Loosed Canon

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent December 22, 2019 St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Reverend Canon Michael J. Horvath Gospel: Matthew 1:18-25 In Matthew’s story of Jesus’s birth, Joseph is asked to make a leap, to take an action that goes beyond how he would normally understand the law, and in listening to the angel and taking this leap of action, he is doing what some see as quintessentially Jewish. In his book "Between God and Man", Rabbi Abraham Heschel wrote, “A Jew is asked to take a leap of action rather than a leap of thought. He is asked to surpass his deeds, to do more than he understands in order to understand more than he does.” I love today’s Gospel passage because it directly ties and connects us with our Jewish brothers and sisters in ways that are deeply profound, and for which we should be truly grateful. What some people view as wide chasms amongst the Abrahamic faith traditions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – seem to be mostly created by...

Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent Yr A December 15, 2019 St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Rev. Canon Michael J. Horvath Gospel: Matthew 11:2-11 For some folks, especially I think for kids, it’s hard to understand why everyone, ok, a few folks, are excited about Advent.  I imagine that the entire season goes by, unnoticed by many, as we zoom through the marathon-shopping month between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  There are cards to be written, trees to be put up, lights to be strung, concerts and dance recitals to attend; Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday to navigate.  By the time our heads come up for air, boom, it’s Christmas Eve with cooking to do, guests to serve, bikes and dollhouses to assemble, all before you truly lose your mind and self-medicate with dozens of Bourbon balls and fantasies of a nice Caribbean holiday.   Yet through it all there has to be more, there has to be something that we are searching for, whether we acknowledg...

Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Advent Yr A December 8, 2019 St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Reverend Canon Michael J. Horvath Gospel:  Matthew 3: 1-12 Growing up in Virginia in the early 1980’s, Sundays were fairly quiet.  Blue Laws were still in effect, which meant that stores were closed and the sport of Sunday Shopping was non-existent.  As a kid, I would get up early to have breakfast and watch cartoons until my friends returned home from church and we could play outside (my parents not being church goers at all).  Before the Sunday cartoons would start to air, the television was inhabited by televangelists who always seemed to start their programs at the ungodly hour of 6 or 7am.  Every once in awhile, I would turn on the television and be met by a preacher screaming at the top of his or her lungs at me.  Jimmy Swaggart waved his arms frantically in my face, Pat Robertson made it clear that I would be doomed to Hell by the time I finished m...

First Sunday of Advent Yr A December 1st, 2019 St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Rev. Canon Michael J. Horvath Matthew 24:36-44 Happy New Year!  Advent ushers in what is the liturgical New Year for Christians around the world.  Advent is this time of four weeks devoted to the hopeful anticipation of the return of Christ. “Advent” meaning Christ’s arrival, Christ’s presence with us. On Christmas we celebrate the first aspect of Advent when Christ was born on earth. The Second Advent focuses on the time when we wait in hopeful anticipation for Christ’s return. As always, this season of Advent challenges us to envision God’s future as a guide in how we live in the present. Every day some sort of alarm goes off next to your bed – whether it’s a clock, or your phone or your biorhythm. Regardless if you love the mornings or not, everyone gets out of bed and starts to make decisions for that day. Decisions that will have immediate impact: What will I wear? Should I ...