Sermon – Extremists in Love – Feb 15 – Rev. J.McDougle

1Sam 3:1-10; Ps 139:1-5, 12-17; 1Cor 6:12-20; John 1:43-51

There is a bumper sticker that I’m particularly fond of.  I’m sure you’ve seen it. It reads: Well-behaved women rarely make history.   And it’s so true: although the concept can be expanded to include children, men, dogs and horses.  The bottom line is that while good behavior allows at least some people to get on comfortably with their lives without interruption; good behavior demands we live our lives by other people’s rules even though they may not be the wisest, or in the best interests of the planet. 

Sermon: Hope’s Gem – 24 Dec, Rev. Dr. Katherine M. Lehman

Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Christ (fresco), 1477.

Christmas is a mystery. It’s the mystery of the incarnation. It’s not that it makes no sense. It’s more that it makes an uncanny kind of sense. Or perhaps, the nonsense that it makes continues to arrest and engage us, until we are more capable of ambiguity and ambivalence, more open to multiple meanings. To entertain the mystery of God’s relation to humanity requires a willingness, to venture into what Yeats calls the land of unlikeness (H 464), and as John the Evangelist says, there to find ourselves at home (John1:11).

Christmas Lessons & Carols, Sunday, 12/18, 4pm

We invite you to join the clergy, the choir, and harpist Annie Clark, for a lovely, candlelit service for all ages. We will retell the Christmas story in poetry and scripture, with congregational carols and the inspired Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten.

Following the service, there will be a festive reception in the parish hall.

Sermon: Nov 13 – A parable for our times Rev. Jane McDougle

Judges 4:1-7; Ps 123; 1Thess 5:1-11; Matt 25:14-30

Bankers, trading, investing, and turning a profit?  Now, here’s a parable for our times!  Farming and agricultural practices in first century Palestine may stretch us a bit, but this one? No problem!

Sermon: We the People – Oct 23 – Rev. Jane McDougle

Deut 34:1-12; Ps 90:1-6, 13-17; 1 Thess 2:1-8; Matt 22: 34-46                                              

You know, I think there must be something in the air: in the Middle East, in Europe, and here at home, in the US.   The people are finding their voice.  They’re gathering in large groups:  sometimes peacefully, sometimes not.   There’s questioning.  There’s complaining.   There’s resistance.  Some oppressive regimes have toppled; others have not.  Some are reshaping themselves as they becoming more responsive to the prevailing mood.   

Sermon: Lifegiving Rule – 2 Oct, Rev. Dr. Katherine M. Lehman

We designate the Sunday closest to the feast of Francis of Assisi, as a celebration of the patron saint of our see city, San Francisco, the site of Grace Cathedral. We also set aside the month of October, to focus on stewardship. Francis’ witness grounds our theme in the care of creation, our planetary ecosystem.

Today we will dedicate the courtyard renovation, the design of which was meant to provide a space that reflects our appreciation of the great outdoors, our elemental home and our primal sanctuary. The psalm says it lyrically, and Francis preached it eloquently, that creation is the proclamation of its Creator.

Sermon: Glimpses of God – 11 Sep, Rev. Dr. Katherine M. Lehman

Today is a solemn feast. Every Sunday celebrates the resurrection, the new lease on life we are given by God in Christ. Today also marks the decade anniversary of the destruction wrought by terrorists on the east coast, in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Both disasters, the crucifixion and the 9/11 attack, were designed to strike terror into hearts, and  changed the world. And one of the gracious ways they have changed the world is in our response to them. Faithful people learn from tragedy as well as from blessings.

For example, on the news this weekend, they interviewed the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald. Since their offices were on the highest floors of the north tower of the World Trade Center, they lost about six hundred and fifty people that morning. About nine hundred children lost a parent in that company alone. Since that time, the company has directed a significant percentage of its profits to the families of those victims. The CEO says the support will continue until every one of those children completes college. Such a shining example of compassionate responsibility flies in the face of blatantly unethical behavior by others in the investment industry.

Sermon: The Son of Man, 21 August, Rev. Jane McDougle

Exodus 1:8 -2:10; Psalm 124; Romans 1:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20

There is an old joke about four eminent contemporary theologians meeting with Jesus who asks them this very question:  “But who do you say that I am?”  They sit down, and respectfully take their turn, expressing their well-thought out opinions in tightly constructed rhetoric.  After they have finished, Jesus pauses for a moment, then writes in the sand, “Huh?”

