It was fifty days after the feast of Passover and the Jews of the diaspora, Jews scattered throughout the world, are gathering together in Jerusalem for the celebration of Passover.
The Jewish feast of Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks -Shavu’ot – occurs fifty days after Passover on the first day of the week. It celebrates the first fruits of the harvest being dedicated to God, and the giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai.

It is on this day, fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, that the apostles and a number of the disciples gathered together in one place: The Upper Room.

A very few days ago I was sitting, and praying with a number of other men, in that very room in Jerusalem; we were there during that space of time between Jesus’ Resurrection and his Ascension. What were the disciples feeling?

They had probably found great comfort in the togetherness of their own company since the events of the past weeks. It was only a couple of days before, on Passover in this room that Jesus had washed their feet when he changed the nature of the Passover meal to the Eucharist. Later, when Jesus had been arrested by the mob and they all had to scatter for fear of being arrested too.

Then he was driven by soldiers’ whips through taunting crowds to the top of the hill outside town and crucified, dying after a few hours. He was later taken down and buried in a tomb of one of his followers.

And it was fifty days ago, this very day, that he rose from the dead. From the time of The Resurrection he appeared to many of the disciples, opening their eyes to the Scriptures, teaching them the significance of his death, and giving them a command to carry this news about him to the ends of the earth. Then he left them, commanding them to wait for the Holy Spirit.

So they are there again in that same room, waiting, together, for the Holy Spirit. They are convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, that he rose in accordance with the scripture to bring salvation to the world, but there are still some questions.
Are they afraid? Maybe. The Christ followers were not the most popular group in Jerusalem after all the ruckus they had caused. And being arrested was probably not out of the question.

Were they anxious? Probably. Jesus rose and that was awesome but then he left; ascended into heaven.
He told them to carry the news about him everywhere but he didn’t give them a plan or program. And he told them to wait for the Holy Spirit. When would he come? What would he look like? How would they know?

And sitting there, they hear a wind, a mighty wind, like a hurricane or a tornado blowing, an overwhelming noise, and something like tongues of fire alight on their heads.
And from there they went out and turned the world upside down for the lord Jesus Christ. Continue reading ‘Sunday May 19, 2013/The Rev. Richard Marsden’ »

What Redeemer Means to me

Sitting down and writing this speech proved to be a rather daunting task for me. Not just because I’m a fourth quarter senior who has essentially, “dialed it in”, but also because the question asked is a difficult one to answer. If someone asks you what they mean to you, your mind immediately tries to think of the hundred things that make him or her special. Let me first address the fact that this parish has some of the most incredible individuals that I have ever met. My experience here would not have been anything without them. I have truly been blessed with the amount of wisdom I have received from these people since I was a wee lad. When I was young, there were always fun activities to look forward to. Not only did I get to go to Logos, but I heightened and sharpened my vocal skills with Mrs. Moe at a very young age. Yes, I still remember the great warm-up songs such as the Oreo song, and how could one forget the grab bag? It wasn’t all fun and games for this little tyke, though. One fateful day, I decided it would be a grand idea to take a dip in the Saint Francis fountain. And by “take a dip”, I mean fall head first into what seemed like a watery grave. Thankfully my shrieks of terror alerted some nearby spectators, and I was saved. To this day I still wonder how the heck I got in there. Nevertheless, I grew older and started to endure serious training for confirmation under the authority of the famous Father Marsden. Continue reading ‘Youth Address – Sunday May 5, 2013/Harris Dunlap’ »

What Redeemer Means to Me
I was asked to write about what Redeemer means to me and after thinking about it for awhile, the best answer I can provide for you today is, well, ‘everything’. Redeemer means the world to me; it’s an everlasting part of who I am and what I stand for, and no distance I travel, no amount of time I’m away from Sarasota will ever change that. There is much to be said about the members of Redeemer: people whom I’ve grown up with, become friends with, and learned from. Without these people, Lord knows where I would be today. But my job here today isn’t to wonder what kind of person I would be having not grown up in our parish, rather, it’s to thank you all for playing an important role in my life: being my church family. You all have done a wonderful job up to this point of educating and raising me up in the way that I should go.
As members of the church, we are called to be a family. A good reminder of our calling is found in the service for Holy Baptism. As part of the Presentation and Examination of the Candidates, the Celebrant asks of the congregation, “Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ?” Although I was not baptized at Redeemer, I have reaped the benefits of this baptismal promise. So many of you members have certainly done your part in supporting me over the years. It is comforting to know that my Church wants what is best for me. I think back on times past when members have invited me to clubs and groups of all sorts that they believe will make me a better Christian. It is this kind of support that makes Redeemer special and that has formed a lasting relationship between me and so many of you.
Apart from being a strong network of support, Redeemer has been a great educator to me. Education is a critical part of our faith because the knowledge we gain can be used to defend and promote our Christian values. Thirteen years of Sunday School have been the foundation of my education on Christ and his Church, and what a storehouse of information I have been fed over that period of time. Similar to Sunday School, I have always enjoyed the sermons and take for granted how blessed I have been to have Fr. Robinson and Fr. Marsden here for all of my sermon listening years to write and deliver a number of sermons. While all of the sermons have been different, they all have shared a common link: the doctrine. A doctrine rooted in tradition and the bible is important to me and thanks to Fr. Robinson and Fr. Marsden, I have grown up not only hearing about it in sermons but also witnessing it in so many other areas of Redeemer.
Redeemer has also provided me with a number of opportunities to strengthen my faith. I have been blessed with a strong faith in Christ, and believe it can only get stronger from where it is now. That being said, I try to make strengthening or renewing my faith an area of focus in my life. Continue reading ‘Youth Address – Sunday May 5, 2013/Fritz Maxwell’ »

