Sermons

February 25, 2018

Texts:
     Genesis: 17:1-7
     Psalm 22
     Mark 9:2-9
     Romans 4:13-24

Genesis says: When the world began, God created Adam and Eve in his own image.  And God declared: "Behold, it is very good!"

God took joy in his own reflection in the first humans.  He liked us!   He loved us.  God said his creation is worthy of his love.  A good thought in those moments when we feel unworthy.  Right from the beginning, so goes our Bible story, the mystery and paradox of man is set before us: We are a creation destined to bear the image of the uncreated God.

But those first humans, and humans ever since, have wanted to negate the mystery of the God-image.  Satan told us we could be "as God" and we believed him.  We invented various designer fig-leaves, dressing ourselves up in images of power, immortality, knowledge, wealth, and invulnerability.  We puffed ourselves up with missile launches and ever taller towers.  We store up bit-coin and off­shore treasure that's doomed to end up as ashes.

February 11, 2018

Text: Mark 9:2-9

Good morning, my dear sisters and brothers.

I'm truly honored and feel blessed to be here, speaking to you all today.  When I got the call from David Dorsey asking me if I would like to do the teaching today, I said “sure” without any hesitation.  In Mark 9, we’re told about the transfiguration.  I myself had a transfiguration in my life.  It’s been almost 14 years now that Jesus touched me.  Since that blessed day, my life has been transformed.  It started then and has not stopped, and took away my addiction.

When we look at the Scriptures of transformation throughout the Bible, it’s just miracle after miracle, transformation continually.

When Jesus healed people, telling them go and sin no more, each person’s life was never the same after that encounter with Lord Jesus.  We cannot remain the same.  We change.

After that fateful day when I asked Jesus to take away my addiction, the very next morning, when I woke up, I was transformed.  I didn’t have any desire to go out there looking for a “fix.”

February 4,2018

I find a lot of comfort in the image presented in Psalm 84 of our spiritual journey being a journey home.  Throughout Scripture (especially in the Old Testament) there’s lots of verses that support the vision that our time on earth is a journey to God’s Promised Land.  Applying these old, old stories to my own situation, I take comfort in seeing my life as a continuous journey homeward, sometimes hoping that I’m somewhere near my destination, sometimes discovering that I’m in the middle of unfriendly territory, and sometimes realizing that I’m just walking around in circles lost in the wilderness.  Let's again soak up the image from the first few verses of Psalm 84, where I hear, in Verse 1, a description of being home … in the house of the Lord.  If you listen carefully, you’ll find that what follows this image is a longing to come home.  It seems that, this psalmist’s experience of living in the house of the Lord is like mine, experienced internally, as a heart-felt hope, rather that externally in the day-to-day world.

January 21, 2018

Texts:
     Ps. 62: 5-12
     Jonah 3: 1-5, 10
     Mark 1: 14-20b

Jesus arrives on the scene in Mark just as John is imprisoned: one brother and prophet succeeds the next.  The Message, the Good News is clear: Time is fulfilled; God’s Kindom is at hand, has “come near”; Repent! Transform your minds and actions (metanoia)! Turn and Change!

• It is God alone who calls us (just as Jesus does).
• It is possible Leave everything; follow God’s creative possibility in a call (just as the one Jesus proclaimed).
• We can Trust that, by faith, God can change everyone and everything, including those we (personally) give up on (just as Jesus did).
  

January 14, 2018

Good morning, 8^th Day Faith Community.  I am a little embarrassed and humbled to be standing up here this morning - on the day we celebrate the birthday of a beloved leader of our country who has passed on before us, but who still inspires us to fight for the cause of equal justice for all, regardless of color, culture or creed.  When my Racial Justice and Healing Collective (Mission Group) decided to plan this worship, we had a list of ten illustrious African American men and women whom we know and whom we considered asking to preach at 8^th Day.  There was hesitation about asking them to preach for 8^th Day, however.

