Sermons from St. Martin-in-the-Fields

Listen in to the sermon from Ms. Anne Alexis Harra for The Third Sunday after Pentecost, June 26, 2022. Support the worship and ministry of St. Martin's by giving online: stmartinec.org/give Today's readings are: 1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21 Psalm 16 Galatians 5:1,13-25 Luke 9:51-62Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/ Sermon text: It is a remarkable honor to meditate on the Words of Life with you this morning, which admittedly feels rather heavy. I originally was on the schedule to preach next week - on Wednesday afternoon, Pastor Jim asked if I might switch to this week. Little did I know. Shaping these words to you, my Beloved St. Martin's, a community in transition and one that is feeling a tremendous weight, is an outstanding gift. I am honored. A great injustice was done on Friday, the exact type against which Paul warns in the passage from Galatians. The freedoms of powerful people were used as an opportunity for self-indulgence, to abuse the name of religious freedom and to strip away the dignity and bodily autonomy of women. After the news broke on Friday I found myself in the midst of a crisis of faith. Finding the words to say to myself, let alone to a congregation already shouldering so much, was almost impossible. Around 7:30 last night with tears in my eyes I angrily said to my far-too-patient partner, "I have no words. This pain is too much. I don't know where God is, and I don't know what the future will bring." My sweet Cole said to me, "Preach what's on your heart. You'll find the words." I feel like I resonate most with the words of the Psalmist this morning, who opened the psalm with a plea to God for protection during turbulence in Israel. The Psalmist reiterates that it is God who is her only good; with God's presence near her, she will not fall. Let us take those words with us this week to hopefully lighten our burdens. I fear we are staring down a long road of anguish and factionizing. St. Paul had this same concern for the Church in Galatia, a portion of whose Letter we read this morning. Despite having brought the Good News of God in Christ to Galatia, Paul was concerned about its factionizing. The Galatians were factionizing and dividing amongst themselves over the interpretation of the law. The Judaic faction of Galatia was adamant that Christian converts should practice Mosaic law, even going so far as to demand that these converts receive circumcision. Paul does not mince words when he warns the Galatians not to trade one form of subjugation for another. Subjugation of any body based on former law infringes on everybody's freedom. It drives us apart, and it pulls us away from God. This passage from Galatians today reminds us that our freedom does not come from us, but from the Love of God in Christ, the same Christ who willingly set out on a journey from Galilee to Jerusalem to meet his fate on the cross. True religious freedom comes from Christ and begets the Fruits of the Spirit: joy, patience, gentleness, faithfulness. It does not harm another for righteousness' sake. Instead, we are coming face to face with profoundly gross misinterpretations of religious freedom, the kind which keep us stuck in the past and unable to move forward in our journey towards the Dominion of God. In the gospel, Luke illustrates a strange encounter with Jesus, but highlights a harsh truth: The freedom that comes from following Christ involves sacrificing what we once thought was best. At the end of the gospel, we hear a peculiar dialogue between Jesus and one potential follower. The man wants to follow Jesus but asks to offer his family farewell, first. Jesus does not hold back: "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God." These words would have been bizarre to anyone in ancient times because the "plowing norm" involved the person operating the plow looking backwards routinely to ensure that the rows were straight. In his response to the man, Jesus lets us know that constantly looking backwards is not the way to live into the Dominion of God. The old ways must make way for the new. I stand before you this morning as a young woman, a hopeful future priest, and a child of God who has grave concerns that a few people with an excess of power are distorting the Scriptures, are appropriating Christian images for political gain, and are taking us backwards - away from the Dominion of God. The Dominion of God is one filled with dignity, mercy, justice, compassion, and its goodness knows no bounds. We can achieve this state, but we must look forward in order to do so. We are called to protect the vulnerable. We are called to life in the Spirit. We are called to freedom in Christ. We are called to fulfill the New Commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Moving into the coming days and weeks, I pray that we journey forward with the same bravery and conviction for justice that our Savior demonstrated for us. Despite the agony in my heart, I have hope in the ancient words of the Psalmist: "I have set God always before me; because God is at my right hand I shall not fall. My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; my body also shall rest in hope. For God will not abandon me to the grave, nor let God's holy ones see the Pit." Friends, God will not let God's holy ones see the Pit. God dwells among us. God is sustaining us right now and beckoning us forward. In this time of profound pain and confusion, we have an opportunity to set God before us, and heed Christ's call to move forward into freedom. For freedom in Christ has - and will continue to - set us free. We will stand firm. And we will not again submit to a yoke of slavery. Amen. Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Listen in to the sermon from the Rev. James H. Littrell for the Day of Pentecost, June 5, 2022. Support the worship and ministry of St. Martin's by giving online: stmartinec.org/give Today's readings are: Acts 2:1-21 Romans 8:14-17 John 14:8-17, (25-27) Psalm 104:25-35, 37Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/ Transcript coming soon.Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Hear from the Rev. Dr. Nora Johnson preaching for our Pride Evensong service. Today's readings are: Psalm 150 Romans 12:9-18 Matthew 5:1-12 Transcript: From the Gospel of Matthew this evening we have been given the beatitudes from the great Sermon on the Mount. Now, everybody loves the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, if we aren't careful, many of us have heard the Sermon so many times that it starts to sound like an abstract checklist: blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed are the persecuted. It can sound like we are hearing a set of policy statements by Jesus, or worse yet hearing a politician's list of talking points. Sometimes, to escape that deadening familiarity, I like to try to imagine what it must have felt like for Jesus to look out at those who were listening to him speak, and for them to listen to him and meet his eye. Catching the eye of Jesus as he says "Blessed are those who mourn" is just a fundamentally different experience than hearing Jesus's abstract ideas about mourning and seeking righteousness. To be in that group around Jesus listening, with the disciples or with the crowd from which he has just come, is to have, I think, a deep experience of one's own blessedness. And I have to believe that Jesus spoke these words not to make an impression on his disciples, not to teach them a lesson, but because he was moved by the grace and the beauty of those people he loved. In their awkwardness and their folly and their hunger, he loved them. He spoke from his heart. He didn't so much explain to them that they were blessed. He blessed them in that moment. It seems possible to me, too, that Jesus was moved to narrate his own experience here as one who was himself outcast and downtrodden. I think he saw himself in the eyes of the poor and the lowly. So we could think of the beatitudes as a kind of homecoming for Jesus, a moment in which he himself is resting in love, at rest right in the place where he belongs. You are blessed, he says to them, and in that moment he is one with them just as he is one with God. I can almost imagine that this moment of homecoming and belonging gave him a vast sense of patience. His vision of us from high on that mountain is maybe part of what allows him to let us be who we are, let us take our time coming to him. He sees the blessedness we can't begin yet to express. It's a paradox, but probably not an accident, that the ways of being that Jesus describes in this sermon on the mount can be ways of getting cut off from other people. Cast into poverty (spiritual or physical), excluded from systems of justice, isolated in grief, everyone around you speaking evil of you and persecuting you. Or you are forgotten: too meek to push your way to the front of the line, looking to make peace where all is war and destruction and peace is a laughable afterthought. Trying to practice mercy in a merciless environment. Dismissed from the start. Jesus recognizes himself in this awful isolation. There he is, the very love of God incarnate, one day to be executed like a criminal and abandoned by his friends. Jesus knows about isolation and exile, and he knows that there is a particular beauty, a particular healing, in looking into the eyes of the poor and the meek and those who long for justice, and being one with them. Knowing that in his gaze they are one with God, that he himself is the meeting place between human frailty and divine life. The awful isolation to which we subject an outsider is just swept away in his loving gaze. The doors open and the walls come tumbling down. Now that loving gaze that we feel coming from Jesus is also the gaze of the church if we are really being the church. That knowing look of union is the church's work. It's one way to describe what the sacraments and the word of God and the life of the church are all doing: they are teaching the world its blessedness in the eyes of God. The church is gazing on all who suffer, on all who are cast out, with the eyes of Jesus, teaching all of us our blessedness, our beauty, our pride. That's the work of the church. Sadly, there are at least two things we know about this work of the church, we in