A Homily For Christmas Day

Lectionary Readings for Christmas Day I: Psalm 96, Isaiah 9:2-7, Titus 2:11-14, Luke 2:1-14 (15-20) “When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they […]

A Homily for Advent 4

Lectionary Readings for the Fourth Sunday in Advent, Year A: Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18, Isaiah 7:10-16, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-25 With the arrival of Advent 4, there is only one remaining Last Thing to discuss: Hell. The readings for today might not broach this subject directly, but the prophet Isaiah does offer a little commentary on […]

A Homily For Advent 3

Lectionary Readings for the Third Sunday in Advent, Year A: Psalm 146:4-9. Isaiah 35:1-10, James 5:7-10, Matthew 11:2-11 In the tradition of preaching about the Four Last Things, The Third Sunday in Advent, also known as Gaudete Sunday, coincides with the topic of Heaven. Gaudete is a Latin plural imperative, a commandment to “rejoice!”. This […]

A Homily For Advent 2

Dear Readers, Bear with me as I do some back-posting for Advent 2-4 and an only slightly late homily for Christmas Day.JKR+ Lectionary Readings for the Second Sunday in Advent, Year A: Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19, Isaiah 11:1-10, Romans 15:4-13, Matthew 3:1-12 In keeping with the Advent tradition of covering The Four Last Things, today’s topic […]

A Homily For Advent 1

Lectionary Readings for The First Sunday in Advent, Year A: Psalm 122, Isaiah 2:1-5, Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 24:36-44 As we enter Advent and begin our liturgical year anew, I want to briefly reflect on the tradition of preaching about The Four Last Things on successive Sundays in Advent and on Advent as a season. I’ll […]

A Righteous Branch: A Christ The King Sermon

Eucharistic Readings for the Last Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 29, Year C: Jeremiah 23:1-6, Colossians 1:11-20, Luke 23:35-43 “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” – […]

Notes on Grief and Repair

Dear Readers, At long last, I’m making a return to this blog and to posting writing on the internet after several shifts in my life due to the global pandemic. I hope that you are all staying well and safe as we continue to do what we can to promote public health and keep ourselves […]

Figuring Stations of the Cross

This week, I served as the reader for stations of the cross at the parish I attend here in New Haven. If you’re unfamiliar with stations, here’s a quick rundown of how the service works. In addition to a priest, there are four servers required: 1 crucifer, 2 torchbearers, and 1 reader. The service begins […]

Prodigal Joy

Today is Laetare Sunday (fourth Sunday in Lent), which marks the halfway point of the forty days of Lent. Today and Gaudete Sunday (third Sunday of Advent) are the only times in the liturgical year when we wear rose-colored vestments in order to represent joy in the midst of penitential seasons and remind us that […]

Church in the Wild: Robert Hayden’s “Ice Storm”

Recently I’ve been going through a rough time, juggling back-to-back losses of family members, recovering from seasonal affective disorder, and trying to reinforce positive self-talk after a recent batch of gender dysphoria. In addition to the everyday stress of teaching and dissertation prospectus writing, this has made for a tempestuous start to the spring and […]