Sermons by Washington National Cathedral

November 12, 2023 Sunday Sermon: The Rev. Jo Nygard Owens

"What then, can we learn about God’s kingdom from this parable? The most obvious is that the kingdom is not yet here. We are still waiting. And while we are waiting, we should be wise and keep awake."

November 5, 2023 Sunday Sermon: The Very Rev. Randy Hollerith

"We have a God willing to guarantee our future, if we want to accept God's offer."

October 29, 2023 Sunday Sermon: The Right Rev.V. Gene Robinson

"What fence needs moving in your life? How does God's love for you, God's unfailing love for you, make you want to open up for others?"

The Right Rev. V. Gene Robinson reflects on the two central commandments that God gave us to follow - to love God with all our hearts and minds and to love our neighbors as ourselves. "It opens us up to see one another as the children of God we are. And to strive every day to treat them like the children of God they are. Jesus was raising the bar and doing us all a favor."

October 22, 2023 Sunday Sermon: The Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope

"It's so hard when the pain and the suffering are so profound to find the language, to find our way. Jesus shows us the way."

October 15, 2023 Sunday Sermon: The Very Rev. Randy Hollerith

In this powerful sermon, Dean Hollerith reflects on God's invitation to all of us to be a part of God's kingdom, not only by showing up, but also by "clothing ourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."

October 8, 2023 Sunday Sermon: The Rev. Canon Leonard Hamlin

"I don't know about you, but when I look at the stone that some have rejected, when I look at the stone that we are using to build God's kingdom, I see something amazing when I see Jesus."

October 1, 2023 Sunday Sermon: The Rev. Canon Dana Colley Corsello

"Repentance begets forgiveness, which begets wholeness, which begets peace. This is living water for our parched tongues."

 

In her sermon this Sunday, the Rev. Canon Dana Colley Corsello stressed the life-giving power of repentance.

September 24, 2023 Sunday Sermon: The Right Rev Mariann Edgar Budde

"Oh, but black worshipers and visitors, they knew. You knew, you knew what we chose not to know, and what we knew for years and tried not to know, or minimize, 'til we couldn't any longer. And I played a part in all that, and I apologize."

In her sermon this Sunday, the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop of the Diocese of Washington reckoned with the lost cause myth and the role the Cathedral played in perpetuating it and considered the ways we are working to atone for past wrongs and build Beloved Community.

September 17, 2023 Sunday Sermon: Canon Historian Jon Meacham

Forgetting is arguably a sin as consequential as hardness of heart. For it is only in remembrance that we can know what wrongs we must right – what perils we must avoid – and what injustices we must ameliorate."

In his Sunday sermon, Canon Historian Jon Meacham reminded us that forgiveness and remembrance go hand in hand.

September 10, 2023 Sunday Sermon: The Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope

"Most of the time, I think we're painfully aware of when we've hurt another person, when we have breached a relationship. But there are times when we don't know."

In her sermon this Sunday, the Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope addressed Christ's command to repair the broken relationships in our lives.