Sermons from 2009

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton December 24, 2009 – Christmas Eve A student at The University of Georgia got a job as a disc jockey at a little radio station in commerce, Georgia. He also got a room at a hotel in town and commuted to school, which was not far away. Sometimes at night, he would crawl out of his window and sit on the roof of the hotel. He would look out over that little town. One…

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton December 13, 2009 Read: Luke 3:7-18 John has some harsh words to say this morning. First he addresses the crowd – those people who went out of their way to travel into the wilderness to see him and hear him – by calling them a “brood of vipers”. How would you like to be called a viper? And notice it is a brood – in other words, children. Children of snakes he says. And…

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton December 6, 2009 Read: Baruch 5:1-9 and Luke 3:1-6 From Baruch: “For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground, so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God”. From Luke’s gospel: “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and…

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton November 22, 2009 (Christ the King Sunday) Read: John 18:33-37; Revelation 1:4b-8 Well, it’s the last Sunday in the season of Pentecost and next week we begin the season of Advent. Advent is the beginning of the church calendar year. Today is a Sunday of endings and new beginnings. Today is also traditionally known as Christ the King Sunday. Christ the King – another contrast. A contrast between what we tend to view as…

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton November 8, 2009 Read: Mark 12:38-44 and Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17 Widows are prominent in today’s readings from scripture. Both Naomi and Ruth were widowed and lived a difficult life until Ruth found a partner in Boaz. As widows, they were subjected to the oppression of their times. And in Mark we hear about the scribes who ‘devour widows’ houses’ – more oppression – and then the example of the poor widow who puts two…

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton November 1, 2009 (All Saints Sunday) Read: John 11:32-44; Revelation 21:1-6a and Isaiah 25:6-9 Most of us know what it’s like to lose someone we care about. And in today’s gospel story we hear about Lazarus, who had died. We hear about tears. There are tears in our reading from Isaiah, there are tears in our reading from Revelation where God wipes away the tears…and there are lots of tears in John’s gospel. In…

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton October 11, 2009 Read: Job 23:1-9, 16-17 and Mark 10:17-31 Today’s readings are centered on our relationship with our Creator God. We hear from Job in his distress because he cannot sense the presence of God. The psalm is that one we also hear in Lent, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me”. Again the sense of hidden, absent God. In our gospel reading from Mark we hear how difficult it is…

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton October 4, 2009 Read: Mark 10:2-16 Wow! Preaching about divorce and marriage is like running through a field of thorns, as my colleague Charles says. Why? Because any congregation today is likely to contain people who are married, people who are divorced, people who are divorced and remarried, people who may get divorced at some future time, people who have been treated shabbily by churches due to their marital difficulties, people whose lives and…

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton September 27, 2009 Read: Mark 9:38-50 “Whoever is not against us is for us”, Jesus tells us. Mark’s gospel then goes on to talk about what it means for us to be stumbling blocks to new believers. And the cutting off of a foot, the tearing out of an eye. Even though we are quite sure Jesus did not mean this literally, the words remain uncomfortable. And our gospel reading today ends with fire…

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton September 13, 2009 Read: Mark 8:27-38 “But who do you say that I am?” Jesus asks his disciples as they make their way to another village. “But who do you say that I am?”. When strangers meet, there is a fairly standard ritual followed as they seek to get acquainted. It begins with names, of course. Then follow the questions: where do you live? Are you married and do you have a family? Where…

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton September 6, 2009 Read: Mark 7:24-37 and James 2:1-17 The story of the Syrophoenician woman is one of my favorites. I appreciate her “hutzpah,” her courage, in speaking boldly to Jesus. And this story is one that has no easy answers when it comes to interpreting the meaning. It involves assumptions about different cultural experiences, socio-economic experiences, etc. We aren’t sure if this was an instance of Jesus caught without compassion when he rudely…

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton August 30, 2009 Read: Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23 and James 1:17-27 So, this morning we hear Jesus calling the Pharisees and the scribes hypocrites. The word hypocrite originally comes from ancient Greek theatre. It meant to act a part in a play, to pretend, to display a mask. A good definition of a hypocrite is a person who is not, on the inside, what he or she is showing on the outside. In other words the…