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Feb 23, 2020
Witness the Other...Open the Veil
Audio is of the 8:30am service. Sermon text is unavailable.
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Feb 16, 2020
Life or Death?
Matthew 5:21-30
21“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 22But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. 23So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. 26Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
27“You have heard that it was said, ‘you shall not commit adultery.’ 28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell. THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
“Life or Death”
I have set before you life and prosperity or death and adversity. Which one do you want? Our first reading, from the Older Testament (Deuteronomy 30:15-20) presents us with the easiest of choices. Where was this test-writer when I was still in school? Here’s a short sermon for you: Choose life and prosperity. Amen.
We know it isn’t so easy. For starters, prosperity isn’t available to all. There are churches who will tell it is if you just believe…and send them a check. The only party that is guaranteed to get richer is the church, and if you don’t it will tell you it’s because your belief was too weak. The term for that is blasphemy. Even some who have achieved prosperity will discover being wealthy is not all it’s cracked up to be. Similarly, like prosperity, life isn’t something everyone gets choose equally. Does a child in a war-torn part of the world get to choose life? What about a wealthy woman who gets cancer? Someone who can’t afford care or healthy living or simply to live where it is safe? To complicate things even further, Jesus, who would have counted this text as his Scripture, chose neither prosperity nor life in the end, at least not as we commonly define them.
It’s not the wrong question, life or death. It’s that we’ve largely learned to answer that question only shallowly. As I’ve said before, faith is about the orientation of our hearts, not primarily what we believe but what we love. I’m not sure we love life or even prosperity, which I will define here not in terms of the excesses of our culture, but of having enough, of wellness and thriving. Matthew Fox, theologian and mystic, says above all else, our culture loves death, the literal definition of necrophilia. You don’t have to look very far to see our obsession with death—our entertainment, the level of violence in our society, the way our way of life leads to death in some form for others and certainly other species. I don’t mean we should ignore death. Quite the contrary, our obsession with death is an avoidance tactic. A healthy culture neither sweeps death under the rug nor fetishizes it. It acknowledges it. It honors it. It ritualizes it, giving us ways to move through it without being swallowed up by it. It’s amazing how many people cannot even name death at funerals. They insist on a “celebration of life.” I like to celebrate too, but our mourning, our grief, our missing what death takes from us, these are signs of our love for life.
The ways the culture tries to love life are often unhealthy as well. We spend all kinds of money on products and services to give the illusion we aren’t aging, or we extend life by some definition at all costs, devoting less to promoting true quality life. I’ll never forget a woman from my last congregation. Her death came while I was trying to decide whether to come to this church. Graciously, you all gave me the time to attend to her. Her name was “Happy.” Happy’s death came a surprise. She was basically of good health. An x-ray for something treatable revealed a spot on her lung. Though it too was likely benign, all wanted to remove it to be sure. In the midst of that procedure, she through a blood clot that caused significant brain damage. Yes, it’s a nightmare story, one that breaks through our illusion of stability and control.
Happy had long made her wishes clear and in writing. She acknowledged how people with no hope of a meaningful quality of life are kept alive in this country at exorbitant expense, while others suffer around the world without adequate access to healthcare. She specified in no uncertain terms that should she reach such a state, and she was spelled out what that was for her, she did not want her life prolonged. In fact, I seem to remember her mentioning that money that would be used for her care be sent to where it wasn’t as good or as available. So, we held vigil as sustenance was withheld, no medicine, no feeding tube, no water. She was gone within the week. It was the biggest funeral I’ve ever done. That was her way of choosing, and it doesn’t have to be yours, but I might say in her very dying she recognized what loving life looked like.
Sadly, in our culture the question of life has been reduced into a fight over the singular issue of abortion. I won’t solve that one for us today. I understand that perhaps some are too casual about what happens in the termination of a pregnancy, yet others are too casual about supporting life after it emerges from the womb. Our sole focus on that debate misses the myriad of ways we do not love life in our living. We are called to love life, to choose it, and the operative word is “we.” Deuteronomy, like much of the biblical witness, is concerned with the community. When we stick with a highly individualistic lens, we overlook how we fail to promote life for the greater whole.
Fox says if we are going to make it, and he means that literally, we have to move from necrophilia to biophilia. It’s not just about human life. He reminds us that we belong to a larger biosphere, a greater cosmos even, and all of this was created by the Creator. Raised on Newtonian physics, we can forget that all of this is alive. Even the planet itself behaves far more like a living being than a dead piece of granite, though the mystics would say the rocks too are telling of God, are carrying ancient wisdom. Many indigenous spiritualities have known this all along. Love this, all of this. Now, am I saying go out and start hugging trees? No, not without acquiring consent. Then, yes, hug away.
Some years back I was in a gathering of Presbyterian clergy for a conversation about what the climate crisis had to do with our religion. The anxiety in the room rose as we talked about sea level rise and the impact for the poorest and most vulnerable. Oh, I misspoke; there was a rabbi present too, just one. It was the rabbi who called us home to our love of life, because we’d settled into only fearing death. She reminded us that in the midst of all of this, it’s important occasionally, or regularly, to go and sit under a tree, to enjoy i…
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Feb 9, 2020
The Point (begins at 31:58)
Matthew 5:13-20
13“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
14“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
“The Point”
If you wanted to avoid exhibiting your faith, where would you go? To work? We know not to bring that into the workplace. Polite company perhaps? School? No prayer there except during exams or just before you ask someone to the dance. How about the sideline of your kid or grandkid’s soccer game? No, that would detract from the yelling. The Tiburon Ferry? It’s not exactly fair to a captive audience. Can you imagine? “Hey, would you like to talk about Jesus?”
“No thanks!” the other shouts while jumping overboard, “I think I’ll just swim the rest of the way.”
What if I told you one of the best places to avoid your faith is church? Richard Rohr, the great Franciscan author once said religion is “one of the safest places to hide from God.”[1] What? Rohr’s point is that if we’re not careful, the way we practice our religion actually keeps us from living it out. If we can just have enough meetings, even perform enough rituals, we don’t have to commit to the kind of transformation all if it is designed to foster. Coming to church isn’t the point. It’s where we come to be reoriented toward the point, strengthened in heart and soul, and in body, to strive toward the point in our lives and our collective life together.
Do you know what the first thing people say to me when they see me in public? Almost without exception it’s, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I haven’t been to church.” That’s not an indictment of you. It’s an indictment of the message on we in the church who’ve clearly taught you that is the point. Matthew Fox, the great theologian and mystic talks about how we divert our attention away from what’s important by making our entire lives about trying to please some kind of grand scorekeeper. When we’re little it’s about about pleasing mommy or daddy. That has its place when we are young, but hopefully we outgrow it. Some never do and spend their lives chasing that affirmation. Some others simply replace the need to please mommy and daddy with a need to please God.
I say those things in compassion, in solidarity, because I’m a pleaser. But, if we think faith is about racking up points with God, we’ve missed the point. God doesn’t care…about that. According to Jesus, God cares about how we live with respect to our neighbor. Most notably in the Gospel of Matthew, he speaks of accountability based on who we treat those in need, equating that to caring for God God’s self. If there is accountability it will be around that, not some perfect attendance sheet, particularly if the lessons didn’t take root in your life.
I am not saying your presence here is unimportant. Your Christian formation is vital, central. What I am saying is church is not the end; it’s the beginning. It’s the pathway to a new world and a new life. Church isn’t the destination; it’s a wisdom center, a healing ground, a beloved community of relationships, a place to learn about and practice the deeper ways of life. It’s a place where we reconnect to our deep ancestral roots that we might understand how we fit in the cosmos so that we might move about it more intentionally, reverently, joyfully, and justly.
That’s the point of our readings today. Did you hear what Isaiah says?
3 “Why do we fast (a religious ritual), but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,
and oppress all your workers.
(This is not about your personal piety, this is about fair treatment and fair pay, this is about a just society.)
4 Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
6 Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
(again, not much about personal piety and devotion, not much about temple attendance, not much about private religion. This is our public as well as personal life.)
10 if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
(Notice, the result is not that you earn a sticker, or you’ll be spared from hell, or you’ll be relieved having completed a miserable assignment. The result, the reward is joy! Remember that? Your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom will be like the noonday. This isn’t the pathway to obligation, but to true freedom. Joy not just for you, but for all; that’s another definition of justice, the access of joy for everyone.)
12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in (Is. 58, selected verses).
(The result is that our community and our communities will be healed, will flourish, will endure for generations, and you will be remembered as the ones who repaired the breach).
