Ascension Written Sermons

The Rev. Robert P. Travis Pentecost 12 th Sunday Sermon – 8:00am and 10:30am Church of the Ascension, Knoxville TN RCL Proper 15 Year B 8/19/2012 Scripture Text: 1 Kings 2:10-12,3:3-14, Psalm 111, Ephesians 5:15-20, John 6:51-58 Sermon Text: When I was a kid, I really connected with this passage from 1 st Kings about Solomon. Maybe it was because he says to God, “I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in,” that I felt I could relate to Solomon when I was a child. In any case, I thought it was awesome, the way Solomon prayed for Wisdom, and even more awesome, how God responded so positively to his prayer, and not only granted him the wisdom he requested, but also granted him everything else he didn't ask for. I was so into that passage, that I started praying for wisdom too, thinking that was the key to everything. Now, you can judge for yourselves whether my prayer was answered, some might sa...

The Rev. Amy Hodges Morehous August 12, 2012 Proper 14 Church of the Ascension When my sister and I were little, we had a bit of a case of hero worship for our uncle, my father's youngest brother. My mother is an only child, and my other uncle had died, so he was our only uncle on either side. He was always really great with technology and electronics. He brought us the first VCR we'd ever seen and loaned it to us for the afternoon. It looked amazing on our 12" television set.  We thought he was kind of like a wizard - poof!- you never knew when he would pop up with something cool and interesting. He had a great laugh, and would be thrilled with our interest in whatever he was trying to explain to us. But the visits grew fewer, and his behavior grew stranger. We visited him in the hospital one weekend, and he looked terrible. I found out when I got older that he had "borrowed" a motorcycle, and had an accident at a busy intersection. He stopped vi...

August 5, 2012 The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost Robert P. Wadley "The Bread of Life I've just returned from two weeks vacation, during which I had a lot of time to think about what I might say today.  In fact, I've known for two months that I would be preaching today, so I've had ample time to read the assigned lectionary and try to find a theme on which I could focus.  Unlike our clergy, who preach much more often, and rarely have extended, uninterrupted periods of time to prepare, yet deliver wonderful messages week after week, I am given a lot of time to prepare.  That doesn't mean you will get a better, or maybe even an adequate, sermon.  But, hopefully, ten minutes from now, you will still be awake and I won't have made a complete fool of myself.  One of the things I thought about was reflecting on Fr. Howard's sermon four weeks ago in which he described his call.  What he said then made me ask myself, what are you doing up here?  We...