Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 18, 2025
That We may All Be One by Lou Poulain, Licensed Lay Preacher
The Christian world is fractured, the church divided into four large branches, with hundreds of denominations. We are divided by language, culture, heritage, and beliefs. Yet we pray weekly for the unity of the “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” (Nicene Creed). The story of the conversion and baptism of the Centurion Cornelius marks the beginning of the outreach to the gentiles. This led to one of the first serious and long lasting controversies in the earliest church. What does this story, and our subsequent history teach us about our connections, our divisions, and the continuing work of the Holy Spirit?
Fourth Sunday of Easter
May 11, 2025
Jesus Had A Little Lamb by the Rev. Salying Wong
This sermon is part of the Easter series on the Book of Acts, in which there is an imaginative reading of the story of the lectionary reading. Today’s story is from the point of view of a member of the Order of Widows started by Tabitha. She tells the story of how Tabitha became the “Wonder of Joppa” and her work to build community for the followers of Jesus called, “The Way.”
Third Sunday of Easter
May 4, 2025
The Conversion of St. Paul by the Rev. Barbara Stewart
In this next in a series of imaginative sermons drawn from the book of Acts, we learn the story of the conversion of St. Paul, as told by a neighbor of Ananias, a follower of the Way who was sent by Jesus to heal the afflicted Saul (later St. Paul) and provide him with additional instruction in the Way of the Lord.
Second Sunday of Easter
April 27, 2025
The Servant Girl’s Awakening by the Rev. Salying Wong
This imaginative sermon is from the perspective of the servant girl who talked with Peter on the night of the trial. She now witnesses Peter preaching and is astounded by the change in him. She considers what has made the coward she knew into a brave man–what imagination has he encountered–and what might it mean for her.
Easter Sunday
April 20, 2025
The Parable of the Resurrection Tree
by the Rev. Salying Wong
It is easier to declare death than resurrection. Death, while painful, has a certain ultimate. But declaring resurrection immediately brings instability, questioning, and even strife, especially as it causes an argument among the women and men on that first Easter Day. Resurrection is not as easy to recognize as we would like it to be; it is not as certain in the way it expresses itself as we would like it to be. Instead, resurrection requires a life of faith that is intensely reflective, one that demands us to change as things change, in the world and in our bodies. Resurrection begs the question as to how to live fully in our own life and life together.
Good Friday
April 18, 2025
Good Friday According to the Epistle of Hebrews
by the Rev. Salying Wong
This sermon introduces the soteriology in the Hebrews as a contrast to a generally taught theology of the cross called, “The substitutionary theory of the cross” (a theory in which God demands punishment and death from Jesus in lieu of coming after us). This is a pretty dense sermon and requires more engagement than usual to understand. However, one point of going through the details is to illustrate another way of thinking about the cross that has coherent validity within scripture itself, and not merely as doctrine reading backwards into scripture. Another point is to give you, the listener, permission to discard teachings that are intellectually and spiritually toxic. Finally, the sermon aims to help you understand the cross in the context of the entire salvific process that includes the high point called the Ascension, which is that Jesus is interceding for us even now, “at the right hand of God.”
Palm Sunday
April 13, 2025
A Tale of Two Processions by Lou Poulain, Licensed Lay Preacher
The imperial procession of Pontius Pilate into Jerusalem is an intentional display of “Pax Romana”, a peace achieved through domination and threat of violence. Jesus, by contrast, enters Jerusalem mounted on a donkey, subverting the symbols of oppression and power, to express a different kind of peace grounded in humility, love and compassion.
Fifth Sunday in Lent
April 6, 2025
Third Sunday in Lent / Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 23 & March 30, 2025
Second Sunday in Lent
March 16, 2025
First Sunday in Lent
March 9, 2025
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Last Sunday after Epiphany – Transfiguration
March 2, 2025
Become All Flame by the Rev. Salying Wong
On the mount of Transfiguration, something mysterious happens while Jesus is praying. He took his disciples up the mountain after his first prediction of his crucifixion and resurrection. One mystery to follow another. How does one stay in one piece in the face of so much mystery and hard news? Jesus teaches them to pray, not by going up the mountain to talk, but to listen. He goes up to the mountain to listen to the one who calls him, “Beloved.” So, when he comes down the mountain, he can go on.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Seventh Sunday after Epiphany
February 23, 2025
Repair and Repentance by the Rev. Salying Wong
The work of repair and repentance is hard work. Pr. Salying uses the Joseph story to illustrate the method described in Rabbi Danya Ruttenburg’s book, Repair and Repentance. The five stages are these: naming and owning the harm; beginning to change; restitution and accepting of consequences, apologizing and making different choices.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
February 16, 2025
Living the Resurrection by the Rev. Salying Wong
Paul, at the closing of his first letter to the Corinthians, diagnoses the problem at the bottom of all the Corinthians’ troubles: they do not live as if the resurrection of Christ belongs to them as the body of Christ. And because of this, they have replicated the status quo that Christ’s resurrection turned over: the status quo of division, hierarchy, purity, and supremacy. They continue to pour out the wrath of the world as it is. Does Paul’s diagnosis also belong to the church today? How are we participating in the new creation that Jesus’ resurrection started–the bringing together of bodies to bodies, the building of a new creation in which all are of equal belovedness, where everyone is honored and belongs?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
February 9, 2025
Seeing the Lord by Debie Thomas
The prophet Isaiah’s dramatic call to ministry challenges us to think about our own calls to love and serve God in challenging times. As we ponder Isaiah’s vision of God’s throne room, three questions arise for us to ponder: Do we really believe in a God who shows up? Do we really want to be transformed by worship? And do we really want to embrace God’s countercultural definition of success?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
February 2, 2025
The Presentation by the Rev. Barbara Stewart
We started our worship today with the blessing and lighting of candles,a sign to us of the light which has come into the world, the light that has come into our lives. Something to ponder as we go back home – how is it that we carry that light into the world?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Third Sunday after Epiphany
January 26, 2025
Rector’s Report: Annual Report for 2024
by the Rev. Salying Wong
This Sunday the Annual Report for 2024 was presented. In lieu of sermon, Pastor Salying presented her summary of the year, and thoughts about the direction St. Thomas is heading.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Second Sunday after Epiphany
January 19, 2025
What to Me and to You?
by the Rev. Salying Wong
Jesus didn’t want to get involved with a problem he didn’t feel was his. He told his mother, essentially, “What’s this got to do with me?” But Mary thought it was the perfect moment for him to reveal who he was and what he was about. He needed a nudge. Another man needed a nudge: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. It was 1960, and his friend, Lonnie King, was organizing in Atlanta. 10,000 students were protesting the injustice in the South with sit-ins, but there was no media coverage at all. Lonnie asked his friend MLK to come–if he did, they would get coverage. But MLK responded like Jesus, “What’s this got to do with me?” Lonnie said, “You can’t lead from the back; you have to lead from the front.” With that nudge, MLK went to Atlanta. Have you looked at the world’s problems and thought, “What’s this got to do with me?” What nudge do you need to be part of the “grace upon grace” that God pours upon the world?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
First Sunday after Epiphany
January 12, 2025
Baptism: Love is the Meaning by the Rev. Salying Wong
In this sermon, Pr. Salying considers the meanings of baptism, from the Believer’s Baptism of her childhood days in the Baptist Church to John’s Baptism of Repentance, to the nature of Jesus’ Baptism and the nature of Episcopal baptism. This is a teaching sermon and is rich in information. It is geared to help the listener consider their own baptism and the meanings they would make of it.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
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Second Sunday after Christmas
January 5, 2025
The Journey of the Magi by the Rev. Barbara Stewart
The wise men came, following the star, to worship the new-born Jesus. They were “outsiders”, not Jews, and they had a difficult journey to get to Bethlehem. As we begin this new calendar year, I wonder what hopes and dreams we have, what journeys we will take, both as the people of God here at St. Thomas, and in our own lives. We may encounter “others” on our journeys, different cultures, different languages, different understandings of how the world works. We commit in our Baptismal Covenant to respect the dignity of every human being. May we have the courage to do so. The journey may be difficult, but we know that the light, the light of Christ is always with us. May we find joy as we see Jesus.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
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First Sunday after Christmas
December 29, 2024
The Gospel Prequels by the Rev. Salying Wong
Each Gospel written after Mark is a prequel that tries to explain the fuller story of salvation. When we get to John, we hear that the salvific acts of God were intended before time, before creation, and are for the whole cosmos. When the Word became flesh, it was the words of a holy conversation, a relationship of storytelling and of deep listening. What does it feel like to consider that God is deeply listening to you?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
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Christmas Eve
December 24, 2024
God Shows Us How to be Human by the Rev. Salying Wong
David Bentley Hart, theologian and New Testament scholar, says that God is the only one who is truly human and God took on flesh and blood to show us how to be human. Starting from this point of view, being human is an absolutely good thing; and we are therefore VERY GOOD, as the Genesis story says. Endowed with this seed of divinity called the Imago Dei, the image of Christ, Jesus comes at Christmas to teach us how to return to our original blessing. At Christmas, we know that God does not abandon us to the darkness, but in fact, it is in the darkest time that Jesus is born.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 22, 2024
This Sunday we had a liturgy of Lessons & Carols, and there was no sermon.
Third Sunday of Advent
December 15, 2024
Sermon: Advent 3 Sunday of Joy by the Rt. Rev. Lucinda Ashby
The video of this sermon by Bishop Lucinda Ashby may be found below. As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page.