Rohr, a priest, says religion can be the worst thing in the world, because it can become an exercise in missing the point. The biblical prophets say God hates our religious festivals and observances (Isaiah 1, Amos 5) not because they are inherently bad, but because they can lose their meaning, their transforming and shaping power, and become hollow. Even more, they can give you the illusion you have fulfilled your divine purpose in observing them.
Rohr also says religion can be the best thing because it can also call us home precisely to our divine purpose. That’s what prophets do. That’s what good ritual, good teaching does. They don’t berate us or scare us or bully us. They call us home. Come home to your creatureliness, your place in the divine creation. Come home to your place in the community and help make it look and feel and actually be a little more beloved. Come home to the one thing everyone has…
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Jan 26, 2020
Desire (begins at 23:27)
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
10Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. 11For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. 12What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” 13Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16(I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.
18For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
Desire
That opening hymn (“We Are One in the Spirit”) has deep emotional ties for me. It conjures memories of childhood, singing accompanied by a guitar at church retreat or the chapel in the woods at summer camp. There and then, we really felt one—with each other, with nature, with God. The notion that “they” would know us by our unified love seemed as realistic as it was idealistic. What happened? The data shows that others don’t identify Christians with love, and we know there is plenty of division within the Christian household. Have I now simply grown up and encountered “the real world,” whatever that means? I know we are speaking of the language of lyric, of poetry, and yet closing the distance between that of which the hymn sings and that which we experience in our daily lives reveals a fundamental yearning within us.
Whenever Paul writes to communities he cares about, it’s clear their struggles pain him. So it is with love. It hurts when our families suffer division, once close friends come apart, or our communities experience strife. I don’t think I need to spend too much time speaking of the divisions in our country. Sometimes I wonder if repeating that narrative only perpetuates it, and I find myself wearying of it.
Not all divisions are so serious, though even minor ones can have an impact. My spouse and I were at an event at our son’s school in the fall. The public schools do these fundraisers to support art and music, so they put on a “lapathon” where the kids run around the field. There’s music and snacks and plenty of photo opportunities for parents. You can imagine the volunteer efforts it takes to pull such an event off, and so while grateful for this I experienced this strange dimension of exclusiveness and division. The lead volunteers all showed up in coordinated outfits, little multicolored tutus and high socks, wigs or colored hair. I’m not sure what the point was. Perhaps I missed it, but I don’t believe the rest of us were ever let into it. It was harmless of course on one level, but on another it all felt a little like the school cliques we remember too well, the cool kids’ club for adults. Why go to such lengths to model that to the children? Why nurture that kind of culture? What’s the upside? Now again, this does not create a serious division, but its triviality is part of the point. These small acts collect, accumulate, and contribute to deeper fissures that grow between us. I’m not talking about positive markers of identity, but the little ways we signal that we don’t belong to each other.
When Paul sees what’s coming between the Corinthians, something compels him to call for unity. Was he merely naïve, an eager convert to this new movement, mistaken that somehow this time it could be different? Perhaps, but Paul had seen division. He’d been a propagator of it, persecuting the earliest followers of Jesus. Could it be that something about that experience corroded him from within and led him to seek a better way, one that didn’t involve obliterating the other as a path to a pure and faithful community? What was he after?
It may be easier to begin by eliminating what Paul was likely not talking about.
I don’t believe in calling for unity Paul was trying to suppress difference. This isn’t modern sensibilities about diversity creeping into interpretation. The evidence is right there in his writings. His most memorable image in Scripture is of the people constituting the body of Christ, each member with its particular form and function. The body does not thrive by overcoming the problem of difference but by relying necessarily upon the gifts that difference brings (Rom. 12:45, 1 Cor. 12:12-27). Similarly, Paul writes of spiritual gifts: “there are a varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit,” diversity within a greater unity, gifts given “for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:4).
Paul is not after uniformity. For all the misunderstood depictions of him as rigid and exclusionary, Paul made it his life mission to be sure people who didn’t follow certain laws or customs could be allowed into the new Christian movement. His was not a ministry of keeping people out, and the fact that others have made that precisely their ministry by misusing his writings is an ironic tragedy indeed.
Wait, Paul calls for everyone to be in “agreement” (v. 10)! The question is whether Paul is calling for agreement on every individual matter or agreement in a deeper sense on the purpose of being together? Similarly, when he speaks of being “of the same mind” is he advocating groupthink or could being of the same mind be more like being on the same page, again, “united in the same…purpose” as he puts it?
In today’s passage Paul recognizes that people have lost sight of the purpose at the heart of the movement. He writes, “For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters” (I Cor. 1:11). There’s your proof, by the way, that there were women leaders in the early church. “What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (v. 12-13). The early Christians seemed to be pledging their allegiance to particular teachers, and Paul was concerned this was trumping their primary allegiance to and identity in Christ. Before we judge them, let us remember we too choose our religious communities by taste, preference, and pastor. Why else do they call it “church shopping?” Let us not lose sight of where we place our allegiances.
Paul is not criticizing different teachers. He, in fact, affirms the necessity of the different roles different teachers play. He uses this lovely agricultural metaphor: “I planted, Apollos watered,” but he’s careful to include the crucial third element, “but God gave the growth” (1 Cor. 3:6). All of it this work is contained within a larger unified whole and purpose. It is telling that Paul uses the imagery of baptism. For Christians, Baptism is a unifying experience that points to a unifying change of state or recognition of a state of being – having died and risen with Christ into a new life and understanding of self and community. Remember, Paul contends elsewhere that bapti…
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Jan 19, 2020
An Opportune Time (begins at 27:15)
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
1Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
2To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind — 6just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you — 7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
An Opportune Time
I have an article on my desk that has been forwarded to me more than any other in my entire ministry. It was the op ed by Nicholas Kristof entitled “This Has Been the Best Year Ever,” published in The New York Times on Dec. 28. In it, Kristof cites dramatic numbers to talk about how much better life has gotten for many around the world: how many more people now have access to clean water and electricity, the decrease in child mortality, the decrease in extreme poverty, a decline in devastating diseases such as polio, leprosy, and AIDS, and the growth in literacy, with particular gains in education for girls and women.[1] These measures suggest this is a hopeful time.
Kristof acknowledges the problems that worry so many of us—international conflict, a divided populace, climate and ecological breakdown. He says, “there is still so much wrong with the world,” but then he makes what may be the most important observation of the piece: “I worry that deep pessimism about the state of the world is paralyzing rather than empowering; excessive pessimism can leave people feeling not just hopeless but also helpless.”[2] I’m sorry for his ableist use of “paralyzing,” but I think we know what he means about feeling unable to do anything to make a difference. I think this is why the article has struck such a resonate chord with people. In addition to speaking to a number of you, this article has been making the rounds in clergy circles, as we wrestle with the part we play in the narrative of doom and gloom that can have the effect of people resigning themselves to realities they don’t believe they can affect.
We know, in part, why media plays into this narrative. It sells. Even as some of the most pressing challenges probably go under covered, the stories that are told are told in a way that stokes anxiety. The cynical side of me says that’s because anxiety seeks a salve and there are plenty of people ready to sell us something to make us feel better or at least numb. I don’t want to be cynical, and I don’t think you want to be cynical either. You don’t want to feel helpless or hopeless either. If we are truly people of faith, then we should be people of both hope and help. It doesn’t mean living in denial of reality. It means being part of a birthing a new reality, one that is better for all. Jesus calls this the good news, the merging of heaven and earth, “thy kingdom come,” as he taught us to pray, and Christ invites us to participate in the bringing about of that kingdom.
The great Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann talks about the gift of the prophets as their ability to see how differently things could be. They recognize present realities, but they do not resign to letting them have the last word. Tomorrow, our country recognizes Martin Luther King Day. He is most famous for a speech that lays out in vivid pictures a dream for how it could be. There was every reason for him to be pessimistic, excessively pessimistic, and yet he, like others in the movement, was able to see through the fog of societal evil to move the world a step closer to the kingdom come. His good news was that we could be better.
Now unfortunately, or ironically, or perhaps simply tellingly, the speech I chose of his to lift up today is not one of his more obviously hopeful ones. I plan worship a year at a time, so I chose the speech long ago. This is no “I Have a Dream” or “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” giving hope even on the doorstep of his death. The tenor is more somber. The pace doesn’t pick up in characteristic fashion. In 2017, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the speech, The New Yorker called it “searing.”[3] It was also roundly criticized, by familiar opponents and some allies alike. The speech was his denunciation of the War in Vietnam. It’s long. It’s a plodding and methodical. It’s critical. It’s heavy.
