Mark 9:2-9

A sermon for Transfiguration Sunday

During the season of Epiphany, we celebrate the coming of the light. As the Gospel of John states: “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). During this winter season the light has been growing stronger. Soon it will explode.

Today is the last Sunday of Epiphany, the Festival of the Transfiguration. In the Gospel text we are brought to the mountaintop. From there we look out over the valley below and look forward to the horrible events to come. What lies below is deep darkness, the valley of the shadow of death. Jesus will be abandoned, betrayed, mocked, suffer, die, and rise again.

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Mark 1:21-28 (Hebrews 2:3)

A sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

This is the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany; it is also the Sunday before February 2nd, the Festival of Candlemas, which marks the presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:22-24). This is the Mass in which you start to have fewer candles because the light is coming back.

It is a good day for us to remember our Baptism and what it’s about. For those of us who come out of the great Protestant tradition there is a lot of confusion within our circles. That is to say we have a lot of misunderstandings. Some of it is simply a lack of knowledge.

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Mark 1:15

A sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany

In the beginning of the Gospel of Mark the theme is announced. Jesus says: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).

That’s the whole thing. What in the world does it mean? It says: “You have to repent. You have to believe.” You have to believe in the gospel, whatever that is. This text, Mark 1:15, becomes an important exercise in how to use the Bible and what we are doing in our worship service when we confess our sins.

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