Second Sunday of Advent
December 8, 2024
It’s Time to Sing by the Rev. Salying Wong
Luke said, “Emperor Tiberius was on the throne, and Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee.” In other words, it was a crappy time. And Luke said that this is when we need to sing. Luke wrote four canticles, each one to give us a new view of what God was doing: turning an upside-down world, right-side up. At the heart of singing in hard times is repentance, the transformation of perspective.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
First Sunday of Advent
December 1, 2024
Life In Between by the Rev. Barbara Stewart
Welcome to the new year! Advent marks the beginning of our liturgical year, and is a season where we wait: we wait for the birth of Jesus and we wait for his coming again. In this in-between time, the time between Jesus’ birth and his coming again, we wait with hope, knowing that God is with us through the challenging times. We wait with hope, a hope that is open and inclusive, that recognizes that God’s love abides with us. We wait with hope, which is reflected in how we live each day.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Last Sunday after Pentecost
November 24, 2024
How to Tell the Truth by the Rev. Salying Wong
When Jesus is accused of treason, of usurping the empire of Rome with his kingdom, Jesus counters that he is not the kind of king Pilate is thinking about. He tells Pilate that if his kingdom were of this world, his followers would be taking up the sword, like the Roman legions would take up the sword–to gain power and to retain power. Instead, he has come to testify to the truth. Pilate famously responds with, “What is truth?” In the context of power, especially the kind represented by Rome, the truth is easily obfuscated by our proclivity toward violence and the belief that it is redemptive. Instead, Jesus points to his own coronation on the cross, as the way to know the truth of the God he represents. The cross points to the truth.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
26th Sunday after Pentecost
November 17, 2024
Apocalypse by the Rev. Salying Wong
The entire Gospel of Mark is written as a meditation on the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in the year 70 and what Jesus’ apocalypse (revelation) meant. What did his crucifixion and empty tomb mean about how to live in the midst of so much suffering? The Kingdom of God he preached is not a goal accomplished, is not a place we go when we die, and does not offer certitude of power and safety. Rather, it is a way, a practice of imitating Jesus in lowliness and self-giving and a rejection of the desire for power-over. This way of faith is not an easy way, but it is a way that leads to life. The text of this sermon may be found here.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
25th Sunday after Pentecost
November 10, 2024
Bishop Lucinda Ashby’s Address to Convention
A place both in the world and apart from it…
…Christian community cannot exist on the basis of exclusion of others. As followers of Jesus, in our case as Episcopalians, we belong, not because we all agree, or have the same understanding of God, or voted for the same people. We belong because we connect through faith, sharing joys and sorrows, and always broadening our sense of community to include those who seek to learn and share their own stories of faith.
The video may be found below.
24th Sunday after Pentecost
November 3, 2024
God is One by the Rev. Salying Wong
A scribe gains insight into the oneness of God by the “double love” commandment. Wedded with the shema, it takes on another dimension, beyond the claim of monotheism to the mystical oneness of all creation, which is one-d by love. Pastor Salying then leads us in a meditation that brings awareness of our oneness with God in the midst of what might disrupt us from this reality, especially in the midst of the election.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
23rd Sunday after Pentecost
October 27, 2024
Reflections on our core values, led by Junior Warden Emilee Wilhelm-Leen
For Stewardship Sunday, in lieu of a sermon, our Jr. Warden, Emilee Wilhelm-Leen, led a congregational reflection on our core values:
We follow Jesus. We study his life and teachings, so we might love God and do God’s will.
We welcome all. We respect the dignity of everyone.
We serve those in need, whether physically or spiritually.
We thrive in community. It gives us comfort, strength and joy.
We embrace change so we can keep the church strong and relevant.
As with all sermons, this video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
22nd Sunday after Pentecost
October 20, 2024
Why Be Second When You Can Be First? by Debie Thomas
In our Gospel lesson this week, James and John approach Jesus with a request for power, prestige, and pride of place. Jesus responds by teaching them that power — and the security that derives from it — is paradoxical in the realm of God. Those who wish to be “first” need to be servants. It is when we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who came to serve, and not to be served, that we experience the fullness and joy of abundant life
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
21st Sunday after Pentecost
October 13, 2024
The One Thing You Lack by the Rev. Salying Wong
The exchange between the rich man and Jesus is an examination on what we put between us and God. And sometimes, that is our goodness. Sometimes, we use that goodness so as not to lack anything in our own estimation, and therefore, to merit eternal life. But, it is not about being better so as not to lack anything. It is about surrendering to the reality that we are human, that without God’s goodness, we are nothing. We are in need of God’s kind of grace. And when we do that, the camel is threaded through the needle.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
20th Sunday after Pentecost
October 6, 2024
The Healing Creation Gives by the Rev. Salying Wong
Job and Francis were people who experienced a lot of suffering. Some things we suffer cannot be fixed, but they can still heal. One such way is through the solace and wonder of creation. God offered, for Job’s healing, contemplation on the mountain goat, wild ass, ox and the ostrich. Francis did this naturally, by considering Brother Son and Sister Moon and all of creation and found himself soothed of his trauma.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
19th Sunday after Pentecost
September 29, 2024
Birds of a Feather by the Rev. Barbara Stewart
We usually think of birds as being in uniform flocks, all the same. But there are flocks made up of different kinds of birds, working together for their mutual benefit. In our Gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples that they are to welcome others, broadening the circle. Following Jesus’ words, we, too, are challenged to see others as the beloved children of God, including and welcoming people.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
18th Sunday after Pentecost
September 22, 2024
Hubris by Lou Poulain, LLP
The disciples of Jesus argue as to who is the greatest. Hubris is the very human tendency toward exaggerated pride of place and assumption of power. Species extinction and near extinction in modern times, as the result of human activity betray confusion about what God intended when he told Adam and Eve to have dominion of the birds, fish and animals of the world. We have acted as if dominion (actually a call to steward the natural world) really means domination of the natural world. The results of such domination have been catastrophic. The Gospel calls the followers of Jesus to repent our patterns of overconsumption and faulty assumptions about the effects of our actions, and return to a stewardship of God’s creation.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
17th Sunday after Pentecost
September 15, 2024
Sparks from the Radiance of God’s Brilliance by the Rev. Barbara Stewart
The great auk, a flightless bird about two and a half feet tall, once was common, ranging on the North American coast, numbering in the millions. It was sought after as a source of down for pillows, its meat, eggs, and to be used for fuel. The last known pair of great auk were killed off the coast of Iceland in 1844 to become a display in a merchant’s home: a cautionary tale for this Season of Creation. It brings up the question for us: where do we fit in creation? Are we the whole show, with everything else designed to serve us? Or are we part of God’s creation, one of the “living creatures…sparks from the radiation of God’s brilliance” (Hildegard of Bingen)? Our Gospel lesson raises related questions: What or whom do we value? What is it we want more than anything else?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
16th Sunday after Pentecost
September 8, 2024
Season of Creation, Part 2: Lost Lovesong of the Honeyeater
The regent honeyeater of Australia is losing its love song. There aren’t enough males to teach the younger ones to sing. Even though the honeyeater can mimic all the birds around it, the male is rendered mute as a honeyeater; and even though the female can hear the song of all birds, because it does not hear the honeyeater’s song, it is rendered deaf. This is the death of a bird culture due to human encroachment into their habitat and food sources. Because all of life is connected, we humans also hear less because of this. What is our Ephphatha moment?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
15th Sunday after Pentecost
September 1, 2024
Season of Creation, Part 1: More Bird Than Human
by the Rev. Salying Wong
In this part 1 of creation, Pr. Salying tells of the story of scientists who restore the northern bald ibis to Europe, which was hunted to extinction 300 years ago, by taking to the air in an ultralight aircraft and teaching them how to migrate. The foster parents of these ibises would call out with bullhorns, “Come this way, follow me!” And the ibises did because they trusted these foster parents who had become more bird than people. What if we were to relate to God’s creation with such kinship?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
14th Sunday after Pentecost
August 25, 2024 proper 16
Bread of Life, part 5: Jesus Raises the Ick-Factor
by the Rev. Salying Wong
In this final part of a 5-part series on the Bread of Life pericope in Chap 6 of the Gospel of John, Pr. Salying discusses the fullness of the invitation from Jesus to have a relationship with him–not just to eat bread, but eat him with open and primal need.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
13th Sunday after Pentecost
August 18, 2024 proper 15
I AM the Living Bread by the Rev. Barbara Stewart
In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus speaks to those gathered in Capernaum, telling them who he is: the living bread. The living bread, Jesus, will give his flesh for the world, and in doing so, gives life to the world and to us. We are invited to partake of that living bread. “You are what you eat”: as we share in that living bread, it becomes part of us, all of us, body, heart, mind, soul, and opens us to the full and abundant life offered by Jesus.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
August 11, 2024 proper 14
I AM the Bread of Life by Lou Poulain, LLP
Lou reflects on the deep metaphor, the Bread of Life. He observes the tendency in church history to protect the “sacred” from the real world and how those efforts actually serve to distance ourselves from the experience of the Holy in our actual lives. Probing the metaphor, Jesus’ promise that those who eat of the Bread of Life — Himself — will have eternal life is not merely a promise regarding an after-life, but is a promise that we can and will, now, have abundant life, the very fullness of life. Jesus makes the offer of the Bread of Life, but it is up to us to respond, to EAT, to consume and fill ourselves with Jesus’ life in God, and thento live in imitation of Christ, as the letter to the Ephesians urges us to do.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
August 4, 2024 proper 13
Getting on with It: a commemoration of women’s ordination to the priesthood
by the Rev. Salying Wong
To celebrate the ordination of women to the priesthood, Pr. Salying compares two scenes from the Gospel of John: Jesus’ conversation with the crowd that ate the bread and Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. There are some very clear parallels, especially when both the crowd and the woman debate with Jesus about authority and tradition. Jesus teaches them both that that ultimate authority in worship is based on a relationship with him. The crowd will go away disbelieving; but, the woman comes to faith and becomes the first evangelist. Women, in fact, in the Gospel of John are the most powerful leaders. It is Mary, Jesus’ mother, who tells Jesus his hour had come, even when he didn’t feel ready. That is how it is with the Spirit–being ready is not a feeling, but the discernment of the culmination of the Spirit’s activity aimed toward a future that the Spirit is unfolding. Li Tim Oi and the Philadelphia Eleven were women who obeyed the Spirit, even when the church did not feel ready. The hour had come and they got on with it.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
July 28, 2024 proper 12
Jesus for President! by the Rev. Salying Wong
In this first installment of a 5-week sermon series on John 6, Pr. Salying introduces a major theme in the Gospel of John and the meaning of the multiplication of bread and fish. This theme is that God in Jesus comes to seek an intimate relationship with us. The crowd who eats the bread is confused and cannot at first understand this meaning. To understand Jesus, they must reclaim their humanity as not only bread-needing people, but God-needing people. In fact, they need to see that their need for God is as basic as bread.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
July 21, 2024 proper 11
The Messy Road to Unity by the Rev. Salying Wong
The letter called Ephesians is written concerning a general issue of division within the churches, the growing divide between Jew and Gentile by the end of the first century. In her sermon, Pr. Salying discusses the messiness of being in community together because we bring into it our personal and cultural differences and biases. If we desire to be “one in Christ”, we must do the hard work of telling the truth and changing our point of view (repentance). Otherwise, we repeat in the Church “a dividing wall of hostility”.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
July 14, 2024 proper 10
The Birthday party from Hell by the Rev. Salying Wong
King Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee gathers his military commanders and officials for a bacchanal birthday feast. This becomes the theater for cruelty and violence, the currency of power among the rulers. Herod murders John the Baptist as a party trick, to showcase his absolute power, his recklessness and his arrogance. Jesus hears of this and the news is such a blow that he gathers his disciples to go to a lonely place to pray. Up to this point, Jesus’ power was demonstrated so simply: Cast out demons; heal the sick; nobody gets hurt. But, now Jesus must confront the violence of human power and its capacity to deal death and destruction. This is much more demanding than the demonic. This will require the Way of the Cross and the exposing of the grotesqueness of our violence–so that we might turn from it and choose life.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
July 7, 2024 proper 9
A Very Bad Family Reunion by the Rev. Salying Wong
In his hometown, Jesus receives the worst rejection. Unlike Satan, Rome, the religious establishment, this was personal. These were the people who saw him grow up. Unfortunately, Nazareth had a small sense of themselves and so had a small sense of what God could do through them. It was preposterous to them that anyone who came from them could have power and wisdom like Jesus; they couldn’t imagine anything as insane as the messiah being from their town. They were offended by Jesus being bigger than he ought to be as a Nazarene. Jesus was amazed by this and gathered his disciples to teach them how to handle rejection. People cannot be our source of identity–if we orient ourselves this way, we will be confused as to who we are, fantasizing that if we just get them to like us, we’d be okay. But that is a deadly path. The path that leads to life is the path that orients on God as the source of our identity.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
June 30, 2024 proper 8
Be Healed of your Dis-ease by the Rev. Salying Wong
Things that cannot be cured can still heal. The woman who hemorrhaged was a desperate woman and would have tried anything to be cured. And yet, she found more than a cure when she told Jesus “the whole truth” about herself and when he called her, “Daughter.” He offered her peace and granted her healing of her deep unease, her dis-ease.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
June 23, 2024 proper 7
Who is Afraid of the Calm? by the Rev. Salying Wong
After Jesus calms the storm, the disciples are “filled with a great fear.” How odd that they seem to be more afraid after the storm than during the storm? Jesus asks them why they are afraid and where their faith is. For the disciples, faith takes time, lots of time. Even after the empty tomb, they will puzzle about what it all means. Sometimes, life is complicated and faith is about pursuing the questions and not being satisfied with easy answers.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
June 16, 2024 proper 6
A Parable and Three Longings by the Rev. Salying Wong
This last Sunday, the parable we hear from Mark is about a person who scatters seed, goes to sleep, and wakes up to an astounding harvest. In this sermon, Pastor Salying tells three stories of longing, one from her mother, one from her father, and one from herself, in order to consider these questions: What could the seed really be? What could the harvest really be? What could be the wildest dream really be?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 9, 2024 proper 5
Who Are My mother and My Brothers? by Lou Poulain, LLP
Today’s gospel reading is relatively short — just fifteen verses. But a lot happens in those few verses! The story of Jesus’ families, both biological and chosen, serves as a lens to interpret the story of Jesus’ dialogue with the Scribes. “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Second Sunday after Pentecost
June 2, 2024 proper 4
My Goodness As My God by the Rev. Salying Wong
Jesus claims that he is lord of the sabbath–meaning, he has mastered sabbath practice and has the authority to teach right practice to the Pharisees. This would have been utterly ridiculous and audacious to hear. Who was this guy? Jesus demonstrates in the healing of the man on the sabbath that the sabbath is not for fixing a person. Rather, the sabbath sets people free for life and flourishing. On the sabbath, it is always time for freedom. In all our pious practices, we need to be taught by the lord of the sabbath–how does our service and prayer set people free rather than treat people as objects of our goodness?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Trinity Sunday
May 26, 2024
God in Tri-Unity by the Rev. Salying Wong
We talk about God as Trinity to illustrate what it means to be in right relationship with God, one another, and all of creation. The Trinity is really a Tri-unity of singular purpose–to give love in a non-selfish way, always seeking the good of the beloved. The Abba loves the Son and the Son loves the Abba, and the Holy Spirit is the flow of love between them. We are to model our relationships after the way of the Tri-unity and not after the ways of the world. Tri-Unity Sunday starts the Season after Pentecost, which is also called Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time is distinguished from the rest of the liturgical calendar (the Season of Mysteries of Christmas and Easter) because it focuses on the formation of the followers of Jesus through Jesus’ teachings. Studying Jesus’ teachings and living them will prepare us to go deeper in the Mysteries when they come back again. Each turn of the liturgical calendar is like the growth ring of a tree. If one surrenders to the grace of each turn, one will be “wise as a circle” (Rilke.)
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Pentecost Sunday
May 17, 2024
Pentecost by Angela Rausch, LLP
We celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. When we engage our senses we experience with the Spirit fully.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Seventh Sunday of Easter
May 12, 2024
Remember When…by the Rev. Salying Wong
On the Sunday before Pentecost this year, the lectionary pulls us back to the beginning of the Book of Acts. It’s a bit jolting since we’ve been racing ahead in Eastertide in Acts to “the ends of the earth.” But, pulling back has its wisdom. On this Sunday, we reflect on the mistakes the early community made and how it learned. We, too, can learn as we reflect on what it means to build a God-centered community. We pull back to move forward in a better way.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 5, 2024
Proclamation Still! by the Rev. Salying Wong
Proclamation of the gospel cannot be reduced to service. Rather, the Spirit sends its people to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the margins to bring people into belonging. The Spirit creates the church to make a new people that belongs to God, to be a body where its members are saved by Jesus’ teachings on repentance, reconciliation, sacrifice and love; saved his death, resurrection, ascension; belong to each other. Service is a fruit of this belonging; proclamation makes overt how Christian service is different from secular service. But, proclamation is hard today, with the church’s history, with the distortions around us. And yet, discipleship demands proclamation. How shall people know that Jesus loves them?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fifth Sunday of Easter
April 28, 2024
Philip in the Borderlands by the Rev. Salying Wong
The Spirit moves quickly away from Jerusalem. She places Phillip today on a wilderness road between Jerusalem and Gaza. She has placed him here because God loves the Ethiopian eunuch. This one who is an outsider religiously, physically, nationally, politically–is desired by God for belonging in the household of God. Phillip must overcome his own unease to walk the borderlands. Where are the borderlands within our own imagination?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourth Sunday of Easter
April 21, 2024
The Flock of the Lost and Found by the Rev. Salying Wong
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was the Good Shepherd. He came to his own sheep, but they were lost and confused. He called them each by name and found them in ditches of darkness, brambles of blindness, and long roads of loneliness. And if they assented, he would take them up and carry them to the fold of the Lost and Found. The Good Shepherd came not to give the sheep a project to accomplish, but a relationship to be nourished in. This relationship produces an abundant life, not of things, but of belonging. This is the meaning of discipleship in the Gospel of John.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Third Sunday of Easter
April 14, 2024
Jesus Risen and In His Own Body Changes Everything!
by Lou Poulain, LLP
The gospel story heard this week parallels last week’s reading from the Gospel according to John. The disciples, encountering the risen Lord, experienced deep ambivalence, as the most fundamental “givens” of their lives were turned upside down. As they came to terms with the reality of Jesus, once dead, now alive, their minds were opened to hear and finally understand the Good News. Where is the corollary experience for we 21st century disciples, that opens our hearts and minds to hear, understand and incorporate the Good News of Jesus into our own lives?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Second Sunday of Easter
April 7, 2024
Hold Fast by the Rev. Salying Wong
“Of whomever you forgive the sins, they (sins) are forgiven to them; whomever you hold fast (embrace), they are held fast.” (John 20:19) The commission post-resurrection the Gospel of John is to embrace peace and forgiveness from Jesus, be led by the Holy Spirit, to declare forgiveness, and finally, to hold fast to one another.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Easter Sunday
March 31, 2024
Salome and the Risen Christ
by the Rev. Salying Wong
Meet me in Galilee; I go ahead of you. In this creative sermon, we hear from Soleme as she contemplates the angels’ instructions from Jesus in the empty tomb: meet me in Galilee. Rather than waiting for a concrete confirmation of Jesus’ resurrection, she goes to Galilee to find him there, in the faces and hands of lepers.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Good Friday
March 29, 2024
Lifted Up
by the Rev. Salying Wong
There is a lot of suffering in the world. So much of it we don’t even know about. It is hard for us to come close to it. Other people’s suffering is abstracted by distance and time, but also by social categories like race. We perceive the distance when we actually feel someone’s suffering because they look like us. We actually feel it in our bodies. That is what Jesus does on Good Friday. He comes to us in the hardest things with his body on the cross. Because he is God and God is love, he can come close particularly. God’s solidarity saturates our suffering, unveils our propensity for cruelty, and bids us to do justice.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Maundy Thursday
March 28, 2024
When We Eat This Bread and Drink This Cup, We Proclaim The Death of The Lord Until He Comes
By Lou Poulain, LLP
Paul recounts Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper in his first letter to the Corinthians. He sharply criticized the church in Corinth for missing the point about the Eucharist, and for treating the poor and marginalized in their community unjustly. Paul instructed the Corinthians to attend carefully to what they were doing when celebrating the Holy Communion, and to recognize ALL members of the community as members of the Mystical Body of Christ. This is a lesson for us and all Christians as we commemorate this night.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 17, 2024
Falling Down and Getting Up by Angela Rausch
Falling down and getting up is a slow process but it builds relationship and bears much fruit.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 10, 2024
Gently, Carefully, the Sign of the Cross by the Rev. Salying Wong
Walter Ciszek S.J., made the sign of the cross, gently, carefully, across the land of Russia, as he was leaving it after 18 years of torture, starvation, and bondage. How had he been able to forgive the pain and suffering, how had he been able even to bless the land? In this sermon, Pastor Salying explores the theology of the Gospel of John, a theology that leads to the kind of healing that Ciszek experienced–that of being made a new creation.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Third Sunday in Lent
March 3, 2024
Overturning the Tables as Performance Art by the Rev. Salying Wong
The famous scene for the overturning of the tables of the money changers is moved from the last days of Jesus’ life in the synoptic gospels to the first days of Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of John. It is placed right after the sign of the changing of water into wine at Cana. In this position, it discourses with the questions that come out of Cana: Who is this that can change water into wine; who is this that gives such abundance; who is it that gives such good wine? Rather than say, “You den of robbers,” to the money changers, Jesus speaks to the dove seller and says, “Stop making my father’s house into a marketplace.” This is not an accusation of malfeasance or a political statement about the economics of the temple. Jesus is declaring something about the temple and something about himself. What could these things be?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Second Sunday in Lent
February 28, 2024
Take Up Your Cross? How? by the Rev. Salying Wong
Wasn’t this supposed to be the good news of Jesus Christ? What’s this business of the messiah getting crucified, and worst, us having to pick up our own cross? This sermon contemplates Jesus’ words in light of the possession of Peter by Satan and possession of Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
First Sunday in Lent
February 21, 2024
Perfect Love by the Rev. Salying Wong
For the first Sunday in Lent, the Gospel reading is always about the temptation of Christ. A real temptation is one that brings you to the cusp of your courage and it is anyone’s guess what will happen. Otherwise, it is not a temptation, but a discipline. Discipline requires effort; but resisting temptation depends on trust and love. The beasts that prowl in the human soul are beasts that speak reasonable words of common sense, holding us in the grip of fear. For Lent, consider what beasts are most convincing in your life and take the courageous steps to claim the freedom that is already yours.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Ash Wednesday
February 14, 2024
Ashes: Sin, Mortality, Life by the Rev. Salying Wong
There are many themes for Lent–some from the scriptures and some from the liturgies of the Early Church. The practice of ashes has two major themes: grief for sin and a sign of mortality. The liturgy points us to a variety of sins, but the scriptures emphasize the sin of practicing injustice and hollow religious practice. The liturgy asks us, since life is short, since we will all meet the grave, how do we want to spend our lives? What changes are we going to make to align ourselves with the righteousness of God in this life?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Last Sunday after the Epiphany