Sermon: Favorite Son – 7 August, Rev. Dr. Katherine M. Lehman

In the nomadic patriarchy of the ancient Mideast, there were customs and expectations about authority, obligation, and inheritance. There was frequent contention among wives and sons, about privileges, and friction with daughters usually about marriage rights. Such family dynamics are still in play across centuries and cultures. We do well to consider them, in the news and in our families.

Sermon: Trust God to Provide – 5 July, Rev. Dr. Katherine M. Lehman

Whenever the story of Abraham and Isaac comes round, we recoil from it, because it offends our best sense of who God is, of what God may require, of how parents best behave towards their children. But instead of dismissing it, we are obliged to engage it. Who knows, perhaps we shall wrest a blessing from it.

There is an approach to the interpretation of this story that arises from the field of cultural anthropology. It is seen as a condensed parable, one that represents a gradual shift in spiritual consciousness and religious practice, away from child sacrifice and into a sacrificial system involving food, including animals. The story documents an evolution towards more enlightened ritual offerings to a less bloodthirsty god. Animal sacrifice offends us today, but in the context of subsistence agriculture, a tithe was the first fruits of all food, crops, flocks, herds. The priests of the cult ate most of it, those who were given time out from field labor to foster right relationship with a god who provided favorable weather, growth, and harvest. This reading makes contextual sense, but we needn’t stop there.

Sermon: That All May Be One – 12 Jun, Rev. Dr. Katherine M. Lehman

Detail from Descent of the Holy Spirit, El Greco, ca. 1541-1614.

Today is the Feast of Pentecost, when we celebrate the gift of God’s Spirit to humankind, and indeed, to all creatures. God first fashions creation and then God animates it with the breath of life. The psalm celebrates this widespread distribution of the Spirit. When we are born, we are given breath. When we die, we expire. Life ceases with our last breath. The very air we breathe is like God’s own breath, all God’s creatures co-respiring in the one breath that is the Spirit of God.

That is the more generic meaning of the word Spirit in the biblical texts. In the Hebrew of the Old Testament, the word for Spirit is ruach, and in the New Testament Greek, the word is pneuma. They can be variously translated as breath, air, and wind. The origin of the words points to the atmospheric condition that is the prerequisite for life. All these centuries later, given many scientific discoveries, we have an even keener appreciation of the role that our atmosphere plays in life’s origins on this planet and on its continued viability as a habitat.

Join us! (Yes, we have a weather contingency plan!)

Sermon: Easter To Go – 8 May 2011, Rev. Dr. Katherine M. Lehman

Did not our hearts burn as he opened the scriptures to us along the road? There are times when life presents extreme challenges, that put us and our loved ones at risk, when all seems lost in an upended world. The road of life has bumps and potholes and takes unforeseen turns. When we’re making headway, we don’t think we need a good dose of reinterpretation, because we seem to be going in the right direction. But when we run into trouble, there are parts of scripture that leap out at us. Such pertinent passages are like emergency road service, when we’re stalled in the middle of nowhere. Such is the experience of the two disciples, making their way to the village of Emmaus.

Their world has been upended. They have lost a beloved and inspiring teacher. They had hopes for their future with him and for the future of their people through him. For we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Then a stranger draws near and falls into step and into conversation. As they walk along and talk, he gives them another way of looking at things, one that begins to speak to their distress. Do you remember this prophecy? And what about that one? And then another and another are offered. Taken altogether, don’t they make some sense of your loss and longing? What if they did? What might it mean for you?

Sermon: Seeing is Believing – Not (1 May, Dr. Irene Lawrence)

Doubting Thomas, Abbey Church of St. Nectaire, France, early 12th c. Photo from Vanderbilt Divinity Library.

I have always had mixed feelings about the story of “doubting Thomas.”  On the one hand, how presumptuous of him to demand proof of Jesus’s resurrection.  “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my fingers in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”  On the other hand, I admire his chutzpah.  And on the third hand, I’m a little envious that he actually got his proof in the form he demanded, even if accompanied by a rebuke:  “Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

That’s us.  In fact that’s probably all of us except that first generation—including of course Thomas.  Perhaps there have been others over the years who have been granted resurrection appearances.  But certainly most of us fall into the category of those who have not seen, yet have come to believe.  In a way, that shows God’s confidence in us—God has required a little more of us than was required of Thomas; maybe we have been put in first grade rather than kindergarten, even if not by our own choice.

Saturday, May 7, 7:30pm

The Revelations of Divine Love: Metaphors from Sea and Sky 

                                                                        by Carson Cooman

An oratorio for soprano, baritone, chorus & chamber orchestra, based on the writings of Julian of Norwich. 

