Sacred Words and Art

The World Spins, Jesus Remains A Sermon for Christmas Day December 25, 2024 The Rev. Robin Teasley   Our family gathers for a simple dinner at the end of Christmas Day, and there is always a German Christmas pyramid in the center of our table. It was a gift from my mother early on in our marriage, and it came from the Lillian Vernon catalog before there was such a thing as online shopping. There are three levels filled with angels, shepherds, magi, sheep and camels, and in the center, the Holy Family. When the candles at its base are lit, the warmth from the candlelight rises up and when it reaches the blades at the top, the pyramid begins to spin, a beautiful Christmas merry go round.    Over the years, the scientists in our household have experimented to determine the best height of the candles, how many candles should be lit at one time, and the perfect degree of slant for the adjustable blades to make the pyramid rotate at just the right speed. Some years my boys deli...

Rituals A Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost September 1, 2024  The Rev. Robin Teasley   When the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ You abandon th...

Sharing Wisdom A Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost August 25, 2024 The Rev. Robin Teasley   Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands to heaven. He said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart, the covenant that you kept for your servant my father David as you declared to him; you promised with your mouth and have this day fulfilled with your hand. Therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant my father David that which you promised him, saying, ‘There shall never fail you a successor before me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children look to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’ Therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you promised to your servant my father David.   “But will God ...

Gift and Goal A Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost August 4, 2024 The Rev. Robin Teasley   I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it is said, "When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people." (When it says, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all...