February 11, 2024
Dwelling With What Terrifies by the Rev. Salying Wong
The key message of the Transfiguration is, “Listen to him.” Six days before the disciples went up the mountain with Jesus, they had just heard that he would be tortured, crucified and on the third day rise. This was so much more than they had signed up for. Up to this point, they had witnessed Jesus’ powers of healing and preaching. He was famous! But, now, what will they do? They carried with them up the mountain the weight of their uncertainty. How will they go on? What will help them move in the midst of their fears toward Jesus and the world God loves? Moses and Elijah are examples of those who listened in the midst of their fears. Shall we trust enough to listen as well?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
February 4, 2024
Boom, Boom, BOOM! by the Rev. Salying Wong
The gospel of Mark moves with a staccato beat; it moves with speed and builds an urgent message with every healing and exorcism: Jesus inaugurates the end of evil and its grip on us. Jesus, possessed by the Holy Spirit, has come to dispossess demonic forces of their lying words (zip it demons!). The great lie is the delusion that God is far off and not near. God is so near, that not even death can separate us for the fidelity of God. The healing of Simon’s mother-in-law is a testament to this message. When she is healed, she is pulled from the grip of death and becomes an angel among the people, serving like the angels who served Jesus in the wilderness. With each act of service, she announces the reality: we need not be afraid of death. God is never absent.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Third Sunday after the Epiphany
January 21, 2024
Invitation and Immediacy by Angela Rausch
Many years ago when I was a graduate student at Santa Clara University we studied a bit about Doctor Martin Luther King. Last Monday was Martin Luther King day, and I wanted to talk about his invitations and immediacy, and Jesus’ invitation and immediacy in his calling of disciples. I then wanted to share how I saw the invitation and immediacy play out with a personal invitation for my dad.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Second Sunday after the Epiphany
January 14, 2024
A Story from Eli by the Rev. Salying Wong
Pastor Salying tells an imaginative story from Eli’s point of view about this calling that Sameul hears from God. Eli is old and angry over a lifetime of disappointment and failure. He ponders whether he would be Samuel’s spiritual director and teach him how to listen to God, when he personally hasn’t heard anything from God in years.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
First Sunday after the Epiphany
January 7, 2024
When God Began by the Rev. Salying Wong
Most biblical Hebrew scholars would prefer to translate the words from Genesis, “In the Beginning, God created…” to “When God began…”. The second translation allows for something new to begin in the middle of a story. In this new year, how can you take up another beginning in the middle of something old? Can you be open to changing your perspective (repentance)?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
First Sunday after Christmas
December 31, 2023
In the Beginning Was LOGOS by Lou Poulain, LLP
The gospels Matthew and Luke tell us the stories of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. These stories are not found in the gospels of Mark and John. But John’s Gospel begins by telling us, in very poetic terms, Christ’s place in the Big Picture. The Logos, or Word was with God at the Big Beginning, was with God and was God. The Word entered our world, was incarnate and made man and dwelt among us. How might the stories of Christmas affect how we live in our world?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Christmas
December 24, 2023
Love What Is Real by the Rev. Salying Wong
Christmas is about loving what is real. Jesus came into the very midst of life, with all its joys and all its sorrows. Incarnation is emmanuel.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 24, 2023
Mary’s Fiat by the Rev. Salying Wong
If we really understood Mary’s “Let it be”, we would be a bit afraid of her. Mary’s courage should be harder to believe than Jesus’ Virgin birth. What sort of hope must she have had to say yes to this proposal from the angel? This fiat aligns with God’s fiat, when God said at the beginning of creation, “Let there be…” We stand at a new creation, with Mary’s fiat.
This sermon was not recorded. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Third Sunday of Advent
December 17, 2023
A reflection from the Rt. Rev. Lucinda Ashby, Bishop of El Camino Real.
Legacy: prophets of a future not our own
Bishop Lucinda visited and preached at St. Thomas on Sunday December 17, 2023.
an excerpt:
I want to leave you with a piece of reflection… attributed…to Oscar Romero who was the archbishop who murdered in El Salvador in 1980…
This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow; we water seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development; we provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. That enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; we are ministers, not messiahs; we are prophets of a future not our own.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. A copy of the text is unavailable for this sermon, but closed captioning will be available with the video.
Second Sunday of Advent
December 10, 2023
On Sunday, December 10, in lieu of a sermon we were treated to an original Christmas Pageant, that was begun by our late loved Family Ministry director Sue Beckham, and realized with the help of Dena Ware, who staged our children and adults for a meaningful story of Christmas, Legends of the Christmas Animals.
Thank you, Dena, and all who participated.
First Sunday of Advent
December 3, 2023
The Awakened Heart by the Rev. Salying Wong
Advent says, “Keep awake.” So, what puts us to sleep? What do we need to wake up to? The great illusion we live under, because we are caught in storms inessentials, is that God is far off, that God needs to be sought to be found. This is spiritual somber. Advent is a time for us to wake up to the reality that God has come for us, God is coming for us, and God will come for us–with love. (Advent means “coming”.). So, we move into the quiet to wake up, to awaken our hearts to what is what is essential and eternal. This is Advent wakefulness.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Last Sunday after Pentecost
Christ the King
November 26, 2023 proper 29
Mercy and Kindness from our Relationship with Jesus by the Rev Bertram Nagarajah
We should all be John 3:16 and Matthew 25 Christians – one cannot exist without the other. Whatever mercy and compassion we show to serve, protect, and advocate for the most vulnerable must blossom from our living relationship with Jesus.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost
November 19, 2023 proper 28
The Gospel of Matthew, when we arrive at the last three parables, talks about the consequences of neglecting justice and mercy. Rather than examining each parable by turn, Pastor Salying considers how to own consequences without falling into the trap of a violent imagination that adds more anger and violence into the world. It isn’t easy; it takes a lot of internal work.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost
November 12, 2023 proper 27
Address to Convention: Glimpses of God’s Dream by the Rt. Rev. Lucinda Ashby, Bishop of El Camino Real
This Sunday’s sermon was the recent address-to-convention by our bishop Lucinda Ashby, a reflection of the year past and a view to what may be next for our diocese and the Episcopal Church.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
November 5, 2023 proper 26
The Burden of Annihilation by the Rev. Salying Wong
The church has a trifecta of commemorations (All Hallow’s Eve, All Hallows/All Saints, All Souls) in which we reflect upon death. Unlike the images of annihilation we so often see in Halloween decorations, our reflection is about love, about how love lasts, how love binds the living and the dead, how, the ultimate reality is that death is not annihilation, but consummation.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost
October 29, 2023 proper 25
Sermon/Stewardship Talk: Three Frogs on a Log by Abby O’Connell, senior warden
Abby O’Connell provided a summary of the last year’s actions pursuant to financial stability, and a reminder of our core values statement.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
October 22, 2023 proper 24
What Is Caesar’s? What Is God’s? by the Rev. Salying Wong
After Jesus passes the test of the Pharisees and the Herodians, he says, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Jesus is no longer talking about taxes. What could he mean?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
October 15, 2023 proper 23
Exposing by Exposure by the Rev. Salying Wong
This sermon does not follow the history of interpretation. In the wedding banquet parable, God has often been equated with a violent king. Pastor Salying rejects this interpretation and points to another figure who is Christ–the one who exposes the theater of violence at the wedding banquet with his state of exposure.
There is a break in the video’s sound near the end (after 14:30) for less than a minute. It picks up on a contiguous thought, so Pastor Salying is not going to record it again. The missing segment connects the violent time of Jesus’s day to our current violent times. It is tempting to want to block out the news and crawl into a hole. But, the work of faith is the meeting of what we long for in God and what we long for in this world. How does this parable teach us about how we can work the work of faith?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 8, 2023 proper 22
Blessed by Creation by the Rev. Salying Wong
How did Francis become the saint we associate with creation? How did the man who was brutalized by his father and who suffered immense trauma become the tender man that blessed the sow, the bud, the birds with tenderness? It has to do with lepers.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 1, 2023 proper 21
The Way of Reciprocity by the Rev. Salying Wong
The story of Skywoman tells us how to live well on this earth because it shows us the way of reciprocity and kinship with all of creation. What if we began our story like this?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 24, 2023 proper 20
Entitlement seen through the lens of God’s Mercy and Grace
by the Rev. Bertram Nagarajah
The Israelites in the desert claimed entitlement. This can be compared to people who grow up in a relatively comfortable environment. When people grow up comfortable, they think they are entitled and deserve comfort even in adverse times. We need to realize that no human is entitled to anything. Everything we have and life itself is from God, through God’s Mercy and Grace.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 17, 2023 proper 19
Forgiveness Homily, Butter and Good Luck by Angela Rausch
Mary Oliver, the great poet, in one of her poems, speaks of God like butter and good luck. I wonder where the luck shows up in Matthew’s gospel today?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 10, 2023 Proper 18
We Are All In This Together! by Lou Poulain, LLP
Lou reflects on the health of God’s creation, and our shared responsibility to care for the earth and all fellow creatures. Using Jesus’ teaching about healthy conflict resolution in the church, Lou talks about how we can effectively take action and positively counter the negative, excessively tribal “culture wars” conflicts that mark our times.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 3, 2023 proper 17
Creation: the Fifth Gospel by the Rev. Salying Wong
To fall in love is also to get proximate to the pain. This is what Jesus is talking about when he tells Peter to pick up his own cross. In this Season of Creation, Pastor Salying ponders how to find hope in the midst of the climate crisis. It might mean falling more in love with God’s creation and getting close to the pain of its destruction before we find the hope and energy to keep trying to repair the world.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 27, 2023 proper 16
Petra Ecclesia by the Rev. Salying Wong
We come to a pivotal moment in Jesus’ ministry and he goes out of his way to make a point–40km out of his way to Caesarea Phillipi. This was the “headquarters” of the imperial cult, filled with temples to the gods, including none other than a temple to Augustus, the “Son of God”. It is here that Jesus asks his disciples who they think he is. Peter said the right thing, but got it all wrong anyway. He said Jesus was the messiah, but he had conquest on his mind. Jesus will clarify that his kingdom means his crucifixion. So, then what are the “keys” to the kingdom; what is the “rock” upon which Jesus will build the church?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
August 20, 2023 proper 15
A Question of Faith by the Rev. Salying Wong
There are two conversations in the Gospel reading from Matthew, one Jesus has with the insiders (the Pharisees) and one with the outsider (the Canaanite woman). Both are theological conversations begging the question, “Who is this God, anyway?” The Canaanite woman’s perspective challenges Jesus to accelerate the God of grace further and faster into the world than even Jesus might have been ready for.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 14 August 13, 2023
Jesus is Present with Us in Our Anxiety and Fears
By the Rev. Bertram Nagarajah
Remember that storms and winds will blow into all lives. Jesus is present with us, and we are not alone. Jesus, the king of Kings and Lord of Lords is ever present with us to strengthen and help us through the dark patches in our lives.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Transfiguration
August 6, 2023
Yearn for Encouragement, someone who would Listen and Understand
by the Rev. Bertram Nagarajah
Jesus needed encouragement at this pivotal moment of his life; Jesus was preparing for his incredible human journey to travel toward Jerusalem and his crucifixion on the cross. This was the most incredible rescue operation ever envisaged and carried out in human history. Jesus – God becoming human to save humankind. Salvation for all humankind, to deliver humanity from Sin, Satan, and Death. Moses and Elijah were great resources to Jesus, as they both experienced loneliness. Both men of prayer and mountain men knew rejection by their people.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
July 30, 2023 proper 12
The Kingdom of Heaven is like… by Lou Poulain, LLP
Jesus’ parables present a challenge to our notions of power. In contrast to the power of kings and armies, conquest and domination, God’s power is exercised as God works in us, with us and for us; personally, interpersonally, gently and with love… like the tiniest of seeds sown in a field, and a small amount of yeast folded into flour.
