Sunday, July 9, 2023 – Pentecost 6
Zechariah 9:9-12; Psalm 145:8-15; Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19,25-30 The Rev. Drew Brislin This past week I was with Allison in her hometown of Maryville, TN. While out running errands one day we visited the local mall. It dawned on me that it has been years since I have visited an actual mall. In my youth like […]
Sunday, June 25, 2023 – Pentecost 4
Jeremiah 20:7-13; Psalm 69:7-10 (11-15), 16-18; Romans 6:1b-11; Matthew 10:24-39 The Rev. Drew Brislin Preachers sometimes refer to this reading in jest as Jesus’ sermon on family dynamics. I’m glad today is not Father’s Day because trying to explain ‘whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me’ might have been a […]
Sunday, May 21, 2023 – Easter 7
Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10,33-36; 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11, John 17:1-11 The Rev. Drew Brislin After retiring from teaching for more than thirty years in the Dallas County School System, my dad and my stepmother decided like so many folks to retire to the beach. My dad spent many of those years teaching junior high band […]
Sunday, April 23, 2023 – Easter 3
Acts 2: 14a, 36-41; Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17 1 Peter 1:17-23; Luke 24:13-35 The Rev. Drew Brislin Earlier this week I had the pleasure of visiting with one of my seminary classmates and her family. We met in Tuscaloosa as she and her husband were in town with their daughter to visit the University of Alabama […]
Sunday, March 26, 2023 – Lent 5
Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45 The Rev. Drew Brislin As I have been making my way through this Lenten season, I have had this question that has been continually popping up in my head. It is rooted in part in my Baptist roots, roots that often called me to proclaim Jesus as my […]
Sunday, March 12, 2023 – Lent 3
Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95 Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42 The Rev. Drew Brislin As we continue in this season of Lent, this season of preparation, we continue to learn more deeply about who Jesus is not just in terms of relationships but also in relationship to what it is he is doing in the world to transform […]
Sunday, February 12, 2023 – 6 Epiphany
Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8 I Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37 The Rev. Drew Brislin Whenever I think back on my experiences in scouting, I am inevitably drawn back to the many friendships made during those formative years of my youth. Those friendships were forged in the many communal activities in which we participated which included though not […]
Sunday, January 29, 2023 – 4 Epiphany
Micah 6:1-8; Psalm 15 I Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12 The Rev. Drew Brislin There is a quote from The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that comes from an interview he gave just months before his assassination in which he says, “It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, […]
Sunday, December 11, 2022 – 3rd Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 146:4-9; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11 The Rev. Drew Brislin “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” John asks this question in our reading this morning. It’s no surprise John has doubt. After all he’s sitting in prison at this point in the Gospel narrative. […]
Sunday, November 20, 2022 – Christ the King
Jeremiah 23:1-6; Canticle 16; Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43 The Rev. Drew Brislin Why is it that we get this particular reading in our lectionary this morning? Why on this Christ the King Sunday, a day in which we celebrate the kingly nature of our Lord’s life, do we get the account of his crucifixion and death? […]