meditation entitled The Work of Christmas:

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.^[1]

This year I think I would have to suggest that there is one more task to add: to preserve democracy.

Not ORPman’s Prayer: Sermon for Pentecost VII, Proper 12C – 27 July 2025

July 26, 2025 / eric / 0 Comments

Do you all know what a tort is? Tort … T-O-R-T … no E on the end; I’m not talking about those wonderful little German or Austrian pastries. A tort is a civil wrong that causes harm to another person, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the wrong. You leave a puddle of milk on the floor of your grocery store knowing it’s there, then someone slips in it and injures themselves: you have committed a tort. You speed through a stop sign, collide with another car, and injure the driver: you’ve not only broken the law, you’ve committed a tort.

A million years ago when I was in law school studying the law of torts with Professor Bill Lynch of blessed memory, I was introduced to the superhero of Anglo-American civil jurisprudence: the ordinary, reasonably prudent person, often called “ORPman”. ORPman’s super power, as you can tell from his name, is ordinary, reasonable prudence. His conduct is the standard against which allegedly tortious behavior is judged. His conduct is always sensible, never outrageous, not too timid, nor too bold. He is not a coward, but neither is he an excessive risk-taker. His expectations are rational; he is not demanding, but neither is he a doormat.

The Political Influence of the Trinity: Radical Equality — 15 June 2025

June 14, 2025 / eric / 0 Comments

A few weeks ago, as I was looking forward to my annual cover-Rachel’s-vacation gig here at Harcourt Parish, my plan was to preach a sort of two-part sermon on play and playfulness. Seemed like a good summer-time thing to do. Last week, on Pentecost Sunday, I suggested to you that playfulness is a gift of the Holy Spirit, that play is why we were made. Today being Trinity Sunday, I planned to follow-up with a few words about how a metaphor of play and playfulness can help us understand and participate in the relational community which the triune God is.

Then the Immigration and Customs Enforcement doubled down on Mr. Trump’s promises of “mass deportations” across the country, but especially in Southern California and particularly in Los Angeles (where I grew up, by the way). People took to the streets in protest; the administration used that as an excuse to nationalize the California National Guard and met the protesters not only with 2,000 guardsmen but with 700 Marines, as well.

Life Outside the System: Sermon for Easter 6C –– 25 May 2025

May 25, 2025 / eric / 0 Comments

“Do you want to be made well? … Stand up, take your mat and walk.”^[1]

My father won a Bronze Star for bravery under fire in World War II. His citation for “meritorious achievement [at a battle] in the vicinity of Ensheim, Germany, somewhat casually mentions that he “was wounded by enemy artillery fire.”

The wound which the citation glides over so nonchalantly was actually multiple shrapnel wounds that pretty much tore up his right leg and required two years of surgeries, physical therapy, and learning to walk again. He was left with a significant limp and constant pain for the rest of his life, pain which he self-medicated. His drug of choice was alcohol. Some of my earliest memories include fetching for him a Miller Hi-Life beer from the fridge or the bottle of Wild Turkey bourbon in the living room drinks cabinet.

Late on the night of March 30, 1958, while driving under the influence of that alcohol, he lost control of his car on a desert highway east of Kingman, Arizona, rolled his Thunderbird convertible three times, and broke his neck. My father, though he did not die in service and was, indeed, a civilian at the time of his death, was a casualty of World War II just as surely as if he had died on that battlefield in Germany. I am certain that if, at any time during those thirteen years between his wounding at Ensheim and his death in the Arizona desert, someone had said to him “Do you want to be made well?” his answer would have been, “Yes! Hell, yes!”

Of Fisher Folk and Unity – Epiphany 5, RCL Year C

February 8, 2025 / eric / 0 Comments

One of the things I try to do when I read the stories of Jesus in the Gospels, when he uses an odd or striking metaphor like “I will make you fishers of people”^[1] or, as it is put in this Gospel, “from now on you will be catching people,”^[2] is to figure out if he’s referring back to Law or the Prophets, and whether it might be the lectionary’s choice for a first lesson. Sometimes that helps me figure out whether there is a thematic link between the lessons and, if so, what it’s supposed tell us, but unfortunately that’s not the case today. Jesus doesn’t seem to have had Isaiah in mind when he summoned Peter and his business partners.

So for the past week or so, I’ve been pondering what might be the reason for putting the Isaiah reading –– which, although it comes in the sixth chapter, is the story of Isaiah’s initial call to be a prophet –– together with Luke’s version of Jesus recruiting Simon Peter and the sons of Zebedee, James and John, to be disciples. The simple answer, of course, is that they are both stories of calls to ministry, but they are so different!

What Are We To Do Now? – Epiphany 3, Year C

January 24, 2025 / eric / 1 Comment

“They read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.”^[1] Lord, may we also have grace to understand the readings from Scripture. Amen.

The People of Israel, on their return from exile in Babylon, faced a question which faces many of us today: “What are we to do now?” That is a question which plagues humankind, which we human beings have been asking since time immemorial. With each and every change in our individual and corporate lives we face the same question: What are we to do now?

This was the question which Nehemiah the governor and Ezra the priest sought to help the Jews answer in the event recorded in our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures this morning. (By the way, it wasn’t just those two: the verses left out of the lectionary selection name 26 other people who read from the Bible and “helped the people to understand the law.”^[2])

Of Storytelling and Belief – Sermon for Proper 20, RCL Year B

September 21, 2024 / eric / 0 Comments

“They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats.”

That was the headline on the website of Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the national public broadcaster in the Republic of Ireland, on September 11. What the candidate in the U.S. presidential debate the night before had said in full was:

In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.^[1]

As I’m sure you know, in the twelve days since the debate, the people of Springfield, Ohio, have been through hell. They’ve been put under a media microscope; white supremacists have marched through the town; there are have been more than 30 bomb threats against schools and public buildings.

Of Amos, John, and White Christian Nationalism – Sermon for Proper 10, RCL Year B

July 13, 2024 / eric / 0 Comments

The United States is, at least ostensibly, a very religious country. Nearly two hundred years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that “there is no country in the world where … religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America; and there can be no greater proof of its utility and its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.”^[1] While recent polling data demonstrate that the influence of religion seems to have declined, it remains a powerful force.

According to an average of all 2023 Gallup polling, about 75% of Americans identify with a specific religious faith, and 71% say that religion is either “important” or “very important” in their lives; over 40% attend religious services at least monthly, more than half of those weekly.^[2]

Tag: Politics (Page 1 of 4)

Satan Is a Bully: Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent – 22 February 2026

Loneliness and Light: Sermon for 5 Epiphany – 8 February 2026

Incarnation and Democracy: Sermon for the First Sunday of Christmas, 28 December 2025

Not ORPman’s Prayer: Sermon for Pentecost VII, Proper 12C – 27 July 2025

The Political Influence of the Trinity: Radical Equality — 15 June 2025

Life Outside the System: Sermon for Easter 6C –– 25 May 2025

Of Fisher Folk and Unity – Epiphany 5, RCL Year C

What Are We To Do Now? – Epiphany 3, Year C

Of Storytelling and Belief – Sermon for Proper 20, RCL Year B

Of Amos, John, and White Christian Nationalism – Sermon for Proper 10, RCL Year B

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