A Crowded Table - Maundy Thursday Year C

Tonight, our scriptures and our faith tradition call out to us from the past to remind us that in this Eucharistic feast, we participate in the sacrifice of Christ, at the core of which, is hospitality. This is how Jesus asked to be remembered, at a shared meal in which the loftiest serve the lowliest. Everyone is invited to share in the meal. We are meant to crowd the table. We are meant to squeeze in at the altar rail. We are meant to become one family by feasting together, as humans have been doing since time immemorial.

Read More
Hannah Hooker
Use the Nard - John 12:1-8

We can definitely see the impact of the recent days in Mary’s behavior. She is calm, she is joyful, she is celebratory. She is everything we would expect from a woman who got her beloved brother back after having lost him. It’s no stretch to assume that everyone in proximity to this miracle might share in the joy of the occasion, but for some reason, we find Judas in a foul temper, full of scathing criticism. What is going on here? How can two people who witnessed the same miracle be so at odds in their demeanor?

Read More
Hannah Hooker
"In the face of death..." - Luke 13:1-9

Jesus wants his disciples to know that death can never stay comfortably on the front page, fenced behind the explanations of what happened to other people. And this is all the more true when Death itself is a power, an agent of those anti-creational forces that are at the heart of every Empire.

Read More
Ragan Sutterfield
The Lies We Tell Ourselves - Luke 4:1-13

I will tell you that a temptation of mine is to use this sermon to expose all the lying tempters in our world from politicians to preachers. But you don’t actually need my help with that. Each of you, like Jesus in the wilderness, is perfectly capable of spotting a snake oil salesman when you see one. No, the most dangerous lies, the ones we fall prey to again and again in this life, are the ones we tell ourselves.

Read More
Hannah Hooker
Grace Over Grievance - Ps. 37, Luke 6:27-38

“Do not fret yourself because of evildoers.” The Psalmist seems to speak right through the centuries to our moment where, I for one, see a lot of fretting going on. Whether your news source is the daily paper or podcasts, cable tv or social media, we seem to be in a frenzy of fretting.

Read More
Ragan Sutterfield
In the Year that King Uzziah Died - Isaiah 6:1-13

The first 39 chapters of Isaiah come from the last few years of the Kingdom of Judah before the Babylonian Exile. The people’s beloved king, Uzziah, had just died, and they worried that their nation’s stability and security may have died with him. It was a tumultuous time of social and political transition for the Judeans, to which we can most certainly relate.

Read More
Hannah Hooker
The Tao of Torah - Psalm 19

The Torah, the Way is not simply a cold, impersonal, feature of the world. It is the Law of the Lord, and that Lord is a humble and personal God who will come to instruct and guide, heal and save, God has come to give us life. In this way, the Psalm ends in praise of the God who is “my strength and my redeemer.” If we are to have the energy, the power to join in the pattern of life that the Law provides, we will do so not through our own efforts but by joining in the endless, dynamic energy of God. This is what eternal life is about, not so much an endless succession of days, but a grounding in the very reality that is Life itself.

Read More
Ragan Sutterfield
In Defense of Pigeons - Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

In his book, When God was a Bird, Mark Wallace explains that birds in scripture have something vital to teach us about our incarnate God. And yes, Ragan did loan me this book. Wallace explains that while the birth of Christ in human form may be the ultimate manifestation of the incarnation, or embodiment, of our God, we can see and understand this aspect of God in other places in the natural world, and birds are a fabulous example.

Read More
Hannah Hooker
The Ultimate Comfort - Luke 1:39-55

Elizabeth welcomed Mary with open arms and was all too ready to comfort her and let her know that everything would be okay. But then Mary spoke, and the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leapt, and Elizabeth's whole world was rocked - again. I imagine it was unsettling at first. But this brave young woman who is carrying the Christ child was able to comfort Elizabeth, too.

Read More
Hannah Hooker
Advent Hope in the Night Sky - Jeremiah 33:14-16

Thanksgiving night was clear and cold in the Ozarks, and we sat around a campfire looking to the heavens in absolute awe. I think everyone who sees a night sky like that becomes a theologian. That kind of zooming out when looking at the stars is a way of understanding the season of Advent. This is a big picture season. We are waiting with hope for the arrival of a big picture future, in which God will have restored all things in a new creation.

Read More
Kate Alexander
Who's on first? - Christ the King Sunday; John 18:33-37

Pilate and Jesus are engaged in the age old disagreement about the value of kingship. Just as God tried to explain to the Israelites that a king is not the kind of leader who can bring salvation, Jesus is telling Pilate, I’ll have no part of the kingship you’re describing. For thousands of years, God has been trying to tell us that we cannot put our own savior in power, but even now, in 2024, we in the U.S. are still arguing over what kind of supreme political authority will save us. When will we learn?

Read More
Hannah Hooker
Object Permanence - All Saints' Day

When a person dies, they are seemingly gone from our lives forever, and there is no humor in that sad circumstance. But of course, the empty tomb changes that. The very crux of our faith is that the empty tomb changes everything. And our task as people of faith is to overcome our struggle with spiritual object permanence. To that end, the Holy Spirit has guided the Church to the celebration of the feast of All Saints.

Read More
Hannah Hooker