A HAIR’S BREADTH AWAY

A HAIR’S BREADTH AWAY

Funny how the mind works. Dreamt of Elvis last night. We were in a barber shop and he was going to cut my hair. I don’t remember going there for that, but do recall that a friend sent me an Elvis clip of an old outtake, and I enjoyed it. I guess my deeper mind employed it to bring the King to me in a moment of midnight reverie.

He looked good, jet black hair and black leather jacket. Didn’t speak at all, as I recall, had a mouthy little agent-type doing the talking for him. All I wanted was to hear him sing. His handler popped a CD into the barber shop player. The King told me to sing, but I didn’t know the song. I, or it, had been too long off the charts to make it work. I woke up feeling like a jerk.

Funny how the time works too. Chronological years cannot tell the tale in full. We hold our dearest and our best, the things that make us us, as a jewel, shining beyond the bounds of life and death. We go to sleep, and take a breath, and they are there, visiting from everywhere, warning us, making sense, removing or constructing a roadway or a fence, giving us a fresh evidence of what is foul or fair, or simply waiting with their scissors sharp, to cut our hair.

G.M.S.

Slowly

SLOWLY

Slowly turning a page. Can’t help it. Almost finished this one. Can’t reread it. Got the gist the first time. The story rolls on past the last word. Lick your thumb, and follow the rhythm that is called for.

Slowly blending the tale, it’s intensity becoming muted slightly by the rest of life, omitted during the concentration of a heavy read, but now calling for a breather, and a look around. There is a big world out there beyond the categories that kept it in control.

Slowly closing the book, a diary of secret thoughts, a notice board of public scenes. The handwriting is mine, about us, intense and adrift. Can’t read some of the the entries, ink too smuggled or pace too fast. Can’t recall many of the things I can read. Important then, hazy now.

Slowly walking away, having packed the boxes and shed the baggage, and cut the ties, and lamented the losses in waves that still roll.
When this central entity becomes the stuff of memory, I shall be so grateful to have been handed the book, and to have put my keen and greasy prints a bit upon it.

G.M.S.

Easter Sunday 2018

Easter Sunday

For the 11:00 a.m. service on Sunday, the Rev. Dr. G. Malcolm Sinclair is calling his sermon “Room beyond the Tomb.” “The ‘empty tomb’ is a literary creation of the Gospel writers. St. Paul, writing his letters earlier, never mentions it. He has other ways of expressing his certainty about Christ’s resurrection and its meaning. This Easter rising leads us away from the dead-end of death in all its forms, and opens rooms of meaning for us in which we can happily and purposefully live.”

The Bible readings are Isaiah 25:6-9 (the banquet on the mountain), 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (the Resurrection of Christ), and Mark 16:1-8 (the Resurrection of Jesus).

Click here for sermon

Good Friday 2018-03-30

Good Friday

For the 11:00 a.m. service on Friday, the Rev. Dr. G. Malcolm Sinclair is calling his sermon “The Perpetual Pattern to Eternal Life.” “Some of the church's finest writers created the story Jesus. They wrote their faith into a pattern of words: interesting, compelling, and memorable. They took that pattern from themes in the Old Testament. Isaiah 53, the Fourth Servant Song, tells how God brought life out of death for the despised but ever faithful servant. Jesus models that servant as the writers craft his story.”

The Bible readings are excerpts from Isaiah 53 and John 18 and 19.

Download the sermon here.

Palm Sunday 2018-03-25

Palm Sunday

For the 11:00 a.m. service on Sunday, the Rev. Dr. G. Malcolm Sinclair is calling his sermon “Lent as the Ride of your Life.” “The crowd can always go in one of two directions: follow the man on the horse, or the one on the donkey. Keep the ritual of the status quo, or dare to animate the dream that makes things better. On Palm Sunday we choose a rider, and make Jerusalem a commercial tourist trap or a truer sanctuary.”

The Bible readings are Isaiah 50:4-9a (the servant’s humiliation and vindication), Romans 8:31b-39 (God’s love in Christ Jesus), and Mark 11:1-11 (Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem).

Download sermon here.

Fifth Sunday of Lent 2018-03-18

Fifth Sunday of Lent

For the 11:00 a.m. service on Sunday, the Rev. Dr. G. Malcolm Sinclair is calling his sermon “Lights, Camera, Action.” “We can put things off for a long time, misreading them, denying them, or just hoping against hope for the best, but at some point comes the time to act, to face the threat, to take the stand. When something is essential, and we are an instrument, hard choices must be made.”

The Bible readings are Jeremiah 31:31-34 (a new covenant), Hebrews 5:5-10 (Jesus the great high priest), and John 12:20-33 (some Greeks wish to see Jesus).

Download sermon here.

Fourth Sunday of Lent 2018-03-11

Fourth Sunday of Lent

For the 11:00 a.m. service on Sunday, the Rev. Dr. G. Malcolm Sinclair is calling his sermon “Lent as Snakebite and Antidote.” “Sometimes life’s choices are so complex, and its themes so deep that only stories and symbols can lead us through the maze. Snakebite and its relief strike a deep chord in us, a good launch pad for pondering and for preaching.”

The Bible readings are Numbers 21:4-9 (the bronze serpent), Ephesians 2:1-10 (from death to life), and John 3:14-21 (Nicodemus visits Jesus).

Download the sermon here.