Laurel's Spanish sermon, Chapel of the Apostles

Laurel's sermon delivered at the Chapel of the Apostles, April 24, 2012, on the day remembering victims of genocide.  Here's the text.

Colin's Spanish homily for 2 Lent

I gave a short homily in Spanish today at the Chapel of Apostles in Sewanee: the English follows, and the Spanish text can be viewed here.

“But to those who keep in my way will I show the salvation of God.”

Universal Studios in Hollywood offers tourists the chance to experience movie sets, including one in which a flash flood utterly ravages a small Western town and almost consumes its audience as well.  The inescapable power of the sudden wall of water projected along its chosen way is simply awesome.

The LORD’s way, and our place in relation to it, is the subject of today’s psalm and this week’s collect.  To be sure, there are those who have ventured far astray of this way, and for those we pray God will return them to the divine fold.  But where are we along this way?  Which direction do we face?  And where is the LORD on this path?

Halfway through the psalm, heading the section excised from today’s recitation, the psalmist shifts his intended audience to “the wicked”.  It seems likely these poor souls are the addressees of the rest of the poem, including that final portion which we picked back up today.  The psalm’s end, “But to those who keep in my way will I show the salvation of God,” then can be read as a threat, blessing, or both.  The Book of Common Prayer offers “but” instead of the NRSV’s implied “and”, suggesting the final line contrasts rather than complements its couplet (both readings work in the Hebrew).  Could “keep in my way” be a bad thing?  What about the “salvation of God”?

If we stay in the LORD’s way, we discover some answers to these questions.  Perhaps we travel this Lenten season in humble obedience, trudging toward Easter with eager anticipation.  At other times, we might turn around—in frustration, or anger, or despair, or sheer obstinance—and sit right in the middle of the path, or even run the other direction.  But maybe our movement does not ultimately matter so much as the ravined way we inhabit, however cheerfully or despondently.  For many waters are coming—the salvation and deliverance and liberation of God—and we shall we swept away clean, and so quickly moved into union with the LORD’s mighty way.

Regresando y regresando: Homily delivered 7/17/11

Click here to read a sermon I delivered in Spanish at St. Paul's Cathedral in San Diego on July 17, 2011.

Las semillas nos caen: Homily delivered 7/10/11

Click here to read a sermon I delivered in Spanish at St. Paul's Cathedral in San Diego on July 10, 2011.