A Sermon for St. John’s Episcopal Church
Charlestown, Massachusetts
March 12, 2017
by the Rev. Lyn G. Brakeman

Genesis 12:1-4a     Psalm 121     Romans 4: 1-5, 13-17     John 3: 1-17

May I speak to you in the name of God who rebirths us—again and again and again—to BE a blessing.

It’s born-again Sunday! To be born again is a laughable idea, in ancient times and maybe for some today. But born-again is an idea with such creative depth and oddness that even Jesus might have laughed. To be born again means to be baptized, blessed and born into Wonder day after day. It’s laughably remarkable AND it’s how we can BE a blessing—day after day after day.

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A Sermon for St. John’s Episcopal Church
Charlestown, Massachusetts
March 5, 2017
by the Rev. Thomas N. Mousin

Matthew 4:1-11

Just who do you think you are? That is a question we often ask of another when her or she is getting too big for their britches, or acting out of turn, or trying to make us do something we do not want to do. Just who do you think you are?

Of course, tone and inflection has a lot to do with what we mean by that question. I could ask it in another way, with a different inflection: Just who do you think you are? Asked that way, it becomes not an accusation or question made in anger, but instead an inquiry, an invitation to the one being asked to consider his or her identity.

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A Sermon for St. John’s Episcopal Church Charlestown, Massachusetts
Preached on February 26, 2017
The Last Sunday after the Epiphany
by the Rev. Thomas N. Mousin

Exodus 24:12-18 Matthew 17:1-9

This week, with the gift of some extra time, I beheld Glory. I was not on Mount Sinai with Moses, where the glory of the Lord appeared like a devouring fire. Nor was I with Peter, James, and John, when Jesus was transfigured before them and his face shone like the sun. Rather, I was in the small town of Gilead, Iowa, the location of three novels by the author Marilynne Robinson. Continue reading →

A Sermon for St. John’s Episcopal Church
Charlestown, Massachusetts
Preached on January 29, 2017, The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

by the Rev. Thomas N. Mousin

Matthew 5:1-12

Today, we are invited to climb a mountain. Last week, we listened as Jesus called his first disciples, and then were told how “he went through the region of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom, and curing every every disease and every sickness among the people.”

So his fame spread, Matthew tells us, and great crowds followed him.  “When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.”

His disciples came to him, and so do we.
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A Sermon Preached on the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2016
By the Rev. Thomas N. Mousin

Isaiah 2:1-5  Psalm 122  Romans 13:11-14  Matthew 24:36-44

The pastor of the little country church had been invited to dinner. The family came only occasionally to church, and they had invited me over one evening. Continue reading →