Sermon Recording:

Sermon for August 16, 2026  

Prayer and Presence

For my sermon this morning, I have departed from the set lectionary and chosen a quotation from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Chapter 2, verse 5:

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who took upon himself the form of a servant…”

In our identification with Christ, we need to come to terms with his love for us, his exemplary humility, our call to obedience to the will of God, and the service to which we have been summoned.

God sent Christ to us to provide a bridge to the God we long to know and understand. To feel god’s presence in our lives, we need to be in prayerful communication with Christ through the action of the Holy Spirit. 

I suspect that each one of us harbors a visual image of Christ, fed by countless artists’ efforts, with the ever-present danger that we might conclude that Christ must have looked like a glorified White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an iconic New England WASP.

To correct this misapprehension, come with me on a journey of discovery.

The original Jewish Diaspora across North Africa began approximately two thousand years ago with the Maghrebi Jews settling in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.  Some Jews remained in Egypt, while others continued their journey from North Africa to the Iberian Peninsula of Spain and Portugal, retaining strong ties to the Moorish population of North Africa.

With the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in the historic year of 1492 – Hello, Christopher Columbus – many of the Sephardic Jewish population migrated to Amsterdam in the 16th and 17th Centuries, when this city remained open to all immigrants and benefitted from the international trade that this openness engendered.  A “Jewish Quarter”  sprung up, centered on the Jodenbreestraat, but it was not in any sense an enclosed ghetto.

The artist, Rembrandt van Rijn, as his painting career blossomed, purchased a grand house, Number 4, Breestraat, in 1639 and remained there until  he was forced to sell the house as a result of his bankruptcy in 1656.

In seeking accuracy in his remarkable series of Old and New Testamet subjects, Rembrandt recruited models from his Sephardic neighbors, thus providing us with wonderfully apposite images of his multiple figures from Biblical times.

Many have questioned me over the years concerning my apparently bifurcated occupation as both an ordained priest and a fine art auctioneer.  Forbes Magazine went so far as to describe my progress as a journey from God to Mammon.

It was, however, through my study of Rembrandt that I encountered his Head of Christ, painted in 1648, and now in the Gemâldegalerie in Berlin.  The painting is the same size as this photographic reproduction that I brought with me this morning, created for use as a personal icon and for me the truest portrait of Christ we are likely to encounter.  I believe the authenticity of this image helps me in my prayers and awareness of God’s presence in my life.

I will now introduce you to another source, whose short book my mother gave me seventy-one years ago on the occasion of my Confirmation by Maurice Key, Bishop of Sherborne, in Dorset, on November 26, 1955.  The Practice and Presence of God: Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence recalls the life and wisdom of a lowly monk, Nicolas Herman, who was born in Hériménil, near Lunéville in Lorraine, France, in 1614.  Following a spell in the army, fighting and being wounded in the Thirty Years War, he experienced a call to the monastic life  and entered the Order of Discalced Carmelites in Paris at the age of twenty-six, taking the religious name of Lawrence of the Resurrection.  

Brother Lawrence made his solemn profession on August 14, 1642.  After a period as a cook, his war injuries proved a barrier to standing all day, so he assumed the role of sandal-maker to the monastery, whose rule banned the use of formal shoes. The word “Discalced “ derives from the Latin word for “shoeless.” He spent the rest of his life at the monastery, offering spiritual guidance that remains relevant four centuries later. 

Let me share three brief examples of his spiritual wisdom:

“The holiest and most necessary practice in the spiritual life is that of the presence of God. It consists in taking delight in and becoming accustomed to God’s divine company, speaking humbly and conversing lovingly with God all the time, at every moment without rule or measure.”

“We must work gently and lovingly with God, asking God to accept our work…Turning to God frequently rids us of self-love without our even realizing it.”

“We do not always have to be in church to be with God…Everyone is capable of these familiar conversations with God.”

Today, I suspect that Brother Lawrence might have embraced the gentle version of KISS, originated in the U.S. Navy, “Keep It Simple.”

In summary, our prayer is the practice of being in conversation with God.

Christ leads us to that presence as we share in his eucharistic meal and, as those disciples discovered at Emmaus, once again  so beautifully and simply illustrated by Rembrandt, Christ became known to them in the breaking of the bread.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”  Amen