Untitled

[yourdproffitt]

God Governs All Things on Heaven and Earth: Sermon Preached at All Saints on February 2, 2025

We think, sometimes, that it was during our time that rage was invented.  It was not. Violence and rage are unfortunate characteristics of humanity and society. The question isn’t how do we live in such a way to keep violence and rage at bay, because that’s an upstream swim none of us can make. Instead, it’s like what Marianne Budde, the Bishop of Washington DC wrote in her book, there is no…

[yourdproffitt]

In Cana of Galilee, Jesus Turned Water into Wine

You ever wonder what kind of wine it was? Was it chardonnay or a deep red like a burgundy? Or maybe it was something like Tawny Port. I also wonder if it was the same variety that Jesus used at the Last Supper? Maybe it’s good we don’t know because it would give wine drinkers very little choice to what to serve at their own party: I mean how could you not choose the wine Jesus made from several…

[yourdproffitt]

I Have Deleted My Social Media Presence (almost all of it)

I have been wrestling so disappointed in former friends and acquaintances than I was in the months and weeks leading up to the election. I learned along time ago that Social Media was not the place where arguments should be held and I did my best to remember that in this past election cycle. I do confess to reading people’s posts and fought the temptation to “take them on” since the number of…

[yourdproffitt]

My Friend, How I miss you.

One of my best friends growing up was Lynn Hutchinson. Lynn had a lot going for him because he was the fastest runner in our class. I don’t know about you but that was a big deal. Recesses seemed to always end with a great game of tag and Lynn just couldn’t be caught. He was lightning fast and avoided the dreaded tag, even if more than one of my friends and I ganged up on him. He would just turn…

View On WordPress

[yourdproffitt]

Ramblings

Sitting at the bar I could sense it.  I was there, with others, sipping a cold drink, even though it the weather suggested something warmer.  It came over me like a long forgotten friend.  Her face was familiar but her name was now unknown.  It was like I knew her, all about her, but I couldn’t remember a thing.  The coldness of the bar, of my drink, of the weather outside, kept me from more than…

View On WordPress

[yourdproffitt]

What is sin?

The Gospel this morning, has Jesus facing controversy based on something that is significant to us as we seek to live faithfully. Jesus is walking with his disciples on the Sabbath and they’re hungry so they do what any of us would do, especially if you live in Kansas and find yourself in a wheat field. You just take a couple of stocks in your hand and pull upward. Voila. You have a handful of…

View On WordPress

[yourdproffitt]

Funerals are Strange Things

Funerals are strange things. At one level, it feels as if we should gather together and focus only on our devastation at our loss of Jan. It’s a huge loss and to not find a way to express it seems like we are avoiding the pain that Jan’s death brings. Life will indeed go on for us, but it will be different. For some of us it feels like we have been given the short end of the stick and we would…

View On WordPress

[yourdproffitt]

Pentecost: Invasion from on High

I must confess that calling Pentecost the birthday of the church seems a bit too tame for me. I don’t mean that Pentecost is something else because it was on this day, a long time ago, that a group of Jesus followers gathered in prayer and had something incredibly important happen. When we call it the birthday of the church, our focus shifts from the powerfully mystical events that happened on…

View On WordPress

[yourdproffitt]

Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024

Good morning! Happy Easter. Today is the easiest day during the entire year to preach. There is a lot going on here but it can be distilled down to a few basics: a cross, a crucifixion, a death, all of creation holding its breath and finally, this morning, an empty tomb. But as Brian Zahnd has written: “it would be a mistake to think we could sum up the significance of the crucifixion in a tidy…

View On WordPress

[yourdproffitt]

Good Friday: March 29, 2024

Good Friday 3.29.24 When my son died a week and seven years ago, I knew that I would never feel so lost and hopeless. Losing a child is something that I never expected to experience but I always worried that I would. That sounds like something made up to say in a sermon, but it’s so very true.  I lost my dad when I was 23 years old and the pain of that loss was also intense. It’s easy to conjure…

View On WordPress

[yourdproffitt]

Hosanna to the Highest: Palm Sunday (4.24.24)

I’ve always struggled to preach on Palm Sunday. Over the years I’ve done a lot of improvising when it came to how, when and where I preached on this day. It seems like simply listening to the Passion Gospel is enough. Maybe the Quakers have it right, just listen to scripture and sit back and contemplate the words. I think part of the problem is that we don’t want to get stuck on what is about to…

View On WordPress

[yourdproffitt]

Dude, why are you so angry? Reflections on the cleansing of the Temple.

What we just heard read from the Gospel is a big deal. Some say that this is the moment that everything changed for Jesus. In some ways, after Jesus cleared the Temple, the authorities believed that, if you understand the cliché, Jesus jumped the shark. They were at wits end and knew that if they were going to survive the occupation of the Romans, Jesus was simply causing too much turmoil. I’m…

View On WordPress

[yourdproffitt]

Are You Surprised?

I came across a quote this week that made me think about our journey of Lent, under the shadow of the cross. “Whoever feels attracted to Jesus cannot adequately explain why. We must be prepared to be always correcting our image of Jesus for we will never exhaust what there is to know. Jesus is full of surprises.” (Adolph Holl)  I like this thought because it resonates not only with my experience…

View On WordPress

[yourdproffitt]

Living in the Here and Now: An Ash Wednesday Reflection

Have you ever realized how difficult it is to live in the here and now? By that I mean it doesn’t seem natural to be able to simply be aware that you are alive, breathing and thinking and speaking and eating and drinking right now. We don’t live in the yesterdays of our lives. They are gone, never to return. If we have regret about past mistakes or bad decisions, we can’t take a trip backward…

View On WordPress

[yourdproffitt]

What was I thinking?

I spent a bit of time looking back on some social media posts. I didn’t recognize myself. If change is good, I have embraced the good.It’s not that those comments were bad they were just self-promoting and full of theological pablum. Granted, I have gone through a lot over the last six years and as I take an objective look at where I am, God has done something profoundly important to me.I’ll…

View On WordPress

[yourdproffitt]

A Year In Texas

A Year In Texas

Our departure from Texas at the end of August was nothing like we expected. Julie became ill just hours before we were scheduled to end our time at Holy Comforter and head back home to Kansas. We didn’t know what was going on and since it was her illness, it is not appropriate for me to go too much into it. Suffice it to say that she had a bacterial infection that became systemic and we are very…

View On WordPress

[yourdproffitt]

The Time is Drawing Near

The Time is Drawing Near

I have had an extraordinary year serving as an Interim Priest at Holy Comforter in Spring TX. There’s just a few things left to do and we will be leaving this coming Sunday (August 28th) after my last two liturgies and a luncheon following. I have much to write about and I am planning on sharing my experiences as well as my reflections on this past year. I’ve mostly used my website as a way to…

View On WordPress