James Derkits

This is an election year, as well as an Olympic year. I'm glad we have the Olympics to draw our focus toward that amazing human achievement, as I don't feel as proud about the way campaigns leading up to elections take place. I would like to invite those of you who consider yourselves people of faith to be intentional about how much power and authority you give to the divisive national politics arena in your life. You get to elect to focus your attention on God and your spiritual life. What's better is you can cast that vote right now!  When Jesus is asked by Pontius Pilate by what authority he is acting, Jesus will not make a defense to the worldly authority. Instead he deflects and asks Pilate a question about John the Baptist that Pilate cannot answer. Jesus' focus is on the kingdom of God: that invisible kingdom bound by no geography, earthly government, nor term limit. God's kingdom is present whenever we give the authority of our lives to God, when we pray for...

I did not grow up in the church of the 1950's when, "Father knew best" or at least that was the collective myth. I never knew a time when absolutely everyone attended the Christian Denomination of their family heritage. I came of age in the 1980's, and started attending church on my own in the late 90's. The cultural revolution of the 1960's was still echoing around as the Charismatic movement of the church brought flower-child-inspired guitar music into the church, and the Episcopal Church even let go of some of the King James English from our worship services.  More tragically, it became public knowledge that sexual misconduct and abuse took place even within the presumed safety of the church. Along with other established institutions, the church and clergy lost immediate trust of our society. I have been fortunate, experiencing the church to be a generally loving place. I have experienced the love of Jesus through imperfect people who modeled how to be them...

Mothers' Day Sermon 2024 Trinity by the Sea, Port Aransas I’ve got two mothers. One birthed and bore me. She raised me to be dressed for church, before the Christening.  Danced at our weddings bright shimmering. Childhood memories, holy remembering. Corduroy rocking chair, well earned silver hair, she played like the vacuum was a robot. She'd set me free to roam woods, so that she could, get the 5 kid household chores done. I was still the littlest one. Another mother I met in college,  after I met her daughter who cleverly lifted my heart. Different from my birth mother: in-law-Mom, city wit country charm, rodeo aficionado, from arena to cantina, like my birth mom: broken hearted. I’ve got 20 mothers who’ve all helped me along: boy become man; man needing mom. Maybe cook or nurture, weave or show virtue.  mothers listen and teach--not all good mom’s lets each acknowledge that pain, but not snag on the grain we’re still shining our own little flames! I write by one’s guid...

This is teacher appreciation week,  when we as a community are invited to express our sometimes unspoken gratitude to those blessed souls called to the vocation of teaching. I am fortunate to get to witness the art of teaching at Trinity by the Sea Day School at least once a week, and I hear and see how my son's amazing teachers at the Middle School care for, correct, and educate those changing teens. Teachers are amazing people and closely follow the Way that Jesus taught his followers.  Did you know that the first time Jesus was addressed after the resurrection, he was called "Teacher"? When Mary, his faithful follower, goes to the tomb, she does not recognize Jesus at first, but when he says her name, she recognizes her, and responds: "Teacher!"  Jesus called Mary by name; she was known by him, her teacher. A teacher knows the students they teach, they learn what motivates them, and even what frustrates them. When Mary called Jesus Teacher, she acknowledged t...

 A classic Easter Hymn begins, "Welcome happy morning, age to age shall say..." The words to the hymn were written in the 6th century, and it was translated into English with modern music in the 19th century. It is traditionally sung on Easter morning and is a celebration of Christ's victory over the forces of hell, death, destruction, and the path of darkness. With the ages of Jesus followers who have sung this hymn, we are invited anew to welcome the happy morning, allow Christ to transform our worldview from that of despair and loneliness to one of resurrected hope in holy community.  Many people look out into the world and fear that the Devil has won the world over, to those folks, I would say stop main-lining bad news on your screen and pick up your Bible, preferably with a group of friends. We are certainly not the first ones to live in difficult times. For example, the writing about following Jesus that came from the adversity of the World Wars is still standard re...

When I think back across my life, both to the big decisions, and the day by day choices, it is often the seemingly difficult path that is the best one. Those decisions are difficult mainly because they are uncomfortable, or make others uncomfortable in the short term. I disappointed one of my best High School friends by choosing to attend the college that really seemed like the best fit for me. He and I had talked about going to one college together and dreamed of what might happen with our band at the time. Then the day came when I had to make the decision and let go of that dream myself. I know I upset his expectations as I had that uncomfortable conversation about my decision. He and I are both relatively successful in the paths life has taken us down, and I for one am so thankful to have found my way to the college where I met my wife, Laura, and got to know the church in this part of the state.  Years later, when I left a comfortable life in Houston, again, I had to weigh what...

The first Sunday of this month, Black History month, our congregation belted out that beautiful hymn Lift Every Voice and Sing, which remembers God's faith for us even through the most difficult and oppressive years of our struggle to live as members of God's kingdom. In that hymn as in many of the psalms, we remember together, that God calls us to lift every voice, not just voices of the currently powerful and privileged, not just the voices of the downtrodden and suffering, but all of us together are called to lift our voices as if we are one human family, because we are.  In God's kingdom, we celebrate a vast diversity of saints from our history. We remember those who have stood out, often because their loving care for those in need in their generations. People such as The Rev. Absalom Jones, the first black priest in the Episcopal Church (our little corner of God's kingdom), and Dr. Artemisia Bowden, who in 1902, formed a school for African Americans in San Antonio,...