King spoke about White resistance to justice.  He noted how African Americans were putting in a tremendous collective effort to educate themselves on the realities of racism, but, he said, “Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance.  It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the White people of America believe they have so little to learn….White America is not even psychologically organized to close the gap – …“ (P 560-61 A Testament of Hope). 

January 7, 2018

Good morning.  As I was reading the scriptures of the current lectionary, my attention was caught by the readings of Epiphany, which were those of yesterday, Saturday.  I somehow wanted to hold on one moment more to the time of Christmas, of light entering into the darkness of the world.  Today’s reading, about the baptism of Jesus, seemed like too large a leap ahead.  Perhaps it was the cold and stillness of this week, which has led to pipes freezing in my home and the great Potomac River becoming a broad glistening ribbon of ice.  Perhaps it is a time of lingering just a little while longer before fully plunging ahead into this New Year.

In this reading about the visit of the wise men from the East there is a richness of history, culture, and tradition.  We see that these respected, learned spiritual leaders who come from outside the faith, social, and political traditions of the land are aware of a momentous happening that the local authorities are not. 

        
December 31, 2017

The following notations on the various hymns that were sung during the service functioned as the Order of Worship for this Sunday.

O, Gladsome Night

Many believe this hymn is the oldest Christmas hymn we have.  The hymn was for the Lighting of Lamps.  The words were written anonymously in Greek as early as the 3rd Century C.,E.  Christians in the early church lived much closer to the events of nature and the progression of the seasons.  Sunrise from the east brought not only a new day but also the promise of hope for the coming Messiah.  Evening brought potential danger and the mystery of the dark.  So, any light that penetrated the darkness was a welcome sight.  We take light in the dark for granted, but this was not the case for early Christians.  In contrast to a world shrouded in darkness, Jesus Crist is the light of the world.

One source wrote that the tune came possibly from the 8th Century.  In 1899 the hymn was translated into English.  Let’s listen to the Eikona Trio.

December 24, 2018

Text: Luke 1:39-55

December 10, 2017

My brothers and sisters, I believe God truly does have a sense of humor, a flair for the dramatic as He moves us from many of our social ills to a place of healing and deliverance.  This appears to be an intentional misdirection, further executed from an unexpected place outside of established norms! Let us take a brief look at a few examples.  According to the story of creation in Genesis, God creates people and then puts a tree in the garden and says do not eat of it.  May I insert a ph Deck equivalency here? That is like me going to the gym, working out daily, eating right, counting carbohydrates, counting calories, watching my fat intake, drinking good healthy “pH” balanced water, and you put a piece of homemade coconut cake in front of me for all eternity and tell me not to eat it.  I imagine my fascination with this premise would turn to hallucination and every time I walked by that cake, I would see a mouth on it calling my name to come and partake in all its glorious scrumptiousness.

Text: Mark 13:24-37

Good Morning, friends. 

Thank you for reading the scripture, Fred.  Thank you, David Dorsey, for inviting me to share my reflections with Eighth Day this morning; my reflections on the first candle of Advent.  Some faith communities think of this first candle as the candle of Expectation, or Waiting, or Prophesy.  In our community we call it the candle of Hope.

A few days ago at Joseph's House I was talking with a chaplain who was waiting to see one of our residents.  I confessed to her how out of sorts I feel this year, planning for Christmas.  Even the everyday, ordinary things feel really hard:

• Organizing gifts so that everyone gets something they really need or will really like.  On a deadline!   Not leaving anybody out
• Figuring out with staff and full time volunteers, the holiday staffing schedule when everybody wants to be with their own families
• Supporting the many Christmas chefs in a crowded kitchen, to prepare dinner for 50 or more people – residents, former residents, families and friends and
• trying to manage my own expectations and energy and living with the inevitable loneliness that seeps in. 

"Maybe it's Grief that you're feeling", she said quietly.  What a relief it was to hear it named!   And so kindly.