Sermons and messages from St Timothys Episcopal Church in Wilson, NC
A sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost preached at the campus ministry service for the St. Thomas Aquinas Episcopal Campus Ministry at West Virginia UniversityFocus Text: Luke 16:19-31; 1 Timothy 6:6-19“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)“If you cannot recognize Christ in the beggar, you will not find Him in the Chalice.” (St. John Chrysostom) “You don't see many hearses pulling Uhauls.” (Liz LaMoreaux)“He who dies with the most toys doesn't win, he dies.” (Unknown)All of these quotes have something to say about the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in conjunction with St. Paul's oft misquoted statement, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Take it all together, and it has a whole lot to say about each of us and how we choose to live our lives, how we set priorities, and who to what we ultimately devote ourselves to — God or some other alternative.There's not much to say here. Just listen.
A sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost preached at the campus ministry service for the St. Thomas Aquinas Episcopal Campus Ministry at West Virginia UniversityFocus Text: Luke 16:1-13The Parable of the Shrewd Manager (or is it the dishonest steward or the unjust steward?) is considered among the most perplexing of Jesus' parables. Many preachers grumble and groan when it comes up once every three years on the Sunday Lectionary shared by many denominations (What a lovely day to preach on the Collect of the Day!). It's hard to know what to make of Jesus' story here and the connection between it and the sayings directly connected to it. Some commentators try to shield Jesus, and our sensibilities, from the scandal of it all by saying, “He never said that.” But that just doesn't add up, does it?Why would we hide the offense? Why do we blanche at scandal in the Gospel narratives? Is that not the direct context in the chapter preceding this? The Pharisees are scandalized that Jesus would publicly eat with tax collectors and sinners. Then we receive a progression of thematically connected parables (with some unrelated ones in between today's and what follows on this list): The Parable of the Lost Sheep The Parable of the Lost Coin The Parable of the Prodigal Son The Parable of the Shrewd Manager The Parable of the Persistent Widow (and the Unjust Judge) The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax CollectorJesus doesn't balk at scandal. The truth is that the Gospel is scandalous. That the Son of God would become man and die for us “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8) is scandalous. And, after, what could possibly be more scandalous than the way Christ died on the cross, a mode of Roman execution reserved for runaway slaves and violent criminals — Jesus, the Son of God, nailed naked to a cross for all who passed by to see.The means of our salvation were and are inherently scandalous. The shrewd manager in our parable cuts what the debtors owe in half. Jesus abolishes our debts entirely. Grace is dishonest wealth and heavenly glorification with Christ is true riches received when we are faithful with the grace given us. Jesus was killed like a crook for crooks — you and me. Is it fair? By no means. Is it just? Absolutely not! But that's the promise of the Gospel — we don't get what we deserve. How fortunate we are that Christ isn't fair. How “lucky for us that we don't have to deal with a just steward,” (Robert Farrar Capon, Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus, p. 309).
A sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost preached at the campus ministry service for the St. Thomas Aquinas Episcopal Campus Ministry at West Virginia UniversityFocus Texts: Luke 15:1-10; Exodus 32:7-14Jesus chooses to claim tax collectors and sinners as his people when he dines with them. Some Pharisees who witness this public acceptance are scandalized and ridicule him. Enter the parables of the lost sheep and coin and hear, “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."Faith is evident when we realize that we can only approach God with outstretched empty hands to receive mercy, grace, forgiveness of sins, and new life in Jesus Christ. It realizes that we have nothing to offer God but our hearts and our acceptance of his acceptance of us and recognizing need for God.Faith doesn't rely on the condemning others for the sake of contrast needed for a self-justifying narrative. These contrast, like in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, fill the religious landscape of the United States. As David Zahl wrote in Seculosity, we have not become less religious but are rather more than ever before — just not in places of worship. New religions — new self-justifying stories that can stand only by comparing and contrasting ourselves with others — have emerged instead: religions of busyness, work, fitness, nutrition, sex, and politics.In the new religion of political self-righteousness, it is not Christ who saves but rather the “correct” political agendas and leaders which fit our ideologies. The priests, pastors, and prophets of this religion are politicians, lobbyists, and talking heads. Righteousness is found in the ridicule of “diabolically evil political enemies” who stand against all that our nation holds dear (left or right) and purity tests are normative to determine distinguish “true belief” from “heretical apostasy.” The