Lou references a recent article by Russell Moore, a former official in the Southern Baptist Conference, who writes about the damage done when the Church aligns itself with power politics, the culture-wars instead of the Gospel.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
July 23, 2023 proper 11
The Action of God Within part 6 in Keating Series
by the Rev. Salying Wong
When we sit in Centering Prayer, we consent not only to being in the presence of God, but the action of God within us. This action is beyond our ability–which is to suss out the wheat and the tares within us. The wheat is the our will that wills God’s will (true self); the tares is the will of the false self. We will learn the 4Rs of Centering Prayer to guide us in this practice of consent.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
July 16, 2023 proper 10
The Ribcage of Failure: part 5 in the Keating series
by the Rev. Salying Wong
Failure is the gift of the Torah, which discloses the human condition to us, which leads us into the mercy of God. This is what the Apostle Paul teaches in his letter to the Romans. In this sermon, Pastor Salying teases out how the Apostle Paul uses the word “law”, shows how his teachings sync up with the teachings of Thomas Keating, and finally, how we let our failures become a ribcage that lets us breathe God as God breathes us.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
July 9, 2023 proper 9
Afflictive Emotions: part 4 in the Keating series by the Rev. Salying Wong
Afflictive emotions are our best teachers on the path to transformation in God. They tell us our actual value system rather than the one we wish to have or wish others to see. If we pay attention to them, we can begin to understand how we tick. We can then, also, make the decision to surrender our programs for happiness to God. God invites us to find our true happiness, which is belonging in God rather than to our programs.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
July 2, 2023 proper 8
Keating’s Consents: Part 3 of the Keating series by the Rev. Salying Wong
This is sermon describes the four consents that Thomas Keating teaches and uses the Abraham and Isaac story to illustrate the fourth consent: consent to transformation, which is consent to the unknown.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
June 25, 2023 proper 7
God hears Ishmael and Hagar by the Rev. Bertram Nagarajah
The story of Hagar, an enslaved person in the Household of Abraham and Sarah, is awful. It taught us that God is ever-present and wants to help even in the most hopeless situation. In the scripture passage, we read, “And God heard the boy’s voice.” God hears the voice of innocents, the voice of the vulnerable, the voice of the marginalized, the children at our borders, and the children whose parents are in jails or prisons. We are God’s face and hands and must help those in need.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 18, 2023 proper 6
Come Unto Me All Ye Who Travail part 2 in Keating Series by the Rev. Salying Wong
In this sermon, Pastor Salying uses Sarah and Hagar’s story to illustrate programs of happiness and their durability. “Untransformed suffering will get transmitted,” says Richard Rohr. This sermon explores the nature of programs for happiness, how they take us to a faraway country–this country called the “false self” that lives off fantasies for happiness. It talks about the human soul’s longing to return home, to the home of our true self, which is in God. We will learn that God is always calling us home from the burdens and travails of the false self.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Second Sunday after Pentecost
June 11, 2023 proper 5
Finding Happiness part 1 in Keating Series by the Rev. Salying Wong
When Jesus calls a disciple, Jesus calls the sinner in need of healing. Those who are well do not need a physician. Pastor Salying begins a series based on the teachings on Thomas Keating on healing our emotional programs for happiness–programs that do not ultimately satisfy. In this sermon, Salying uses the call of Matthew to help us to consider how we identify: do we identify with Matthew the sinner or the Pharisees who are good. She also talks about the three energy centers: safety and security, esteem and affection, and power and control–and how they move us in our wounds. Jesus’ call to us is for healing. Will we yield?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Trinity Sunday
June 4, 2023
God: the Original They-Them by the Rev. Salying Wong
The Trinity is about life, our life. Humans were created in the image of God. This shouldn’t be understood as only individually. Because God as Trinity exists in relationship, to be fully human is to be connected in intimate relationship with God, humankind and all of creation.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Day of Pentecost
May 28, 2023
A Revolution of the Intimate by the Rev. Salying Wong
The Holy Spirit didn’t need to pour out an abundance of different languages. The people were able to communicate using Hebrew, Greek and Latin. So, why? To initiate what Willie Jennings calls, “a revolution of the intimate. To speak a language is to speak a people.” Those who heard their native tongues were transported home, to the place of intimacy. And the Galilean Jews walked into the lives of the diaspora Jew. Space folded. This is what church really means: to be joined by the Holy Spirit and made a people, born not of flesh nor the will of man, but of God in Jesus. The speaking is essential because the story creates the bonds of intimacy. Today, we must tell our story if we say we “want to make connections with our neighbors.”
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Seventh Sunday after Easter
May 21, 2023
Feast of the Ascension by the Rev. Trish Cunningham
The Ascension means a way of knowing Jesus’ presence on the gut level. In our time, our work as church is all the more important. We must trust our gut to follow Jesus and do the work that we can do.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Sixth Sunday after Easter
May 14, 2023
Awe, Abundance, and Advocate by Angela Rausch, lay preacher-in-training
On the night before Jesus died, he promised not to leave his disciples orphaned. He promised an advocate. How does this advocate come alongside us in the moments of awe and in the abundance in our relationships?
Introducing Angela Rausch: Angela is a lifelong catholic. She started her healing ministry as pharmacist. She has a Masters of Pastoral Ministries from Santa Clara University and a certificate in Interfaith Spiritual Direction from the Chaplaincy Institute. She is a trained spiritual director/companion. During the pandemic she and her husband, Kris entered the reception program at St Thomas for membership into the Episcopal Church, at the invitation of Pastor Salying. Another invitation presented itself in January and she entered the Lay Preaching Course at the West Coast Collaborative School for Ministry in the Episcopal Dioceses of El Camino Real, San Diego and Northern California. Her sermon of May 14 is part of her homework and training. Her true vocation is that of wife to Kris and mother to Bryce, Kameron and Charles.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fifth Sunday after Easter
May 7, 2023
Stephen’s Witness to the New Church by the Rev. Salying Wong
What would you do to protect what you love? Those who killed Stephen felt so threatened by his announcement of God’s radical hospitality that they stoned him. Listen or read the sermon to find out the story.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourth Sunday after Easter
April 30, 2023
Your True Name by the Rev. Salying Wong
There are many kinds of name: birth names, nickname, cruel names. But the Good Shepherd calls us by our true name: Beloved.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Third Sunday after Easter
April 23, 2023
Hide and Seek on the Way to Emmaus by the Rev. Salying Wong
Jesus plays his favorite game of “Hide and Seek” on the way to Emmaus. Eastertide is 50 days of Mystagogia, where the game leads us to mystery rather than certainty. Come and play.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Second Sunday after Easter
April 16, 2023
Thomas Didymus (poem) by Denise Levertov, reading with images; curated and read by the Rev. Salying Wong
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Easter Sunday
April 9, 2023
Life in the Garden by the Rev. Salying Wong
Easter creation story in the garden.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Good Friday
April 7, 2023
New Birth at the Foot of the Cross by the Rev. Salying Wong
When a grain of wheat falls, it falls and falls into the ground of God’s being. It is through the suffering, not around it, that new life emerges.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Maundy Thursday
April 6, 2023
Betrayal and the Hour of Glory by the Rev. Salying Wong
The passion was not just the suffering of the crucifixion; it is also the passion of Judas’ betrayal. Jesus not only experiences the piercing of his body, but the piercing of his heart. He understands the depths of our pain.