the LGBTQ+ community. One: we know that the church is shockingly broken, shockingly unable to show us our beauty. OK, yes, the Episcopal Church has, after a lengthy controversy, come around to a place of witness, and we can be grateful for that and for the good work of other denominations. It feels so good to gather like this. But it has to be said that as a whole church, as Christians, as the body of Christ throughout the world, as the historical bearers of the word and the sacraments, we are much more apt to trample on a queer or transgender kid than we are to mirror their great beauty. We still represent a faith that doesn't want to see itself in that form of lowliness. It would be so much easier for the average Christian to imagine that a young transgender person doesn't exist than to look and see ourselves in them. Christians are still refusing that vision. Or worse, Christians are deliberately and often cynically targeting the queer and trans communities for persecution. So that's the first thing we know in our communities: how the Church is broken. The second thing we know is that as queer, non-binary, bisexual, transgendered, lesbian, gay, and allied people we are and have long been a powerful force that calls the Church to become itself. We are here, we have argued, we are queer, we are fabulous. We are much more than a subgroup or the latest in a long line of "issues" to be faced. We are not a theological dispute. We are a mirror in which Jesus sees himself reflected. Jesus sees himself in our vulnerability, in our growing fear of isolation and persecution. Whenever we are targeted Jesus sees himself. When we mourn, when we thirst for justice. When jobs and relationships and wedding cakes and safe housing and acknowledgement in the classroom and basic human respect are unavailable to us because we are just too queer. In those times--and yes, those times are now--in those times we are bright reflections of the blessed face of Jesus. And if the church wants to know Jesus, the church must know us. Never forget it: if the church wants to be the church it must know you. Of course the sorrow of missing out on that wonderful exchange of blessing doesn't stop with us and Jesus. We know that it's not just us. We know that there are injuries from wealth and poverty and colonialism, harm done by categories of race and ability, forms of brutal discrimination all around and also everywhere within our own communities--intersecting and overlapping and sometimes competing ways that we just refuse to see Jesus where he sees himself. And yes, we know about the violence in our streets and the rot in our government and the constant dread about the future. But on a day like this, when we can gather in pride and love, when we can hear ourselves described as blessed and we can believe it for a moment, when St. Martin's opens its doors and declares that you and I belong here--that's when we know that we have a powerful gift to share with the church and with the world. That look of love that Jesus casts on us, knowing that look, is something we have to offer to other Christians. To come here today to celebrate our pride by praising God with prayer and music and community is to start some good work in the world. We are here together this evening learning how to do the work of the church, how to turn to the world like Jesus does, how to catch the eye of the one who needs to be seen, how to recognize Jesus in that one, and how to say it over and over in a loving exchange: Blessed are you. Blessed are you. Blessed are you. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Listen in to the sermon from the Rev. David Potter for the Last Sunday of Easter, May 29, 2022.Support the worship and ministry of St. Martin's by giving online: stmartinec.org/giveToday's readings are:Acts 16:16-34Revelation 22:12-14,16-17,20-21John 17:20-26Psalm 97Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/Transcript coming soon.Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved.Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Listen in to the sermon from the Rev. James H. Littrell for the Memorial of William Newbold, May 28, 2022. Today's readings are: Lamentations 3:22-26,31-33 Romans 8:14-19,34-35,37-39 John 14:1-6 New Every Morning Fr. Jim Littrell May 28, 2022 The writer of the Book of Lamentations, a little bit of which we just heard, says to us: "The steadfast love of God never ceases. God's mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness!" And then Paul, writing to the first Christians in Rome, that great imperial capital, from jail, from his cell facing a terrible death, writes that nothing in all creation will be able to separate all those early Christians and himself from that same steadfast love of God. And John, in that Gospel I just read, assures us that God's domain, God's dominion, the space of God, is more spacious and open and welcoming than any of us can begin to imagine. Using the metaphor of a house, he speaks to us of its endless, endless capacity to take us in. It's endless capaciousness. The steadfast love of God is as vast and nurturing and loving and hugging and warm and safe as anything any of us can