Sermons from Grace Cathedral

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young

The Invisible Beauty “Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him” (Lk. 24). Forms of beauty exist that we are only dimly aware of. So much happens that we fail to notice. We never experience some of the most beautiful phenomena in nature. Have you ever been in the Pacific Ocean and seen the sun rise over the continent? The light creates a brilliant golden path over the water that seems to go right to you. Under certain conditions, when you are far out beyond the impact zone, a...

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young

“Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to [God] all of them are alive” (Lk. 20). Haggai 1:15b-2:9 Psalm 149 Luke 20:27-38 What happens after you die? Jesus cares so intensely about the present moment that he does not say much about this, except that our fear of death influences how we live.   As a freshman at Harvard College my old teacher Cornel West hung two pictures on his wall: Malcolm X and Albert Einstein. His roommate James Brown, (not the singer but the ma...

Dolores Huerta

Dolores Huerta Civil Rights Activist October 23, 2022 Grace Cathedral San Francisco, CA 

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young

“I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God” (Jer. 31).                                                                    Jeremiah 31:27-34 Psalm 119:97-104 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 Luke 18:1-8 “When the Son of humanity comes will he find faith on earth” (Lk. 18)? These words from two thousand years ago are the defining question of our time. This week the House Committee on the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol concluded its hearings....

The Very Rev. Malcolm Clemens Young, ThD

"No slave can serve two masters… You cannot serve God and wealth.” Luke 16 Jeremiah 8:18--9:1 Psalm 79:1-9 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Luke 16:1-13 I have been dwelling on Jesus’ parable about the fired manager over the last few months. In an instant the shock of losing everything seizes him. A sense of inadequacy, worthlessness and humiliation confronts us when we do not have enough to provide for those we love. This terror may be completely foreign to you, it may have come and gone in differ...

The Rev. Canon Jude Harmon

Anna Deavere Smith

Dramatist and actress Anna Deavere Smith will preach, addressing some of these themes of ongoing slavery and emancipation. Her award-winning work, Notes From the Field, draws from more than 200 interviews with students, parents, teachers and administrators caught in the school-to-prison pipeline. The cathedral’s principal Eucharist, with anthems and service music sung by the Cathedral Choir. (60–75 minutes) 

The Right Rev. Dr. Marc Handley Andrus

The Rev. Malcolm Clemens Young, ThD

“God is faithful, and… will not let you be tested beyond your strength” (1 Cor. 10).    Grace Cathedral, San Francisco 2C10 3 Lent (Year C) 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Eucharist Sunday 20 March 2022 Exodus 3:1-15 Psalm 63:1-8 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 Luke 13:1-9 “Psilocybin Can Occasion Mystical-Type Experiences Having Substantial Personal Meaning and Spiritual Significance.” This is the full title of a peer-reviewed scientific paper published in the journal of Psychopharmacology (2...

The Rev. Canon Mark E. Stanger

While prayer, fasting and almsgiving are traditional Lenten practices, today the book of Deuteronomy suggests something really positive and wonderful.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Marc Handley Andrus, Bishop of California

John Phillip Newell

The Rev. Anna E. Rossi

While sanitized in later Western art and dogma, Mary of Nazareth came of age in the soot of collective bondage. The probable facts of her life and the strength of her speech testify to God's power and possibility in the most unlikely places. In a key scene in Luke's Gospel, we see Mary climb a hill and then pronounce a visionary poem about God's transforming power. Mary's climb echoes that of inaugural poet Amanda Gorman. Together, these women propose a bold future, from which our fears need...

The Rev. Anna Rossi

Beyond COVID fears and family drama, many US Americans wonder: how can you square the Thanksgiving extravaganza and the reality of Indigenous experience — including genocide and land theft? In today's readings Jesus stands before Pilate to testify to the truth. His faithful witness leads us through our doubts and dilemmas to a highly nuanced grasp of truth. We can't deny history, but we can construct a more just future and witness to a complex truth. We can extend our tables and expand our m...

The Very Rev. Malcolm Clems Young, ThD

“For the Lord… with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise…” (1 Thess. 4). Yesterday in the brilliant fall colors and dazzling warm light of Los Altos we buried my friend Jim McKnight in the columbarium of our old church. Jim and I had a strange relationship. He is my parent’s age. We first met when he was in his fifties and full of wisdom. And yet he had just been ordained the year before and so he didn’t know wh...

The Rev. Canon Mark Stanger

We have a lot of questions for God and God seems to have a lot to tell us.  But the bible is full of questions from the all-knowing God and from Jesus directed toward us. The divine questions are aimed straight at our distress, lament, pain, avoidance, pride and fears. Our answer might best be action.

The Very Rev. Malcolm Clemens Young, ThD

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm C. Young

“Do not get drunk with wine… but be filled with the spirit” (Ephesians 5). This morning I am going to teach you how to meditate, or at least how I meditate. But first I want to point out something that you may have already noticed. On the corner of Arguello and Jackson you will find a stop sign with magical properties. Under certain circumstances it becomes invisible. Even though I am well aware of this phenomenon, I have run straight through the intersection without stopping twice. I’ve s...

The Rev. Kristin Saylor

In her 1985 comic strip, Dykes to watch out for, the cartoonist, Alison Bechdel, first introduced what we now know as the Bechdel test: a set of criteria that seeks to measure the representation of women in media. The test has 3 simple parts: to pass, the piece of media needs to have 1) at least 2 women in it, 2) who talk to each other, 3) about something other than a man. The Bechdel test is an imperfect barometer of representation, but it is a useful starting point when engaging with media...

