Sermon archive for category: Rev. Carr Holland

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).

On the First Sunday of Advent, the Rev. Carr Holland reflects on the beginning of a new year in the Church calendar and what it means to seek after God in a difficult, disorienting time (Isaiah 64:1-9; Mark 13:24-37).

The Rev. Carr Holland reflects on the metaphor of the shepherd in Psalm 23 and John 10:1-10 and what it means to inhabit the uncertain, liminal time of COVID-19.

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.”

The Rev. Carr Holland returns to St. Paul’s Cary on the First Sunday of Advent. Father Carr shares his thoughts on growing older and the vision of God’s judgment offered in Matthew 24:36-44.

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.”

John 18:1-19:42
No moment in Jesus’ life stands alone. For Jesus is of God and his life flowed from the core of God, from the constant love that God holds out towards all of humankind….

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.”

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?”