In preparing for today’s sermon, I thought it would be important to consider how our culture understands love.

So I went to that great repository of truth and I Google-d the 100 greatest love songs. Well there are a number of greatest lists of love songs, depending on who is creating the list but let me give you a smattering of what I learned.

The group foreigner asked: “I Want to Know What Love Is” and the Beatles sang about it being “Something.”

Heatwave believed it to be “Always and Forever” and Mariah Carey noted that “Love takes Time.”

Both Celine Dion and Huey Lewis affirmed the power of love. The Captain and Tennille believed “Love Will Keep Us Together”. And Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes believed “Love Lifts Us Up (Where We Belong).”

Some noted the downside of love. The group Nazareth states “Love Hurts.” Diana Ross sang about a “Love Hangover.” Paul Mauriat thought that “Love is Blue.”

It is not rational. Freddie Mercury sang about a “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, Beyonce fell “Crazy in Love”, and Frank Sinatra crooned love would “Fly me to the Moon.”

There is something irresistible about love as Elvis and Bono sang they “Can’t help falling in Love” and Ray Charles sang “I Can’t Stop Loving You.”

But there are problems, too. The Righteous Brothers lamented that “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”; Carole King thought “It’s Too Late”,
Stevie Wonder sang about a “Part-time Lover.”

Paul Simon sang about “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”, but triumphantly, Gloria Gaynor proclaimed “I Will Survive.”
And Tina Turner raised the most important question: “What’s Love Got to do With It?”

Well, according to what we hear in the gospel today, Jesus would say everything! Continue reading ‘Sermon – Sunday April 28, 2013/The Rev. Richard Marsden’ »

If I were to ask you what was going on in the world in 1818, would you have any idea? Let me tell you some facts about what happened in 1818. It was a pretty amazing year. On the 1st of January the White House officially reopened after having been damaged in the War of 1812. On May 24th General Andrew Jackson captured Pensacola, Florida. The first steam vessel to sail the Great Lakes was launched on the 28th of May. On the 8th of October two English boxers were the first to use padded gloves. On the 24th of October Felix Mendelssohn performed his first public concert. On the 24th of December Franz Joseph Gruber composed Silent Night. And on the 25th of December Silent Night was sung for the first time. Also on the 25th of December the U.S. premier of Handel’s Messiah was performed in Boston. All of these things happened in the year 1818.
I chose to talk about the year 1818 because that year was 194 years ago. Continue reading ‘Sermon – Sunday April 21 2013/The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson’ »

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Really? He is alive? You really believe that because to proclaim that Jesus has in fact died and has been raised from the dead is a life-changing, world-shattering reality.

In making this affirmation we are saying that we believe him to be actually who he claimed to be; the son of God, the Messiah who died for our sins.

God made man who ushered in an utterly new kingdom and an utterly new way of life, detaching us from everything that binds us to this world, and anchoring us; our lives, our hopes, our purpose, our destinies, to Jesus.
To say we believe this is to be willing to risk all for him to accomplish what he will through us so that, we recognize no one of more importance than Jesus and nothing of more significance than to look to him, listen to him and follow him daily – because he is alive.

But, you see, there is a danger that we can affirm this truth with great gusto, and yet never really appropriate it into our lives.

We can affirm that Jesus did in fact rise from the dead, and still live like he didn’t.

It is a sad fact that we as humans can be inconsistent with how we live what we believe.

How many of us affirm that speed limits and stop signs are a good thing and make life a little safer? But how many of us always completely stop at stop signs and never go over the speed limit? Guilty!

