Loosed Canon

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Year A June 28, 2020 St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Reverend Canon Michael J. Horvath Gospel: Matthew 10:40-42 This may sound odd, and please don’t be offended, but my favorite part of the Sunday service is when you all leave.  You see, I think the loveliest words of the service is said at the end, in our post-communion prayer. In Eucharistic Prayer B, the post-communion prayers says, “Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart.”  In other words, we’re asking God for homework until we meet again the following Sunday.   Sending out is a common theme throughout the entire arc of the Bible.  God  sends  his servant Moses to confront Pharaoh; God tells the prophet Jeremiah “everywhere I  send  you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak”; the great proph...

Sermon for the Third Sunday after Pentecost June 21, 2020 Year A St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Reverend Canon Michael J. Horvath Gospel: Matthew 10: 24-39 About a month ago when spring was really at its height, I was walking down the bike path with Henry, my dog.  Suddenly, Henry was on a scent and tugging on the leash.  This is something Henry does with any scent, so I just pulled him back in line and proceeded on.  But he was really insistent to go back and kept pulling on the leash.  When I turned around, I noticed a little chick  scurrying around the short grass.  The next thing I knew, another chick fell right next to it.  When I looked up, I saw in the tree branches what was presumably their mother, looking down on me and squawking her head off.  Before he was able to consume the chicks for lunch, I pulled Henry back and off we went, leaving the agitated mother and her chick.  A friend later told me that it was likely that...

Sermon for the Second Sunday after Pentecost June 14, 2020 Yr A St. Michael's Episcopal Church The Reverend Canon Michael J. Horvath Gospel: Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-23) One summer, I took a job as a landscaper. I harbored dreams of working up flower beds, planting beautiful combinations of plants and shrubs, helping clients think through what they want their garden to look like through the summer and fall. However, when I showed up at my first job site, I was confronted with a large cement slab. Where was my rich soil? Where were the perennials that I was going to spend the afternoon planting? Instead, the foreman handed me a pickaxe and said “Well, that patio isn’t going to remove itself.” I almost quite the job on the spot, but I, along with two others, started breaking down cement. The area was too small to get any piece of machinery in, so pickaxe it had to be. It was hard, back-breaking work and it took us two days to break it down and have the cement hauled away and I a...

Sermon for the First Sunday after Pentecost June 7, 2020 St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Rev. Canon Michael J. Horvath Gospel: Matthew 28: 16-20 A few years ago, the Church of England took a survey of its clergy on various topics.  Regarding the topic of preaching, I’d like to share with you some words by the survey’s author, the Rev Dr. Stephen Dawes, in his report to the committee. He said this, “It won’t surprise you that today, Trinity Sunday, is, statistically, the day most preferred by preachers for a Sunday off. Perhaps it’s because they are confused by the esoteric mathematics of three in one and one in three? Perhaps it’s because they have used the famous Irish flora illustration - the three in one of the shamrock leaf – and can’t find another one? Perhaps it’s because they know that the Doctrine of the Trinity has created more heretics, more schisms and more martyrs than any other doctrine and don’t want to take the risk? Perhaps it’s because they ...