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acquitted by a jury of 12 white men and said in a cbs television interview a year after the killings that he had no regrets declaring i would shoot them both tomorrow sales herself would later attend the same seminary as daniels and works today as an advocate for civil rights and social justice i don t know if i would ever have the courage of any of these saints but their example inspires us to seek faith where it will be found to speak out against racism tyranny and bigotry in all its forms the story of the gentile woman challenging jesus is the story of the church of us being challenged every day to see the image of god in the faces of all the people god gives us every day and reminds us of our baptismal promise to seek and serve christ in all persons and to love our neighbor as ourselves whoever and wherever they may be the 12th sunday after pentecost proper 15a this is the bulletin for worship for the twelfth sunday after pentecost august 16 2026 at st chad s tampa florida here are the scripture lessons for 11 pentecost proper 15a sunday august 16 2026 learn more about the diocese of southwest florida here posted by andrew gerns at 11 23 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels everyday christian real life theology learning and doing the work of jesus on being an ambassador of reconciliation ordinary time sermons the gospel of matthew saturday august 08 2026 meeting jesus in the storm here s a riddle for you why did the disciples cross the lake to get to the other side in jesus day the sea of galilee was a stormy place to sail anyway it is actually a lot like sailing across the great lakes of north america water behaves differently on big inland fresh water lakes than they do on open oceans the least bit of wind can create quite a tempest so when the disciples were going across the water it was very rough going very quickly and they were stuck in the middle all night long trying to make headway against a storm with an itty bitty sail and oars the early church remembered jesus miracle because they could identify with it immediately not because they were sailors or fishermen but because the new young church was like to quote the prayer of st brendanthe navigator being in a very small boat on a big sea in the middle of a storm so in the gospel of matthew as in mark whose outline matthew follows going across the water means going to the other side from a safe familiar place to a new foreign or unknown place of mission by definition a risky and stormy trip matthew is telling the story of what jesus because the young church knew that they were sailing through a storm around here we know about storms not far from my house there s a sign on the road to the airport that is on a pole 15 feet high it says that the storm surge from the bay will reach or cover that sign many of us in these parts listen closely to the weather in hurricane season put together a storm box in case the power goes out know our flood zone by heart and keep go bags at the ready in case we are told to bug out mostly we deal with them as best we can we try to keep the water out and if necessary try to stay afloat even if we don t always make headway in today s gospel jesus walks across the water and through a storm to meet the disciples some paintings i have seen of this shows a serene jesus walking across the water as peacefully as a stroll down a lane on a summer day but i think that when jesus walked across the water he got very wet and he probably looked like three miles of bad road when he finally did climb into the boat the storm was all around him and the wind was still wailing the powers of the storm and the wind and sea tried to overwhelm him but could not he walked through the storm not immune from its effects and fully immersed in its reality the miracle is that he was not overpowered by it he would do that again on the cross he would face everything evil and sin has to offer including death he would die a true and real death on the cross just as he faced a true and real storm on the sea that day and he would rise from the dead in walking across the lake in the storm he demonstrates not only his power but he also that the storm is real the storm does not deter or stop him as he comes to the boat the disciples see him and are afraid because they don t know what to make of what they are seeing but jesus says to them the same thing he said on that third day in the upper room on that very first easter do not be afraid jesus comes and he brings peace but the storm doesn t stop not right away which leads us to the rest of the story oh peter poor old peter we tend to give peter short shrift because jesus words to him after he is rescued sound to our ears like a rebuke you of little faith why did you doubt we hear the words little faith and think no faith we humans are very binary very 1 or 0 about almost everything we expect ourselves to either have the kind of faith to move mountains and accomplish the impossible or to have no faith at all the truth is that we are all somewhere in between we are all people of little faith martin luther said that we are simultaneously saints and sinners which is why we identify so much with peter because he is a lot like us a lion of the faith with a heart of gold who is at the very same dense afraid and reactive the disciples are not spiritual klutzes who can t shoot straight they are faithful people on a difficult journey and jesus meets them in the midst of storms we forget that peter did in fact do what jesus did he walked on the water until well he didn t still i ll bet he walked farther than i would have that s for sure st brendan the navigator being a christian is all about imitating christ and peter wants to be like jesus and do what jesus does he asks jesus to call him and he answers the call only the storm is real and as peter moves into the storm he says uh oh but even as he is sinking even as he feels overwhelmed peter still calls out to jesus and jesus helps peter and brings him back to the boat safely aboard the boat still beset by the storm jesus stills the storm how many of us have done exactly the same thing who among us has never bitten off more than that we can chew spiritually every summer for about thirty years i go to icon camp where i gather with other artists most of us amateurs to paint an icon an ancient eastern christian form of religious art found in russian and greek churches we take a week to gather at a monastery where we paint pray eat kibbitz and then paint some more one year we worked on an icon based on today s gospel part of the work that week was to do a study of jesus hand grasping peter s wrist in the midst of a maelstrom that study is the heart and focus of the larger icon that study was not just a lesson on artistic technique but also a reminder of the three miracles described in today s gospel jesus walks on the water peter walks on the water jesus stills the storm but first before all that everyone peter and jesus included gets wet and no matter what jesus calls us watches us and rescues us every christian will experience storms baptism does not make us waterproof we will all get wet in fact to do the ministries we are called to do we will be sent into some pretty thick weather but jesus comes to us and is with us in the storm we cannot still the storm or walk on water alone but jesus has power over the storm the storm will