No Half Measures

October 10, 2021 Andrew Kryzak

Every few years, the Pew Research Center conducts what it calls the “Religious Landscape Study,” polling thousands of Americans on their religious and devotional commitments. The researchers regularly flesh out the results with more targeted studies, which investigate particular questions in detail. The most recent one of these such studies to catch my eye was released three years ago, when Pew asked a sample of several thousand adults their top reasons for attending religious services. The response was overwhelming. Eighty-one percent of respondents cited “becoming closer to God” as the major reason for going to church.

This is an absolutely timeless impulse, so of course it trumps all of the other causes of religious devotion. Blaise Pascal famously described a hunger in every person to know God, deriving from a God-shaped hole at the center of every fallen human heart, and the gospels are littered with accounts of men and women, from many and varied backgrounds and experiences, seeking Jesus Christ, knowing him – even in sometimes inarticulate ways – to meet that need to become closer to God.

A Faithful and Courageous Heart

August 8, 2021 Andrew Kryzak

This is a sermon on the topic of Christian courage. Courage is one of those things that we think we know a lot about. It is, of course, one of the cardinal virtues, so from the time our parents or teachers first tell us to “be brave,” or we first hear a quotation of Lady MacBeth telling her husband, “screw your courage to the sticking-place,” we assume that courage involves some fortitude or sang froid which we may or may not happen to possess. We assume that it means ignoring danger and soldiering blindly ahead. But courage, real courage, Christian courage is something different entirely.

So I will say something about that courage, about what it looks like in practice, and how we can cultivate it in our lives.

Who He Is

June 27, 2021 Andrew Kryzak

The healing of a bleeding woman, Rome, Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter.

In the collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, there is a book of cut-and-pasted segments of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The cutting and pasting begins with the story of Jesus’ birth and ends with the story of his body’s being laid to rest in a tomb. In between, the pasted verses recount many of Jesus’ teachings and describe a version of his life, but any references to miracles, the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and our Lord’s resurrection are wholly absent. The teachings are in; the miraculous is out.

The compiler of this redacted volume of Scripture, as some of you of course will know, is none other than Thomas Jefferson.

Hoping Against Hope

February 28, 2021 Andrew Kryzak

One of the most attractive qualities of St Peter is that, if there is an opportunity to do something wrong, St Peter does it wrong. He is impulsive, headstrong, and foolhardy. He was famously cowardly when it most counted. All of this runs contrary to the conventional wisdom about the nature of saints.

The rest of the disciples are not much better, and in some cases even worse. If the gospels teach us anything about them, it’s that the disciples were a ragtag bunch of fishermen, tax collectors, and at least one double agent. Over the centuries, the Roman Church may have thrown up cults around impossibly virtuous and holy men and women to maintain a robust trade in relics and ecclesiastical tourism, but the Twelve chosen by our Lord himself were exactly as human as you and as me.

How to Be Human, Now

December 27, 2020 Andrew Kryzak

What does Christmas mean for you? I will admit that I am very fond of Christmas. I like the parties, the excuse to commune with friends whom I don’t see often enough. Even in this year, when we’re not doing those things, I still like the decorations, and I like the music, and I like warm fires on cold winter nights.

Today is, of course, the third day of Christmas. I don’t know about you, but even for me, things are looking a bit tired around the house. I have become less diligent about watering our Christmas tree, and a good many gifts remain piled on side tables, awaiting their proper distribution into shelves, cupboards, and drawers.