Performed by the Choir of  St. Bede’s

Soprano soloist : Amy Rufe         Baritone soloist :  Daniel Pickens-Jones

Director:  Rev. Jane McDougle, DMA

Tickets: $20/$15 (free to subscribers of the Arts at St. Bede’s concert series)

Sermon on Easter Sunday 2011, Rev. Dr. K. Lehman

For the last several years, I have read ecology, the study of interconnected, living systems. Culturally, we are shifting to an ecological way of conceiving life. There is a consonance between ecology and the theology of redemption. As is ecology, so is redemption all about healing, about restoring the integrity of living systems. The distinction is that ecology stops with the presupposition that creation is the great good, whereas theology presupposes God, engaged as creator, redeemer, sustainer. Even for Christians, theology can sound esoteric, whereas ecology is widely familiar, both as language and as practice. So it gives us another way to talk about redemption. And Easter is all about the experience of redemption.

Sermon: Taste – Good Friday 2011, Rev. Dr. K. Lehman

Start to finish, the entire event is brutal and dishonest. Perhaps if he hadn’t gone back to Bethany and Lazarus, he might have avoided the authorities, for a time. But even if he’d confined his ministry to the Galilee, his teaching and healing would have raised his profile again. His freedom from fear would have propelled him back into another confrontation at the center of political and religious accommodation.

There’s a reassuring scriptural promise that God can use anything for good. By virtue of his essential creativity, God becomes a master at the art of bricolage, working with found objects, with any material at hand, with the cross currents of human will and agency, to fashion something imaginative, splendid, and revelatory. Jesus, made in the image and likeness of God, collaborates in the re-creative artistry, as God’s best apprentice ever.

April 14 Theology Thursday: Discussing the Proposed Anglican Covenant

During our April 14 Theology Thursday we will share our thoughts on the proposed Anglican Covenant.  Our goal is to consider all sides of this issue, not to bash either proponents or opponents. We’re not trying to reach a final decision, just to examine the issue from many perspectives.

To prepare for the discussion, you can download a facilitator’s guide prepared by our diocese, the covenant study guide, and historical background. Of these the study guide and historical background are most relevant to our April 14 discussion. They are also the shortest and easiest to read.

April Theology Thursday will start with potluck dinner at 6:30 pm and conclude at 8:30 pm. Please let us know if you can join us (and what you would like to bring to share). You can respond through our Facebook page (http://tinyurl.com/theothursday) or contact the office.

Some background:  the materials we are reading were developed by the diocese after Resolution D020 calling for diocesan wide discussion of the proposes covenant passed at General Convention 2009. This year the Diocese of California launched a series of deanery discussions early  on the proposed Anglican Covenant. Comments. Feedback from those discussions are to be shared, along with responses from the other dioceses, with The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council. We do not expect our discussion will generate feedback for this process.

More on the Anglican Covenant follows:

Sermon: Gusher Relieves the Wilderness of Sin – 27 Mar, Rev. Dr. K. Lehman

Here we are this morning, midway through Lent, praying in today’s collect for God to keep us safe in body and soul. In today’s lessons, God answers our prayer this way. God says, I always will your safety, but you must trust me for it to be accomplished in you. It’s the way of things.

The exodus story reveals the erosion of confidence among the thirsty and complaining Israelites and with Moses, their frustrated and anxious leader. Trudging through desert after a pillar of fire and cloud requires stamina. In the inner workings of body and soul, trust upholds will, and will prolongs stamina. As they lose trust, their will weakens. They are flagging. We thirst, they cry. At least they can voice their need. And it’s good that their leader resorts to God. Now what, Lord?! After all, it was you who got us into this pilgrimage.

Sermon – Lent 2 – Nicodemus’ Story – Rev. Jane McDougle

Gen12:1-4; Ps 121; Rom4:1-5, 13-17; John3:1-17

 

You probably don’t know me, but my name is Nicodemus. I am a powerful, highly respected teacher, and authority on all things Jewish. I spend each day sitting with my fellow members of the Sanhedrin in the Chamber of the Hewn Stones, in the great Temple in Jerusalem.  We know the law backwards and forwards.  We know its nooks and crannies: there is no place for a sinner to hide in the law from us.  The people both revere and fear us:  we have the power to destroy their lives.  And we do so, with our sharply honed, intellectual arguments, our esoteric vocabulary, and our years of collective wisdom.  We live and breathe the law, and take great pride in the intricacies of its workings.