Palm Sunday Is 50:4-9a; Phil 2:5-11 Mark 11:1-11; Mark 14:32-15:39 Rev. Deborah Meister Last week, someone hung a noose beside a church near my former one. It was not the first time that church had been defaced: someone had already taken down their Black Lives Matter banner, twice. Six Asian women were killed by a […]
Lent 4 Numbers 21:4-9; Ps 107:1-3, 17-22 Eph 2: 1-10; John 3:14-21 The Rev. Dr. Deborah Meister As many of us know, Dean Bertrand is an accomplished runner, with a bounty of marathon medals to his name. My own career as a runner was much more ignominious.: I ran cross-country for one quarter in high […]
Lent 1 Genesis 9:8-17 Psalm 25:1-9 1 Peter 3:18-22 Mark 1:9-15 The Rev. Dr. Deborah Meister As many of you know, a group of former inmates meets each week in Fulford (or, this year, online) to support one another in building a new life which is truly free. I learned this week that, each year, […]
Presentation of Our Lord Mal 3:1-4; Ps 84 Heb 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-40 The Rev. Dr. Deborah Meister “Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God.” (Luke […]
The Feast of the Epiphany Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72: 1-7, 10-14 Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12 The Rev. Dr Deborah Meister A few hours from my childhood home, there is a marvelous set of caverns, named Luray. Descending deep into the limestone hills, the caverns comprise two and a half kilometers of extraordinary rock formations, cave […]
Second Sunday in Advent Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8 The Rev’d Dr. Deborah Meister I arrived in Los Angeles during a 10-year drought. After my first year there, I moved into a one-room cottage behind an apartment building which boasted a treasure: it had its own garden. Bare, brown earth. […]
All Saints Day I John 3:1-3; Ps 34 Matt 5:1-12 Rev. Dr. Deborah Meister On November 1st, 1997, I spent the evening at a choir rehearsal, practicing the pieces of music which we would sing for All Saints Sunday. We sang There is a Balm in Gilead (my stepfather’s favorite spiritual) and Stanford’s setting of […]
Feast of St. Francis Jer 22:13-16; Ps 148:7-14 Gal 6:14-18; Matt 11: 25-30 The Rev’d Dr. Deborah Meister In August of 1224, St.Francis took three of his companions into the wilderness for a time of fasting and of prayer. They went there because Francis was dying, and he sought some space to prepare for his […]
Feast of Holy Cross Num 21:4b-9; Ps 98:1-6 I Cor 1:18-24; John 3:13-17 The Rev’d Dr. Deborah Meister “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (I Cor 1: 18) At the beginning of the fifth century, […]
Feast of St. Mary the Virgin Isaiah 7:10-15; Ps 132:6-10, 13-14 Gal 4:4-7; Luke 1:46-55 The Rev. Dr. Deborah Meister Sermon on Facebook If you travel on the Western coast of Turkey, about halfway down, you come to the ruins of Ephesus, a significant port in the ancient world where the apostle Paul founded one […]
I Kings 19:9-18; Ps 85: 8-13 Rom 10: 5-15; Matt 14:22-33 The Rev. Dr Deborah Meister Sermon on Facebook Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but […]
Sermon for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost – July 19, 2020 – Rev. Dr. Deborah Meister Isaiah 44:6-8; Ps 86:11-17 Rom 8: 12-25; Matt 13:24-30, 36-43 Sermon on Facebook Early yesterday morning, I took my dog for a walk; then I washed my hands. Later, we went to Mount Royal Park; then I washed my […]