“You do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Pet. 1:19). The season of Epiphany begins with […]
Learn more“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?”(Matt. 5:13). “Salt of the earth,” from our Gospel today: an online definition of the expression uses the words […]
Learn more“Consider your own call, brothers and sisters” (1 Cor. 1:26). St. Paul wrote his letters, which make up a large part of the New Testament, to small Christian communities in Europe and Asia, hundreds of years ago. When […]
Learn more“Why are you standing here idle all day… You also go into the vineyard”(Matt. 20:6-7). Today we commemorate Phillips Brooks, a noted preacher and pastor, elected Bishop of Massachusetts not long before his untimely death around the turn […]
Learn moreIntroduction. Beloved parishioners, clergy, delegates, and friends of the Diocese: welcome to the 194thAnnual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee. We gather around the theme, “Make the most of the time,” from the fifth chapter of St. […]
Learn more“I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Is. 49:6). Epiphany is the season of light: the time in the Church’s calendar when Christ is […]
Learn more“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights” (Is. 42:1). A lot can hang on a single word, and in our first reading today a whole lot is hanging on the word […]
Learn more“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live”(Jo. 11:25). We gather today to commend our departed friend and brother Stu Phillips to the keeping of almighty God, to […]
Learn more“For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage”(Matt. 2:2). The birth of Jesus Christ took place “in accordance with the Scriptures” (as we say in the Creed), and by that we […]
Learn more“In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered” (Lk. 2:1). The Christmas story plunges us, whether we like it or not, into the world of politics: that is, the […]
Learn more“When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him” (Matt 1:24). In our Gospel reading this morning, the angel of the Lord speaks to Joseph in a dream, while he’s asleep. Joseph […]
Learn more“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you” (Matt 11:10; cf. Mal. 3:1). Jesus in our Gospel today quotes from the prophet Malachi: one of many references to the Old […]
Learn more“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots” (Is. 11:1). We all have roots: a grounding in the soil of history and personality. If you asked me […]
Learn more“Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it” (Mk. 10:15). Today we gather to celebrate the Life Profession of Sister Felicity in the Community of St. […]
Learn more“The night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom. 13:12). In ancient Israel, “the day of the Lord” was a day […]
Learn more“Through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us” (Lk. 1:78). “Dayspring” means “dawn”: that period in the morning when light becomes visible, before the sun appears. During the dawn the […]
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