Words From Silence: Contemplation in a World of Action

A Funeral Homily for Ron Allison Today we gather to mourn the passing and celebrate the life of our dear brother Ron. At the reception afterwards we’ll have a chance to share stories of about this beloved character, but for now I want to look through the glass of Ron’s life to see how it might open onto the mystery of God, and our walk of Christian discipleship. He has a lot to teach us. Our Gospel passage for today speaks of there being “many mansions in my Father’s house.” One way to use that image in our understanding of who and how God is for, with, and ahead of us, is to hear it as a statement of unconditional belovedness for all of God’s children—indeed for the entire created order. If there is one thing you can say about Ron, it’s that he was unique. A true character. With his ever-dapper sartorial flair (he was the only 77 year-old I know who could pull of Converse and skinny jeans), his Anglophilic preoccupations (particularly with anything pertaining to Her Majesty the ...

A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark Year C, Proper 24 The Very Reverend Tyler Doherty, Dean & Rector I’ve been thinking recently about our journey with Jeremiah these past few weeks. He’s told us the story of impending invasion by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and the exile of people of Israel into Babylon. Last week, we heard something rather astounding—that even in exile the people of Judah are to build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat what they produce; to take wives and have sons and daughters; to seek the welfare of the city where they now live; and perhaps most astonishingly to pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in the welfare of the city they will find their own welfare. This is pretty earth-shattering stuff. What God is saying through Jeremiah is that even in a time of exile, when the Temple has been destroyed and they are prisoners in a foreign land, the people of Israel are called to be...

A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark Proper 23, Year C The Very Reverend Tyler B. Doherty, Dean & Rector In his reflection on the psalms as he was exploring his newfound faith, C.S. Lewis remarked on the connection between gratitude and personal well-being. “I noticed how the humblest and at the same time most balanced minds praised most: while the cranks, the misfits, and malcontents praised least. Praise almost seems to be inner health made audible.” In our Gospel for today, we have in Luke’s account of the ten lepers a powerful testimony to place of gratitude, gratefulness, thanksgiving, and praise in the Christian life. The story is a simple one. Jesus heads into uncharted territory as boundary-crossing love. The region between Samaria and Galilee should set off red flags for us. Observant Jews steered clear of Samaria and Samaritans. They were a despised group—culturally inferior, theologically inferior, and their liturgy wasn’t up to snuff either....

A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark Year C, Proper 22 The Very Reverend Tyler B. Doherty Dean & Rector I’ve been thinking these past couple weeks of 16-year-old Swede Greta Thunberg’s address to the United Nations about climate change. Her “How dare you!” has been ringing in my ears since that Friday a couple weeks ago in New York. After years and years of scientists making arguments that appealed to reason that had very little effect except to make their hearers wring their hands, it was Greta’s impassioned plea, her voice shaking with rage, tears of anger in her eyes, that seems to have (at least momentarily) awakened a sluggish global bureaucracy to the urgency of the problem we face. When you think it about, Greta is not too different from the prophet Jeremiah who was accused of being a rather gloomy fellow, prone to hyperbole, a little too strident for polite company. But Greta and Jeremiah know something we too often forget—that grief and sorrow ...

A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark Year C, Proper 20 The Very Reverend Tyler B. Doherty, Dean & Rector The other day, I was asking our youngest to put her clothes in the laundry hamper in the daily madness we call getting ready for school at our house. Rinsing out massacred bowls of frosted miniwheats, I recited the mantra I’ve said a thousand times before between gulps of my black coffee, “Clare, it’s time for school. Do your hair. Brush your teeth. Feed the guinea pigs, and put your undies in the dirty laundry.” Usually, the response is a cheerful little chirp, “Ok, Dad!” But this morning was different. This morning I got a scowl, a foot stomp, and then to my surprise a phrase I’d never heard before, “Get lost, Dad!” Her sisters burst into a fit of conspiratorial tittering. Now we had a little discussion about whether that was the best way to respond, but on the drive in to school I was musing about that phrase, “Get lost.” I started to wonder if ther...