The title of this sermon, "This Is Not Rocket Science," was chosen several weeks ago for reasons that are no longer clear to me. But I do remember that what I hoped to do in this sermon on Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the Church, was to talk about the Church, particularly on Confirmation Sunday as these young people will be joining the Church, as simply as I can.

The expression, "This is not rocket science," is used when somebody has made something too complicated, much more than it needs to be, or for some other reason, fails to comprehend what is relatively simple to understand. The reason I know the phrase is because it has been addressed to me with some frequency.

It occurred to me that anyone who belongs to the Church ought to be able to articulate what the Church is here for, …