Author: Kyle
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“Talking to folks — not organizing them”
I’m feeling inspired today by a recent blog post by my friend Gary Manning, who’s obviously been thinking about the same kinds of things I’ve been thinking about ever since returning from the Episcopal Evangelism Network‘s Mission Development Conference a couple weeks back. Here’s a taste: But the people who live near our churches aren’t…
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Bohr Doodle Googlers: Welcome
I’ve written in the past that one of the best things I ever did for my blog’s traffic was to name it after a Latin expression that folks occasionally have reason to look up. For the kind of traffic I’m used to, today is a significant day for this phenomenon. That’s because the phrase “contraria…
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Sermon on Proverbs 9 from Sunday, August 19: “The voice of Wisdom where we are”
PDF | Audio | Text: Proverbs 9:1-6 (Proper 15, Year B, RCL) God meets us in our mess. Jesus blesses our human experience by coming down from heaven and sharing that experience in the Incarnation. We are sanctified by the living Christ as if by the smoke of a hundred and eighty pound thurible swung from…
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Sermon on Mark 6 from Sunday, July 22: “Discipleship when life happens”
I’ve recently started work as a part-time assistant for pastoral care at St. Paul’s Parish on K Street in Washington, DC. As I say in this sermon, “life happened” (and also death) early Friday morning in Aurora, CO. So my first sermon in this new position took an unexpected turn. Please continue to pray for all…
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Yoder Prize Submission — “Love Together: A moral-theological reflection”
VTS Dean and President Ian Markham wrote in his commentary today that “The Ronnie A. Yoder Scholarship was established … as an invitation for VTS seminarians to reflect on the significance and centrality of love as the center for Christian theology, life, preaching, and practice, which can be a theme that unites the major world…
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Sermon on Glory and Mercy, 2 Lent
Between field ed, the VTS chapel, and class, I have preached seven times in the last six weeks. That’s all in six weeks’ work for the average parish priest, but this seminarian is definitely ready for the break ahead. In the meantime, here’s my final effort, from Sunday’s readings (and collect!). Many, many thanks to…
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First Sermon on … Sex and Beer … ?
I’ve complained a lot in seminary that we don’t talk enough about sex. We talk around it a lot. We talk about its implications (or rather, sexuality’s implications) for church polity a lot. But we don’t actually talk about sex, about desire, about pleasure. At least not very much, at least not in the Episcopal…
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First Sermon on Evangelism
This is the first evangelism sermon I’ve ever preached. I’m grateful to David Gortner here at VTS and to so many of my classmates for their help shaping my heart for this ministry. PDF | Audio | Text: Our hearts have to go out to Jonah. He’s a tough prophet to admire, but an easy…
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A marathon, not a sprint: General Ordination Exams
Tomorrow through Saturday I will be taking General Ordination Exams administered by examining chaplains appointed by the Episcopal Church. My buddy Mike wrote a nice summary last year, comparing the test to OWLs. The comparison that springs to mind for me, though, was the Ph.D. qualifying exams I took in my first year of grad…
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Sermon on Waiting, Proper 28
Here’s today’s sermon in PDF form (inspired by my recently encounter with some old Hacker Within pals, I’m back to using LaTeX for sermons–Milad Fatenejad’s “radhydro” package, no less), in audio form, and pasted below (via latex2rtf). **************** Waiting is a perilous business. Perhaps you don’t need to be convinced of this. Perhaps you can…