Year B Proper 14 2009 The Rev. Michael Pipkin To begin to understand today’s reading from the Gospel according to St. John we have to back up a bit and read from earlier in the chapter, to the Gospel lection from last Sunday. Jesus had just fed the five thousand in the sixth chapter of St. John’s Gospel, and the people have gone looking for Jesus because he was able to feed them – not, as Jesus said, because he performed the miracle, but because their stomachs were filled with bread.  And Jesus tells them, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures … [Read more...]

Year B Proper 9 2009 The Rev. Michael Pipkin A couple of years after I was ordained I went home to Houston for a High School class reunion.  As I met up with old friends that I hadn’t seen in a decade conversation naturally turned to work and family, and, because much had changed for me, especially beginning in my last days of High School, I expected interesting responses as I told people about my vocation.  Indeed, as we began to trade stories about college and careers, the looks on my friends’ faces as I told them about my vocation was priceless… at first.  But as the night wore … [Read more...]

Year B Proper 8 2009 The Rev. Michael Pipkin A couple of weeks ago, a man called the office looking for some help.  He began our conversation with the question, “are you the kind of Episcopal church who helps people who aren’t members?” I drew a deep breath.  “Interesting way to start a conversation,” I thought.  And so I said, “Well, we do our best to try.  What can I do for you?” And that’s when he launched into a life story that included prison time, mistakes, a struggle to get back on his feet, and various relational issues that seemed quite unnecessary to … [Read more...]

Year B Easter 7 2009 The Rev. Michael Pipkin When we talk about Christian unity or unity within the church – what is it that we’re talking about? Are we interested in institutional or what some would call organic unity – or are we interested in the unity of the Christian movement? Jesus’ prayer this morning in the Gospel of John asks that we would be one, even as he and the Father are one – Jesus’ prayer is that his church, the Body of Christ would be united so that our witness to the world would have integrity. For much of the last 2000 years we have been wrestling … [Read more...]

Year B Easter 5 2009 The Rev. Michael Pipkin I am a city boy – or perhaps I should say that I am a child of the suburbs.  I grew up on the Northwest side of Houston, Texas, in a subdivision that was built sometime around 1978. Since our house was one of the first or second one built in the neighborhood, I grew up watching the neighborhood take over the surrounding ranch land.  Yes, it’s true – it wasn’t that odd for us to pass by grazing cattle on the way to the grocery store – which is probably cliché for Texas – but as I got older, the fields were increasingly gobbled … [Read more...]

Year B Easter 3 2009 The Rev. Michael Pipkin A couple of weeks ago – the week after Easter, actually – a friend of mine sent me a news story from The Daily Telegraph, a newspaper in Great Britain.  The headline read, “Atheist wins right to have baptism removed as he did not consent as a baby.” And once I got over my initial lack of surprise, I read down through the article: “John Hunt, a newly qualified nurse, was baptised at the age of five months at the parish church of St Jude with St Aidin in Thornton Heath, south London. “As a schoolboy he decided he did not … [Read more...]