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Showing posts from September, 2019

Getting Right with God

Pentecost 15 Sermon Year C 2019 September 22, 2019 St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Rev. Canon Michael J. Horvath Gospel Luke 16:1-13 “Give me an accounting of your management.” I think for a lot of us, school report cards were the first process of accountability that we had to endure. In high school my grades were, for the most part, really good. The one exception was mathematics. As much as I found it interesting, I just couldn't wrap my head around trigonometry and calculus. I was pretty studious, but looking back on it, I did the bare minimum for these classes. My parents were supportive and encouraged me to study hard and do the best I could. But it was always with a bit of trepidation that I would wait for report cards, because the correlation between the amount of effort I put into trigonometry or calculus was directly tied to the grade I received. I worked a lot for an A- or B+, but when I didn’t work that hard, it showe...

Counting Sheep

Pentecost 14 Sermon Yr C 2019 September 15, 2019 St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Rev. Canon Michael J. Horvath Gospel: Luke 15:1-10 For those of you who receive our weekly updates via email, you probably know that we send you a link to the weekly lectionary readings. You actually have the opportunity to see what our readings will be in advance of a Sunday.  What’s especially great about this week is that we started the class on the Parables of Jesus on Thursday and the parables in today’s Gospel were the first parables our group studied and discussed.  When we talk about parables, we typically refer to the ones that are in Matthew, Mark and Luke and presumably said by Jesus.  Many of us grew up with them and remember them by heart – who doesn’t know the Parable of the Prodigal Son, for example? We know the characters almost personally, the son who took his fortune and squandered it away on food, drink and prostitutes only to be ...

All In Commitment

Pentecost 13 Sermon Year C September 8, 2019 St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Rev. Canon Michael J. Horvath Luke 14:25-33 I’ve been lucky in my life to be able to engage in various sports and activities no matter where I’ve lived, and they have played an integral part in my wellbeing and self care.  I’ve been an avid, albeit very slow runner, a hot yoga maniac, a tennis enthusiast, and, most recently, even tried my hand at sailing in this lovely harbor many of us call home.  But the one activity that I love more than anything else is horseback riding.  Not of a fancy variety, just hacking around and jumping.  There is something so relational about riding.  Horse and rider have to have a deep level of trust and respect between them.  I train with caring instructors who have been able to drill into my thick skull enough proficiency to make riding a joy for me, and, hopefully, my horse. I think the joy I experience comes from the fact that for ...

Now Serving: Angels

Abraham entertaining angels, by Jan Victors Pentecost 12 Sermon, Year C 2019 September 1, 2019 St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Rev. Canon Michael J. Horvath Hebrews 13: 1-8, 15,16; Luke 14: 1, 7-14 One of the biggest challenges that our society and Church faces today seems that of acute individualism.  Now, from a wider perspective, there are many benefits to individualism – it encourages us to understand ourselves and our motivations; it moves us to achieve and succeed; in some ways it is important for the preservation of self and our loved ones.  On the other end, our penchant as humans to simply look inward and to exaggerate our personal needs and concerns can make us lose perspective on the greater joys to be found outside of ourselves.  So how does this square with the idea of being the Body of Christ?  Well, if anything our faith teaches us that believing in God and living a life in Christ should actually move us from ...