Why did King speak as he did then? Why did I select this particular speech? Was King so discouraged that he had lost grasp of a sense of hope and starting to feel helpless? Was I? King indicates himself that he was reluctant to speak out on the matter. He says, “the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony,” concluding, “but we must speak.”[4] A prophet’s reluctance is always a good sign, by the way. The Bible isn’t just a litany of prophets; it’s a litany of reluctant prophets. Anyone who enjoys rushing to tell everyone how wrong we are or how chosen they are, should raise suspicion, perhaps of motive, but certainly of understanding. You shake the world because it needs reordering not because you take pleasure in the upset you cause. King’s love of Jesus, his responsibility as a preacher of the gospel, gave him no choice in his mind, but to speak, to offer words that pierced through what he perceived as false, to make a space for a truer way to enter in.
That’s how prophets work. Isaiah, one of the great prophets of the ancestors, says in today’s first reading, “God made my mouth like a sharp sword…God made me polished arrow,” (Is. 49:2). Similarly, Jesus spoke of bringing a sword, which is not a literal call to violence, but rather a metaphor that the truth he spoke would cut through falseness and would be divisive. He was quite clear about that.
So, how do I reconcile these two messages, the first—facts that demonstrate measurable progress—and the second—truth about the real challenges and injustices that persist? I don’t because I don’t think they need to be reconciled. They’re both true, and we need both. Too much doom and gloom and we are lost in despair. Too much unsubstantiated optimism and we are lost in denial. As Christians, we sing that while once we may have been lost, now we are found in Christ. Jesus both faced the worst society has to offer and showed us a new world by rising to new life. Jesus offered us hope in the face of what seems impossible. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes to this little group of people who must have felt the world was against them. Talk about feeling small and helpless, yet Paul says to them that Christ will give them the strength and the tools they need to do what it takes to endure until the fullness of God’s way is made manifest in the world. “Christ will strengthen you to the end,” says Paul, and maybe the key for us to remember is that the end isn’t here yet.
This is why both lifting up encouraging signs and pointing out challenging realities can combat the kind of hopelessness and helplessness that is harmful, because both point us to the possibility of the moment. There is still time. W…
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Nov 24, 2019
Scatter or Gather? (begins at 25:57)
Jeremiah 23:1-6
1Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD. 2Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the LORD. 3Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the LORD.
5The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness." THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
“Scatter or Gather”
A former Presbyterian pastor once said to me, “When I was working, I always tried to keep it so that half the church loved me and half the church really wanted to get rid of me.” Surprisingly, it’s not a technique they teach in seminary, but this man was very proud of this nugget of wisdom. It gets better. He continued, “Then about every year or two I try and get the two halves to switch sides.” His career in ministry was brief.
I think what we recognize in his approach is that while division is sometimes the byproduct of standing up for what’s right, it’s not a proper end goal. Division comes with a cost so it should be worth the price. If you are successful in creating division, but have no discernable higher purpose, you do not win, you, simply put, sin.
I contrast that experience with one I had at a recent Marin Interfaith Council fundraiser. A woman who was there on behalf of the Green Gulch Zen Center and recognized me from a funeral I did for a prominent community member last year. We were talking about some of the difficulties of our time, and in a way only a spiritually grounded person can, she got animated while remaining totally peaceful. She spoke with conviction that our role as leaders is to help people stay grounded through spiritual practices so we can show up to difficult moments in ways resist the temptation to bifurcate, to demean the other, for doing so denies our fundamental interconnectedness. We are the ones who need to sit in those contested spaces differently, with a different kind of presence. This is not about being nice, but about moving us forward.
It was not a strictly “spiritual” conversation. The woman spoke of neuroscience and biology, how we relate to each other as organisms. In fact, her imagery was of us all belonging to a larger living unified body. Before you dismiss this as “out there,” recall how eerily similar this is to the language used by the Apostle Paul and his followers. When we show up to a space seeking healing and growth, we foster health for the larger body. When we show up toting hostility and violence, we don’t simply hurt the other; we poison the universal body we share.
Her plea was not for neutrality, the notion that we should have no convictions, that we should have no values, that we should stand for nothing, lest we offend or make one another uncomfortable. That is immature or unevolved or unexamined spirituality, and it has found a prominent place in contemporary Christianity. No, she was speaking, as I would put it, of nonduality. Nonduality literally means, “there is no 2.” You and I are not fundamentally separate, disconnected, different. Neutrality is to sit on the sidelines. Nonduality is a refusal to accept the construct that there are two teams, even as it acknowledges historical realities of privilege or power differential, past harms, identity, and substantive disagreement. At the core there is only One.
The prophet Jeremiah says, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” (Jer. 23:1). Jeremiah is critiquing the leaders of his day who have forgotten their charge is to tend the flock, not cut it up. They have made full use of the stick side of the crook to keep members in line, but forgetful of the hook was used to pull back to safety the wandering sheep to keep the heard intact. God promises to restore the severed fold and promises to raise up leaders who better recognize their vocation.
Christians see Christ as the ultimate fulfilment of this prophetic vision. The image in Jeremiah shifts to that of a king, which is where we get such titles for Christ, even though Christ is not your typical king. Christ doesn’t conquer with violence, rule from a place of power, govern through fear of the suffering he can inflict. He wins people over with radical love. He empties himself of all privilege. He governs through solidarity with the least by showing how much suffering he can endure. His crook is well worn, gathering in the lost and catching up the left behind, and he is all to happy for the abuser of power to be pulled back in when they’re ready to change. Today we call “Christ the King” or “The Reign of Christ” Sunday, since we’re not much fans of monarchy (or patriarchy). It’s the final Sunday in the Christian year, as if to underline that the bottom line is Christ’s way is the ultimate way of being.
Jesus wasn’t neutral; that reading guts his ministry of all its content. He certainly stood for things. What he was, was nondual. He refused to discard the other as other. He saw the imago dei, the image of God, in all, even those he opposes, and he opposed many. The gospels are, among other things, a litany of all those he opposes, typically those who use power to gain advantage over and exploit others. I’m not the first to point out that Jesus said, “Love your enemies,” in part because he recognized we were going to have some. We used to have fun with that realization in seminary, everyone listing their enemies.
What’s remarkable is what Jesus does with his enemies. While he pulls no punches in warning them of the harm they will inherit for their actions (see Matthew 25), he leaves that judgment to God. When facing his very own executioners he says, “they know not what they do” (Lk. 23:34). In other words, they may not recognize me as part of them, but I still recognize them as part of me. When Jesus says, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 12:31) he’s not saying love your neighbor as much as yourself. He says love your neighbor as yourself. It’s not about quantity; it’s recognizing you and your neighbor are one.
This understanding is what leads the author of Colossians from which you heard earlier to proclaim, “in Christ all things hold together.” All things. The words are carefully chosen. It’s not just that all people hold together; it’s the entire cosmos. There were ancient maps that tried to depict this. These were not flat earthers—historians will tell you the notion the earth was flat was never a widespread belief. Let me show you. This is called the Ebstorf map. You can see the world is a circle, but at the top is Jesus’ head, the bottom Jesus’ feet, and at each side one of Jesus’ hands. The whole creation is held together inside Christ. It’s an entirely different way of understanding geography. Within this world you cannot see anything as profane, anything as expendable, anything or anyone as anything but infused with the Christ, with God. If you accept that claim, th…
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Nov 17, 2019
Waiting Game (begins at 29:53)
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
6Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. 7For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, 8and we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. 9This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. 10For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.
11For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. 12Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. 13Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right. THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
“Waiting Game”
Recently Live from Here the NPR program that replaced A Prairie Home Companion, rebroadcast a Father’s Day Special. On it, a woman offered a touching reflection on her relationship with her father. She spoke about all the lessons she learned from him, all the little phrases and practices he had. For example, even though they never had very much, he would say it’s always a good time to be generous. Whenever they were stuck waiting—it could be traffic or a long line—he would say, “Time is never wasted when you’re with someone you love.” He faithfully used these otherwise frustrating moments of waiting to reaffirm his love.
Today’s Newer Testament passage is about waiting in a way that was not so faithful. It’s a passage that’s not well understood and therefore often misapplied. The author condemns idleness, disavows taking handouts, and conditions eating on being willing to work. One interpretation of these values has permeated our society. We have a real disdain for those we deem not doing their share. While we can all recognize the value of personal responsibility, the biblical author is not, in fact, addressing the general topic of free-riding. The context is specific. Among early Christians, there was a widespread belief that Jesus was coming back to usher in the kingdom of heaven. They may have expected this to be a fulfillment of prophecies such as the one you hear from Isaiah today, the coming of “a new heaven and a new earth” (Is. 65:17). Apparently, some had taken this as license to sit around and do nothing, letting others carry on with the daily work. Why bother, God’s going to come back and fix this?
