Mother Claire's Sermons

  When I was in seminary, a classmate had a practice of making memes out of our professors. He did it in the safest way possible: by putting direct quotes of theirs over their pictures. Although entirely out of the context of the lectures, it led to such gems as our theology professor saying, “we’re the jellyfish of grace; just supine and flopping around unable to assist in anything.” Or our preaching professor saying, “It’s kind of unprofitable to sin by yourself.” Or our history professor saying, “and then he sold out the peasants.” I was also in all of those classes and don’t remember the context of any of these quotes. I’m sure our professors had larger points. But my favorite, and one you’ve probably heard me quote surrounding Holy Week and Easter, comes from our liturgy professor: “Jesus is not a groundhog.” I do remember the context of that. In celebrating Holy Week and Easter, Christians often need the reminder that Jesus doesn’t die and rise again every year. Unlike Puxata