The Wideness of God's mercy

Here is an excerpt from the sermon this past Sunday: preached by our deacon, the Rev. Jan Lamb:



Episcopal youth and adults from St. Luke's and other congregations
 of the Durham convocation at Iglesia El Buen Pastor in Durham.
Fall 2011.

"...The wideness of God’s mercy is at the heart of what we as a church should be about. The story of the Church as it is described in the Bible shows us again and again that at every turn in the road when the Church had to spread the word beyond its comfortable walls, it had to be poked and prodded by the Holy Spirit. We need some serious poking and prodding today. So this story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch is about conversion of the Ethiopian, but it is also about the conversion of Philip. Out of the desert, Philip discovered that the Holy Spirit broke down one more barrier, overturned his narrow perceptions and prejudices, and kicked open one more locked door. Maybe this story of the conversion of Philip holds some hope for the church and for our brothers and sisters in North Carolina. That under God’s really big tent, we might break down barriers, invite the establishment and the rejected to come in and read aloud together, to be converted anew by the strange and the stranger, to see that there is water in the desert, to enter the waters of God’s mercy with the "not us", and to go on our way rejoicing having converted each other to this beautiful, dangerous, expansive life of faith and love."

To read the whole sermon click here.