The Rev. Noah Van Niel

The Chapel of the Cross

August 11^th, 2019

Proper 14 (C): Isaiah 1:1, 10-20; Ps 50: 1-8, 23-24; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40

            When I was in college, my least favorite time of the week was Sunday afternoons, because Sunday afternoons were when the football team would gather to watch the film from the previous day’s game. For those unfamiliar with what I’m talking about: in football every play of every game and every practice is videotaped. And most of the preparation and coaching comes from reviewing those films and using them as teaching tools. So, every Saturday in the fall we would play a game, and, win or lose, we would gather the next day to dissect every last play. Every mistake, every misstep, every missed block or dropped pass rewound and replayed over and over and over again. If you have never been through this process, it’s kind of like having your exam graded in front of the entire class, except instead of just having your intellectual deficiencies pointed out, you are also having your physical ability, your toughness and by extension your courage and character publicly called into question.   

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The Rev. Noah Van Niel

The Chapel of the Cross

July 28^th, 2019

Proper 12 (C): Hosea 1:2-10; Psalm 85; Colossians 2:6-19; Luke 11:1-13

            Perhaps the most valuable thing you get to do when you are training to be ordained is spend some time interning as a hospital chaplain. I was lucky enough to do my training at one of the large teaching hospitals in Boston. One of my assigned floors was an inpatient oncology unit. Most of the patients who came through that floor had particularly aggressive, difficult forms of cancer, and that meant that over the course of the three months I was there, despite the best efforts of a remarkable staff, dozens of people passed away.

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