Sermons

Sermon by: The Very Rev. Pamela DolanSermon for Advent 3, December 15, 2024“Bah Humbug, You Brood of Vipers” If you are lucky enough to still be receiving actual Christmas cards in the mail, I think it’s a safe bet that very few of this year’s selection will feature pictures of a wild-eyed John the Baptist preaching repentance by the River Jordan or will be adorned with the message “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” This week’s Gospel passage emphasizes once again the countercultural, uncouth, not-ready-for-prime-time ways of this Advent prophet. He is…

Sermon by: The Very Rev. Pamela Dolan“The Compassion of God“Dec 8, 2024 In the Monastery of the Cross, an Eastern Orthodox monastery in the city of Jerusalem, there is a medieval fresco depicting two men. One is elderly, with a long gray beard, wearing the rich robes of a priest or temple official. The other is younger, wearing animal skins and a rough outer cloak. Their faces are uncannily similar and bear the same stern, somewhat pinched expression; if this looks like a family resemblance, that’s not a coincidence, as the men pictured are Zechariah and his son John, also…

Sermon by: The Rev. Pamela Dolan“Prophets, Presence, and the Promise of Truth“Dec 1, 2024 “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.” Those of us who are prone to anxiety anyway probably don’t much like to hear words like this coming from Jesus. Aren’t we all on edge enough these days without our actual Lord and Savior telling us that we’d better get busy and do something before the other shoe drops, because the other shoe is going…

Sermon by: The Rev. Pamela Dolan“Apocalypse Now“Nov 17, 2024Reading: The Gospel of Mark 13:1-8 If you are a film buff, the word “apocalypse” may bring to mind images from the 1977 movie Apocalypse Now, images of the terror and darkness, violence and death, associated with war at its most malign and chaotic depths. This is just one of many examples of how our cultural idea of apocalypse focuses almost exclusively on destruction, collapse, and even the end times. Common synonyms for the word “apocalypse” are disaster, calamity, catastrophe, and inferno. And yet, as I have probably said every year around…

Sermon by: The Rev. Pamela Dolan“Here and Now: A Moment that Matters“A Sermon for All Saints’ SundayNov 3, 2024 In an introduction to the book All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson wrote, “It is a magnificent thing to be alive in a moment that matters so much.”[i] I have to tell you, I sat with this sentence for a long time. Really? Does she mean this time, right now? This time when we are living through multiple potentially existential crises, from the accelerating climate emergency, to the unraveling of institutions that…

Sermon by: The Rev. Pamela Dolan“Walk in Love”October 20, 2024 “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” This verse from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is the source of the offertory sentence that is used most regularly in the Episcopal Church. Liturgically, it is said at the moment when we move from Word to Table, from a focus on listening and responding to God’s word to a focus on receiving Holy Communion, that sacramental action of blessing, breaking, and partaking of Christ’s body. The offertory sentence is a…

Sermon by: The Rev. Pamela Dolan“The Children are Watching”October 22, 2024Text: Mark 9:30-37 Once again in today’s Gospel passage, Jesus centers children, insisting to his frustratingly slow-to-catch-on disciples that it is to “such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.” Throughout this ongoing dialogue that Jesus has been having with friends, followers, and even adversaries, it seems there have been children present, watching and listening, as children so often do. It’s not all that long ago that there was still a lot of stigma around divorce and a very narrow definition of what constituted a family, and you can…

Sermon by: The Rev. Pamela Dolan“Walking the Way”September 29, 2024Text: Mark 9:38-50 Have you ever heard people say that they want to “burn it all down”? The “it” in question is usually an institution or a powerful force in our society, like patriarchy or capitalism or colonialism. This is intentionally provocative, even triggering language. There is an argument to be made that language like that is not constructive, that it only serves to divide people and sometimes even leads people to commit acts of violence. On the other hand, there is a counter-argument that says that sometimes the only way…

Sermon by: The Rev. Pamela Dolan“Planting a Fruitful Future”September 22, 2024Text: Mark 9:30-37 I recently read a story about a woman who moved with her young family from the city, where she had always lived, to a suburban house with a big backyard.[i] One day her little daughter opened the back door and in hopped a frog. The mother, in true city-girl fashion, had never seen a frog up close and personal before, and it completely freaked her out to have one sitting in her living room. Her first response was to rush with her daughter over to the next-door…

Sermon by: The Rev. Pamela Dolan“Faith, Hope, and Love”September 8, 2024 Rooted in faith, growing in hope, reaching out in love. I imagine that most of you have heard me talk about our mission statement at least a couple of times in the past, but since today is the beginning of the program year, I want to bring it up again. It seems to me that mission statements are like good silver; the best way to keep them from getting tarnished is to use them! They don’t do anybody any good locked away in a drawer. So, if you are…

Dec. 11, 2022 Blue Christmas There are times in life when hope is hard to find.  Perhaps this is one of those times for you, or for someone you love.  If it is, my heart goes out to you.  I am so sorry that you are having to deal with such pain and distress.  Please know that you are not alone.  For too many of us, this is the first Christmas after a major life event, such as the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, the loss of a job or a home, a natural disaster,…