Sermons at St. James Gettysburg

Every year for Mother’s Day, my mom has one request: to help her put it in her garden. It’s a yearly joke among the Baker/Garofalo clan, that Mom keeps the local Amish greenhouse in business. As I have gotten older – and especially now that I have a home with garden beds of my own- I have discovered that I have inherited this trait from my mom. From the first warm day, I was ...

John 17:1-11

On May 25, 1948, at the age of 26, former WWII United States Army flier, Gary Davis, made the conscious decision to give up his U.S. citizenship for what he believed was something far more important – a citizenship of the world.

Standing before the American Embassy in Paris, his hand on a Bible:

“I her...

John 14: 15-21

In fifth grade, my teacher, Mrs. Sherman, and I were talking about our favorite books. Hers was a novel by The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Set in 1964, the story follows fourteen-year-old Lily Owens, who leaves her hometown of Sylvan, South Carolina, alongside her family’s African American maid, Rosaleen. Lily is searching for answers about ...

John 14:1-14

Jewish legend points to a time before humankind walked the earth – to what we might deem as the beginning of the beginning. The rabbis describe, that when God was about to create Adam – the first human – the counseling angels split into two contending groups. Divided on whether or not humanity would be of benefit to the newly created wo...