2 Thessalonians seeks to expand the timeframe of Christ’s return, and to shape the way people live in the meantime. They are to settle in for the long haul, and thus should “do their work quietly and earn their own living” (2 Thess. 3:11-12). The last line of the passage is the real bottom line: “do not be weary in doing what is right.” With whatever time we have as a people or as individuals, never tire of doing what is right.
Which is not to say never tire of doing, and I fear that is where our emphasis all too often lands. The text does not say never tire of doing. I wonder if we’d be kinder, better neighbors, more connected, with more solid judgment if we didn’t treat workaholism as a badge of honor, activity as a measure of our worth. No, here the biblical author is saying, as Martin Luther King put it much later, the “time is always right to do what is right.”[1] Now is always the moment to do what is right, good, truthful, helpful, faithful, what has integrity.
In a world where so much can seem wrong, that can feel a futile effort. Interestingly, 2 Thessalonians doesn’t concern itself much here with future outcomes. Its emphasis is firmly on the present. Don’t be concerned about what will happen then; do what is right now and let then take care of itself. This takes incredible discipline, but it yields an enormous freedom of mind as it liberates us from the endless machinations of how things might go or rehashing how things went. When we live primarily in the present, anxiety goes down since anxiety is a function of a fixation on that past or the future. More opportunities to do what is right start to spring up like previously hidden flowers appearing all around.
What can we do here and now? I saw the great theologian Matthew Fox this past year and one of his remarks that stuck with me was that in the midst of all the existential crises facing our species right now, it is an incredible privilege to be alive right now. We have been chosen on some level to be here now. Consider the choices before us which have the power to shape the very existence of our species not to mention many others. That’s a rather grand thing, but grand things are rooted in tiny things. Tiny things can have a big impact.
Today begins the Alternative Christmas Fair, our tiny attempt to adjust the way we have come to “celebrate” Christmas. I don’t have to tell you how we have allowed a celebration of the birth of Jesus into a ritualized—and I use that word intentionally—celebration of commercialism. The Alternative Christmas Fair transforms the “marketplace” into a place where we can make donations to worthy causes in honor of those we care about. As small as it may seem, it helps reorients us. It helps us practice doing what is right, what is good, helpful, faithful, and has integrity in this moment.
It also has a tangible impact on others. These are such worthy causes, perhaps more so than how we would otherwise spend our money this season. The church commissions select the causes and listen to what they have chosen and what your giving means:
Congregational Life Commission is supporting is the Marin Foster Care Association. Last week I heard Michael Steele, former head of the Republican National Committee, at the Marin Speaker Series. I was totally caught off guard when he spoke of his beginnings as an orphan. He described movingly his mother walking through a room with rows of cribs to find him reaching up through the rails to her. “That’s the one,” she said. There are children right now reaching out looking for someone to say that to them and organizations like this help make sure someone is there to reach back.
Outreach is sponsoring Bridge the Gap, providing tutoring and college prep to low income families and others who have an uphill climb just to get to the place from which many of us started. Bridge the Gap delivers academic support, nutritious meals, and just as importantly it connects people, caring and supportive adults with young people who deserve to have dreams too.
Our own youth programs can be supported through the Alternative Christmas Fair. Young people of every background need the types of experiences our youth ministry provides. In its own way, this is a hard place to grow up. Our youth ministry is generous, giving abundantly to those who have greater material need when on yearly mission trips and our generosity enables theirs.
Congregational Life is also sponsoring the Center for Domestic Peace, an organization that would prefer to name itself after a positive promise, domestic peace, rather than the all too common negative reality of domestic violence. Just recently someone told me they heard a 911 dispatcher say the number one call they receive is domestic violence. You can be a part of supporting a hotline, a safe house, transitional housing, counseling, and legal help to those who need it as well as services for abusers so they might be healed of their ways too.
Women of Westminster continue their sponsorship of the Canal Alliance, in which a number of you have been involved I know. Canal Alliance offers various programs,…
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Nov 10, 2019
Road Work (begins at 25:53)
Sermon text unavailable.
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Oct 20, 2019
Persistence (begins at 35:33)
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.
Persistence
You may remember back in 2017, when the US Senate was examining Jeff Sessions as the nominee for Attorney General. Elizabeth Warren chose to read a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King, which criticized Mr. Sessions when he was, at that time, up for a federal judgeship. Presiding Senate chair Steve Daines and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell intervened to stop Warren, citing a Senate rule that forbids demeaning another Senator. McConnell later explained, “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”[i]
That line then became a rallying cry for women’s rights and feminist advocates across the country. The theme of Women’s History Month in March of 2018 became “Nevertheless, she persisted.” Suddenly, you could by all kinds of swag with the phrase, “Nevertheless, she persisted.” T-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers … you name it. Memes broke out across social media highlighting women throughout history who have shown persistence.
I don’t think the widow from this story from Luke’s Gospel made it into any of these memes, but she certainly could have. The story says that she kept coming to the judge, asking for justice. The judge keeps refusing, and she persists and persists, continuing to seek the justice she has been denied. Finally the judge relents. “I will grant her justice,” he says, “so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”
Last week, Rob’s sermon was about both the importance of planting gardens and finding beauty in whatever situation we find ourselves, and the continuing call to be actively engaged in our community seeking justice. It is no mistake that our readings this week continue to focus on this theme. These readings highlight the fact that seeking justice is hard work. It requires persistence. It is often a long road. There will be people who disagree with us. We will face roadblocks. Nevertheless, we are called to persist. “Be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable,” says the letter to Timothy. The work of justice is not easy. Yet we persist.
I have been inspired by the persistent work of some local groups as they have advocated for justice. The Marin Organizing Committee, for example, is having a big 10 year anniversary convention next Sunday. They will celebrate some of the justice issues for which they have advocated in the past 10 years, including affordable housing and renter protections. Their work has not been easy. They have had setbacks. They have had people disagree with them. Multiple potential sites for a homeless shelter in Marin, for example, have fallen through as neighbors have complained and city and county codes have proved insurmountable. Nevertheless, they have persisted. A new “housing first” model has been adopted in Marin, and has helped many people who were experiencing homelessness finally find housing.
The local Moms Demand Action group has been meeting here at Westminster for the last several months. They are dedicated to reducing gun violence, mostly by advocating for gun sense legislation – things like mandatory background checks and waiting periods. They have certainly faced setbacks, as they have watched bills they support stall in committee or simply never come for a vote. Earlier this month, State Assemblyman Marc Levine was here reporting on a bill the group had been supporting. It is currently stuck in the appropriations committee, and Levine was not optimistic it would ever move out of that committee. Nevertheless, they persist. They continue to write letters to elected officials, to phone bank, to educate.
Just last week, Alex McNeill was ordained into the ministry. He is the first openly transgender man to be ordained by the Presbyterian church. At his ordination service, The Rev. Janie Spahr – a good friend of Westminster – was mentioned multiple times. The Rev. Scott Clark reflected, “As we celebrated the ordination of the Rev. Alex McNeill, many of us noted all the ways that Janie has opened the way for days like this — through her tenacious (persistent!) insistence that God’s love is for all people; through the love and encouragement she’s offered so many of us; through her prophetic and pastoral witness to a church that was slow to be as loving; and through all the ways that she gathers and embodies a community of love.” Throughout Janie’s career, time and time again, the church has brought charges against her as she tirelessly advocated for justice for the LGBT community. With each new charge, she persisted. And last week she got to celebrate at Alex’s ordination.
The work of justice requires persistence. It is so often difficult. But, let us not forget that it can also bring rejoicing. The work of justice also requires discernment. Elizabeth Warren would argue that on that fateful day in the Senate chambers, she was persisting on behalf of justice. The letter she was reading argued that Sessions used “the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens” while serving as a United States attorney in Alabama. Warren would argue that she was attempting to give the voiceless a voice – that her persistence was absolutely necessary in the pursuit of justice. Others would say that she was clearly breaking a rule. That she needed to have respect for the rules of the Senate. That her persistence was rude and uncalled for.
We need to be able discern when and how to persist. My four-year-old nephew, for example, is still learning this. He is perhaps the most persistent child I know. But he does not always use his persistence for good. Lately my sister has been struggling with him trashing his room when he is supposed to be taking his afternoon nap. She keeps taking things out of his room, and he keeps finding new things to use to make a mess. It is a constant battle. Luckily, my good-natured sister is taking the long view. She told me the other day that as she struggles through this, she just hopes that he will learn to use his persistence for good one day.