No video is available for this sermon. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 26, 2023
Resurrection and Life – Present Tense by the Rev Salying Wong
Martha was taught that there’s a resurrection on the last day. But Jesus said to her, “I am resurrection and I am life–present tense.” This sermon explores what the raising of Lazarus could teach us about our present eternal life in Christ.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 19, 2023
Now Is the Time of Judgment: The Discernment of the Sheep
by the Rev. Salying Wong
Sheep aren’t good at much–but they are good at discerning the voice of the shepherd from any hired hand. Jesus is looking for the sheep while there is light. In fact, he is the light and he turns it on for his sheep. The man born blind has the light turned on and is becoming a sheep. Jesus has other sheep–and he calls each by name. We are the sheep and our work is to discern the voice of the shepherd so that we might follow him.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Third Sunday in Lent
March 12, 2023
Love, Truth, Redemption, and Acceptance by the Rev. Dn. Bertram Nagarajah
The story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman is a beautiful example of vulnerability, love, truth, redemption, and acceptance. Jesus accepted her “as she was.” Jesus only asked her to believe. The first-person Jesus ever told he was the Messiah was to the Samaritan women an outcast. The Samaritan woman came to draw water feeling unworthy and defeated but left that day with a new person and self-image. After encountering Jesus, she saw herself as valuable, redeemed, forgiven, and a child of God’s family. Her renewal changed the whole city.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Second Sunday in Lent
March 5, 2023
For God So Loved the Cosmos by Lou Poulain, LLP
Lou unpacks the famous verse John 3:16 to move it past an individualistic interpretation of salvation, especially as going to heaven after you die. Rather, “Eternal life” is about the reign of God–the enduring reign that is about relationship with God. How does one live in this enduring age that Jesus talks about? One must be born anew.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
First Sunday in Lent
February 26, 2023
The Devil is a Bad Consultant by the Rev. Salying Wong
After Jesus goes public at his baptism, he consults with the devil about how to successfully launch his movement. The devil’s advice makes a lot of sense if the goal was to figure out the cost, ensure safety and security, and to be successful. But, where was trust in God? The temptations of the devil are actually quite pedestrian–they speak to our fantasies for a shortcut to happiness. Lent, though, invites us to a sustained period of self-reflection and examination. Using the thoughts of Fr. Thomas Keating, Pastor Salying describes how our wounds trigger programs for happiness that are actually full of decay. Lent invites us to notice this, to seek real healing, to forgive and so find freedom.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Ash Wednesday
February 22, 2023
The Secret Chamber by the Rev. Salying Wong
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. It is the heart that is the secret chamber, where we go to pray–to know what rust and dust do not consume and where thieves do not break in and steal.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Last Sunday after the Epiphany – Transfiguration Sunday
February 19, 2023
Not Ready for the Light by the Rev. Salying Wong
After telling his disciples that he would be crucified, Jesus takes his three saddest disciples up a mountain to give them a glimpse of the light to come. But, he tells them not to tell anyone and to keep silence. They were not ready to speak of about how the light comes because they had yet suffered enough. Silence gives insight on how the light turns on.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany
February 12, 2023
The Heart of the Torah by the Rev. Salying Wong
What does it mean to have righteousness that exceeds the most holy people of Israel? What does it mean to fulfill the law? Take this tour of the sermon on mount and consider how Jesus offers an interpretation by listening to the heart of the law.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
February 5, 2023
All Y’all’s Salt by the Rev. Salying Wong
Salted dung patties light up the earth, light up the world. Yes, all y’alls the salt; all y’all’s the light. What?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
January 29, 2023
A Beatitude Point of View by the Rev. Salying Wong
The Beatitudes are spoken to those who been healed, those who yearn for healing, those who are poor and meek–all gathered together at the mountain. The crowds want to understand what’s happening. Jesus tells them: Be encouraged! What is translated as “Blessed” really means “be encouraged”. Jesus says this because the poor and the outcast don’t believe anyone is on their side. But God in Jesus has come near and is declaring with works of mercy and justice that God indeed sees and cares for them. “Be encouraged, you poor, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.” We who follow Jesus needs this Beatitude point of view.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Third Sunday after the Epiphany
January 22, 2023
Fishing Jesus-Style by the Rev. Salying Wong
Pastor Salying tells the story of Jesus calling Peter, Andrew, James and John in the context of the arrest of John the Baptist. “Are you sick of tyranny?!” So, they follow him with a burning desire for freedom. Along the way, they will learn the cost of discipleship and what fishing Jesus-style looks like.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Second Sunday after the Epiphany
January 15, 2023
Beyond Peace-Mongering by the Rev. Salying Wong
Pastor Salying’s sermon considers the impulse toward peace-mongering in the church, which is the impulse to make peace with oppression in order to achieve a peace we mistakenly think Jesus’ wants for us. What are the qualities of the peace promised in the beatitudes and the work of peacemaking?
This sermon is based on the Letter from a Birmingham Jail by MLK. A copy of an excerpt from the original letter, which was used as the Epistle reading on this Sunday, may be found here.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
First Sunday after the Epiphany
January 8, 2023
Daily Manifestations of Belovedness by the Rev. Salying Wong
Pastor Salying’s sermon teaches on the Feast of the Epiphany as a unitive feast marking three events: the manifestation of the star to the wise men; the manifestation of the Holy Spirit at Christ’s Baptism; and the manifestation of overabundance of wine at Cana pointing to the grace upon grace Jesus comes to give. Each manifestation pulls back the curtain to show us the basic reality: God is with us, for us, and loves us. Most manifestations of Christ happen in daily life–and each helps us to be in right relationship with God. This right relationship is to receive God’s love and return love to God. Love fulfills all righteousness.
First Sunday After Christmas
The Holy Name – January 1, 2023
What’s In A Name? by the Rev. Salying Wong
Jesus is the Greek from of the Hebrew name Joshua. More than meaning, “God saves,” it means, “Yahweh saves.” Yahweh is the name revealed to Moses in the burning bush. Yahweh is the God who hears the suffering of the oppressed and works to liberate those in bondage. Jesus’ very gospel depends on this liberating God and points to God’s purposes: the blind shall see, the mute shall speak, the deaf shall hear, the leper shall be cleansed, the poor shall have good news brought to them, those in prison shall be set free and the dead are raised. When we say we do not take Jesus’ name in vain, it means that we trust this promise of God–who comes very close and hears our deep need for freedom and who liberates and is liberating us.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Christmas Day
December 25, 2022
Pitching Tent on Christmas by the Rev. Salying Wong
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This phrase, “dwelt among us” in Greek is literally translated as “pitching tent” with us. In a society where nomads were common, those who first heard these words would have imagined a God who came to travel with us, going where we go, staying where we stayed–journeying with us, never leaving us. In light of this, Christmas means that God comes is with us all along the way, even if it means pitching tent, breaking it down, and pitching it again, just to be close to us. This is what Christmas “Emmanuel” really means.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Christmas Eve
December 24, 2022
God’s Gift-Wrap by the Rev. Salying Wong
I heard about a study on gift wrap. Apparently, gift wrapping a present usually sets us up for disappointment. The more beautiful the wrapping, the greater the disappointment. Have you ever felt that way? All those beautiful presents under the tree…
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. No transcript is availeble but the video may be enabled for closed captioning.
Third Sunday in Advent
December 11, 2022
This Sunday Pastor Salying spoke about the “O” antiphons, traditionally used the eight days – the “octave” – before Christmas.
A link to further details of these sung prayers, along with a special daily practice for these 8 days, may be found here.
Second Sunday in Advent
December 4, 2022
Come, Coming, Become by the Rev. Salying Wong
Repentance in Advent can be understood as choosing the “non-dominant alternative perspective.” In a world of violence, this requires an imaginative leap that even John the Baptist could not first make. But, in Jesus, as frail flesh and God, as babe, we get the non-dominant alternative perspective. It is so beyond the way we normally do things (by might and power), one must wonder, “How can this save us? How does fragile God address all that is wrong in the world?”
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
First Sunday in Advent
November 27, 2022
The Advent Wreath by the Rev. Bertram Nagarajah
In the Advent Season, marking the days with the Advent wreath prepares us for the coming of Jesus.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King
Transgender Day of Remembrance
November 20, 2022
Aer (They/Them) and Pastor Salying (She/Her) share a sermon on Transgender Remembrance Day. Each share a personal story and a reflection on the Gospel on Christ the King Sunday.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 16, 2022
How to Not Lose Heart by the Rev. Salying Wong
The parable of the persistent widow makes us ask the question, “Where does she get her hope?” in the relentless work to make justice. How does she not lose heart? What can it mean to pray always?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 9, 2022
What the Beggar Whispered by the Rev. Salying Wong
Francis became a real saint when he embraced the leper–and his most broken self. In that act of surrender, he knew what the Samaritan leper knew in today’s gospel reading. He knew, he was the beloved.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 11, 2022
Sinful Sheep, Deprave Coin; Or, Not by the Rev. Salying Wong
The parables of the lost sheep and coin illustrate Luke’s perspective on repentance. It isn’t the sin of the sheep or coin that is the focus–in fact, it’s ridiculous to even consider this. Rather, all the action is done by the shepherd and the woman, both images of God. God does all the seeking and finding, and ultimately, restoring of what is precious (sheep and coin) to wholeness and belonging. This sort of repentance is a cause for the angels and all flesh to rejoice.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 4, 2022
Philemon’s Letter Tilts the World by the Rev. Salying Wong
This is a story of a useless Useful slave, a wealthy patron, and a foolish preacher–and how a flimsy letter changed an empire.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
August 28, 2022
Dinner as a Despicable: You are who you eat with by the Rev. Salying Wong
Bucking the patron-client system that drives everyone to want to be on top, Jesus says be at the lowest place. In the lowest place, you have no power, nothing to offer. And that’s when you know what grace really is. In order to walk into the kingdom of God, you must be in this posture of utter receptivity. Otherwise, you’ll just be playing out the game in rules of the world.
No video is available for this sermon. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
August 21, 2022
Mercy All the Time by the Rev. Salying Wong
The healing of the women with a crippled back in Luke 13 becomes an occasion for Jesus to connect the Kingdom of God and the Sabbath–God’s intention from the beginning of creation for all to find their freedom, healing, and rest in him.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 14, 2022
The Song We Sing by the Rev. Salying Wong
This sermon tells the story of Jesus’ difficult sayings about division in the context of Mary’s Magnificat and the Song of Simeon. What is the fire, the sword, the division?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
August 7, 2022
Give Everything Away Till You Are Naked Before God by the Rev. Salying Wong
Before Marie Kondo, there was Jesus Christ. Take all you possession–not just your stuff, but your precious thoughts and emotions, anxieties and cravings, and ask, “Does this come between me and my trust in God?” If so, throw it away. Give everything away till you are naked before God and you will be able to perceive this reality: Be not afraid, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
July 31, 2022
Who Is Doing the Possessing? by the Rev. Salying Wong
A man wants Jesus to make his brother divide the inheritance with him. Instead of arbitrating for him, Jesus tells the man a parable about a rich farmer who gets possessed by his possessions; shoring up wealth for himself, he dies isolated and alone. Jesus does not want this to be the fate of the man. He tells him to turn his concern away from self-centered cravings–to turn toward real wealth, which is found in community, in friendship, in relationships.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
July 24, 2022 Proper 12
Shameless Prayer by the Rev. Wong
Go to God with your shameless need and God who is your parent–a heavenly parent–will give you the Holy Spirit. But what if you just want stuff, answers and a clear timeline? Jesus has a couple of parables for you from Luke 11.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
July 17, 2022 Proper 11
Martha’s Pot Roast by the Rev. Salying Wong
Jesus is trying to tell Martha he loves her, no matter how the food turns out. In fact, since he’s “set his face to Jerusalem”, his only hunger is for friendship and love. He loves Martha as much as he loves Mary and wants to feast on their companionship. Jesus invites Martha–not to leave her role as hostess, but not to mistake her role for who she is. She is first beloved. It is she who is desired, above her generous table. So, Jesus gives us permission to give not just what we do, but trust that our friendship is his greatest joy and desire. Martha can make things easier by serving pot roast. (But still it should be served on fine china, not on paper plates as suggested by the pastor.)
