I worked for a great company with great people for 22 years.īut I just couldn’t let go of God – or maybe it was that God just wouldn’t let go of me! Something that nourished me spiritually.ĭon’t get me wrong. Something that spoke to my heart, not to my head. Here is the story: 14 years ago, I had begun to feel a call to ordained ministry, a call that others had noticed before I did.īy then, I’d already stepped off the corporate merry-go-round, giving up a sweet salary because, well, I just kept feeling God calling me to something else. I know something of this because I waited years to be ordained a priest. Waiting has a funny way of provoking doubts.
Is this man, Jesus, going to do the things that everyone expected the Messiah to do?Īnd, as “Jolly Old John the Baptist” (as we all know him to be after last Sunday’s sermon) sits in jail – waiting – this scripture seems to indicate that he has begun to have doubts. He is in jail, presumably waiting to get out, but more importantly, waiting to see if the guy that he thought would be the Messiah was really going to prove to be the Messiah. This second kind of waiting is where we meet John the Baptist in the Gospel of Matthew today. Now, we are all well-acquainted with waiting, which often involves pulling out our phones and scrolling through emails or news feeds as we wait in line for gas at Costco or at the grocery store or sitting in a pre-school parking lot to pick up a child, or, in my case, our granddaughter.Īnd then there is the kind of waiting that smart phones just don’t help with, such as waiting for a diagnosis, or waiting for an acceptance letter, or waiting for Christmas morning. Here are John the Baptist’s words, spoken to Jesus through his friends: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” The first Sunday morning text that I get to explore with you from this pulpit is a powerful one, but also a perplexing one – one that speaks to me personally because it reflects my own story of waiting and doubt. My name is Pam Tinsley, a new priest here at Epiphany, and a new priest in general. Good Morning, Epiphany – those of you here in the church and those of you on-line.
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