not defeat jesus and we people of little faith we are at once saints and sinners need only reach out to jesus and say lord save me and he is there in the midst of the storm to rescue us this is the bulletin for worship for the eleventh sunday after pentecost august 9 2026 at st chad s tampa florida here are the scripture lessons for 10 pentecost proper 14a sunday august 9 2026 learn more about the diocese of southwest florida here posted by andrew gerns at 12 08 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels everyday christian real life theology learning and doing the work of jesus season after pentecost sermons st chads tampa fl the gospel of matthew saturday august 01 2026 jesus manna moment so i have a question was jesus a foodie or did he just like dinner parties and big bashes i ask this because so much of jesus teaching and even some of his miracles happen while there s food around think about it after the opening poem in john s gospel the first thing we see is jesus at a party turning water into wine during another dinner with a bunch of religious leaders and lay people a women crashed the party and washed jesus feet with her tears and dried them with her hair remember how during his sojourn in the desert jesus is tempted by satan to turn stones into bread but as hungry as he was he doesn t do it on the other hand when jesus had dinner with matthew and his tax collector friends some of the local clerics and lay leaders grumbled about his gluttony and of course there s the last supper in the upper room where he washed his disciples feet and then celebrated a passover meal with them remember how the risen jesus appeared after the resurrection to the disciples as a group around that very same dinner table and how another time the risen jesus cooks his fisherman followers breakfast over a campfire after walking along the emmaus road with a pair of sad grief stricken followers of jesus they didn t recognize his risen self until he breaks bread with them in their own upper room so many encounters over so many meals i guess we shouldn t be all that surprised that jesus would choose to feed a big crowd of people who came to hear him with baskets and baskets of food that he blessed and multiplied out of a kid s bag lunch the miraculous feeding with the loaves and fishes must have on made an impression on jesus followers because it shows up six times in all four gospels six all the gospels have at least one account of this but matthew and mark have two when jesus fed 5000 of mainly jewish listeners and 4000 mostly gentile folks in a place called the decapolis this repetition is a very big deal the people in the four early church communities that gave us the gospels remembered these miracles not just because they were spectacular but precisely because they were repeated my hunch is that miraculously feeding lots of people from a small grocery bag was a regular or at least not infrequent part of jesus preaching and proclamation it sits right up there with the various healings and his way of teaching jesus demonstrates the abundance of god s love grace and care for all of us in that is once practical and spectacular by feeding hungry people there feedings were jesus manna moments not just once as with the miracle of the manna in the wilderness in exodus but time and time again and just like moses miracle in the desert jesus feeds the people both freely and abundantly every single time today we associate the eucharist with the very stylized but spare meal that we do in church every week but in the early church the line between a festive dinner often called an agape meal and the eucharist was almost indistinguishable sometimes early christians got so carried away with the festivity that the parties could get out of hand at one point the apostle paul had to remind the christians in corinth not only to settle down but also that the folks who could afford catered meals had to look out for and share with people who could only bring a small casserole or loaf of bread eventually the eucharist got separated from the banquets so that today we celebrate in a very ritualized way the infinite grace imparted using only a tiny piece of blessed wafer and a sip of sacramental wine after that we proceed to the parish hall for coffee iced tea and yummy treats or sometimes to a wonderful meal i will never forget how my first parish had a community meal aka a soup kitchen six days a week and that every week a eucharist preceded it every wednesdays at noon that simple celebration was often attended by the same people who both served the food and those who shared the meal for a lot of these folks that meal was their only meal of the day and that service was their only church and for them the two meals both the one in church and the one in the dining room were deeply linked they couldn t have one without the other today s gospel reminds us that the grace imparted in the eucharistic meal and the grace seen in the feeding of the five thousand are both practical expressions of god s never ending generous love but more than that matthew s church remembered how jesus fed the 5000 and put in their gospel story an act of practical reminiscence because when jesus took this small offering of food blessed and broke the bread and gave it to his disciples to hand out he demonstrated what all of jesus images of small seeds growing into big shrubs yeast rising into loaves someone finding treasure hidden in a field and buying it a woman turning her house upside down to find a lost coin was really all about the feeding of the five thousand was for them and us a living demonstration of those little kingdom parables jesus showed us that the kingdom of god is all around us all the time and that god s grace abounds not only in sanctuaries but in fields on hill tops and in the homes farms and shops of ordinary people the reign of god is found in lunch boxes as well as in temples jesus shows us we are all called to love care for and feed one another and that in god s economy the smallest acts of kindness and compassion makes all the difference in the world this is the bulletin for worship for the tenth sunday after pentecost august 2 2026 at st chad s tampa florida here are the scripture lessons for 10 pentecost proper 13a sunday august 2 2026 learn more about the diocese of southwest florida here posted by andrew gerns at 7 30 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels everyday christian spirituality everyday holiness learning and doing the work of jesus season after pentecost sermons st chads tampa fl the gospel of matthew saturday july 04 2026 so what now so what now the weekend isn t over yet but we ve had the fireworks the parades the speeches and while we might have a cookout or two left the 250 th independence day of the united states is in the books so now what where do we go from here or as my favorite tv president jed bartlett would say what s next i don t know about you but i ve sensed a strange ambivalence about this year s celebration it s been fifty years but i remember the exuberance of the bicentennial in 1976 and the run up to it yeah it was the seventies big hair big cars disco and punk rock but the buildup for the party was well underway when i finished high school in 1975 and all through my freshman year until the big do the following summer yeah i know about hindsight and all that but as i was working a summer job cutting grass moving chair...