Sermon Last Sunday after the Epiphany February 7, 2016 William Bradbury Exodus 34:29-35 Psalm 99 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Luke 9:28-36, [37-43a] Of all the gospels Luke tells us the most about Jesus as a man of prayer. He is praying at his baptism, he spends all night in prayer...
Sermon 4 Epiphany—Year C January 31, 2016 William Bradbury Jeremiah 1:4-10, Psalm 71:1-6, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Luke 4:21-30 Today we hear the second half of Jesus’s first sermon to his hometown synagogue. Last week it started so well, but now something goes terribly wrong and the congregation erupts in violence, as they threaten...
Sermon 3 Epiphany—Year C January 24, 2016 William Bradbury Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10, Psalm 19, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a, Luke 4:14-21 Our reading from Luke presents Jesus’ first sermon at his home parish in Nazareth. I was still in seminary when I gave my first sermon at Saint Anne’s, Atlanta, and...
Sermon 2 Epiphany—Year C January 17, 2016 William Bradbury Isaiah 62:1-5, Psalm 36:5-10, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, John 2:1-11 One Saturday afternoon I’m home from college listening to music in my room with my neighbor and great friend David, when my father who has just returned from a wedding at church...
Sermon 1 Epiphany January 10, 2016 William Bradbury Isaiah 43:1-7, Psalm 29, Acts 8:14-17, Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 I heard on the news that Friday would have been Elvis Pressley’s 81 birthday and that over in Memphis at Graceland there were going to be a lot of Elvis impersonators—and of course...
Sermon Christmas 2 January 3, 2016 William Bradbury Jeremiah 31:7-14, Psalm 84, Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a, Matthew 2:13-15,19-23 Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? As Americans we believe in our ability to control the future so it only makes sense to resolve to be agents of change in our lives at the...
Homily First Sunday after Christmas December 27, 2015 William Bradbury Isaiah 61:10-62:3, Psalm 147 or 147:13-21, Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7, John 1:1-18 John’s Gospel proclaims today: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son,...
Sermon Christmas Eve 2015 William Bradbury Isaiah 9:2-7, Psalm 96, Titus 2:11-14, Luke 2:1-14(15-20) The deep sentiment of this night never fails to get to me. The veil between the present and past seems especially thin tonight. I can clearly see my mother and father, brothers, and sister on Christmas morning gathered in...
Sermon Advent 4-C December 20, 2015 William Bradbury Micah 5:2-5a, Canticle 15, Hebrews 10:5-10, Luke 1:39-45, (46-55) We have a celebration of women today in the gospel—or better, a celebration of Jewish women. Young Mary newly pregnant with Jesus, visits her cousin, old Elizabeth, 6 months into her pregnancy with John the Baptist,...
Sermon Advent 3—Year C December 13, 2015 William Bradbury Zephaniah 3:14-20, Canticle 9, Philippians 4:4-7, Luke 3:7-18 Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician of the first order, creating one of the first mechanical calculators. He was also a physicist, and religious philosopher. He died of stomach cancer in 1662 at...
