From a few netfriends:

I remember a sermon from the late 60’s or early 70’s – we were on vacation and it was a hot, humid, summer day, in an un-air conditioned church.

After the Gospel the priest gave this homily:

“It is said that in hell you have to listen to a 45 minute sermon in 100 degree temperature with 90 percent humidity every morning.”

Then he sat down.

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At a wedding: The priest re-told the story of the Creation. He got safely through the creation of Adam and then went on to tell how Adam wanted a companion. “After all, there are a lot of things you can’t do with a giraffe.”

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A recent example. When on Cape Cod I normally seek out an Episcopal congregation on Sunday mornings. One day last summer, I was running late and against my better judgment stopped at a Roman Catholic “chapel” — a huge place where everyone parks his or her car in a line behind the first so that everyone must leave immediately at the end of Mass. This organization should have warned me off.

The homilist had come over the bridge that morning from the Boston area. He actually compared the crossing of the Canal over the Borne Bridge as a moment of “Passover”!! He was serious. No joke.

Needless to say I was more than happy to leap into my car immediately after he pronounced, “Go, the Mass is ended.” I virtually shouted, “Thanks be to God!”

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My late mother used to tell the story of the traveling evangelist who gave a sermon back in the ’40s. Back then we had a huge Steinway grand piano opposite the pipe organ, a gift from some parishioner. The evangalist punctuated his sermon by playing the piano — with his feet.