Sample Sermons

Sunday Mornings St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church
	Sample Sermons
	September 4, 2005	In the Name of Katrina’s Victims
	The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen the misery of my people; I have heard their cry, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to bring them up to a good land flowing with milk and honey…I will be with you.” During the past week hurricane Katrina has sorely tested this ancient image of the way God is with us. Our homes, our hearts and our headlines have been filled with cries of suffering from the Gulf states. First this absolutely horrific hurricane hits, and then catastrophic flooding and violence follow, pushing hundreds of thousands of ordinary people to the breaking point. As we look on helplessly we are haunted by their faces, their gestures, and their voices. Where is God in all this suffering, and how are we believers to respond? More..
	Courageous Compassion	Does anyone harbor anger against another, and expect healing from the Lord? Remember the end of your life, and set this enmity aside.
	Plain old-fashioned anger is tough for Christians to talk about. Some of us assume that anger and faith are like oil and water; they never mix. We are the peace-cravers of Christianity, and our favorite portraits of Jesus are those from the Bethlehem days, back when he was a tender baby meek and mild, delightfully warm and fuzzy. If our hearts let him grow up at all, we picture him as a mellow kind of Mr. Rodgers in comfy cardigan and slippers, a really nice guy who wouldn’t heart a flea. We imagine his face as always serene and his posture at ease, as if he’s eternally taking a restful vacation from the aggravating world we live in. This Jesus is forever turning the other cheek. More..
	Two Kinds of People		A sermon about the sort of people God works with
	Jesus says he tells the story in today’s Gospel for the benefit of two particular kinds of people: first, for people who trust in themselves, who feel well satisfied with the quality of their own lives; and second, for people who contemptuously look down their noses at others. Because Jesus lumps these two attitudes of self-satisfaction and contempt together, we’re safe to assume that they have something in common, that there is some link between complacently putting up with our own behavior, while putting other people down. Let’s take a close look at the two poster children Jesus gives us for these attitudes, the Pharisee and the tax man. More..
	God's Messengers	A sermon about the unseen world
	The Bible is a truly visionary book. From Genesis in the beginning to Revelation at the end, it is filled with accounts of people discovering more in the here and now than they ever imagined. And their discoveries make all the difference, because as soon as people see the world as it really is—heaven along with earth, unseen along with seen—then they are never the same again. More..
	Two Roads	A sermon about choosing
	In the turbulent 1920s, poet Robert Frost penned memorable lines about life choices. Frost captures here the universal human experience of having to choose one course of action over another: the regret we often feel over choosing one when that means foregoing the other; our procrastination and hesitation evoked by that regret; our anticipation about what the future might hold, tempered by equivocation over the exact future we desire.. More..