Trinity 2007 (Rev. Carol Luther) "Today, this . . . Sunday of Trinity, we go through the door from Sacred into Ordinary Time. The door has two framing beams and a lintel. Three parts to make one threshold. Behind us, stretches where we have been and where we will be again when Advent comes and we take up the journey again. Before us, where we are going, is also the place we have always been, but seen through the new eyes of homecoming." (PDF File)

Easter 2007 (Rev. Carol Luther) "Easter will not end my mother's illness or my best friend's alcoholism or the estrangement I feel from my first cousin. Easter will not change the headlines I see in the paper each day. It will not turn everything that was wrong into right. But it might, if I'm lucky, change me." (PDF File)

Good Friday Meditations from the Pew: Paula Zand, The Garden; Jay Luther, The Trial; Billie Barbash, The Crucifixion (PDF Files)

The Bread That I Shall Give for the Life of the World is my Flesh. (Jan Robitscher, M.Div.) ". . . the Eucharist is larger than our individual or even our corporate journeys. Eucharist means thanksgiving and is the way Jesus gave us of remembering--literally re-membering--in thanksgiving his life, death and resurrection--his supreme act of love for us."

Haiti (Janet Fullmer, Seminarian) "You will know that the Kingdom is not what you think it is. God's righteousness and goodness means that you will get what you were promised, but others will too!"

Holy Name, 2006 (Janet Fullmer, Seminarian) "Without naming, and putting words to describe a thing, we can't know it or use it or convey its meaning. . . . God cares about names, too, [and gave us] Jesus. The Lord. In His name is power and strength; in His name is fullness of love and joy; in His name is salvation."

Pentecost, 2005 (Rev. Carol Luther) "Truth is a dance in which all the petals are players. Truth is a labyrinth walking the sacred spiral toward God's heart. Pentecost is how God invites us to dance."

Earth Day (Rev. Carol Luther) "Contrary to the End Times crowd, the Rapture is not wreckage on the freeway of life when a God with a taste for special effects plucks the innocent into the sky and leaves the rest of the earth to crash and burn. Rapture is what we experience in prayer, in sacrament, when we walk through the place that we love and feel the wind against our face and smell the sweet smells of creation."

The Mountain of Transfiguration (Rev. Carol Luther) "You, dull creature of flesh, might in fact be a magical being of light, able to heal a broken world, if you can but break through the spell that holds you fast. Spiritual practice is designed to break the spell."

"I Belong to Paul"-- Thoughts on Christian Division and Unity (Rev. Julie Jensen) As the Diocese embarks on the search for a new Bishop of California, Deacon Julie reminds us that Christ's message is not division, but unity-- and that we can find The Way.

Thoughts on Jesus' Baptism, Christianity and Death (Rev. Carol Luther) This is the sermon of January 9, which starts with a Joan Ryan column discussing various religious leaders' public views on "Where was God in the tsunami." The Rev takes her guidance from older sources, agreeing with the Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann, "Christianity is not reconciliation with death. . . . Christ is . . . Life. And only if Christ is Life, is death what Christianity proclaims it to be, namely the enemy to be destroyed, and not a 'mystery' to be explained."

Repent (Rev. Richard L. Schaper) On Advent and the true meaning of stewardship: "This is the Church's gift to each one of us in Advent: to place our lives into the perspective that one day everything will come to an end, but that we are given these precious days and whatever years to be with one another, to live out our lives on this blessed earth--to receive and enjoy and share and pass on all the gifts that God is giving us." (Note: More of Fr. Schaper's sermons are available through the St. Paul's sermons and archives pages.)

The Institution of Carol Luther (Rev. Dr. Jack Eastwood) The Vic's former rector gives a sermon at her Institution that is both to her and to the Redeemer family. "When you leave here today, remember that wherever you find yourself, with whomever you are with, you are the Redeemer story and your mission is about being 'life-givers.' But, again, remember, it is a long name, and it takes a long time to tell. And so be patient, it takes time to grow."

Keeping Faith in a Time of Fear (Rev. Carol Luther) "[After September 11,] I found that the hardest thing to live with was this new sense of uncertainty. . . . [Yet,] there is nothing that God cannot turn to the good if we only trust in God, and that is all the courage we need."

Begin With the End in Mind (Rev. Carol Luther) Living our lives, when Sunday is over and Monday begins: "So, following the advice 'begin with the end in mind,' I set a spiritual goal in addition to my corporate ones. My spiritual goal was that I would start looking for the invisible hand of God, not only at Church, but in my own daily work at the office."

Busy, Busy Lives (Rev. Julie Jensen) "The need to be- or to seem to be- busy has grown exponentially over the last few years." It can distract us from our true call from God-- "We're not asked to do the best we can, with our busy schedules. We are asked to be the best we can be."

Confirmation, The Beatitudes-- and Gandalf and Frodo (Rev. Carol Luther) Rev. Carol's sermon to a filled Grace Cathedral at the confirmation of a record number of Redeemer confirmands: "Since I asked for a story, God gave me a story. Since I asked for a wonder worker, God gave me one. Many out there say that wizards can't teach you about Christ. I know better, for my first great religious teacher was Gandalf the Gray."

January 18 Sermon Swap: Nativity at Redeemer (Rev. Stacey Grossman); Redeemer at St. Paul's (Rev. Julie Jensen); St. Paul's at Nativity (Rev. Lynn Oldham Robinett). Sermons that teach San Rafael's Three Episcopal Churches about each other in the spirit of Epiphany: What are we to do together as we find "the Eureka moment?"

Thoughts on Mother's Day, Ascension, and the Homeless (Rev. Carol Luther) A shivering, motherless, black Labrador puppy who has  been given a new, two footed, mother teaches us about the ministry of nurture that is central to Christianity.

Midnight in The Garden of Gethsemane: a Good Friday Meditation by Simon Peter (Rev. Carol Luther) Consider the moment when Simon Peter's universe collapsed. And it would get much worse. . . .

The Prodigal-- A Lenten Sermon (Rev. Carol Luther) Is the well-known story of the good son and the bad son really about two bad sons?

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