sacrifices offered to this religion's “gods” come in the forms of horrors, such as school shootings and political violence, such as the school shooting in Colorado (in which two students were critically injured before the 16-year-old shooter turned his gun in himself) which happened just one minute after the political assassination of Charlie Kirk. This self-righteous political religiosity defines how many progressive liberals talk about the demonic political violence that took a young man's life, leaving his wife a widow and his young children fatherless. In like manner, one of the right wing purity tests is found in an often empty response in the wake of equally diabolical mass shootings.Such schemes of self-righteousness that define our self-justifying stories pervade even within the church when we learn about the conversion of high(ish) profile individuals converting to faith in Jesus Christ as Christians take to social media, as these conversions are often made publicly known. There are Christians — both theologically progressive and conservative — who learn on social media platforms about these et repentant kin, such as actor Shia LaBeouf and former OnlyFans girl Nala Ray. They do not rejoice with the angels about these newborn Christian lives. Rather, they respond in pharisaical sneering and mockery (“Yeah, sure. We'll see how long this lasts”) or refuse to forget a past that God has put out of his mind. Their conversion is treated in comments section with suspicion and the same ridicule of the Pharisees in our Gospel passage.I am convinced that much of this arises as a way to ignore our own religious insecurity — our inability to recognize our own lostness, our own foundness, and the acceptance that we have in Christ when we see ourselves as unacceptable. We hold ourselves in high esteem only by dragging others through the mud because we hate to look in the mirror and find ourselves wanting (yet wanted!). This changes when we readily realize that we are the sinners who Jesus sits with at dinner saying, “these are my people.”
Sermon preached Sunday evening on September 7th for the St. Thomas Aquinas Episcopal Campus Ministry at West Virginia UniversityFocus texts — Luke 14:25-33 and PhilemonJesus isn't really telling us to hate people, is he? I've got good news and bad news (that's still actually good news). The word in the original text (μισέω) translates better into English as something along the lines of love less or prefer less. What Jesus is getting at is a sort of emotional detachment from relationships and things that may cause us to deprioritize God. Our relationship with Jesus comes first. Discipleship comes first. And we must never forget the cost of discipleship and never settle for cheap grace (Bonhoeffer). While we shouldn't go out looking for crosses, we must be ready to accept and shoulder the burden of the crosses that do come our way. As disciples of Jesus, one of these burdens is the need to detach from that which prevents or inhibits us from putting God first.We learn something, though. Do you want to be a better child to your parents? Put God first. Do you want to be a better parent to your children? Put God first. Do you want to be a better friend or student? Put God first. Do you want to be the best you can be in your career? Put God first. When we put God first, we find that God has a way of transforming us in to the best versions of ourselves, beyond what we could ever ask or imagine.
A sermon preached at Trinity Episcopal Church in Morgantown, WV on Sunday, August 31, 2025Focus Texts: Jeremiah 2:4-13*; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16; Luke 14:1, 7-14*Isiah mentioned in the sermon by mistake In the wake of another school shooting, this time in Minneapolis, what is the value of the “thoughts and prayers” always invoked by some and criticized by others? Who is right, the person who stands by thoughts and prayers or the person who criticizes them as meaningless? Well…both. How can we say this? It's about the fruits. As we read in Hebrews today, “Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.” The fruit of this confession — the fruits of our thoughts and prayers — are actions that are consistent with them. If the thoughts and prayers are followed by inaction, by a life suggesting a cognitive dissonance, then they are meaningless because they are empty. But thoughts and prayers that lead to action and cultivating an authentic Christian life of discipleship dedicated to the way of Christ are full and rich with meaning. Prayer, more than anything else, is about transforming us and bringing forth fruitfulness (including action) in our lives as we draw closer to God. So, how empty or meaningful are your thoughts and prayers? Are you living a life of integrity or cognitive dissonance? This is how we determine whether thoughts and prayers mean everything or mean nothing.
Sermon preached at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Kingwood, WV on Sunday, August 24, 2025. Focus text: Luke 13:10-17
Sermon for the Episcopal Campus Ministry at West Virginia University on Sunday, August 17, 2025Jeremiah 23:23-29Psalm 82Hebrews 11:29-12:2Luke 12:49-56
Sermon for Trinity Episcopal Church in Morgantown, WV (July 2024)
To support our continued mission and ministry text “stwilson”to 73256. www.sttimothyswilson.org 8:00 — Holy Eucharist: Rite I 10:30 — Holy Eucharist: Rite II Bulletin: (unavailable) Podcast with permission from OneLicense. All rights reserved.
