Monthly Archives: September 2026

Sermon: Celebrate Abigail, not Esther

A commentator I read this week compared Abigail’s story to the Book of Esther, arguing that Esther’s story mines and undermines Abigail’s. The author makes various comparisons between the two, but ignores what I think is the greatest difference between them. In this story, only one guilty man dies, killed by God. In the story of Esther, 75,000 Persians die at the hands of the Jews: men, women, and children; the innocent with the guilty. (Esther 9:6-16) In today’s story, King David, whose overall body count is estimated to be 140,000 people, with fifteen individuals said to have been killed by his own hand, kills no one. Would the world be different if we remembered Abigail, instead of Esther? Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sermon: Being forgiving is good for you!

I have been fascinated by the Global Flourishing Study, launched in 2021, that looks at different aspects of well-being over time in twenty-two countries. In a recent analysis using data from the Global Flourishing Study, psychologists examined whether people who reported being more forgiving reported better well-being a year later than those who said they rarely or never forgave. They found that those who reported that they were forgiving people had somewhat higher well-being when asked a year later about things like their mental health, purpose in life, relationship satisfaction, and hope. This confirms what decades of previous research had found. Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sermon: The sinned against and sinning

The church is the Body of Christ. How we treat each other within the church is as important to God as how we as Christians love the world. In fact, how we behave as a community determines how we love the world. Saint Benedict described the church as a ‘school for souls.’ The church is where we learn how to live as God’s people. This means being willing to be honest and open with each other, rather than merely nice. Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment