We elves are thrilled that Kendall is posting more of his sermons and Bible teaching on the blog, and we thought it would be helpful to create an easy way for blog readers to find all those excellent resources with one click.
There is now a blog sub-category under the “By Kendall” category, called “sermons and teachings”
Here’s the link so you can bookmark it: Kendall’s Sermons and Teachings
Listen to it all if you care to do so.
Listen here if you wish [Mark 6:1-6]
[1] JESUS – BAPTIZER IN HOLY SPIRIT
Jesus – Baptizer in Holy Spirit from Christ St Pauls on Vimeo.
The other 3 videos are below
[2] JESUS – INCARNATE
Jesus Incarnate from Christ St Pauls on Vimeo.
[3] JESUS – LORD OF ALL
Jesus – Lord of All from Christ St Pauls on Vimeo.
[4] JESUS – JUDGE
Jesus – Judge from Christ St Pauls on Vimeo.
This is from yesterday from yours truly if you have an interest. It was preached at Saint Andrew’s, Mount Pleasant, S.C. and is based on Articles 12-14 of the 39 articles and readings from Ephesians 2:1-10 and Matthew 25:31-46. The link included downloadable options as well as sermon notes and questions.
Listen to it all if you care to, and note there are links to a number of the handouts used.
Listen to it all if you so desire.
You can find the audio here, it may be listened to directly or downloaded as an MP3 file.
Listen to it all; it is based on John 15 verses 9 and following.
Listen to it all; it is based on 1 John 1 the opening few verses.
Above all the gospel accounts of Easter compel our attention. “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” One version of this wonderful day begins with a voice of negation, a crucial question which many people never answer. Are we looking for love in all the wrong places? Are we clinging to earthly things and forgetting those things which do not pass away?
Then we hear “come and see.” To see with the full eyes of one’s heart is a rare thing indeed. So many times in life we look but do not see, do not perceive as God perceives. The power of the post-resurrection narratives is that each person is met on his or her terms. What wondrous love is that, as the Holy Spirit by his power opens our eyes.
The dynamic does not stop with the question and the call to see, however. If we really see who God is and his power to change lives and transform them into the likeness of his glory, we cannot keep it to ourselves.
Where I served my curacy in South Carolina, we had many Clemson football fans; they root for the Tigers whose color is orange. One day I visited a family devoted to Clemson and, I kid you not, even their toilet seat cover was orange. Bless them, they loved to tell the story of a particular University. One wonders whether an Easter people have a similar passion to share Jesus’ love for the world.
He is risen. Why? Come. See. Go. Tell. Alleluia.
”“The Rev. Canon Dr. Kendall S. Harmon is the host of this blog
Listen to it all should you have such an inclincation.
Not everyone had the capacity of the willingness to suffer through the audio, and now through the kindness of some very hard working individuals you can read a transcript if you are interested.
Listen to it all should you so desire.
Part one is here and part two is there. You are encouraged to take the time to listen to (suffer through?) it all.
Please note–these are both audio files. The time begins with a short Q and A to introduce me to those present before the questions shift to the subject at hand. Note, too that Bishop Kee Sloan of Alabama was invited by the Dean, Frank Limehouse, to come, which he (graciously) chose to do. During the time, Dean Limehouse invited Bishop Sloan to speak, and he chose to do so. This covers a wide range of recent events/developments and will be of broad interest to many blog readers–KSH.
Listen to it all should you so desire.
Listen to it all should you wish to.
Listen to it all should you wish to.
Listen it all if you so wish.
Listen to it all if you so desire.
The global church (and Anglicans) lost a titan not long ago, when John R. W. Stott (1921-2011) passed from this world to the next. One is only now getting a sense of the stone God dropped into the pond of history through this remarkable man, as ever more ripples move through the waters of those who lives and ministries he touched.
John Stott was above all a preacher, and as such he modeled a craft that is increasingly weak in the West.
My mother taught English, and we had a life long conversation about writer-based versus reader-based prose. Good articles and books do the work for the reader, she insisted–they reach out and draw you in.
Dr. Stott was a listener-based preacher. I do not mean by this that he allowed his potential audience to set the topic; nothing could be further from the truth. He was someone who sought to expound Holy Scripture throughout his life.
But he did it though making an argument that one who heard him could follow. As you listened you had the sense that John had wrestled mightily with the text so that you would not need to. More than one person has quipped that John Stott made St. Paul more understandable than Paul himself did!
I will always remember him speaking on the Acts of the Apostles chapter 17 about the mission to Thessalonica. He observed with great care the verbs used in the passage to describe what Paul was trying to do””argue, explain, prove. Then he noted with real force that in response some were “persuaded” by what had been presented. How many times, he asked, do we hear that response to contemporary sermons?
I pray that we might learn to follow in the footsteps of this persuasive preacher. Let us wrestle hard with the text, but let us also present a coherent narrative which is easy to follow. So easy to follow, in fact, that many who did not even wish to hear it will find themselves grabbed and drawn in.
–The Rev. Dr. Kendall Harmon is Canon Theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina and Convenor of this blog
Listen to it all if you so desire.
Listen to it all if you so desire.
Watch it all.
The spirit blows where he wills, Jesus said, which means you cannot box God in.
We Anglicans have a particularly hard time with this since we are told to expect worship to be “decent and in order.” But””have you noticed–things don’t always work like that. Life is not so much a problem to be solved as a mystery to be lived. When God is in charge patterns can be broken, expectations can be shifted, and all heaven can break loose.
One biblical story which speaks to this is the tale of Eldad and Medad in Numbers 11. Moses and the people of God are in a dispute about misfortune and food and Moses is getting blamed and feeling burdened. God asks Moses to gather seventy men among Israel’s elders who would be enabled to share the burdens of the people. It had to be done, however, outside the camp at the tent of meeting.
Moses did his part, and God came through also: “the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to ”¦[Moses], and took some of the spirit that was upon him and put it upon the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied (Numbers 11:25).” So far, so good.
But there was a problem. Two other men named Eldad and Medad who were not chosen by Moses and not at the tent of meeting also prophesied. Wrong people, wrong place. Uh oh.
Joshua the son of Nun objected. This isn’t according to Hoyle! It isn’t in the Vestry handbook! Moses, put a stop to it, he says.
But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:29)
Moses is commendably open to letting God be God in a surprising way. Please note, too, that it is the younger Joshua who is unduly limited by the script and the older Moses who is willing to ad lib and go with the flow of the Holy Spirit.
I pray that all of us will learn to be less like Joshua and more like Moses in the days and years ahead, if our Lord doesn’t return first.
–The Rev. Dr. Kendall S. Harmon is Canon Theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina and the convenor of this blog