Words From Silence: Contemplation in a World of Action

  A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark Proper 16, Year A The Very Reverend Tyler B. Doherty, Dean & Rector Those opening lines from today’s portion of Paul’s Letter to the Romans provide us with a thread that weaves its way through our readings: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect.” What does it mean “not to be conformed to this world?” How does not conforming to the world point the way to following Jesus? And what difference does not conforming to the world make in a time of racial reckoning, fear-mongering, and political animus? In Paul’s vocabulary, the world, like the flesh, is not about denial of our physical selves. God gave us bodies and God in Godself came among us in the flesh. God declared the creation “good.” So a proper understanding of Paul’s notions of flesh and world can’t just take the easy route of a wor...

  A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark Proper 15, Year A The Very Reverend Tyler B. Doherty, Dean & Rector One of the powerful things about the relationship between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament is that the latter often contains a creative reworking of the former in light of the love and mercy revealed in the person of Jesus. Jesus himself doesn’t just quote, or recite scripture, he interprets it creatively in light of his intimate relationship with the Father; he improvises with it like a jazz musician playing a standard. You might recall at the beginning of Luke’s gospel, for example, where Jesus stands up in the synagogue and reads those famous mission-defining lines from Isaiah,  …[T]he scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and ...

  A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark Proper 14, Year A The Very Reverend Tyler B. Doherty, Dean & Rector Today we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration--the moment atop Mt. Tabor where Jesus is unveiled in his divine nature (in his “raiment white and glistening” as our collect has it) to Peter, James, and John. It’s a story of deep spiritual significance and one that speaks to us not just of the fully divine and fully human nature of Jesus as the God-Man, but also of our own potential in Christ to become more and more like him, to become children of the light, bearers of the light and transmitters of that light to all. The story of the Transfiguration is really the story of each one of us. It enacts in just a few deceptively simple lines the basic arc of what it means to be a disciple. A snow globe miniature of the spiritual life. It starts, of course, on the plain--symbolic of all the usual ways we go about our lives. The plain is the realm of the set...

  A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark Proper 12, Year A The Very Reverend Tyler B. Doherty, Dean & Rector One of the things that following Jesus down the way of love teaches over time is that we always have to be ready to have our preconceived ideas about who and how God operates in the world overturned. Too often, our fixed notions of who we are, who others are, and who God is, blind us to the actual truth of how God is present and active in the most unlikely of places--literally the last place we would think to look. The crowds around Jesus were no different than we are. Living under the oppressive yoke of Imperial Roman domination, they yearned for a time when the Messiah would come and lead them to freedom. The Messiah was seen as primarily a military-political figure who would restore Israel to its former glory. And the primary symbol of the greatness of Israel in the Jewish imagination was the Cedars of Lebanon--towering botanical marvels up to 140 ft ta...

  A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark Proper 11, Year A The Very Reverend Tyler B. Doherty, Dean & Rector Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some  have entertained angels without knowing it . (Hebrews 13:2) When Michelle and I were living in Boulder, CO a couple of decades ago (that sure makes me feel old!) we had the privilege of getting to know a Zen Buddhist priest named Gerry Shishin Wick. He was, and remains, a beautiful, humble, and kind-hearted man of deep wisdom. And he also didn’t seem bothered in the least by my curious Anglican ways. One day, Shishin, as he is called, told a story I’ll never forget. It goes like this. “Mr. Sei lived in a small, poor village. He owned a horse and was one of the wealthiest members of the village. His neighbors used to come to him and tell him how lucky he was to have that horse because he could plow much more field and have a larger income and take better care of his family. Mr. ...

  A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark Proper 10, Year A The Very Reverend Tyler B. Doherty, Dean & Rector I remember when we first moved here to Utah my parents came for a visit and wanted to help tame our overgrown and overplanted garden. The previous owner had been living in Chicago for three years and none of the beds had been tended. Maintenance consisted of cutting the grass, and that was about it. So we went cheerily off to Home Depot and got spades, weeding tools, pitchforks, gardening gloves--everything you could possibly need to get things looking shipshape. I took my stance by the back fence, raised my pitchfork over my head like some Weekend Viking Warrior and brought it down with a mighty swipe. The tines didn’t sink one inch into the soil and all I had to show for my efforts was a cloud of greyish dust and some loose fillings. The beds had been left untended, unwatered,  and neglected for so long that they were hard as concrete. So we had to ...