To support our continued mission and ministry text “stwilson”to 73256. www.sttimothyswilson.org 8:00 — Holy Eucharist: Rite I 10:30 — Holy Eucharist: Rite II and Confirmation Bulletin: https://www.sttimothyswilson.org/_files/ugd/a43046_b8df7f77e894442492666deb569bcd53.pdf Podcast with permission from OneLicense. All rights reserved.
To support our continued mission and ministry text “stwilson”to 73256. www.sttimothyswilson.org Bulletin: https://www.sttimothyswilson.org/_files/ugd/a43046_44799b1a044a4bb4a14d8922cf03c67b.pdf Podcast with permission from OneLicense. All rights reserved.
5:30 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite II To support our continued mission and ministry text “stwilson”to 73256. www.sttimothyswilson.org Bulletin: https://www.sttimothyswilson.org/_files/ugd/a43046_072c2c298cfb4ee6a21188b59e6460a2.pdf Podcast with permission from OneLicense. All rights reserved.
8:00 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite I 10:30 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite II To support our continued mission and ministry text “stwilson”to 73256. www.sttimothyswilson.org Bulletin: https://www.sttimothyswilson.org/_files/ugd/a43046_e031348913cd45e68638310e52839022.pdf Podcast with permission from OneLicense. All rights reserved.
8:00 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite I 10:30 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite II To support our continued mission and ministry text “stwilson”to 73256. www.sttimothyswilson.org Bulletin: https://www.sttimothyswilson.org/_files/ugd/a43046_882808c23e7a4f7cb3737ab4802735a5.pdf Podcast with permission from OneLicense. All rights reserved.
8:00 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite I 10:30 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite II To support our continued mission and ministry text “stwilson”to 73256. www.sttimothyswilson.org Bulletin: https://www.sttimothyswilson.org/_files/ugd/a43046_3355a9ccc2f74b6f959cd5dd8a24f06c.pdf Podcast with permission from OneLicense. All rights reserved.
To support our continued mission and ministry text “stwilson”to 73256. www.sttimothyswilson.org Bulletin: https://www.sttimothyswilson.org/_files/ugd/a43046_5c34d80606ef419fa75dce42d7902986.pdf Podcast with permission from OneLicense. All rights reserved.
To support our continued mission and ministry text “stwilson”to 73256. www.sttimothyswilson.org Bulletin: https://www.sttimothyswilson.org/_files/ugd/a43046_8697c6ed3728446daa9c74d979b0cac0.pdf Podcast with permission from OneLicense. All rights reserved.
8:00 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite I 10:30 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite II To support our continued mission and ministry text “stwilson”to 73256. www.sttimothyswilson.org Bulletin: https://www.sttimothyswilson.org/_files/ugd/a43046_d9709e7262504ab9a12da1544e35679f.pdf Podcast with permission from OneLicense. All rights reserved.
8:00 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite I 10:30 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite II To support our continued mission and ministry text “stwilson”to 73256. www.sttimothyswilson.org Bulletin: https://www.sttimothyswilson.org/_files/ugd/a43046_8b7961dad19f4ed3996bcd1756712830.pdf Podcast with permission from OneLicense. All rights reserved.
8:00 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite I 10:30 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite II To support our continued mission and ministry text “stwilson”to 73256. www.sttimothyswilson.org Bulletin: https://www.sttimothyswilson.org/_files/ugd/a43046_71e6d393ad134a55aa67a2e774734f5f.pdf You are invited to comment with prayer requests. We will be sure to include them in our prayers throughout the week. Podcast with permission from OneLicense. All rights reserved.
8:00 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite I 10:30 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite II & Holy Baptism To support our continued mission and ministry text “stwilson”to 73256. www.sttimothyswilson.org Bulletin: https://www.sttimothyswilson.org/_files/ugd/a43046_ff7b753f4b784794867edbe5c5dcddba.pdf Podcast with permission from OneLicense. All rights reserved.
8:00 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite I 10:30 — The Holy Eucharist: Rite II To support our continued mission and ministry text “stwilson”to 73256. www.sttimothyswilson.org Bulletin: https://www.sttimothyswilson.org/_files/ugd/a43046_ecfb04eacc7e474bb3369a856d60fe9c.pdf Podcast with permission from OneLicense. All rights reserved.
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