Jesus Sets Us Free
The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. (Isaiah 58) We do not know her name. We know nothing about her family or her home life. But we can imagine her. A […]
Lord Teach us to Pray
1 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart; * 4 When I called, you answered me; *you increased my strength within me. (Psalm 138: 1,4) Prayer has been a constant in my life. I grew up in church where there were prayers offered in word and in song. Adults invited me to pray in […]
The Fierce Urgency of Now
O Lord, you are my portion and my cup; *it is you who uphold my lot. I have set the Lord always before me; *because he is at my right hand I shall not fall. (Psalm 16:5 and 8) On April 4, 1967 as our country was engaged in a battle for the human rights of all its […]
Breaking Our Chains and Shackles
Be not far away, O Lord; *you are my strength; hasten to help me. Our story today from the Gospel of Luke is found in all three synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke-synoptic meaning containing similar or the same stories and point of view. Jesus has decided to cross the lake. This lake is not what comes […]
Everywhere God
To the Holy Spirit that sanctifies us, with the Father that made and created us, and the Son that redeemed us, be given all honour and glory, world without end. Thomas Cranmer Richard Rohr begins his most recent book, The Universal Christ[1],with a story from an autobiography of the twentieth century English mystic, Caryll Houselander. The story […]
Speaking people fluently
O God take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hands and work through them, and take our hearts and set them on fire. Today we celebrate the day of Pentecost. The Pentecost story takes place in Jerusalem on the feast day of Shavuot, fifty days after […]
A Sermon Preached on Easter 7C June 2, 2019 Grace Episcopal Church, Great Barrington, MA Ms. Lee Cheek, Licensed Lay Preacher
The Right Place for Love[i] Late Friday night, when I plugged my cell phone into its charger, I saw the news of the latest mass shooting. This time at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center. This time 12 adults. This time 4 wounded. This time an “Oh no!” escaped from me as I felt the beginning […]
Do you want to be made well?
1 May God be merciful to us and bless us, *show us the light of his countenance and come to us. 2 Let your ways be known upon earth, *your saving health among all nations. (Psalm 67) On Thursday, I heard for the first time the achingly honest story of Chris Herren. Our Grace Church brought […]
“Crazy Love” A Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Steve White, May 12, 2019
http://graceberkshires.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/SteveWhiteSermon.mp3
Love One Another
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord my strength and my redeemer. The writer Silas House tells of sitting in his small family church listening to the minister rail against the sin of homosexuality. “Red faced, dress shirt soaked with sweat, fist slamming […]