Ascension Written Sermons

The Reverend Christopher Hogin A Crisis of Faith: Genesis 28:10-19; Psalm 139:1-11, 22-23 The Episcopal Church of the Ascension July 23, 2017 What happens when our beliefs get rocked to the core? What happens when everything we are certain of gets turns upside down? How do we cope?             Barbara Ehrenreich is a journalist, political activist, and staunch atheist. Some of you may have read her bestseller, Nickle and Dimed . She wrote a memoir a few years, but not one you’d expect. The memoir is not a diatribe on the economic or political system of our country. Instead, she reflects on two events during her younger years that shook her deeply.             The first incident happened when she and her family visited a horse show. Bored, she wandered into a nearby forest. Everything appeared normal. Then it all changed. Something happened. For a brief moment a la...

The Clothes We Wear Rob Gieselmann, July 16, 2017 Charles Eastman was a Native American doctor and writer at the turn of the last century. In his book, The Soul of an Indian, he describes the spirituality of Dakota pregnancy and childbirth. It was believed that the mother transmitted her attitude and secret meditations to the baby during gestation – She would thus take care with her meditations, and isolate herself in nature for prayer. When the time came, she would deliver the child alone, and listen for nature to speak these words: It is love! The fulfilling of life! Then finally, after birth, she would return to camp holding her mysterious and holy bundle tightly at her breast – for though fully delivered, the baby was separated from his mother by only the thinnest of threads … The two – mother and baby – remained very much a part of each other. Which all makes me wonder about Rebecca, and her failure, if you will, as a parent. She felt connected to only one of her ...

The Reverend Christopher Hogin It’s Not About Me Genesis 22:1-19 The Episcopal Church of The Ascension July 2, 2017 In 1953, novelist Kurt Vonnegut wrote a short story called, All The King’s Horses . It’s about a colonel in the United States army assigned to a post in India. He and his family fly over Southeast Asia on a transport plane, but the plane crashes in territory held by a Communist faction. They are captured by a sadistic Communist guerilla chief, marched into the jungle and imprisoned. The guerilla chief summons the colonel and tells him that if he can outwit him in a game of chess, he, his family, and the soldiers can leave. If he loses all will be executed.             Before they begin the guerilla chief says, “I forgot to mention, there’s a twist.” The colonel is marched into the courtyard. Before him is a life-sized chess board. The soldiers are pawns, the officers as rooks and bishops. To his horror ...