100 episodes

Sermons from the clergy of the Church of the Redeemer, and Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, Cincinnati, OH.

Sermons from the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

    • Religion & Spirituality
    • 5.0 • 3 Ratings

Sermons from the clergy of the Church of the Redeemer, and Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, Cincinnati, OH.

    Go where Jesus is - Guest Speaker

    Go where Jesus is - Guest Speaker

    And often this change that we really want is to
    desperately go back to when we remember what we remember as simpler or better
    or easier times. We want our churches to be like they were. And of course, they
    were wonderful. We want them and our
    world to slow down and stop changing.
    But unfortunately, staying static or spending all of our energy and
    words pining for what was or what could be, really isn't the way of Jesus.


    What is it Jesus says after he tells us to lose our
    life? He says, if any of you wants to
    serve me, then follow me, then you'll be
    where I am ready to serve at a moment's
    notice. Follow me, be where I am. Be
    ready to go where I am going. It's a
    challenge for us personally, but also collectively. We have to look for where Jesus is going and
    ask if we are willing to go there too.


    In January, 2020, just two months before COVID, before we knew what was coming our way, I was sitting in a room a lot like this
    with Bishop Michael Curry, and he was talking to young adults in Washington,
    DC, and he said something that I had never heard him say before. He said, what
    people forget is that the institution of the church exists in order to serve
    the movement of Jesus, not the other way around.


    The institution exists to serve the movement of Jesus.
    The movement of Jesus does not exist to serve the institution. I think that's a lot of what Jesus is talking
    about today, especially here in the year 2024.
    And I think we're being asked collectively if we are willing to lose the
    church we want in order to follow Jesus to go where he is reckless in our love.
    A love that has an internal impact. Are we willing to lose the church we want
    in order to be the church he's calling us to be? If we were to go where Jesus is, then we have
    to ask, so where is Jesus, right?

    Guest Preacher: Jerusalem Greer

    • 18 min
    Big Feelings - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

    Big Feelings - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

    People come at us, and we're not really sure where they're coming from. And sometimes our first instinct is to take whatever energies come up that are thrown our way and throw it right back.


    Someone wants to come at you with some kind of anger or argument., you're going to knock them down. This is the way of our world friends. This is the way we think. Whenever you come with me at my way, I'm going to throw right back at you. You know who I'm going to treat, right? The people who treat me right.


    And I define how I'm treated as right. And I'm not at all. If you come at me one way, I'm going to come right back at you and give it twice as hard. This is the way of the world, but also argue that this way of dealing with something coming our way that we don't quite understand what that energy is. I want to suggest that this is actually a way that we experience our relationship with God, because friends, we do not quite understand God and what God's doing and how God's doing it.


    God is mysterious and confusing and uncertain to us in so many ways. And so when we interact with God, we come into that conversation, into that situation, not really knowing what we're dealing with, right? Is this God that's coming my way? Is this God coming my way with anger and wrath? Is this God coming my way in some sort of furious puff of emotion?


    Is this God coming at me, judging me and here to tell me all the things that are wrong with me?

    • 14 min
    Price Gouging - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

    Price Gouging - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

    When Jesus gets angry, it's because someone is getting in the way of someone else experiencing God's love. In the case of the temple, the people that are there, are selling oxen and livestock and things like that which are meant for sacrifice according to the commandments, and that's part of how people atone, and keep their relationship with God.


    And the people who are there selling those things and exchanging money, it's clear that they're doing something, most likely price gouging. They're praying on the people's need for confession and absolution and they're profiting from that. And instead of helping people connect with God, they're actually getting in the way of people's connection with God.


    And friends, our goal as Christians always is to help people connect with the God who loves them. Our goal is to love and to help others to love and be loved.

    • 2 min
    When the Self is at the Center - The Rev. Dr. Herschel Wade

    When the Self is at the Center - The Rev. Dr. Herschel Wade

    He had on multiple occasions, masterfully bested fierce
    opposition for the most respected religious authorities. He astounded the crowds with his teachings
    and actions. And he demonstrated both
    the power and authority expected of a Messiah.
    However, such an expectation comes up short. It distorts one's vision and makes one see
    with the human eyes on one level, Peter's eyes did not cause him to
    miscalculate Jesus's power. Peter was
    able to see all of Jesus's wondrous feats.
    However, he was not understanding what Jesus was aiming to
    accomplish. He and the other disciples
    seem to be more preoccupied where Jesus' messianic power and title are rather
    than his life-giving mission.


    Of course, the title Messiah is important for
    establishing an authority bestowed by God.
    But what good is a title when detached from Jesus' counter cultural
    mission to seek and save the lost, the broken and outcast? No.
    Peter's mind wasn't capable of envisioning all the possibilities
    accessible to God, especially not a God who came to serve and not be served.


    Not when the stakes are so high, when doing what is
    accomplished by the human eye and mind would not accomplish what God
    accomplished through Jesus Christ for humanity.
    So, maybe Peter doesn't deserve any partial credit at all. Maybe placing limits on God because of human desires
    is something exactly from the devil.


    Because there is just too much at stake. To announce Jesus as the Messiah before his
    true glorification would be inadequate and incomplete. For the Son of Man must undergo suffering,
    rejection, and death. It is precisely
    for this reason that his followers, including Peter, would eventually take up
    their crosses and lose their lives.

    • 11 min
    My Beloved - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

    My Beloved - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

    You are a daughter of God, in you, God is well
    pleased. You are a son of God, in you, God is well pleased. And I have heard
    this and I have come to believe it and it has changed the way I understand my
    whole relationship with God, to understand that I'm not trying to become a
    beloved child of God. I am beloved.


    I am God's son.
    And this is a part of my core identity and is meant to be a part of all
    of our core identities. This has been the end, the climax of a lot of the
    sermons that I've preached, not just here but throughout my, preaching career, to remind you all, to remind us all of our belovedness.


    Because I've always thought I need to
    remember it, first of all. But secondly, I'm kind of a restless
    person. And I keep thinking, well, if I just believe in my
    belovedness, it'll give me some peace.


    If I can just find a home in my belovedness and God's
    loving me unconditionally, then I will maybe be a little bit less restless.
    Maybe I'll be a little bit more peaceful and calm and things will get easier
    for me. That's my hope for me. And that's my hope for you.


    But then I read the text today and you'll notice that Jesus is baptized. And he comes out of
    the water, and the sky cracks open, and the Holy Spirit lights upon him like a
    dove, and God says, this is my son, you are my son, my beloved, and in you, I am well pleased. And then it says, and
    immediately, the Spirit drove him out
    into the wilderness. Well, crap.

    • 10 min
    The Hill of Your Transfiguration - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

    The Hill of Your Transfiguration - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

    "Maybe your mother would be up on that hill or an aunt that helped you or a grandfather that mentored you. Would it be someone who has shaped the way you see the world like Moses and Elijah did? Would it be James Baldwin up on that hill or Ayn Rand or something like that? Moses and Elijah both had a sort of national reality.
    Would it be Thomas Jefferson or George Washington on that hill or the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King? Would you find Ronald Reagan on that hill or FDR? Who would be on that hill for you as you go up? Who are the people that shape you? Who are the people that have made you see the world a specific way? Because that is what happens with Jesus.
    It's not just this symbolic reality that he embodies the law and the prophets. It is that he faces those who have shaped him and influenced him. And this is a moment of great importance because we realize when we hear this story that we are never actually alone in our lives. Jesus is a singular figure, we know this, but Jesus is shaped and accompanied by those who have gone before.
    And as the story says, he is watched over even by God who loves him, sees him as beloved."

    • 14 min

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