Archives

4/20/2008

Looking for Assurance

A sermon on the fifth Sunday of Easter.

The Rev. Susan Richardson
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4/3/2008

Woundedness Makes It Real

A sermon on the second Sunday of Easter.

The Rev. Susan Richardson

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3/23/2008

The Resurrection is Personal

The Rev. Timothy B. Safford

The debates about the resurrection of Jesus the Christ, and what happened on that Easter morning thousands of years ago will never end.  But our own stories of the resurrection about those whom we love and see no more will always live.
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3/21/2008

The Circumstances Aren't the Same Thing as the Truth

The Rev. Susan Richardson

Two meditations for Good Friday.
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3/16/2008

The most difficult lesson: Jesus didn't have to die; Jesus chose to die

A Palm Sunday sermon by the Rev. Timothy B. Safford

An Amish school girl teaches the answer to:  Why did Jesus choose to die?
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2/24/2008

Drawing water

The Rev. Timothy Safford

A sad woman meets Jesus at a well, and draws water that nurtures a new life.
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2/13/2008

Who owned Absalom Jones?

The Rev. Timothy B. Safford

February 13 is the feast day of Absalom Jones, one of the nation's and our Church's heroic founding fathers.  Our first black priest and founder of the first black Episcopal Church, he was born a slave, and achieved his freedom at age 38.  But, from whom?
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2/10/2008

A Sermon for Lent I

The Rev. Susan Richardson     
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12/30/2007

The Scaffolding of God Within Us

The Rev. Susan Richardson

A sermon on the Gospel of John, 1:1-18
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12/25/2007

Don't we all want to be Ebenezer Scrooge?

The Rev. Timothy B. Safford

A sermon for Christmas, 2007
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12/9/2007

We All Need a John the Baptist

The Rev. Timothy B. Safford

I think we all need a “John the Baptist” to call us to true repentance. I certainly had one.
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12/6/2007

God needs our lives, not our money.

The Rev. Timothy B. Safford

We are here because 39 families dedicated themselves in 1695 to opening up a salvation station at 2nd and Market, and in case you haven’t noticed, the world needs just as much saving, and you need just as much saving. We need to keep this mission going, for Christ’s sake.
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11/25/2007

The Subversive Christian

The Rev. Timothy B. Safford

To be submissive to the Kingdom of God is to be subversive to the kingdoms of this world.
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10/26/2007

We're all trying to grow up.

The Rev. Susan Richardson

The sermon from the Children's Sabbath service.
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10/7/2007

All You Need is All You Have

The Rev. Susan Richardson

A biblical vision from the prophet Habakkuk.
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9/30/2007

Life that Really is Life

The Rev. Timothy Safford

A timeless lesson from scripture:  The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
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8/31/2007

A Sermon on Video

The Rev. Timothy B. Safford preaching at All Saints Church, Pasadena, August 26, 2007
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8/26/2007

God Gets Really Happy When We Are Ourselves

The Rev. Susan Richardson

How we set ourselves free, through Christ, from the bonds of inauthenticity.
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7/15/2007

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

An audio recording of the sermon by the Rev. Timothy B. Safford
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7/1/2007

Freedom is as Freedom does: A Philadelphia Story

The Rev. Timothy B. Safford

A sermon examining the meaning of freedom through the rediscovered life of Oney Judge, one of the slaves kept by President Washington in Philadelphia.
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6/17/2007

A Sermon for June 17, 2007

The Rev. K. Palmer Hartl

My faith teaches me about what I believe to be the inherent goodness in God’s creation. The inherent goodness of others.
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6/10/2007

Jesus intends to stop death itself

The Rev. Timothy Safford

In the Gospel of Luke, 7:11-17, is the story of Jesus raising the dead son of the widow of Nain. This sermon imagines the effect of such a miracle on a tax collector that Jesus had called to be a disciple. It takes the form of a letter, written back to his brother.
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5/6/2007

The Radical Hospitality of God

The Rev. Timothy B. Safford

Will we tear down the barriers that surround our churches that keep those whom we label profane from even peeking into, or will we insulate ourselves with comfort, homogeneity and culture and just wait to see who might wander in on our terms?

