Object suggested: Piano music, woodworker’s tools, pictures of sea life. If you want to learn something new, what would be the best way to go about doing that? Finding a good teacher is very helpful. Perhaps you want to learn to play the piano. Wouldn’t you want to spend time with the best teacher you could…
Read more Being a Disciple: A Children’s Homily
Today is Trinity Sunday. It’s also the 13th week of worshiping from home. By now we’ve all gotten a little more comfortable with this model of worshipping and we’ve discovered we can “go to church” any time of day or night that works for us all week long. Gotta love technology. Thank you Joani for…
Read more Evangelism for Dummies (me included!)
I would not consider myself the smartest man in the room. I know lots of folks who really are the smartest people in the room. I have a lot of respect for those “brainiacs.” I would, however, consider myself a reasonable man. A good man. A kind man. A compassionate man. An Irish-American man who…
Read more Honoring George Floyd
Big people: please consider asking a bilingual friend(s) to help with this lesson.] Hi everyone. Thank you for clicking on this option to hear a lesson. We miss you at church and we can’t wait until we can all be back together again in church. Do any of you speak two languages? What a wonderful…
Read more On Behalf of You: A Children’s Homily
The scriptures you read today are about the story of the Ascension in the Book of Acts. The lectionary places today’s gospel, John 17:1-11 – Jesus’ prayer concerning unity – at the end of the Easter season; but in John’s gospel the prayer for unity among His followers occurs at the end of the last supper, so that…
Read more Unity
When I arrived at Emmanuel almost seven years ago (where does the time go?) there was some initial discussion about starting a parish blog. I loved the idea and put it on our wish list. And well, here we are, nearly seven years later, ready to check that box. As you can tell, some things…
Read more God is Always Ready to Hear From Us.
Hi everyone, thank you for tuning into today’s sermon. These certainly are wild and ever changing times and we at Emmanuel are doing our level best to adapt with the changing news and happenings all around us – all in a spirit of flexibility, joy and anticipation. Working hard to stay in the present moment and…
Read more There Was A Man Born Blind
Riley is the seven year old Golden Retriever who lives with his human family across the street from Max and me. Riley has been well trained to stay within the boundaries of his home. Riley loves his tennis ball. Riley has trained all of us who know him how to play ball with him. His…
Read more What Are The Rules?
Hi everyone, welcome to our eighth Sunday of celebrating Emmanuel At Home. Thanks again for joining us. As many of you know the first weekend in May is when our parish ordinarily goes on a retreat to Shrine Mont in beautiful Orkney Springs, Virginia. A parish retreat is no small undertaking and volunteer Joe Scott does a…
Read more Jesus the Shepherd, Jesus the Gate
Happy Easter Sunday everyone. He is Risen. He is Risen indeed! I hope this Easter message finds you all doing as well as can be expected under these present circumstances. Four weeks ago, I know, I, for one, certainly thought we’d be back in church by now; but here we are, still social distancing, and washing our hands,…
Read more “Man’s Search for Meaning”: Viktor Frankl