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Episcopal Diocese of Washington

Sermons

The Binding of Isaac, the Binding of our Hearts: A Central Story

Posted July 8th, 2011

By The Rev'd Gregory Syler

This Old Testament lesson contains one of the most central stories to Judaism and, indeed, Christianity.  Referred in Jewish circles by its Hebrew description – the akedah, or binding – this story of Abraham being called by God to sacrifice his only biological son, Isaac, is a deeply troubling, deeply disconcerting, and deeply central story to the experience of the People of God.

The Bible is a Story of a Relationship between God and God's People

Posted May 25th, 2011

By The Rev'd Gregory Syler

The bible is a story of relationship, a relationship between God and God’s people.  To read the bible in any other way is to undermine it, to make it foolish, to turn it into a wooden statue.  Rather, to read the bible as a story of relationship makes it come alive, makes it speak life, and, I believe, is precisely that singular quality which allows it to carry the adjective “Holy”.  It is important how we read and treat the bible, for the outcome depends on the ways we approach the subject.  If we learned to read the story as a tale of a relationship,

A Shared Responsibility, A Collective Enterprise

Posted October 24th, 2010

Athletic images of a race or a fight conjure up for me a highly personal faith. This is my race. Others may be running near or alongside me, but it’s my destination to finish the race, and finish it well. This is my fight. It’s my job to fight the good fight, and fight it well. After all, boxing and running are two of the most highly individual sports. You may have sparring partners in the ring and friends you train with for a distance run, but on that day, the day of the race or title match, it’s yours to run, yours to fight, yours to finish.

Jesus Saw Them

Posted October 10th, 2010

By The Rev'd Gregory Syler

We drive regularly up and down Great Mills Road, as you all do, too. For years, we drove and didn’t see a thing but the cars in front of and behind us, and the traffic lights, and occasional traffic back-ups.

The Real Mother's Day

Posted May 9th, 2010

By The Rev'd Gregory Syler

But Jesus’ peace is given on a night, long ago, in the midst of great anguish, pain, anxiety and dread. Jesus’ peace does not wipe away warfare, neither civil war nor world war. Jesus’ peace doesn’t alleviate our anxiety, like taking a pill at night. The world, as such, will still ravage itself through warfare and bigotry, destruction and violence, and – yes – it’s all caused by people just like you and me. We live, today, in violent times, but we always have. Threats of car bombs invade our major cities.

Prove It

Posted April 11th, 2010

By The Rev'd Gregory Syler

The question at hand is not really about what’s there or what isn’t there. It’s really about how we know what’s truly there, and whether we admit we know it even if we see it, face to face. In a particularly telling scene, the one-time seminarian pulls the scientist aside and asks whether she loved her father. "Of course," she says. "Did you father love you?" he follows. "Of course," she said again; "of course I know that my father loved me." "Then prove it."

For without Vision, the People Perish

Posted March 14th, 2010

By The Rev'd Gregory Syler

At least on the surface today, Judas is following Jesus word for word. According to Judas, what Mary did was wasteful, plain and simple. She poured out one pound of perfume, made from pure nard – an amount, most scholars surmise, which would have cost close to the average working person’s yearly income. Mary seems an impulsive fool in this story, pouring oil onto Jesus’ feet and wiping it with her hair. In time, the whole house was filled with the scent of aloe and spice.

Redemption and Chores

Posted March 7th, 2010

By The Rev'd Gregory Syler

It could be that our daily chores are not so much a punishment but, rather, an opportunity. It could be, I suggest, that what seems so mundane as laundry and even liturgy could be an invitation from God to see redemption in a whole new light. When he gave men and women chores, perhaps he gave us a way to return to paradise, only this time a paradise within.

But to Receive, and Be Present, Wherever We May Be Led

Posted February 14th, 2010

By The Rev'd Gregory Syler

Last week’s local paper, having nothing else to discuss than our recent snowstorm,
featured a story on how the county school system’s digs out. A county employee who
spent most of the blizzard night plowing the roads reported an astonishing phenomenon.
Even though the Governor advised people to stay inside, the plow-man reported that just
as soon as he would clear a road, he’d look in his side-view mirror only to see a line of five
or six cars immediately behind him, all gearing up to go faster, even though his plow,

Holy Relationship, No Holy Feud

Posted January 24th, 2010

By The Rev'd Gregory Syler

Around 1910, a group of Presbyterian scholars at the Princeton Seminary sought to challenge what they saw as the modernizing tendency of some of the other seminary faculty. Their writings were gathered in a massive twelve-volume series called The Fundamentals.