Worship. Serve. Grow.

Sermons by The Rev. Carr Holland

The Abiding Work of Christmas

On the Second Sunday after Christmas, the Rev. Carr Holland discusses the dreams of Joseph and the Magi and the revealed counterpoint of evil and suffering in the Christmas story, which is just as messy and complicated as our own contemporary world (Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23).

Christmas (2019)

The Rev. Carr Holland returns to visit with us on Christmas: “Christmas is all about care, hopefully waiting for another chance to be born. Care that comes from beyond power and waits for us in the inner chamber of our hearts and minds.”

Peace Be With You

The Rev. Carr Holland reflects on John 20:19-31 and his own father’s death: “Some years ago when my father died, there were many things that had to be tended… Death is hard, because it impacts far more than the one who dies. It alters the course of life for many.”

Tragedy and the Fig Tree

The Rev. Carr Holland meditates on tragedy and Jesus’s parable of the fig tree in Luke 13:1-9: “Life can be so fragile, and we don’t notice it most of the time. Jesus indicates life’s fragility and demands an urgency on our part. That urgency shows that life itself has carved out opportunity for us to seize hold God’s graciousness, to yield to it, and to grow.”

A Meaningful Life

The Rev. Carr Holland meditates on the Beatitudes (Luke 6:17-26), vulnerability, and living a meaningful life: “At Yale, there is currently a course for which there are only 60 slots annually but about 250 applicants. It came about because of a realization in the divinity school that a key question of liberal arts education was missing: what makes for a meaningful life?”