imagine, and then so much more than that. So I am here to tell you this terrible morning, when every heart in this room is fractured, is in so much pain, that your son, your brother, your grandson, your cousin, your nephew, your friend William Connor Newbold is right now, in this very heartbroken time, saying to us, with Jesus, "do not let your hearts be troubled. I am fine. God is holding me close. And you would not believe how wonderful that is." But, he begs us with God, "please do believe it!" Heartbreak is a real thing, Leslie mused to me in one of our conversations this week. It's a real thing. It actually hurts. And she's right. Hearts break, and hearts in this holy place this morning are broken. And I believe that into that fracture, that brokenness, God's steadfast love and God's infinite Light is pouring right now. I want to tell you two things about that. First, heartbreak is like any other human fracture. It hurts. And it will heal, in time, and especially - and this is really important - especially if it is nurtured by your love and care for one another in the days and months and years ahead. And second, also like a broken bone, your broken hearts will heal, but they will never be the same. There will always be a space in them where William was. What I want you to believe with me is that he is, right now, right here, in this room, working with God to mend your hearts. He and God want you to laugh again. They want you to play again. They want you to see the colors of the world bright again. And they want you to love and care for one another in this moment and in the time ahead. And, also, they know you will weep. And weep. And weep. They know how sad you are, and will be. And they love you and all your tears so much. And they say, God and William, that even your pain cannot separate you from God's endless love. God loves you always and in every condition, and God will wipe away the tears from your eyes. "And how do I know that?" William says to us. How do we know that William is now held in God's love? "Well, here's how," William says to you: "I know because all my tears and my sadness and my pain are gone. Gone. All my pain is gone." The steadfast love of God never ceases. God's mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning! They are new this morning. There is a hymn I like a lot and I want to share a little bit of it with you. It's by a composer of contemporary hymns named Brian Wren. It's a prayer hymn, of sorts, inviting us to bring the many names of God into our hearts: he invokes in the hymn the God of all the stories we tell,the parables we tell of our God, the God who is a mother to us, nurturing, ordering, and piloting and caring, the God who is a loving father to us, hugging every child, a God he calls (and I resonate with this a lot!), "old aching God, gray with endless care, glad of good surprises, wiser than despair." And then Wren names this God, who I think he means to be Jesus, but which brings me back to William: "Young, growing God, eager, on the move, saying no to falsehood and unkindness,...giving all you have." The hymn ends with a kind of summary of God's names: "Great loving God," Wren writes, "never fully known, joyful darkness far beyond our seeing, closer yet than breathing, everlasting home." And that is exactly where William is: far beyond our seeing, closer yet than breathing, he is right there in the everlasting home which is God's steadfast love, from which nothing, nothing in all creation can separate us. Nothing at all, not now, not ever. Now how do I know that all those names, that William's very self, is wrapped up in all the names of God, in God's compassionate arms? Well, I guess my 79 years have taught me that. But, also, as Leslie likes to say, and as I heard this morning, there are signs. I am, theologically, most of all a Christian mystic. And so yesterday, as I was getting ready to come up here to the church and meet with Leslie and Will, I was listening, as I often do, to the BBC's afternoon concert, which in the morning when I'm getting ready for the day is happening in the evening there, which is morning our time. And there I am brushing my teeth when I hear coming out of the speaker the most beautiful music I've heard in a really, really long time. It was so amazing it made me stop brushing my teeth and just stop and listen to this music. It's some kind of organ music. I listen and I think, "What is this?" I think I hear in it a little Bach, but then the music moves into this kind of deep, powerful minor key, a kind of lament. It sounds to me like a kind of cry, almost. The chord just deepens and deepens in this minor key and then, gradually, that cry resolves in music that I can only describe as pure splendor. "What is this???" The music ends. I listen and an announcer tells me that what I have just heard is a transcription and augmentation for organ of a chorale, sure enough, by Bach, from his Easter Cantata. And this chorale, and this piece, is called: "Weigen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen," which means pretty much, Weeping, Lament, Worry, Fear. And this glorious music in which all of that is contained, all of what we are in