Sacred Words and Art

The Love of God   A Sermon for Maundy Thursday April 6, 2023 The Rev. Robin Teasley   Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share wit...

Whiplash   A Sermon for the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday April 2, 2023 The Rev. Robin Teasley Matthew 26:14 - 27:66   Some clergy I know have called this Whiplash Sunday. Liturgically we move from outside to inside, from purple to red hangings, from dried vine arrangements to palms. Notice the music as it changes from joyful to mournful as we move through the service. Palm Sunday is filled with motion and emotion, and it begins a roller coaster week in the life of Jesus and the disciples. We heard, we felt, the Passion Narrative describe how the mood changed from the time Jesus entered into Jerusalem to his death on the cross. At first, he was cheered by a crowd shouting hosanna, but the crowd then changed its allegiance and shouted for Jesus to be crucified. Whiplash.   In the Passion Narrative today, some of us read the various parts, but even if we didn’t have a speaking part this morning, we all have a part in this great cosmic drama. So it seems good to take a ...

Unbinding A Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent March 26, 2023 The Rev. Robin Teasley      (Grateful to Lindsay Ryland for preaching this sermon, as I was unwell.)                      The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”  So...

The Optometrist  A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent                    March 19, 2023 The Rev. Robin Teasley         As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not...

Water Jars A Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent March 12, 2023 The Rev. Robin Teasley   Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus sa...