So how do we decide? How do we know when to persist for justice? According to our readings today, a good start is to ground ourselves in scripture and in prayer. The writer of the letter to Timothy reminds him that from childhood he has known the sacred writings that are able to instruct him. That scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching and for training in righteousness. Some people, says the writer, will not put up with sound doctrine and will find teachers to suit their own desires, but we are to continue in what we have learned from scripture. To persistently proclaim the message.
Luk…
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Oct 13, 2019
Just Gardens or Justice? (begins at 33:27)
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
1These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
4Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
Just Gardens or Justice?
Is life about cultivating the ability to find peace and joy, if not happiness, in the midst of chaos, unfairness, and suffering, in essence making the best of a bad situation? Or, is it about changing the circumstances that breed chaos, unfairness, and suffering? This is a fundamental question, is it not? A similar question was posed in a graduate ethics course I took, and to the professor’s surprise, most of us answered that life was really about being able to find peace in any circumstance. The question was not framed in terms of justice, but rather vocation and personal happiness. We argued that it shouldn’t matter what one did in life because the goal should be able to find peace anywhere and everywhere. The professor pushed back. “Wouldn’t you rather find somewhere where you can dance?” he asked. Why, insofar as you have choices, choose something you have to work so hard to endure, especially if there are options where your gifts and passions can more naturally be expressed?
Who was right? Is the goal to learn how to endure suffering or avert it for yourself and others? There are merits to both sides. On the one hand, no matter what you do, how much success you have, how much money you get, you will never fully escape suffering. Be very wary of anyone who tries to convince you otherwise. We do have to learn to exist in the midst of circumstances we would not choose. As Viktor Frankl once famously said, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”[1] That is the classic extreme example, for Frankl knew about having everything taken from him. He survived Auschwitz and three other Nazi camps. Though hopefully to lesser degrees, we all have opportunities to choose the attitude we bring to a circumstance we wouldn’t choose.
On the other hand, we also have opportunities, and some would say an obligation, to challenge and change the very circumstances that bring about suffering. There’s the old parable of a village that sits aside a river. One day, a woman notices a baby floating down stream. She rushes out to save the baby. However, another one appears, and then another. In a few days it’s taking everyone in the village just to pull these babies to safety. Finally, someone suggests going upstream to see what’s causing the babies to be thrown into the river in the first place. The goal—to address the problem at its source, change the circumstances.[2]
These two themes flow right through our two readings. In Jeremiah there is this beautiful, if painful, challenge to the people who live as exiles, refugees in a foreign land. Make the best of it. “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce,” have families, keeping your people alive. However, it’s not just about your people, “seek the welfare of the city…for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jer. 29:5-7). Be a blessing to the community around you, the community you didn’t choose. It is an acknowledgment that some circumstances won’t change as quickly as we would like. In the meantime, we are called to learn to put down roots and bear fruit. In lingua Frankl, when your external choices have been taken from you, choose your attitude.
Psalm 66, on the other hand, celebrates God for changing the circumstances of a people. “How awesome are your deeds! Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you…Come and see what God has done…God turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot,” recalling the Exodus from slavery to freedom (v.3, 5-6). The presumption is that is faithful to cry to have one’s circumstances changed, and that God sometimes does precisely that. Does this mean it is only God who can change circumstances and we should always leave the systemic change up to God? Hardly, for we can find countless passages where commandments are given to people to change the plight of others. Seeking justice is part of faith. Remember in Isaiah, where God scoffs at religious rituals such as fasting saying, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” Jesus, too, breaks religious law to feed people, violates all manner of custom to make people well and restored to the community. He deals not only with the interpersonal but is finally executed precisely because he questions the religious and political structures of his day.
An example from today, one that I have been avoiding because it’s difficult, raises some of these questions and more. Botham Jean was shot and killed in his own apartment by Amber Guyger who claimed she mistook his apartment for her own and therefore him for an intruder. Botham was black and Amber is white and a police officer. We know all too well the fault lines this exposes in our society. If you have followed the story, you know that a rather extraordinary thing happened at Guyger’s sentencing after she was convicted of the murder. Botham’s brother Brandt forgave Guyger and moreover asked the judge if he could give her a hug.
What’s so complicated? This is a moving display of forgiveness, one that conjures memory of the Amish school shooting of some years ago and that community’s radical commitment to forgiveness. As I started to read African Americans’ response to the forgiveness scene, I quickly realized that many weren’t having it. They had grown weary of the narrative that black peoples’ role was to be violated and be forgiving about it. What about the too infrequently untold story of the systemic violation along lines of race. It turns out, Guyger sent racist text messages just days before she killed Botham.[3] What about the obligation to go upstream to try and stop the killing.
To complicate it even further, other African Americans I read, because of course there are diverse African American perspectives, were saying, wait a minute, you want to talk about disempowering a black man, then decide for him how he should respond! If he wants to forgive, that’s his choice. You take away his agency by deciding for him what he should do or not do.
Other voices still said, well Brandt, Botham’s brother, can forgive for himself, but the real victim, Botham, is dead and he doesn’t get that choice.
Do you see how difficult this is, how complicated? That doesn’t excuse us from exercising moral responsibility. We have to wade into the stream because people are dying.
So, do we forgive, do we keep our heads down and carry on until something changes? (Or) Do we work to make things change? Do we grow gardens? (Or) Do seek justice? Yes. Of course, the answer is yes to both. Botham’s brother’s act of forgiveness might look like simply making the…
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Sep 29, 2019
Life That Is Really Life (begins at 30:51)
1 Timothy 6:6-19
6Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; 7for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; 8but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. 9But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
11But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you…
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Sep 22, 2019
Salvation (begins at 26:02)
1 Timothy 2:1-7
1First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. 3This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, 6who gave himself a ransom for all-this was attested at the right time. 7For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
Salvation
It’s a movie scene. A car has gone off the road. A young couple is inside motionless, the driver is alive, eyes open, but can’t move. The passenger lays limp next to him. Her condition is unclear.…
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Sep 15, 2019
Lost and Found (begins at 26:15)
Luke 15:1-10
Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.”
“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying,…
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Sep 8, 2019
Good Clay (begins at 24:22)
Jeremiah 18:1-11
1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2"Come, go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words." 3So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.
5Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the LORD. Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. 9And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I wi…
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Aug 25, 2019
Only a... (begins at 24:41)
Jeremiah 1:4-10
4Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, 5"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." 6Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." 7But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy'; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, 8Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." 9Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth. 10See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
Only a…
Over the summer, I had a chance to reunite with some of my high school friends; it happened to be friends with whom I was in a band, apropos for today…
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Aug 18, 2019
Division (begins at 33:18)
Luke 12:49-56
49"I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."
54He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, 'It is going to rain'; and so it happens. 55And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat'; and it happens. 56You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. Thank…
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Jul 28, 2019
Focus (begins at 24:04)
Luke 10:38-42
Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Focus
Mary and Martha, 15 years later. Adapted from Maren Tirabassi.[i]
Martha: Your flowers are beautiful, Mary.
Mary: Your vegetables are delicious, Martha.
Martha: The meals we share together – two sisters under one roof - is, indeed, the very best.
Mary: I couldn’t agree more!
Martha: You k…
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Jul 21, 2019
Hold Together (begins at 29:22)
Colossians 1:15-28
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-all things have been created through him and for him. 17He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
21And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him-23provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, witho…
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Jul 14, 2019
Missing the Point
Luke 10:25-37
25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" 27He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." 28And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."
29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34He wen…
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Jun 30, 2019
Third Person Singular Present Indicative
Text unavailable.
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Jun 23, 2019
Declaring God's Marvelous Works
Galatians 1:6-12
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed! Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ. For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Declaring God’s Marvelous Works
At the risk of bor…
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May 26, 2019
Gate or River?
Acts 16:9-15
9During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." 10When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.
11We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, 12and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. 13On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. 14A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. 15When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have…
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May 19, 2019
Balancing Act
Acts 11:1-18
1Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. 2So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, 3saying, "Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?" 4Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, 5"I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. 6As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7I also heard a voice saying to me, 'Get up, Peter; kill and eat.' 8But I replied, 'By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' 9But a second time the voice answered from heaven, 'What God has made clean, you must not call profane.' 10This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. 11At that very moment thre…
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May 12, 2019
Reappearance
John 21:1-14
1After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. 2Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 3Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
4Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5Jesus said to them, "Children, you have no fish, have you?" They answered him, "No." 6He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 7That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. 8But the…
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Feb 24, 2019
The Arc
Psalm 37: 21-40
21 The wicked borrow, and do not pay back,
but the righteous are generous and keep giving;
22 for those blessed by the Lord shall inherit the land,
but those cursed by him shall be cut off.