The Rev. Honorable Kimberly S. Jackson

Georgia State Senator and Vicar at the Episcopal Church of the Common Ground (Atlanta)

The Rev. Cn. Jude Harmon

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm C. Young, ThD

“Holy Father, protect them in your name… so that they may be one” (Jn. 17) If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you say to your friends? How would you say it? The last words of Jesus in the Gospel of John are not a linear argument building to a logical conclusion. Instead they have the form of an ancient rhetorical device called amplification. This speech and the three letters of John share a similar style of cyclical repetition. They use the same vocabulary of hyperbol...

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm C. Young, ThD

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God” (1 Jn. 4). We all know regret. It comes over us as we remember a quarrel with a person we love, or recall the pain we felt when a cherished relationship was broken. The poet Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982) married Andrée Schafer a brilliant painter who suffered from epilepsy. In the spring of 1927 the two of them hitchhiked from Seattle down the West Coast sleeping under bridges along the way.[i] When they arrived in San Francisco ...

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcom C. Young, ThD

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want” (Psalm 23).   “When I was born the common view was that nurture decided almost everything. In the decades that followed the emphasis shifted to nature. In the last twenty years, people have talked more broadly about the way nature and nurture propel each other… but having children has made me wonder if a third element is involved, some unknowable inflection of spirit or divinity.” Tomorrow’s Forum guest Andrew Solomon wrote these words in ...

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm C. Young, ThD

What a time… what a time for us to hear Jesus say, “touch me and see” (Lk. 24). So many of my friends have not touched another person for months. Our vast universe of touch has shrunk to a tiny island containing only one or two other persons. Never before did I fully appreciate the ritual of shaking hands in church, or the power of physical connection. A global crisis of intimacy continues to unfold all around us. This is the third week of the seven week Easter Season (it’s one week longe...

Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker

Transfiguration: Don’t Sweep the Cloud Away

In the cosmic forecast, the cloud, or overshadowing, signals the coming of the Holy Spirit, God's eternal word taking flesh and voice, and God's people, powered by grace, ushering in a new, just world order. To listen and hear the word today, we turn the testimonies of people who have defied the cross, betrayal and violence, and who stir us with their fierce devotion to life. 

The Rev. Canon Dr. Sam Wells

Vicar, St. Martin-in-the-Fields (London)

The Rev. Heather Erickson

The Very Rev. Dr. Peggy Patterson

The Rev. Dr. Ellen Clark King

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry

The Rev. Winnie Varghese

The Very Rev. Dr. Alan Jones

The Rev. Dr. Scot Sherman

The Rev. Altagracia Perez-Bullard, PhD

From today’s Psalm: 1  I will sing of your steadfast love, My God [O Lord], forever;     with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations. 2  I declare that your steadfast love is established forever;     your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.  AMEN.   Good Morning and Happy Pride Day! If this were any other Pride Day, this would be the point where we would have hooting and hollering, we’d be cheering with the festiveness this day has come to represent f...

The Rev. Dr. Ellen Clark-King

Sermon from Sunday's 11 a.m. Eucharist

The Rev. Ellen Clark King

If ever there was a festival that speaks to the heart of our current lived experience it was the one we celebrated on Thursday and remember in our readings today. In case you missed it (and it’s pretty easy to miss not having any cards or presents or chocolate attached to it) it was the Feast of the Ascension. The day when we remember Jesus withdrawing his physical presence from his friends and from the world in general. Sound sort of familiar? No more face to face talks, no more sharing of ...

The Rev. Canon Dr. Rowan Williams

Sunday 11 a.m. Sermon

Alonzo King

Thank you Dean and thank you everyone at Grace who have been so warm and so inviting, it has been a wonderful time that LINES has been here and it’s not over. We are thrilled to be here. I would like to start with an affirmation by Yogananda. I’m going to say it and if you could repeat after me. “I relax, and cast aside all mental burdens Allowing God to express through me his perfect peace, love, and wisdom.” This time of year, we’re still in January; it is a boon in the way it is str...

The Rev. Jude Harmon

The Very Rev. Malcolm C. Young

“May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing…” (Romans 15). What is the good news of John the Baptist? In every conversation lies an implicit promise that we will be informed, entertained, expanded, perhaps even appreciated, loved or saved. But this is not always how things work out. This week I found myself at the most elegant Christmas party of my life. Original paintings by Edgar Degas (1834-1917), James Tissot (1836-1902), Claude Monet (1840-1926), Mary Cassatt (1844-...

The Rev. Maryetta M. Anschutz

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm C. Young

Brother Desmond Alban

‘Whoso pulleth out this sword from this stone and anvil is the true-born King of all Britain.’  I am very grateful to have been invited back to Grace Cathedral this morning just a day after a celebration here of the 100th Anniversary of Franciscan friars in the Episcopal Church.  But why, on this St Francis Sunday, am I opening, not with the scripture, or a quotation from Saintt Francis, or from our own founder Father Joseph, but with a snippet of British folklore? I was probably about 1...

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm C. Young

“No servant can serve two masters… You cannot serve God and mammon” (Lk. 16).  

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm C. Young

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm C. Young

“There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents" (Lk. 15).

The Very Rev. Dr. Alan Jones