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
July 10, 2022 Proper 10
On My Way to Jericho, by the [Good] Samaritan as recounted by the Rev. Salying Wong
The Samaritan tells his side of the story on that fateful day on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
July 3, 2022 Proper 9
Faith and Freedom by Lou Poulain, LLP
St. Paul’s experience in the desert of Arabia, where he encountered the risen Christ, represented the total collapse of the sacred order. He who, according to the law, was impeccable, now found himself in a wilderness where that had no meaning anymore. It is through this experience, that Paul encounters what being new creation really could mean. In the letter to the Galatians, Paul is emphatically exhorting his church to reject the “Judaizer’s” message of circumcision because it not the new life in Christ. It takes them back to structures that don’t give life anymore. For freedom Christ has set us free. This freedom is not license, but freedom to be a new creation. What could that mean for you?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
The Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 26, 2022 Proper 8
How to March on the Capitol by the Rev. Salying Wong
Jesus begins his march to the capitol, Jerusalem, by way of Samaria. Strange choice! Why? How is Jesus’ march different from the march of the the Zealots and Roman legions? How does his march inform our work today–for freedom, for justice, and to announce hope?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
The Second Sunday after Pentecost
June 19, 2022 Proper 7
Juneteenth at Gerasa by the Rev. Salying Wong
This sermon by Pastor Salying connects the history of Juneteenth with the story of the demoniac in Gerasa. Only some people think freedom is good news. Those who depend on the structures of bondage for their privilege and order will be full of dread at the coming of the good news. The good news of Jesus Christ is freedom from bondage–and the those who are freed are also freed to proclaim it.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Trinity Sunday
June 12, 2022
The Trinity: where we live our ordinary lives by the Rev. Salying Wong
Trinity Sunday is a lynchpin between seasons with theological foci and a season without any; between Advent-Easter and ordinary time. Trinity Sunday caps off a time of deep theological investigation with a feast of mystery, awe and wonder. Now, we are ready to walk into ordinary time with humility.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
The Day of Pentecost
June 5, 2022
God’s Love Language by the Rev. Salying Wong
High-context, low text. People who study culture and languages would say some languages are high-context, low text… It is when you don’t say much (low text), but the messages are passed along in non-verbal ways…
No video is available for this sermon. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Seventh Sunday in Easter – Sunday after Ascension
May 29. 2022
For God So Loved the World by the Rev. Salying Wong
A contemplation on the Ascension as it intersects with the Uvalde shootings.
No video is available for this sermon. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Sixth Sunday in Easter
May 22, 2022
Finding Hope by the Rev. Bertram Nagarajah
Deacon Bertram’s sermon considers the tragedies of the Buffalo shooting and the ongoing war in Ukraine and Jesus’ words of his abiding presence with his disciples.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fifth Sunday in Easter
May 15, 2022
A Recipe for Fruitcake by the Rev. Salying Wong
Pastor Salying tells a story, as an outsider, of giving hospitality to her fifth grade teacher–to illustrate how important it is to receive hospitality, especially to build the church. This connects with the vision of Peter in the book of Acts and his openness to receiving from the gentile Cornelius. It means the time of fear is over and the walls that separate are being dismantled.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourth Sunday in Easter
May 8, 2022
Iconic Ornamentals at St. Thomas by the Rev. Salying Wong
Tabitha in the Acts of the Apostles was called a disciple. She was known for her love in the things she made with her hands. In this sermon, you will see a few examples of the beautiful things made with loving hands in service to worship of God–which means, they are icons.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Third Sunday in Easter
May 1, 2022
Discipleship After Resurrection by the Rev. Salying Wong
The disciples are back at the Sea of Galilee after the resurrection of Jesus. But, they are fishing in the dark. Like them, we might also ask how does one practice discipleship when Jesus’ presence isn’t clear, when we have to recognize him when our eyes are of no help? How do we follow him and continue the work he was doing, which is to love the world?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Second Sunday in Easter
April 24, 2022
The Wounded Resurrected Body by the Rev. Salying Wong
Jesus offers the intimacy of his wounded resurrected body to his disciples so that they might trust him and be released from the locked places where fear has bound them. He releases them for that abundant life that he promised to them, a new life of peace and forgiveness.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fifth Sunday in Lent
April 3, 2022
When You Have Nothing Left to Give by the Rev. Salying Wong
The time has come. The hour is here. Jesus will die. What do you do for the one you love when there’s nothing left to do? Mary of Bethany shows the way.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 27, 2022
The Parable of the Beloved Elder Son by the Rev. Salying Wong
The elder son, in the famous parable of the so-called Parable of the Prodigal Son, is forgotten. No one goes to get him in the fields when the party gets started. This painful event shows how families are made of broken people. Jesus uses this parable to show how the love of God has always been there and is ours–even when we’ve all been lost in the hurt. It is this love that gives us the abundance from which we can forgive and reconcile–it is this love that doesn’t demand that life gets fixed before we get healed.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Third Sunday in Lent
March 20, 2022
Please Cure the World of Ambiguity or Not by the Rev. Salying Wong
Jesus speaks to people who sum up tragedies with bad theology, all in service of keeping the world clear and certain. Instead, Jesus puts himself in the midst of tragedy and so puts God in the depth of it. He tells a parable about the mysterious fig tree and makes the parable a door into a universe where things aren’t so clear–yet, God is there.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Second Sunday in Lent
God Our Mothering Hen by the Rev. Salying Wong
March 13, 2022
Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem. On his way are foxes that desire to kill him. But, he desires to spend his life in the midst of violence to embrace the wayward within his mothering wings, as a hen gathers her brood. Alas, “Jerusalem” does not desire it? Do we? What would it mean to desire God’s desire for us? What would we have to surrender to be gathered, along with all whom God desires, within the abode of these wings of God?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
First Sunday in Lent
Tomorrow’s Bread by the Rev. Salying Wong
March 6, 2022
Jesus and the devil have a conversation about need–in the form of bread. Should one take control of one’s need? Should we give into all our anxieties about what is unknown? What need do we have of need?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Ash Wednesday
What God Can Do With Dust by the Rev. Salying Wong
March 2, 2022
On Ash Wednesday, we take on the mark of dust as a sign of our trust in what God can do with dust.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Last Sunday after the Epiphany – Transfiguration
The Light Is Real All the Time by the Rev. Salying Wong
February 27, 2022
The last Sunday of Epiphany is also Transfiguration Sunday. It is the Sunday before the season of Lent begins. Lent means spring–that is, the time when light begins to flood our days. So, it is an apt time to witness the brilliant divine light when the veil is pulled back on that mountain.
NO video of this sermon is available. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany
February 20, 2022
The Measure You Receive by the Rev. Salying Wong
The Sermon on the Plain is for the victim. It is about the nature of God’s love to heal our deepest wounds. This grace is so generous–if pours on us over and over again, endlessly. What we thought would be like a measure of grain we purchase becomes a measure that is beyond measure–and it is ours, for free; and it is for us; and it never runs out.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany
February 13, 2022
Oi! Woe! Whoa! by the Rev. Salying Wong
The Beatitudes and Woes of Luke’s Gospel describe the upside-down nature of the Kingdom of God. What makes for a happy life? Is the happiness the main pursuit of life? What is the role of suffering and pain? Jesus says, “Pay attention!”
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
February 6, 2022
Die, Rise, Fish by the Rev. Salying Wong
Learning to fish for people is a much more mysterious process than a miracle of fish gathered in nets. Peter will learn how as he follows Jesus and confronts his own failure; he will learn how when he confronts his own ego and allows it to be buried with Christ and rise with Christ. It is in this surrender that he will acquire the qualities of a fisher of people.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
January 30, 2022
I See in a Mirror Dimly (a sermon in verse) by the Rev. Salying Wong
Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who’s the best preacher of all?
Mirror, mirror in my fair hand,
Who’s the best servant in the land?
Mirror, mirror in the church,
Who sits highest on the perch…
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Third Sunday after the Epiphany
January 23, 2022
Recovering Identity in Times of Change by Lou Poulain, LLP
Returning from exile, the Jewish community rediscovered their identity in a changed world. Today’s church must reshape our identity and mission in our changing world.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Second Sunday after the Epiphany
January 16, 2022
The Nudge, the Dream, the Work by the Rev. Salying Wong
Jesus needed a nudge from mom to walk into his ministry; MLK needed a nudge from Mahalia Jackson to work for the “dream”. We at St. Thomas are now working on our dream for the future of our parish. We are nudged on by love.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
First Sunday after the Epiphany
The Winnowing Fork and the Unquenchable Fire by the Rev. Salying Wong
January 9, 2022
Why does Jesus get baptized? Pastor Salying interprets the Baptism of Our Lord in the context of the Season of Epiphany–a season of enlightenment and awakening. She argues that Jesus’ baptism reveals the dynamic self-giving love of the Trinity, an embrace of love into which we are invited, so that we might also hear what the Father’s says, “You are my child, my beloved, in whom I am well-pleased.” This baptism, unlike other baptisms, is where the Spirit winnows away the chaff, all the nonsense of our false identification with happiness–all that is burned up. What remains is what is of substance, the wheat that provides sustenance to ourselves; the germ that may be planted and proliferated to give more life to the world. This is the baptism of the Spirit and of Fire.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Second Sunday after Christmas
Border Crossings by the Rev. Salying Wong
January 2. 2022
In this sermon, Pastor Salying tells her story of crossing the border to United States–even as that event was full of uncertainty, the uncertainty that followed was even greater. Often, to cross a border is to cross into more uncertainty. In a world out of our control, faith helps us find a foothold. Most of all, what helps is making new life by making it together–in community.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Christmas Eve
God’s Gift Wrap by the Rev. Salying Wong
The Christmas Homily was not recorded. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourth Sunday in Advent
On Sunday, December 19, 2021 we celebrated with a liturgy of Lessons & Carols; there was no sermon.
Third Sunday in Advent
On Sunday, December 12, 2021, we had our Annual Christmas Pageant in the usual place of the Sunday sermon.
Second Sunday in Advent
10,000 Degrees by the Rev. Salying Wong
December 5, 2021
The Prophet Malachi urges the people to be reconciled with God and neighbor. But reconciliation is not for the faint of heart. It will feel like being burned in 10,000 degrees; it will feel like being scrubbed in a bath of lye. Is this God’s wrath and judgment? Or is it our wrath and judgment? How do we prepare for the coming of the Lord?
