Ascension Written Sermons

Proper 17 Year C Hebrews 13:1-8,15-16, Luke 14:1,7-14 Fr. Robert P. Travis Sermon Text: How many of you know the name Karl Barth? You may have heard of him, or you may not have, as he is one of the most famous theologians of the 20th Century. He was a pastor, preacher and teacher from Switzerland, who also taught at the most highly regarded German Universities. He lectured in this country at Princeton, and the University of Chicago. The majority of Barth’s life was spent teaching and writing, with some public lecturing and preaching. His major writings include the commentary on Romans, [and] Church Dogmatics (a multi–volume systematic theology of nearly seventy–five hundred pages...” (Douglas, J. D., Comfort, P. W., & Mitchell, D. (1997, c1992). Who's who in Christian history. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House.) But in the last decade before he retired, he also spent time preaching in his local prison. I guess you could say he wanted a captive audience. I'm going to tell you a s...

Proper 16 Year C Luke 13:10-17 True Sabbath The Rev. Brett P. Backus “And the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.” Today's message is about true sabbath. It is about both our ability and necessity as Christians to successfully encounter God in and through God's work. Sabbath. So, in the Backus family, church participation was not really a choice. I was so used to this idea in fact, that when my bedroom door would open, at what seemed to a teenager to be some ungodly hour, and my mother would tell me plainly that it was time to get up for church, I didn't even try to argue or fuss because I already knew that this battle in particular was a complete and utter waste of time. Though it seemed unpleasant at the time, as I reflect on this family discipline, I am now very thankful. I am thankful for the respect for and value of the sabbath day that has been instilled in me over the course of my life by my parents. However, I must admit ...

The Rev. Amy Morehous Proper 15, Year C Church of the Ascension August 16, 2010 What words we have before us in the scripture readings today, the ‘love-song about a vineyard’, according to Isaiah. Trampled. Ravaged. Burned. Rebuked. Tortured. Flogged. Stoned. Killed. What on earth could we find of meaning in these accounts of desolation, and violence and rebuke? However could we reconcile a loving God with these words of warning, and judgement, and violence? Particularly knowing that Paul means for some of those horrific words to be reassuring. You think you have it bad now, you Hebrews ! Just remember what your predecessors went through, and be reassured! I don’t know about you, but that is sometimes the kind of comforting I can do without. Like most families, today I’m focused on new beginnings - new classes, new teachers. In fact, in a few moments, we will bless all the children headed back to school, to face all those shiny new pencils, shiny new friends, and shiny new anxieties th...

Fr. Robert P. Travis August 1, 2010 The last time August began with this Gospel was on a Sunday morning in 2004. What if you had made plans in 2004, about what you would do with your treasure then, to enjoy it comfortably for the rest of your life? Would you have found that things had changed by 2010? But in spite of these financial challenges, The Psalmist tells us this morning “Consider well the mercies of the Lord.” And from Paul we hear, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and your life his hidden with Christ in God.” By being baptized into the death of Jesus, we are invited into a new life, that is different from all those around us. Because seem very much like the people living a merely human life around us, It is hard to consider the mercies of God, and to set our minds on things that are above, especially in the place we live in the world today. It is hard to set our minds on things that are above, when the things on eart...

The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C July 25, 2010 Relying Upon the Kindness of Strangers The Reverend Dr. Howard J. Hess I. Introduction: Today in our Gospel reading, Luke writes about our Lord’s effort to teach his disciples to pray. He begins, “When you pray say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come . . . ” Then to make his teaching crystal clear, he told his disciples a story about a man whose friend from out of town arrived unexpectedly in the middle of the night. He had insufficient food for his guest and thus he went out into the night to find fresh bead. A critical Middle Eastern value was at stake here -- hospitality. The honor of the host and even of the whole village was on the line. How would they respond to the sojourner who had come among them? The guest in this story was in part reliant upon the kindness of strangers. Out of desperation, the host goes out into the night to find the food he needed and knocked on a nei...

The Rev. Robert P. Travis Seventh Sunday after the Pentecost – 8:00 and 10:30am Church of the Ascension, Knoxville TN RCL Proper 10 Year C 7/11/2010 Amos 7:7-17, Psalm 82, Colossians 1:1-14, Luke 10:25-37 Sermon Text: The story of the Good Samaritan seems so familiar because we use the term Good Samaritan all the time. We think we all know this story by heart, and so it can seem difficult to find the good news in it. But as I was looking at the text to prepare for this morning I found that it is much deeper than I expected, and offers much to those who are willing to listen to it. If we're honest with ourselves, it is much easier for most of us to identify with the priest and the Levite in the story. In fact, being a priest standing before you today it is pretty embarrassing to see how Jesus portrays the two religious characters in the story. If we want to take their side we could say “hey, maybe the priest was on his way to the temple to perform some righteous acts, or maybe the ...

The Rev. Amy Hodges Morehous Proper 9, Year C July 4, 2010 Church of the Ascension 2 Kings :1-14 Psalm 30 Galatians 6:1-16 Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 “Oh, say can you see….” How odd, today, of all days, to begin with the reading about Naaman – that conquering general, and famous leper. On this day, the day when we celebrate our freedoms – at least, our political ones – our unalienable rights in this country, rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – we hear a story about a famous, successful, wealthy and powerful man, a man who had everything one might think would make him happy in life, but who was on a desperate quest to find the one thing that would make him whole. Naaman is a general in the Syrian army, and an enemy of Israel – a man who commanded armies, who defeated his enemies…and a man who was defeated by his own body. If you’ve ever had any sort of chronic illness, you know exactly how frustrating it is to be at the mercy of your own immune system. Such was Naaman’s ...