23 Our steps are made firm by the Lord,
when he delights in our way;
24 though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong,
for the Lord holds us by the hand.
25 I have been young, and now am old,
yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
or their children begging bread.
26 They are ever giving liberally and lending,
and their children become a blessing.
27 Depart from evil, and do good;
so you shall abide for ever.
28 For the Lord loves justice;
The Lord will not forsake his faithful ones.
The righteous shall be kept safe for ever,
but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
29 The righteous shall inherit the land,
and live in it for ever.
30 The mouths of the righteous utter…
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Feb 17, 2019
Upside Down
Luke 6:17-26 - Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are f…
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Feb 10, 2019
Gathered
Luke 5:1-11
1Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch."
5Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." 6When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinf…
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Jan 27, 2019
What's the News?
Luke 4:14-21
14Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 20And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD.…
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Jan 20, 2019
The Label Maker
Sermon text unavailable.
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Jan 13, 2019
Where Else?
Isaiah 43:1-7
1But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
3For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.
4Because you are precious in my sight,
and honored, and I love you,
I give people in return for you,
nations in exchange for your life.
5Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you;
6I will say to the north, "Give them up,"
and to the south, "Do not withhold;
bring my sons from far away
and my daughters from the end of the earth —
7everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glo…
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Nov 25, 2018
King?
John 18:33-37
33Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" 34Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" 35Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?" 36Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here." 37Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
King?
I invite you to take a moment and call to mind a particularly peaceful place. Close your eyes if that helps. It might be a place from your childhoo…
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Nov 11, 2018
Finding a Way
Ruth 4:13-17
So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When they came together, the LORD made her conceive, and she bore a son. 14Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin; and may his name be renowned in Israel! 15He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him." 16Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and became his nurse. 17The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, "A son has been born to Naomi." They named him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David. THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
Finding a Way
Nearly two centuries ago, a woman left her home in Virginia to settle in the Midwest. Unsure of what she’d find and afraid of what she was leaving behind she began a letter with the sentence, “Goodbye God, I’m moving to Indian…
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Oct 28, 2018
Access & Kinship
Mark 10:46-52
46They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. 47When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 48Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" 49Jesus stood still and said, "Call him here." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take heart; get up, he is calling you." 50So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51Then Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man said to him, "My teacher, let me see again." 52Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
Access & Kinship
Father Gregory Boyle is a Catholic Priest and founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest ministry for gang me…
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Oct 21, 2018
Master Class
Mark 10:35-45
35James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." 36And he said to them, "What is it you want me to do for you?" 37And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." 38But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" 39They replied, "We are able." Then Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; 40but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared."
41When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. 42So Jesus called them and said to them, "You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyr…
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Oct 14, 2018
Wedding Crashers
Hebrews 4:12-16
12Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.
14Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. 16Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
Wedding Crashers
I was in San Francisco for a wedding last weekend and it was a glorious occasion in a beautiful part of the city. I…
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Sep 30, 2018
About You
Mark 9:38-50
38John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." 39But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40Whoever is not against us is for us. 41For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
42"If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. 43If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. 47And if your eye causes you to stumb…
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Sep 23, 2018
Gentleness and Power
James 3:13-4:4
13Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. 14But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. 15Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. 16For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. 17But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. 18And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
4:1 Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 2You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3…
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Sep 16, 2018
Wisdom
Psalm 19:1-4
1The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
2Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
3There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
4yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
Wisdom
We gathered at our bedroom window. It was only some time that our young son spotted the second baby dear nestled in the brush its markings rendering it barely visible. They were clearly born that morning, for when they tried to stand, their legs wobbled and with each attempted step they lost more ground on the steep embankment than they gained. Remembering that does often leave their young in a safe place to go scavenge for food, we trusted she’d be back. Sure enough, hours later, mother returned, the fawns nursed, and they were off not to be seen again for weeks.…
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Aug 26, 2018
On the Beach
The second reading features King Solomon speaking at the completion of the building of the temple. The temple, as you know, was seen not only as a monument or a gathering place for people, but the very the dwelling place for the living God.
1 Kings 8: 27-30, 41-43
27"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built! 28Regard your servant's prayer and his plea, O LORD my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today; 29that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you said, 'My name shall be there,' that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. 30Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling place; heed and forgive."
41"Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your name 42 — for the…
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Aug 19, 2018
Her Strength. Now.
Ephesians 5:15-20
15Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
Her Strength. Now.
I wonder how many of you have followed the story of the mother orca whale carrying her dead calf. It is common practice for whales to lift their newborns to the surface so they can breathe, but this calf had died and yet the mother persisted. Over the last twenty years, three-fourths of the newborn orcas have not survived in the endangered Southern Resident orca population.[1] Some wondered if this mot…
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Aug 12, 2018
Your Neighbor
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
25So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. 26Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and do not make room for the devil. 28Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. 29Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 31Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, 32and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant off…
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Jul 29, 2018
Dwelling Place
Ephesians 3:14-21 - For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of God’s glory, God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through God’s Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to God who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
A Dwelling Place
I want to start by sharing a joy from my family. My sister had a baby last week! I have a new nephew named Cooper. She also has a…
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Jul 22, 2018
A Prayer For Every Day
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished praying, his disciples said to him, Lord teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples. He said to them, when you pray, say
Father,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.
Note: the Maori version of the Lord’s Prayer from the New Zealand Prayer Book was also read.
A Prayer for Every Day
Let’s talk about prayer. And life. And food. I don’t know if you pray or in what way. I’m often surprised, when speaking with groups or individuals about prayer, how many pray or meditate in a consciously prayerful way. The Wednesday class this month is engaged in a series on prayer “out of the box,” with the intent of discovering the varieties of prayer--spoken, unspoken, long, short, in all kinds of situations. Prayers can have words of course, whether many or few. Som…
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Jul 8, 2018
Weak
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
2I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. 3And I know that such a person — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows — 4was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. 5On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. 6But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, 7even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. 8Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, 9but he said to me, "My grace is su…
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Jun 24, 2018
Faith vs Fear
Mark 4:35-41
35On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
Fear vs. Faith
Why are you afraid? This is Jesus’ question. I have probably said in here before that the most common commandm…
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Jun 17, 2018
Three Words from God
A word before the second reading. Topics of a certain weight deserve some advance notice, and so I mention to you now that later in the sermon I will touch upon suicide. I mean to do so in a way that’s supportive, and I simply mention it to you now to give you a moment to be prepared if this is a particularly difficult subject for you…
1 Samuel 15:34-35
15:34Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. 35Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LORD was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel. THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
Three Words from God
That second reading was to be much longer, but I just couldn’t make it past that stunning last sentence: “And the LORD was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel” (1 Sam. 25). God was sorry!? This flies in the face of so much of what we grow up hearing about God—namely that God is perfect, all-controlling, uncha…
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Jun 10, 2018
Choral Spring Special
No sermon, audio of Sunday worship only.
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Jun 3, 2018
Rowdy Vessels
2 Corinthians 4:5-12
5For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 11For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. 12So death is at work in us, but life in you. THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD. Amen.
Rowdy Vessels…
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May 27, 2018
Equipped and Clipped
Isaiah 6:1-8
1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
6Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” 8Then I heard the voice of the…
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May 20, 2018
Hold On
1The hand of the Lord came upon me, and the Lord brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2The Lord led me all round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3The Lord said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4Then the Lord said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.“
7So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no…
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May 13, 2018
The Whole Story
Acts 1: 15-26
15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred and twenty people) and said, 16‘Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus— 17for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.’ 18(Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. 19This became known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language Hakeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20‘For it is written in the book of Psalms,
“Let his homestead become desolate, and let there be no one to live in it”; and “Let another take his position of overseer.”
21So one of the men who have accompanied us throughout the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22beginning from the baptism of John…
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May 6, 2018
Come to the Table
John 15:8-17 – My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in God’s love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. I am giving you these…
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Apr 29, 2018
Bad Chicken...Mess You Up!
1 John 4:7-21
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15 God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in love…
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Apr 22, 2018
Folded In
No sermon text. This week’s sermon was “The Story of the Good Shepherd” from our new Sunday School program, Our Sacred Stories.
