Loosed Canon

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 ...

Sermon for Pentecost Sunday Yr A May 31, 2020 St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Reverend Canon Michael J. Horvath Gospel: John 20:19-23 Today is Pentecost Sunday. As we heard in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, today celebrates God’s revelation of his life, his breath, his Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit the Apostles and disciples are filled with gifts of the Holy Spirit     - the same gifts we are filled with upon baptism.     Now, on Pentecost Sunday most preachers use the text of the Acts of the Apostles for their sermon. We all know this story and we expect that it will be preached on Pentecost Sunday.     We know the disciples gathered in the upper room. We wait for the sound like the rush of violent wind to fill the house. In our mind’s eye we see the divided tongues, as of fire, appearing and resting on each disciple. We might be amused at the drunken chaos in which people are speaking, hearing, and understanding strange ...

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent Yr A March 8, 2020 St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Reverend Canon Michael J. Horvath Gospel: John 3:1-17 Take a moment to think about a situation that you wished you had a second chance to change, correct, or avoid.  We all have them, don’t we?  The times when we wish we hadn’t said those words that finally broke down a relationship.  Those times when we wished we had told someone who is no longer with us just how much we loved them, how much they meant to us. How about those times when we met someone visiting our church and only later realize that we didn’t ask what their name was?  Or the times we denied ourselves the opportunity to do something interesting or different because we were scared of change?  How many of those situations fill your heart?  Our lists are likely to be long if we sit and really think about it.  I think about it in my personal life and as your rector.  And I find myself so...

First Sunday in Lent Yr A March 1, 2020 St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Reverend Canon Michael J. Horvath Gospel: Matthew 4: 1-11 On this first Sunday in Lent, we follow Jesus into the wilderness, and watch Jesus face the fullness of his humanity.  He is "famished" after forty days of fasting. Physically, he's at the end of his strength, and fasting for any length of time can literally break you.  Socially, he's alone and friendless.  Spiritually, he is struggling to hang onto his identity as the brightness of his baptism recedes into a hazy, pre-wilderness past.  And it’s in this state of vulnerability that the tempter comes, ready to pull Jesus away from his belovedness, and his vocation. A “wilderness experience” is usually thought of as a tough time in which we endure discomfort and trials. The pleasant things of life are unable to be enjoyed, or they may be absent altogether, and one feels a lack of encouragement. A “wilderness experience” is often...

Sermon for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany Yr A February 23, 2020 St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Reverend Canon Michael J. Horvath Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9 Have you ever attended a lecture or class or conference and just thought to yourself “What a waste of time! What on earth am I doing here?”  Let me tell you, in over 30 years of attending professional and industry conferences, I have asked myself that question many times.  When I was young, it was still a fun thing to go to various conferences, meet new people, listen to their ideas, and get lots of free swag that probably ended up in giant landfills.  Nowadays, time is too precious to waste on listening to talking heads and boastful colleagues, so there are only a few key conferences that I attend.  And I attend them because I get something meaningful out of them.  I walk away changed.  Changed by new ideas, new perspectives and new knowledge.  And when those things change me and ...

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany Yr A February 16, 2020 St. Michael’s Episcopal Church The Rev. Canon Michael J. Horvath Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Matthew 5:21-37 I’ve been blessed to have been a graduate student twice in my life. Once as a seminarian, obviously, but I also went to law school and subsequently practice law for many years. Law students all go through a very similar pattern of being during their three years in law school, and lasts for about the first year after graduation, into their first job. The pattern is this: In the first year, law students are overwhelmed by the fact that they either know nothing or very little about the study they are embarking on. In the second year, with a few classes under their belt, they start to think they know everything about the law and being a lawyer. And in their final year in law school and first year on the job, they again realize that they, in fact, know very little about legal practice. (To be clear, I fell shamel...