I've always thought that a community's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. I absolutley love the fact that Eucharist is our central form of worship on Sundays. There's something very mystical and transcendent in the liturgy, and we all know that Christ is present. At the same time Eucharist requires a mediator - a priest is set aside and is the only one authorized to celebrate. If we're not careful though we can fall into a trap that you need a priest for any type of ministry. This is simply not the case because there are a great number of ministries and liturgies that can be performed entirely by anybody - praying the daily office, fellowship with other Christians, visiting a sick person in the hospital or who is homebound, leading a Bible Study, etc. It reminds me of the postion the people of Israel found themselves in when they fashioned the golden calf. At first God spoke to the people directly, and gave them the 10 Commandments. But the people b

Sermon for Proper 19 – Year A Matthew 18:21-35 The Rev. Conor M Alexander Christ and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Norfolk, VA 23507 9-14-2008 When I was a small boy I picked up the Lord of the Rings books for the first time. As I started reading them, I became engrossed in this world of orcs and wizards and magic rings … but at the same time I felt really out of place. I was reading the first book but I felt like I had missed something – as if there was a whole lot of back story that I had totally missed. I went back to my copy of the Hobbit and skimmed through the chapters – it was entertaining but nothing there about an ancient war that’s resurfacing. There was nothing there that gave me the background relationship between Gandolf, and Sauron and Sauromon. And yet for the characters in the book, they discussed these people as a matter of course. These relationships made perfect sense to them and they proceeded with their mission. For them it was completely natural, for me it wa