Sermon.04.26.20 St. Paul’s Episcopal – Brookings Fr. Larry Ort Acts 2.14a, 36-41; Psalm 116.1-3, 10-17; 1 Peter 1.17-23; Luke 24.13-35 Last Sunday we focused on our longing for evidence. We considered Thomas’ assertion: “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe” (John 20.25b; NRSV). I ended the sermon as follows, “Our quest for evidence, I believe, expresses something even more fund

Sermon.04.19.20 St. Paul’s Episcopal – Brookings Fr. Larry Ort Acts 2.14a, 22-32; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1.3-9; John 20.19-31 Have you ever found yourself longing for evidence? I suspect most Christians long for the certainty which evidence provides. John Updike’s short story, Pigeon Feathers, provides a wonderful example of such yearning. David, a fourteen-year-old boy, is wrestling with matters of faith, the nature of the soul, and his own immortality. It is night-time -- dark.

Sermon.04.05.20 St. Paul’s Episcopal – Brookings Fr. Larry Ort Matthew 21.1-11; Psalm 118.1-2, 19-29//Isaiah 50.4-9a; Psalm 31.9-16; Philippians 2.5-11; Matthew 26.14 – 27.66 Palm Sunday is a profound study in stark contrasts. The service begins with Jesus’ triumphal procession into Jerusalem. The crowds had spread their cloaks and palm branches on the road. “The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one wh