How many of us affirm that eating healthy can be good for us? And how many of us really appropriate that truth into our life, never eat sugar or fried foods or foods with unpronounceable additives? Guilty!

And we know getting exercise can assure us of better health and life but how many of us appropriate that into our lives and get regular exercise? Guilty!

And I am not even going to bring up cigar smoking!

How many of us go through our day, without ever a thought that Jesus is risen?

Many of you have met our little 15 month old grand- niece Lily. What a precious little soul. She just makes me smile with joy to look at her.

When we babysit she sleeps in our room in a collapsible cradle thing. The first thing we hear in the morning – before the sun is up – is this little “Hi, Hi” as she stands in that crib greeting us, looking expectantly at us. You just can’t ignore her.

And yet how many days do I get up thinking already about everything that has to happen that day and miss Jesus who stands there trying to get my attention saying “Hi, hi; I am risen.” And I completely ignore him.

This simple yet profound affirmation that Jesus is risen has great implications both for us and for the world because it implies a radical reorientation of our lives to live in accordance with this truth. It should completely change us, change our relationship to this world.

If Jesus has risen, if he is alive – alive today, now, then our lives should be different and the world really should know this! Our days should open, and run, and close with our acknowledging that he is risen. Continue reading ‘Sermon – Sunday April 7, 2013/The Rev. Richard Marsden’ »

Easter of 2013 is my 19th Easter as Rector of this parish. It has been a wonderful 19 years. Some of you I only see on Easter, but after 19 years I do look forward to seeing you and it seems like we’ve become old friends!

The year 2013 has been quite an eventful year for the Church already. If you have been watching the news you realize that there is now a new Archbishop of Canterbury. Canterbury is in England and the Archbishop of Canterbury is the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion. Archbishop Justin Welby was enthroned on the Chair of St. Augustine of Canterbury on the 21st of March. And that was just two days after Pope Francis the First was inaugurated in Rome. What a week! That week, perfect strangers, seeing me in my clericals, would speak to me and say something like “What do you think of the new man?” First of all, I was so impressed that they even knew there was such a thing as an Archbishop of Canterbury, and then I was surprised that they would know we Episcopalians have anything to do with an archbishop in England. Continue reading ‘Sermon – Easter Sunday March 31, 2013/The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson’ »

Now we have come to the time for which our Lord Jesus took flesh and became a human being. His hour has indeed come. Now is the Son of man glorified. As important as the three years he spent with his disciples was; as important as all of his teachings are; as significant as his miracles are; none of these things are ultimately the reason for Jesus’ taking flesh and living among us. He came to die, that he might pay the terrible price for our sin, that we might be reconciled to God and live with him eternally. “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

That is why the cross is the symbol of our faith. Frederick Buechner, in Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC, says, “A six-pointed star, a crescent moon, a lotus—the symbols of other religions suggest beauty and light. The symbol of Christianity is an instrument of death.” And yet, of all the religious symbols which exist, it is the one which proclaims hope, for it was on the cross that Christ freed us from the bondage of sin and made us heirs of eternal life. Continue reading ‘Sermon – Good Friday March 29, 2013/The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson’ »

Mandatum novum do vobis: ut diligatis inuicem, sicut dilexi vos, dicit dominus. Mandatum. Maundy. Mandate. Commandment. This day, known in the Anglican Communion as Maundy Thursday, is the first of the great three days, the Paschal Triduum. It is the beginning of the Christian Passover, the event through which sin and death have been conquered and we are given life and immortality. The liturgy begins tonight, but does not end until the Great Vigil of Easter, for the three days are one event.

Today, Mandatum Thursday, Maundy Thursday, we begin in the Upper Room as our Lord has the Last Supper with his disciples. At this supper he gives them, and all of us, a new commandment. “Mandatum novum do vobis,” are Jesus’ words in Latin for “a new commandment I give to you.” I have quoted that commandment in Latin because our name for this day is a derivative of the first Latin word in Jesus’ commandment. And that commandment is: “That you love one another as I have loved you.” Continue reading ‘Sermon – Maundy Thursday March 28, 2013/The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson’ »

Today is a very different Sunday from all of the Sundays of the year, for it is the Sunday on which we recall Jesus’ journey to the cross. It is almost Good Friday on a Sunday. It is also the first day of the one week in the year in which we experience again those events through which we are saved. Of course, at every mass we recall the sacrifice of Christ, but on this day and in this week, we relive those events in great detail.

Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all make it clear that it is the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that illuminate his entire earthly life. Indeed, Jesus’ birth, his baptism, his teachings and miracles, and his journey to Jerusalem are one long death march to the cross. Continue reading ‘Palm Sunday March 24, 2013/The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson’ »