Sermons Preached at Saint Mark's

I wonder what St. Paul would say to the women in our first reading. Just verses after the ones we hear today from Romans, Paul infamously tells us: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed.”… Read More

Have you noticed how tribalistic we have become in modernity? Wanting to move from just being frustrated by endless news cycles offering cascades of despairing reports, I’ve been digging down into the neurobiological and historical roots of our tribal tendencies, trying to better understand our current predicament. I’ve even been dipping into the astrobiological question, what defines “life” (more on that in the footnotes).… Read More

Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray.… Read More

It’s been four months since I last worshipped with you here in this place. The sabbatical was a delightful blessing, but, oh, how I’ve missed being here!… Read More

I won’t bury the lead today. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. That is the good news.… Read More

Jesus put before the crowd another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.… Read More

Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach.… Read More

What kind of origin story is this? We want our founding fathers and mothers to be heroes, don’t we? We want them to be exceptional. We want them to model how we can use our freedom to liberate others and be an example of justice and righteousness to the world – and instead, we get the book of Genesis. … Read More

“Oh, my Gawd. Can we talk?” This is a signature phrase from my friend Julie, a native New Yorker, rabbi, and hospital chaplain. She would proclaim this whenever she was confronted with something really challenging.… Read More