the middle of right now, all of our Wagen and our Klagen and our Sorgen and our Zagen, all our weeping and all our lamenting and all our worrying and all our fear - all of that music was composed by Franz Lizst in 1862 right after the tragic death of his daughter. And that music is about the deepest sorrow a human being can experience, your sorrow, and it's based on and set smack in the middle of an Easter chorale, a cantada about the Resurrection. Well. I did this thing, I stood there, struck, with a toothbrush in my hand. And then I took my finger and put it on the little red dot to push the stream back, and then I listened to this music all over again, and I thought this: that music came to me directly from the great God who lifts us out of death back into life, over and over and over and over again until we are healed, and who at the last, takes us into God's endless life and light. And that amazing music arrived in my life, kindness of a courier, a heavenly courier whose name is William Connor Newbold. I am certain of it. He is joined with God's merciful love. He knows our weeping and lamentation and our worry and our fear in exactly the same way as God does, because they are joined together. And together, because they are joined, they are with Jesus, who is all compassion, and they say together to us, "The steadfast love of God never ceases. God's mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness!" Amen. Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Listen in to the sermon from the Rev. James H. Littrell for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 22, 2022. Support the worship and ministry of St. Martin's by giving online: stmartinec.org/give Today's readings are: Acts 16:9-15 Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5 John 5:1-9 Psalm 67 Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/ Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Listen in to the sermon from the Rev. Jarrett Kerbel for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 15, 2022. Support the worship and ministry of St. Martin's by giving online: stmartinec.org/give Today's readings are: Acts 11:1-18 Revelation 21:1-6 John 13:31-35 Psalm 148Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/ Transcript coming soon.Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Listen in to the sermon from the Rev. Carol Duncan for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, May 8, 2022. Support the worship and ministry of St. Martin's by giving online: stmartinec.org/give Today's readings are: Acts 9:36-43 Revelation 7:9-17 John 10:22-30 Psalm 23 Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/ Transcript coming soon. Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Listen in to the sermon from the Rev. Jarrett Kerbel for the Third Sunday of Easter, May 1, 2022. Support the worship and ministry of St. Martin's by giving online: stmartinec.org/give Today's readings are: Acts 9:1-20 Revelation 5:11-14 John 21:1-19 Psalm 30Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/ Transcript coming soon.Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Listen in to the sermon from Anne Alexis Harra for the Second Sunday in Easter, April 24, 2022. Support the worship and ministry of St. Martin's by giving online: stmartinec.org/give Today's readings are: Acts 5:27-32 Revelation 1:4-8 John 20:19-31 Psalm 150Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/ Transcript coming soonPermission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Listen to this week's sermon from LIFT Worship from Anne Alexis Harra for Palm Sunday, April 10, 2022 Learn more about LIFT, Living in Faith Together, at stmartinec.org/lift Today's Readings: Joshua 5:9-12 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 Psalm 32Readings were taken from God's Word, My Voice: A Children's Lectionary - - - - - Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org Who here likes to ride rollercoasters? I used to be really afraid of rollercoasters. I didn't like that I wasn't in control. When we ride rollercoasters, the experience is almost always entirely out of our control: how fast we're going in the car, if we're going up or down or even upside down, how many hills there are. I don't feel so afraid of them anymore, though. Riding a rollercoaster usually means we have to be brave enough to let go of control for just a few moments so we can come off the ride feeling exhilarated, free, and maybe a little nauseous. :) Holy Week is a special kind of rollercoaster: it is an emotional rollercoaster. In these days leading up to Jesus' death and glorious resurrection, we will feel all the emotions. We will not be in a whole lot of control. We will truly feel like we're on a rollercoaster! Today is the first part of this ride: today is Palm Sunday. Today we are climbing up the big hill in the rollercoaster car. We are excited today because Jesus has made a triumphant entry into the big city of Jerusalem. We are excited with the disciples and the people who wave their palms to welcome Jesus. We feel Jesus with us. Jesus' entry into Jerusalem was crucial to completing God's work for Jesus. Can someone refresh my memory - what kind of animal did Jesus ride into Jerusalem? A donkey, that's right! Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey fulfilled a prophecy in the Hebrew Bible (Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey, Zech. 9:9.). The people of Israel were excited to welcome Jesus! But sadly, that excitement didn't last forever. Jesus knew that he was going to Jerusalem to die for our sins, and then God would raise him to new life. Now friends, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but I need to be honest with you: we are climbing up the hill. We eventually will begin to descend, or come down, the hill, quite fast. We will feel sad when our friend Jesus dies on Good Friday. We will feel unsettled on Holy Saturday, as we wait with the disciples. We will feel safe, exhilarated, free, full of joy on Easter Sunday, when we come to the conclusion of our ride. If you're like me, and you need some reassurance before we really get going on our adventure, I have some good news. Throughout our Holy Week rollercoaster, we will always be safe and loved by God. We can bring all our feelings and prayers to our friend, Jesus. And lastly, nobody is ever alone on one of these rides. We have one another, and we have God. And we will remember that Jesus is our eternal king of peace. Thank you for joining me on our Holy Week ride, friends. Hosanna in the highest. Amen.

Tune into the sermon from The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel for Palm Sunday, April 10, 2022. Learn more about Easter at St. Martin's: stmartinec.org/easter Today's readings are: Mark 11:1-11 Isaiah 50:4-9a Psalm 31:9-16 Philippians 2:5-11 Luke 23:1-49Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/ Transcript coming soon.Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Tune into the sermon from The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, April 3, 2022. Support St. Martin's mission and ministry by giving online: stmartinec.org/give Today's readings are: Isaiah 43:16-21 Philippians 3:4b-14 John 12:1-8 Psalm 126Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/ - - - - - Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Listen to this week's sermon from LIFT Worship from Anne Alexis Harra for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, April 3, 2022 Learn more about LIFT, Living in Faith Together, at stmartinec.org/lift Today's Readings: Joshua 5:9-12 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 Psalm 32Readings were taken from God's Word, My Voice: A Children's Lectionary Transcript Coming Soon.Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Listen to this week's sermon from LIFT Worship from Anne Alexis Harra for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 27, 2022 Learn more about LIFT, Living in Faith Together, at stmartinec.org/lift Today's Readings: Joshua 5:9-12 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 Psalm 32Readings were taken from God's Word, My Voice: A Children's Lectionary Transcript coming soon.Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Tune into the sermon from Bonnie Hoffman-Adams for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 27, 2022. Support St. Martin's mission and ministry by giving online: stmartinec.org/give Today's readings are: Joshua 5:9-12 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 Psalm 32Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/ Transcript coming soon.Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Tune into the sermon from The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel for the Third Sunday in Lent, March 20, 2022. Support St. Martin's mission and ministry by giving online: stmartinec.org/give Today's readings are: Exodus 3:1-15 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 Luke 13:1-9 Psalm 63:1-8Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/Transcript coming soon.Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Listen to this week's sermon from LIFT Worship from Ms. Anne Alexis Harra for the Second Sunday in Lent, March 13, 2022 Learn more about LIFT, Living in Faith Together, at stmartinec.org/lift Today's Readings: Genesis 15:1-12,17-18 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Luke 13:31-35 Psalm 27Readings were taken from God's Word, My Voice: A Children's Lectionary Transcript coming soon.Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Tune into the sermon from Eugenie Dieck for the Second Sunday in Lent, March 13, 2022. Support St. Martin's mission and ministry by giving online: stmartinec.org/give Today's readings are: Genesis 15:1-12,17-18 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Luke 13:31-35 Psalm 27Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/ Transcript coming soon.Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Tune into the sermon from the Rev. Jarrett Kerbel for the First Sunday in Lent, March 6, 2022. Support St. Martin's mission and ministry by giving online: stmartinec.org/give Today's readings are: Deuteronomy 26:1-11 Romans 10:8b-13 Luke 4:1-13 Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/ Transcript coming soon. Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org