This sermon was delivered on my final Sunday at the Episcopal Parish of St. John the Evangelist, Hingham, MA where I was blessed to serve the past three years.

The Rev. Noah Van Niel

St. John the Evangelist

October 21^st, 2018

Proper 24 (B): Job 38:1-7; Ps 104:1-9, 25, 37b; Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 10:35-45

When someone is ordained a priest the responsibilities of their role are articulated in the Prayer Book as follows:

As a priest, it will be your task to proclaim by word and deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to fashion your life in accordance with its precepts. You are to love and serve the people among whom you work, caring alike for young and old, strong and weak, rich and poor….In all that you    do, you are to nourish Christ’s people from the riches of his grace, and strengthen them to glorify God in this life and in the life to come.

I had little idea, on that December day in 2015, when these words were read from these steps at my ordination to the priesthood, just how powerful and fulfilling it would be to become a priest in your midst. I know now what I knew only the beginnings on then that St. John’s is a special place — it was before I got here and it will be afterwards. And it has been an honor to serve. You are a community of people who really love this church, and have for a long time—for some of you twice as long as I’ve even been alive! As one of our long-time parishioners said to me on Wednesday night, “You know, I love this place so much that every time I drive by, I wave. I can’t help it.”  I deeply appreciate that level of affection and love, and I have tried to honor it for the time our paths aligned. I particularly have always valued the great privilege of preaching from this illustrious pulpit and tried to give you offerings worthy of your attention. You have many choices for who and what you spend your time listening to in your life, and I never once took for granted that you listened to me with such open ears and hearts. Add to this the joy I found in teaching—especially our youth; the depth of Spirit I was privy to in our pastoral conversations, be they in my office, a hospital room or a living room; the chance to absolve and bless; to baptize and bury and keep you fed from Christ’s table for the journey in between; there is no work I would rather do and no better place to have done it. It has been a blessing in the fullest sense of the word.

As I take my leave of you, I want to try to give you something in return for all that you have given me. Continue reading →

The Rev. Noah Van Niel

September 30^th, 2018

St. John the Evangelist

Proper 21 (B): Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 20-22; Psalm 124, James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50

Once upon a time there was a king of a vast empire. He was very rich and loved to show off his opulent wealth. He threw parties with copious food, and the drinking was done “by the flagon and without restraint.” {Esther 1:8} He was married to a beautiful queen. She was so beautiful he liked to show her off to his friends so they could see how beautiful she was. One night however, when the king was “merry with wine” (Es 1:10) he called for the queen to come be paraded about, but she refused. And for this act of insubordination (or independence, depending on how you look at it) she was unceremoniously deposed and black listed across the entire kingdom. The King made an executive order outlining her banishment so that “all women will give honor to their husbands, high and low alike,” because “every man should be the master in his own house.” {Es 1:20, 22}.

After a little while, when the King had calmed down he decided to find a replacement wife to serve as his queen. There was a commission appointed to gather all the beautiful young virgins to a harem in the city and give them a year of “cosmetic treatments.” When the time came for each of the women to be presented to the king, they were sent to his chambers, to spend the night, and in the morning they would be sent back. If the King was pleased with his experience he would call for that woman again. This went on for some time. But in this bevy of beautiful maidens there was one woman who was more beautiful than all the rest. And when she, the fairest of them all, went in to the king he was so enraptured he made her his queen. Her name, as you may have guessed at this point, was Esther. Continue reading →