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
First Sunday in Advent
Chronos, Kairos, Advent by the Rev. Salying Wong
November 28, 2021
Advent is time that wells up to fulfillment; it does not run out. It is the time to look for the signs of new life, not destruction. It requires silence to perceive.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King
In Celebration of the 110th Anniversary of our Parish: Interviews with long-time members
November 21, 2021
Pastor Salying Wong spoke at some length with long-time members Norma Medlin and Jane Doman. The video with Norma may be found here.
Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Birthpangs by the Rev. Salying Wong
November 14, 2021 Proper 28
The Gospel of Mark offers no soft consolation. Jesus tells his disciples that they cannot bypass suffering. Some will try to jump over the labor of suffering–announcing that all is accomplished before it is accomplished, pretending that Jesus has already come to save the day in his second coming. But, Jesus says not to believe it. In fact, the suffering is the birthpangs to new life–one must labor in order to create the end of the story. This is the good news.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
All Saints Sunday
Risen Life, Present Tense by the Rev. Salying Wong
November 7, 2021
The sign of Lazarus’ raising points to the reality that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. Jesus declares this before he raises Lazarus, before he himself is crucified, died, risen and ascended. Jesus declares this not as a causal reality, but as a present reality. Jesus came in the midst of our human condition–loss, pain, death–to show us that these things do not have the last word. In Jesus, the Word made flesh, the last word is resurrection and life.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
Stewardship Sunday
A Very Perfect Gift by Lou Poulain, LLP
October 31, 2021 Proper 26
Our identity as Christians is built on worship, gospel, community and service. As we answer the call to be steward of these things, it is an answer to extend ourselves in care for one another in the midst of our most local expression of church.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost
On the Way: Insight from the Margins by the Rev. Salying Wong
October 24, 2021 Proper 25
Bartimaeus sits by the roadside, sits along the way, sits on the margins. And though he is blind, he has insight to who Jesus is. He cries out, “Jesus, Son of David!” He declares the messiah on his way from Jericho to Jerusalem. The way that Jesus walks is cruciform. Bartimaeus proclaims salvation by giving the insight we need to have a new perspective. This new perspective (literally repentance) is the insight/sight we need to see the Kingdom of God.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
Is the Vice President Seat Open? by the Rev. Salying Wong
October 17, 2021 Proper 24
You need repentance to see the Kingdom of God. That is, you need a new mind, a new perspective (metanoia). It isn’t like other kinds of kingdoms, where the head positions give you power and glory. In Jesus’ Kingdom, the seats to his left are right are the cross. Suffering is part of this kingdom. All who follow this way will serve as one who has to contend with suffering. It is in the midst of suffering that our servanthood is purified–as not about having power and honor, but even eschewing hatred and bitterness in the worst of it. That’s how you walk into God’s kingdom.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Who Is Good? by the Rev. Salying Wong
October 10, 2021 Proper 23
The story of the rich man who was told to sell everything and the response of Peter and the disciples together reveal the essential nature of the Kingdom of God. It is not entered in by human goodness, which is tainted by our egos. Rather, it is a pure gift from God, whose goodness is purely from the place of mercy and love. Jesus looked at the rich man and loved him; Jesus looks at us and loves us. When we consent to the gaze of God and one our eye with God’s eye, the camel threads the eye of the needle. What is impossible with mortals is possible with God.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Good News for the Divorced by the Rev. Salying Wong
October 3, 2021 Proper 22
Divorce has touched almost everyone’s lives, either directly or indirectly. The pain can close up the heart. This sermon contemplates Mark 10 and Jesus’ teaching on divorce. Setting his words in context, we can hold his words not as a prescription, but as eschatological hope. In the Kingdom of God, the hope is the hope of the vulnerable, the disempowered, and the shamed. It is welcome for the broken hearted.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Stumbling Blocks by Lou Poulain, LLP
September 26, 2021 Proper 21
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Greatest Path by the Rev. Bertram Nagarajah
September 19, 2021 Proper 20
We can be too concerned about our own greatness, comparing and competing with one another. But, Jesus, before he goes to the cross, teaches them what is the path of greatness. That path is to love one another–especially in the here and now.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Remembrance of 9-11 by Gage McKinney, LLP
September 12, 2021 Proper 19
Where were you during the events of 9-11? For those old enough, we know where we were. This is because of the scale of 9-11. In the Gospel of Mark, we see that when Jesus moves out of Galilee to the Gentile regions, the scale of the gospel message grows bigger. Yet, in the midst of the growing scale of the movement, Jesus brings it back to the personal, when he asks, “Who do you say that I am?” So, also, in the huge scale of tragedy of 9-11, God’s love comes to each person. God, who made the galaxies, is also God in each human heart. Life in God is lived across various levels.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Ephphatha at the Borders by the Rev. Salying Wong
September 5, 2021 Proper 18
In Mark 7, Jesus leaves Galilee and goes to Tyre. He moves from Jewish territory to Phoenician territory and from agricultural and poor territory to urban and wealthy territory. But, he still has borders to cross. The Syro-phoenican woman teaches him that the borders of the Kingdom are opened (Ephphatha). When he accepts the transformation at this border crossing, he, too, gives liberation to the woman’s daughter–and ultimately to the deaf-mute man of the Decapolis. The liberation of the kingdom is contagious and crosses boundaries.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Hey Jesus, Did You Sanitize? by the Rev. Salying Wong
August 29, 2021 Proper 17
Purification rituals help us remember that God is holy and that life with the holy God really matters. But, sometimes, we go sideways, thinking that the rituals themselves makes us holy–and then judge those who don’t do things our way as not as holy. When we go too far, we end up projecting the things we don’t like about ourselves onto others. But examination of the heart, which Jesus is discussing in the Gospel reading from Mark, enables us to use that which we would rather cast away as the very means to a pure heart–which is really a whole heart. When we can gain compassion for ourselves, it will be natural to be compassionate to our neighbor.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
End Where We Began by the Rev. Salying Wong
August 22, 2021 Proper 16
This fifth installment on the Bread of Life discourse considers the ultimate place Jesus has taken the crowd and his disciples–a place where they have nothing to offer for the boundless love they are being given. It is a place of utter vulnerability. Some will find this too scandalizing; but, for those who remain, they will be freed from the will of the flesh and be born again/from above–they will have power to become children of God.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
More to Chew On by the Rev. Salying Wong
August 15, 2021 Proper 15
This fourth installment in the bread of life discourse explores the levels of meaning in the phrases “living bread” and “eat my flesh”. Some the allusions are to the Good Shepherd/Psalm 23 and to the eucharist. The invitation is throughout: the offering of life and life abundant.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
The Multiplication Goes On by the Rev. Salying Wong
August 8, 2021 Proper 14
Continuing in the Bread of Life discourse in John 6, this Sunday we (and the crowd) contemplate Jesus’ origins from the beginning as the Bread of Heaven which gives life to the world. Jesus’ coming as intimate presence helps those who trust him erase the sense of separation from God, which is part of the human condition. When we feed on Jesus, the True Bread, we will multiply the work of trust–and so the miracle (of loaves and fishes) goes on and on.
(This is the third installment of the 5 week series on the Bread of Life Discourse set for the lectionary.)
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Do you believe? by the Rev. Salying Wong
August 1, 2021 Proper 13
Miracles leave us hungry again. But, a sign leads to eternal life, where we feast on the Bread of Life. To believe, in the Gospel of John, means to say yes to an intimate relationship with Jesus, who is God’s presence among us. The performance of the sign of multiplication, when understood merely as a miracle, treats the exchange with God as a transaction. But, when understood truly, leads to connection–leads to a relationship that is born of God, born from above. This is the invitation in the sign of loaves and fishes.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Jesus Feeds Us with his Own Hand by the Rev. Salying Wong
July 25, 2021 Proper 12
This is the first installment of a 5-week series on John 6. This sermon interprets the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes using the Prologue of John, as a sign of God come near through Jesus, to show abundant love and to call all into relationship–to give grace upon grace.
No video of this sermon is available. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Get Your Groove On by the Rev. Salying Wong
July 18, 2021 Proper 11
This is the rewrite of the Psalm 23 from today.
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; 3 he restores my soul. When traveling, he puts my wheels in a righteous groove for a smooth ride, for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Only goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life, and I shall return again and again to God’s presence my whole life long.
Here’s the sermon, “Get Your Groove On” on the psalm by Pastor Salying.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
The Light Yoke by the Rev. Salying Wong
July 11, 2021 Proper 10
The story of the murder of John the Baptist is a harbinger of harder things to come. Today, Jesus teaches his disciples how to bear hardships.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
July 4, 2021 Proper 9 Persevering Faith by the Rev. Salying Wong
Sometimes the work of the Gospel means rejection and change of tactic. In such times, we must be nimble, adapt, and have persevering faith.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
June 27, 2021 Proper 8 No Shortage of Grace by the Rev. Salying Wong
A sick poor woman; a sick rich girl: each receive healing, showing that in the Kingdom of God, there is no shortage of grace.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
June 20, 2021 Proper 7 Emmanuel in the Boat by the Rt. Rev. Lucinda Ashby
In this sermon, Bishop Lucinda shows how Jesus is Emmanuel in the boat and in all places, in the tempest and also in fair weather.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 13, 2021 Proper 6
Seeing the Harvest by Lou Poulain, LLP
This sermon by Lou Poulain considers how to see the harvest, when the process of growth is so mysterious in the Parable of the Sower.
As with all sermons, the video may be found on our YouTube channel, link noted at the top of this page. For an emailed copy of the text (PDF) please contact the office here.
Second Sunday after Pentecost
June 6, 2021 Proper 5 Emmanuel Power by the Rev. Salying Wong Jesus gets it from his family and from the religious authorities in Mark…
Trinity Sunday
May 30, 2021 A Second Kingdom by the Rev. Salying Wong In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, we hear Jesus describing the Kingdom of God as…
Pentecost Sunday
May 23, 2021 Speaking the Intimate Tongue by the Rev. Salying Wong The miracle at Pentecost is not the spectacle of a multiplicity of tongues;…
Seventh Sunday in Easter
May 16, 2021 Praying in Their Midst by the Rev. Ricardo Avila In the Farewell Discourse, Jesus prays for his sad disciples in their midst. …
Sixth Sunday in Easter
May 9, 2021 The Gentile Pentecost by the Rev. Salying Wong Chapter 10 in the Book of Acts is the pivotal chapter; the story of…
Fifth Sunday in Easter
May 2, 2021 The Ethiopian Eunuch at the Ends of the Earth by the Rev. Salying Wong The Ethiopian Eunuch, who travels on the wilderness…