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4/1/2007

Three Emails from the Prodigal Son

The Rev. Timothy B. Safford

What follows are three sermons preached in Christ Church, Philadelphia, on Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday, and the Sunday after Easter. They are presented as three emails home from a child living in the city, near Christ Church. They are meant to evoke Jesus’
Parable of the Prodigal Son which we studied at Christ Church in the Lenten season.
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2/4/2007

In the Deep Water

The Rev. Timothy B. Safford
So what is Jesus teaching us about our church today, and how might we resist that teaching like Simon Peter resists Jesus’ instructions?
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12/1/2006

The Second Coming and the Meaning of Life

The Rev. Timothy Safford
What does it mean, “Christ will come again?”
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10/6/2006

The Camel and Campaign Red

The Rev. Timothy Safford

Jesus said, "It is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for the rich person to find the kingdom of heaven."  What does that mean for you and me?
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7/9/2006

We Shall Overcome

The Rev. Timothy Safford

Most Americans, of every creed and culture, and probably most of the world where there has been a struggle for equality and human rights, know, by heart, the hymn:  We Shall Overcome.
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7/2/2006

This is America! Pray in any language you wish!

A sermon preached by the Rev. Timothy Safford

For America to find its future we must know the entirety of our past, and that is no small task.
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5/21/2006

Love the One You See

The Rev. Timothy B. Safford

To be like Christ, we are called to be a "second kind of artist."
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5/21/2006

Love the One You See

The Rev. Timothy B. Safford

Jesus has revealed in his life, death and resurrection that he is the sort of artist who transforms us, full of faults and imperfections, onto a canvas of glory and life abundant.

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4/16/2006

Easter 2006: Back to the Garden

The Rev. Timothy B. Safford
A parish bible study group shapes the Easter Sermon, with help from Joni Mitchell
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2/20/2006

Yet Another Sermon on the Radical Inclusivity of God


A sermon preached by the Rev. Timothy B. Safford

Jesus is sharing the word of freedom, release and inclusion in God’s love and mercy while never releasing any of us from the reality that sin imprisons us the most in cells that we construct for ourselves.

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12/24/2005

The God in Whom We Believe

The Rev. Timothy Safford
A Christmas Sermon from 2005
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9/15/2005

After Katrina

The Rev. Timothy Safford

Is God in the hurricane?
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9/30/2004

If we proclaim 'Christ is Risen,' why is Lazarus still laying at our gate?

A sermon by the Rev. Timothy Safford

Too often, we think the parable of the rich man and Lazarus is about how the rich are cursed and the poor are blessed. That misses the point.  The rich man should not make himself poor, but he should make Lazarus well.
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8/15/2004

Jesus and Family Values

The Rev. Timothy B. Safford

Jesus said, “Do you suppose I came to establish peace on the earth?  No indeed.  I have come to bring dissension.  From now on, a family of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother. . . .”    Luke 12:51ff.

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7/3/2003

A Sermon for the 4th of July, 2003

Preached by the Rev. Timothy Safford, Rector

Each year, on or about the 4th of July, we gather in this church, and commemorate the founding of our nation. That has been the tradition here at Christ Church since 1785 when our denomination passed a resolution, that “the Fourth of July shall be observed by this Church forever as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God for the inestimable blessings of religious and civil liberty vouchsafed to the United States of America.”

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8/15/1999

Even Jesus Needed to be Reminded to be Inclusive

 A sermon preached by the Rev. Timothy Safford


In 2000, this sermon was awarded the Lawrence K. Mikkelsen Preaching Prize, for a sermon of distinction on the Gospel and Social Justice or the Gospel and Human Dignity.
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