Sermons

(Please note this section is under development!)

• See below for a recording of a recent sermon (recorded at the Rector’s Home).  We are also building a ‘library’ of sermon transcripts.
• Please understand that a sermon is a form of communication between a preacher and a congregation and also understand the following:
  • Sermon Recordings: It is very hard to understand context from a sermon recording.
  • Sermon Transcripts: It is even harder to understand context from sermon notes/transcripts.
  • Sermon Skills: Like any human skill, one learns over time how to preach.  Some sermons will be good, ‘others shall stinketh to the highest heaven!’  The preacher does not profess to being perfect (very far from it), and one often learns great lessons from one’s mistakes.  Additionally, an awful sermon is an illustration to all who hear or read, that: We are flawed human beings; Clergy are not exempt from flaws.  This Priest, demonstrates, on a regular basis, his flawed human nature and provides flagrant examples that it is completely human and natural to make mistakes!
  • Sermon Regrets: Though this Priest hates to admit it, there are times when one might regret something said in a sermon.  Sometimes in talking with parishioners about a sermon one realizes that there could have been a better way of expressing a thought then what one chose.  I recall, regretfully, one sermon in which I had spoken of ‘Harlem, New York,’ as a place where I would be scared to be.  A person in the parish who was from the New York City area was quite upset with the sermon and I later apologized for the analogy, because the words which I had used had angered someone about something about which I did not need to make them angry.  Regrettably, this issue may have prevented this (and other individuals) from hearing the actual message I wanted to deliver.  I use this example, because it is relatively ‘safe.’  There are times when I may even regret certain theological stances within my sermons, in a parish context, we have the opportunity to speak to each other as loving Christians and on occasion to repent of our words or deeds.  Published sermons can be seen as ‘final,’ but I would argue that a new perspective within a parish is only one week or one tender apology for our misdoings away!
  • Sermon Context: This preacher sometimes talks about difficult situations and occasionally ‘touches third rails.’  If one were to take a sentence, a phrase, or even a paragraph out of the context of the entire sermon, one would quite likely find something to be offended about.  This preacher’s sermon style is sometimes (probably too often) shocking.  After the initial shock is over, this preacher will explain things in more depth.  (In this preacher’s defense, this is often how our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ spoke!)  Please examine these sermons within their entire context.
  • I DO NOT Give Permission to Copy Sermons: I do not know how to do this, ‘legally,’ but I DO NOT give permission for others to copy my sermons in whole or in part without my express permission.  I would be very unlikely to grant permission for someone to share a small portion of any of my sermons, since a sermon is delivered as a ‘complete work,’  Since I have ‘shared these sermons’ on the internet and on a sermon sharing platform, I likely have no legal rite to enforce my desire that my sermons not be shared except by link to my sharing of the sermon (so I could also remove the right to share if I found my sermon was somehow less than helpful–we all make mistakes), but to the extent that I have the legal and moral right to do so.  I request that folks observe my intent and understand that there is considerable risk in sharing sermons on-line.   Thank you, Father Rick+.