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Apr 15, 2018
That is What We Are
1 John 3:1-3
1See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 3And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
That is What We Are
My wife tells of a pastor who always ended baptisms by holding up the child and pronouncing, “See what love the Father has for us that we would be called children of God; and that is what we are.” In baptism we are not merely conferring a blessing; we are telling a beautiful story about the person, about who they are, and where they fit. The importance of being rooted in a good story cannot be overestimated, for the stories we believe about ourselves, we b…
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Apr 8, 2018
You are the Material
Acts 10:34-43 - Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and t…
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Feb 11, 2018
First Follower
Mark 9:2-9
2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. 4And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ 6He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ 8Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
First Follower
Do you know that saying,…
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Feb 4, 2018
When Things Fall Apart
Mark 1:29-39
29As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
32That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
35In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” 38He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” 39And h…
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Jan 28, 2018
Construction Equipment
Mark 1:21-28
21They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”
25But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.
27They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching — with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”28At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
Construction Equipment
One of my delights since turning in my dissertation has been the c…
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Jan 21, 2018
Abounding in Steadfast Love
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that God had said he would bring upon them; and God did not do it.
Abounding in Steadfast Love
I read just those verses from the story of Jonah, because that is what the lectionary for today suggests. However, as I was thinking about what to say about those specific verses this morning, I realized that it is rather impossible to…
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Jan 14, 2018
What to Do with Freedom
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
12“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,” and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.” 17But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. 19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, a…
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Jan 7, 2018
The Edge of Faith
Mark 1:4-11
4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
The…
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Nov 26, 2017
Faces
Matthew 25:31-46
31“When the Son of Humanity comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’
37Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you…
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Nov 19, 2017
Endurance
Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
Psalm 100
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord is God. It is God that made us, and we are hers; we are her people, and the sheep of her pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to God, bless her name. For the Lord is good; God’s steadfast love endures forever, and God’s faithfulness to al…
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Nov 12, 2017
Choose
Joshua 24: 1-3a, 14-27
Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many.”
“Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve the Lord in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Then the people an…
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Nov 5, 2017
Re-formed
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
9You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was toward you believers. 11As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, 12urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
13We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers. THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD. THANKS BE TO GOD.
Re-Formed
I have had a reminder of this year’s 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation on my desk since my brother-in-law traveled to Europe last year and brought it back…This is Lego Marti…
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Oct 29, 2017
Playing Small
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
1Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the LORD showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan, 2all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, 3the Negeb, and the Plain — that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees — as far as Zoar. 4The LORD said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants’; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.” 5Then Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord’s command. 6He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day. 7Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated. 8The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days…
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Oct 22, 2017
Exclusion
Matthew 22:1-14
1Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ 5But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ 10Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad;…
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Oct 15, 2017
Invitation
Matthew 22:1-14
1Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ 5But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ 10Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad;…
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Oct 8, 2017
Getting Your Life Back
Exodus 20:1-17
1 Then God spoke all these words:
2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3you shall have no other gods before me.4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9For six days you shall labour and do all your work. 10But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you…
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Oct 1, 2017
God With Us
Exodus 17:1-7 From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of th…
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Sep 24, 2017
Seeing is Believing
Exodus 16:2-15
2The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
4Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. 5On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.“ 6So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord. For what are we, that you complain agains…
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Sep 17, 2017
Breaking Cycles
Matthew 18:21-35
21Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” 22Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.
23“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. 26So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. 28But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29Then his fellow slave fell do…
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Sep 10, 2017
Welcome Back
Matthew 18:15-18
These are the words of Jesus: “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. 16But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven...” THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD. THANKS BE TO GOD. Welcome Back
Welcome back, those of you who have been traveling for the summer or are perhaps visiting in search of a church home. We call this Sunday our “Ingathering,” when we kickoff the program year. It’s particularly special as we mark the 60t…
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Aug 27, 2017
What's Stopping You
No sermon text available. Audio of scripture reading, followed by sermon begins at 35:00
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Aug 20, 2017
No
Today’s second reading comes from the 15th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. It is a lectionary selection, meaning it was chosen for today long ago, yet many of you might find it timely. Hear the words of our savior…
Matthew 15:10-20
10Then Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: 11it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”
12Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?”
13He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.”
15But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.”
16Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer…
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Aug 13, 2017
Talk Ourselves Out of It
Genesis 37:12-28
12Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. 13And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “Here I am.” 14So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron.
He came to Shechem, 15and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” 16“I am seeking my brothers,” he said; “tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” 17The man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. 18They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. 19They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. 20Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say…
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Aug 6, 2017
The Face of God
Author and blogger Rick Hamlin shares a story about going for a morning jog one day. He writes, “As I jogged, I called to a neighbor. ‘Good morning! Keep it up.’ She used to be a walker and now was jogging. Pretty impressive. She deserved all the encouragement I could muster. ‘You too,’ she called back to me.
I turned the corner and spotted a man with a dog picking mulberries off the tree and eating them. ‘Taste good?’ I asked as I huffed and puffed. He nodded and smiled.
Going up the hill, I caught the glorious scent of cut grass, the blades brushing against my shoes. ‘Morning,’ I said to the man I see every morning when I jog. Same spot, same time. Today he was wearing a T-shirt with Martin Luther King Jr.’s portrait on it. ‘Nice shirt,’ I said. He waved.
Out of the park, heading back home, I saw my neighbor Michael running toward me. His wife had a very scary cancer diagnosis three months ago. I’ve been praying for her and for him. What a roller coaster…
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Jul 30, 2017
An Honest Look
During a recent board meeting for Heartbeat, the organization that comes supports the work of Celtic Christian teacher John Philip Newell, a group of us took a little afternoon prayer walk, a mini-pilgrimage. The meeting was in Santa Fe, and while we had hoped to do a trail in the desert, time didn’t permit, so we just walked to a park that overlooked the city. In the silence, we had our senses awakened to the sights and sounds of everyday life, vendors selling their wares, locals making their way to work, tourists looking around. As we entered the park, we wound up a steep hill, passing plaques relaying the city’s history—it’s the oldest capital city in North America, did you know that? At the top of the hill, we passed a giant cross, and made our way to a shady spot beneath a tree where we could share what had emerged for each of us on the walk.
It’s amazing what will come up from within if you prayerfully set aside a little time to walk and listen…
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Jul 23, 2017
Sibling Rivalry
Though I was away last Sunday, I am aware that you heard this story of Jacob and Esau read then as well. While I could have chosen a different passage for this Sunday, the story is so rich, with Jacob the trickster stealing his birthright from his older brother Esau, I simply couldn’t resist. Think of the possible interpretations of this story. It could be:
-A story of craftiness, outsmarting the other to get what you want.
-A story of the underdog, rising up against the stronger elder,
-A story of breaking social convention, in which the firstborn receives a birthright, either through the wit of the younger or the will of God,
-A story about the importance of remembering priorities, and not being ruled by momentary desires of the flesh, though that feels a little harsh to the hungry Esau, who, after all, worked up his appetite in the fields.
-On that note, it could be a story of privileging the “tent dweller over the hunter,” a sort of urban vs. rural tension…sound fam…
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Jul 9, 2017
Minority Report
There was an uncomfortable scene that occurred daily at my seminary. In the refectory, where we ate, all the African American students would sit together around one or two tables. It was an overwhelmingly white school, and while we mixed in classes, mealtime was largely segregated, and not just between whites and blacks. It was uncomfortable because here we were, all Christians, all striving to devote our working lives in some form to living in the way of Jesus, Jesus who, among other things, was defined by how many different kinds of folks with whom he would eat, and we, didn’t even eat with each other. We were the ones who were going to be sent out to teach the world about the lengths to which God would go, even unto the cross, to show how much God loved the world, and we weren’t able to go the length of a table to break bread with one another.
Now, I’ve already said something problematic, which I trust you caught. I said, “all the African American students sat t…
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Jul 2, 2017
Freedom to Love
Since it is the July 4th weekend, I have had several patriotic songs rolling around in my head over the last few days. One theme that I have noticed running through them all is the theme of “freedom.” That makes sense. Freedom was one of the founding ideals of this country. And it definitely shows up in our country’s patriotic songs. For example …
“The Star Spangled Banner” (the last line)
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave
“You’re A Grand Old Flag”
You're a grand old flag, you're a high flying flag,
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of the land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
“America the Beautiful” (Lots of verses on this one! One of the verses ends this way …)
America! America! God shed God’s grace on thee
‘Till selfish gain no longer stain the banner of the free
“My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”
My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty,…
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Jun 25, 2017
From Death to Life
I wrote my sermon this week on Monday, earlier than usual, because I had some other things scheduled during my regular writing times. It was a good enough, as far as drafts go. I had studied the text and made what I thought were important observations. I put forth some appropriate theological claims. Admittedly, though when I was finished, an unsettled sense lingered. There must be something more to say, or perhaps something else. Some biblical passages lend themselves to easy ethical instruction that can inform everyday life, and some just do not, not matter how much we contort ourselves around them (or them around us). I put the sermon to bed knowing I would need to return to it later in the week to clean it up.
