Bishop’s Address to the 35th Annual Convention of the Diocese of East Tennessee The Right Rev. Brian Lee Cole | Knoxville, Tennessee Click here for the video of the bishop’s address to the 2019 Convention. The text is below. Before I begin my address to you, I would like for us to pray. The Lord be with you. (And also with you). Grant, we beseech you, O Lord, perseverance in your holy service, and that the people serving you in
Read MoreContagious Community of Holy Mercy and Healing
Sermon Given at St. Timothy, Signal Mountain Epiphany | January 6, 2019 Isaiah 60:1-6 Text of the sermon is below; a video of the sermon is here (sound improves in a few seconds in). We saw the photograph for the first time five years ago. It was taken in 1965, a black and white image. Most of the photograph is hidden in darkness. In the center, there is a group of bodies, all lined in silhouettes. There is one adult, a college girl,
Read MoreFrom the beginning, we have fretted over the end
Sermon Given at St. James, Greeneville First Sunday in Advent 2018 | December 2, 2018 Luke 21:25-36 From the beginning, we have fretted over the end. This morning, in St. Luke’s Gospel, we have a reflection from Jesus about the end. And his words might cause us to fret. For some of us, the end should always be written out in bold and big letters – THE END. But whenever I consider the second coming of Jesus along with the
Read MoreJesus Appears To Be Ok With That
Sermon Given at St. James, Knoxville 26th Sunday after Pentecost 2018 | November 18, 2018 Mark 13:1-8 “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Amen. “It’s the end of the world as we know it. It’s the end of the world as we know it. It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.” When I was in college, the musical group, R.E.M., was a big deal. During my sophomore year, they came
Read MoreWe might just have it backwards
Sermon Given at St. Mark, Copperhill, November 11, 2018 Mark 12:38-44 First, let me say it would be quite tempting to suggest that the Gospel lesson on the widow’s mite is St. Mark’s way of saying to remember to turn in your pledge card. Remembering to turn in your pledge card is greatly appreciated, but it is not the point of this morning’s Gospel. Rather, I would ask that you allow me to describe a couple of scenes for you,
Read More‘Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?’
Sermon Given at All Saints, Morristown on All Saints Day – November 4, 1028 Revelation 7:9-17 There are many saints we know primarily by their wounds. Sebastian has his arrows, Francis his stigmata and Catherine, her wheel. With them and so many other stories of the saints, we know there will be blood. It is not so with St. Alexis. St. Alexis, or St. Alexius as he is called from other accounts, is not remembered for his wounds, but rather
Read MoreWhat Does It Mean to Share a Common Life?
November 1, 2018 All Saints Day Dear East Tennessee Episcopal Friends, Below is an extended quotation from the Appendix of the Asian Journal of Thomas Merton. Merton, who had lived as a Trappist monk for 27 years in central Kentucky, was now fulfilling a long-held dream of traveling to the East. These remarks and prayer were given by Merton at the conclusion of the First Spiritual Summit Conference held in Calcutta, India, late in 1968, shortly before Merton’s untimely death.
Read MoreGood News – Mystifying Word or Just a Pile of Rocks?
Sermon given at Sewanee School of Theology Ephesians 3:4-12 | Luke 12:39-48 Recently, I traveled with Robert Childers, a priest in the Diocese of East Tennessee, to Coventry, England. We were there to attend a conference on reconciliation and peacemaking at the Cathedral. If you do not know the history of Coventry Cathedral and its ministry of reconciliation, let me briefly tell you. In November, 1940, the city of Coventry was brutally bombed by the Germans. Hundreds of citizens of Coventry
Read MoreJesus Still Calls Us
Sermon Given at St. Francis, Norris, on the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost 2018 Mark 10:35-45 I cannot recall a time in my life when I did not know about the Bible. It has always been there, like air and water and sleep and food. One of the first songs I remember learning as a child was a song about the Bible. “The B-i-b-l-e, that’s the book for me, I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-i-b-l-e.” You then
Read MoreWe will find our people
Sermon Given at St. Alban’s, Hixson on the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost 2018 Proverbs 31:1-31 | Mark 9:30-37 I recently made a trip to Arkansas, to a small town in the northeast corner of the state. I went with my eldest brother for a long overdue trip to see my father’s grave. Once we arrived at the old Methodist churchyard, we parked the car on the edge of the property and began walking to his grave. Though it had been years
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