Sermon Palm Sunday–Sunday of the Passion April 9, 2017 William Bradbury Isaiah 50:4-9a, Psalm 31, Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew’s Passion We rehearse Jesus’ Way of the Cross, performing his last hours, because this is the Master Story that reveals that God is love for us. Jesus is the Son of...
Sermon Lent 5-Year A, April 2, 2017 William Bradbury Ezekiel 37:1-14, Psalm 130, Romans 8:6-11, John 11:1-45 Last week we saw that the gospels were never meant to be read as dry history about what Jesus said and did in the past. John himself says he wrote his gospel so that...
Sermon Lent 4—Year A, March 26, 2017 William Bradbury 1 Samuel 16:1-13, Psalm 23, Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9:1-41 The gospels were not written to provide us a journalistic account of Jesus of Nazareth: Which is to say they were not written by some so-called objective reporters from the Jerusalem Times who...
Sermon Lent 3—Year A, March 19, 2017 William Bradbury Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11, John 4:5-42 Saint Paul makes a startling claim in Romans today. He claims repeatedly that God has come to us in Jesus Christ. This is a claim that undercuts all human religion because religion is always...
Sermon Lent 2—Year A March 12, 2017 William Bradbury Genesis 12:1-4a, Psalm 121, Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, John 3:1-17 In the Oscar nominated movie “Lion”, based on the true story from the book A Long Way Home, a poor five year old Indian boy named Saroo gets tired of waiting for his...
Sermon Lent 1—Year A, March 5, 2017 William Bradbury Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7, Psalm 32, Romans 5:12-19, Matthew 4:1-11 As the story goes, Adam and Eve are living in a paradise with every need met. They are not tempted by the terrifying voice of a demon to anger or violence; or passion...
Sermon Last Epiphany ,February 26, 2017 William Bradbury Exodus 24:12-18, Psalm 2, 2 Peter 1:16-21, Matthew 17:1-9 I’ve been noticing lately TV commercials by a company called Ancestry encouraging folks to sign up for DNA testing to uncover what they call “your ancestry mix”, covering 26 ethnic regions. My mother would have...
Sermon 7 Epiphany—Year A, February 19, 2017 William Bradbury Leviticus 19:1-2,9-18, Psalm 119:33-40, 1 Corinthians 3:10-11,16-23, Matthew 5:38-48 I heard someone the other day say they wish they had been around in 1st century Palestine so they could have known Jesus personally. I admit this would have been an amazing experience though I suspect...
Sermon 6 Epiphany—Year A February 12, 2017 William Bradbury Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Psalm 119:1-8, 1 Corinthians 3:1-9, Matthew 5:21-37 It’s always dangerous to take scripture out of context, and certainly this is especially true with today’s passage about anger and lust. The first thing to remember is that Jesus is talking...
Sermon 5 Epiphany—Year A February 5, 2017 William Bradbury Isaiah 58:1-9a, [9b-12], Psalm 112:1-9, (10), 1 Corinthians 2:1-12, [13-16], Matthew 5:13-20 Melissa Thompson asked me last week if I would be wearing any Falcons gear to the parish breakfast this morning. I said if I had any I’d gladly wear it...