Then, on Tuesday night, I had a dream. Really it was Wednesday morning, one of those vivid dreams you have in the early morning, perhaps after you’ve awoken and then drifted back to sleep. I was somewhere in Marin. You were there too, some of you. We…
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Jun 18, 2017
Ordained to Heresy
In 2009, I was visiting Japan and my good friend and brother from my air force and college days, Sunao Yokobiki. I mentioned that I was looking, while there, for a wall scroll with a few words of spiritual significance. He tried to help me find the right scroll but we found nothing that spoke to me.
A few weeks later, I had a phone call from him asking for my favorite scripture passage. I have many passages with deep meaning for me, but perhaps deeper still is this passage from Jeremiah because this speaks of the source of my call to life, not only to ministry. My heart resonates with these words of God speaking to Jeremiah’s heart.
Three months passed and a package arrived with this scroll. Sunao had commissioned a “national treasure” calligrapher to make it for me. The scroll actually hung in our narthex for a while.
Next to it is an English translation for the few of you who can’t read Japanese.
I did consider sharing a little more of my own story today, but am choosing not…
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May 28, 2017
Looking Up
There was a chapel skit at the camp where I grew up that went like this: A terrible storm came into a town and local officials sent out an emergency warning saying everyone in the town should evacuate immediately. One person stayed behind saying, “I will trust God and if I am in danger, then God will send a divine miracle to save me.”
The neighbors came by the house and said, “We’re leaving and there is room for you in our car, please come with us!” But they declined. “I have faith that God will save me.”
As they stood on the porch watching the water rise up the steps, someone in a canoe paddled by and called, “Hurry and come into my canoe, the waters are rising quickly!” But again they answered, “No thanks, God will save me.”
The flood waters rose higher and higher until they had to climb up to the rooftop. A helicopter came by and dropped a rope ladder. A rescue officer came down the ladder and pleaded with the person, "Grab my hand and I will pull you up!…
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May 21, 2017
Faith and the Holy Spirit
There are so many subjects to choose from in this passage, there is the Peace that Jesus gave to the disciples, there is “the fear of the Jews” and what that meant for that time (or perhaps didn’t mean); there was the Breath and the references to breath in the Bible, the Holy Spirit and of course Faith. I chose the last two. John was, as were the other Gospel writers, writing for his community and reading the passage, his community seems to come up through the words, what the concerns were and what John thought was important for his community.
When Jesus breathed on the disciples—it was of creation itself, a creation of new life. Genesis 2:7 says “then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being.” Jesus was infusing, breathing onto the disciples as one body—he was bestowing on them the Spirit of life—of love and wisdom—they were being equipped with the Holy Spirit and…
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May 7, 2017
The Way (Full Service)
There was once a man who died and was ushered into heaven, which appeared to be an enormous house. An angel began to escort him down a long hallway past many rooms. "What's in that room?" the man asked, pointing to a group of people dressed in white, spinning and spinning around. "That's the Sufi group," said the angel. "The whirling dervishes. They are very lively."
"What's in that room?" asked the man, pointing to a group of people meditating to the sound of an enormous gong. "That's the Zen group," said the angel. "Very quiet. You would hardly know they were here."
Then the angel stopped the man, as they were about to round a corner. "Now, when we get to the next room," said the angel, "I would appreciate it if you would tiptoe past. We mustn't make any sound." "Why's that?" asked the man. "Because in that room there's a bunch of Christians; and they think they're the only ones here."
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.…
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May 7, 2017
The Way (Reading and Sermon)
There was once a man who died and was ushered into heaven, which appeared to be an enormous house. An angel began to escort him down a long hallway past many rooms. "What's in that room?" the man asked, pointing to a group of people dressed in white, spinning and spinning around. "That's the Sufi group," said the angel. "The whirling dervishes. They are very lively."
"What's in that room?" asked the man, pointing to a group of people meditating to the sound of an enormous gong. "That's the Zen group," said the angel. "Very quiet. You would hardly know they were here."
Then the angel stopped the man, as they were about to round a corner. "Now, when we get to the next room," said the angel, "I would appreciate it if you would tiptoe past. We mustn't make any sound." "Why's that?" asked the man. "Because in that room there's a bunch of Christians; and they think they're the only ones here."
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.…
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Apr 30, 2017
Blood and Water (Full Service)
The middle school brought in a Buddhist monk to show the students the creation of an intricate sand mandala. Have you seen these? They’re stunningly beautiful, laid out grain by grain, vibrant colors and great detail. I’ll show an example of one, and if you’re listening at home at home you can simply Google “sand mandalas,” and you’ll find all sorts of images. Among other things, these mandalas are to promote purification and healing. If you know much about them, you will also know what happens to them after they’re completed. They’re just wiped away. I believe at the school the monk actually took it to a river and just blew it back into the world.
That flies in the face of much of what we’re taught in this culture, as we seek to make a lasting name for ourselves. As a child I thought it was really important to be famous, some how make a monument, a testament to our lives that would be permanent. Impermanence is, of course, one of the lessons of the…
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Apr 30, 2017
Blood and Water (Reading and Sermon)
The middle school brought in a Buddhist monk to show the students the creation of an intricate sand mandala. Have you seen these? They’re stunningly beautiful, laid out grain by grain, vibrant colors and great detail. I’ll show an example of one, and if you’re listening at home at home you can simply Google “sand mandalas,” and you’ll find all sorts of images. Among other things, these mandalas are to promote purification and healing. If you know much about them, you will also know what happens to them after they’re completed. They’re just wiped away. I believe at the school the monk actually took it to a river and just blew it back into the world.
That flies in the face of much of what we’re taught in this culture, as we seek to make a lasting name for ourselves. As a child I thought it was really important to be famous, some how make a monument, a testament to our lives that would be permanent. Impermanence is, of course, one of the lessons of the…
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Apr 23, 2017
SCARS (Reading and Sermon)
No Text Available
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Apr 23, 2017
SCARS (Full Service)
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Mar 26, 2017
Common Core
Common Core
Someone who has taken it upon himself to read the Bible in its entirety upon reaching a particularly challenging passage reached out to me and said, “This is strange.”
My theologically trained response was, “Yes, strange.” It’s hard to deny. Did you know there are giants in the Bible, half God half human? They’re called the Nephilim and they’re in Genesis 6. There’s a story of a woman named Jael, who feigns hospitality in order to trap an enemy commander and then when he’s sleeping she drives a tent peg through his head, Judges 4. Then, there’s 2 Kings 2 in which the prophet Elisha is performing miracles only to have a bunch of kids come by and make fun of him (that is the moment you know you’re old). They literally say to him, “Go away baldy!” Well, they picked the wrong prophet with male pattern baldness to mock because Elisha curses them after which, “two she-bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.”
Why…
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Mar 19, 2017
Come and See
No sermon text
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Mar 12, 2017
Walking Partner
I had a colleague, a lovely Baptist man, who used to begin all his prayers by quoting the 121st Psalm in the King’s English, “I lift mine unto the hills, from whence cometh my help?” I often heard it as a divine hill blessing. Of course, that’s the opposite of what the Psalm is intended to do.
Psalm 121 is actually a critique of finding God in the hills, though allow me to provide some background before those of you who rightfully report to find God in nature storm out to hit the trail. The Israelites were enemies with a people known as the Samaritans. You may have heard of the Samaritans from New Testament passages such as Jesus’ parable of the “Good Samaritan.” That parable is shocking precisely because the hero is not a Jew, but a Samaritan. One difference between the two peoples was where they worshiped. The Israelites worshiped God in the Temple. In fact, God was understood to inhabit that space, live there. The Samaritans, on the other hand, wor…
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Jan 8, 2017
In a New Light (sermon at the 11:51 point)
In a New Light
A member of my preaching group pointed me to a story about a 19th century farmer whose wife went into labor one night. As the doctor attended to her in her home, he asked the husband to hold the lantern as it was the only available light. Soon the woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy. “Wait a moment,” the doctor called out, “another one is coming,” and out came a second child. Then the doctor called out again, but before it could be born the husband started to walk out of the room. “Hey,” said the doctor, “come back here with that lantern!
“Oh no,” said the man, “it's the light that attracts ‘em!”
It may not work exactly like that, but the light is attractive. Even more attractive is being the light, that to which others are drawn. It's part of our cultural DNA, and can be traced if not in origin, then certainly in naming, to the famed address of Puritan John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity,” which the layman delivered while still…
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