Sermons

November 29, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving, and welcome to the Advent Season; the beginning of the time of expectation for the birth of Jesus.  It is a blessing to be here together today, and to notice the start of this season of our calendar.  I have the benefit of being asked to share this Sunday, so I have to be here today, however, on other years I’ve realized that I’ve accidentally missed the beginning of Advent.  Many people travel on this weekend and there is so much attention to “The Holidays” that if we’re not careful, we mindlessly slump into the Christmas season with a food baby from too much turkey, pie, and mashed potatoes and roll right into the consumerism of Christmas.  However, the readings for today reveal a very different and unique purpose for this season. 

November 22, 2015

When Dottie called me last August to ask me to preach, I picked November 22.  I assumed that the lectionaries, and thus my topic, would have something to do with Thanksgiving; so I was surprised, and to tell the truth a little dismayed to find that, since our lectionary scriptures follow the liturgical year, this Sunday, November 22, marks the end of the year and the end of time.  Apocalypse now!  

The dramatic and obscure biblical images about End Times have split the church since the beginning, and some of us think it’s a subject to be avoided.  But given the fearful events of the last few weeks, in Paris, Beirut, Somalia, Mali, and elsewhere and the rumors of impending even worse events, I think it’s as good a time as any to face our fears.  Violent fantasies—of holy destruction, the Last Battle, Armageddon, and so on—appeal not only to the ignorant and the destitute but, at some primitive level, probably to everybody.  Just this last Tuesday on the front page of the Washington Post there was a headline question: “The Islamic State Strategy: Luring the ‘Unbelievers’ into an Apocalyptic Battle?”

Charisms of L'Arche:
Joy, Vulnerability, Forgiveness, and Covenant Relationships.
Texts:
1 Corinthians 12:4-6
Matthew 5:14-16
 

November 8, 2015

Nov 1, 2015

Texts:
     Genesis 1: 20-25
     John 11: 40 – 42
     Revelations 21: 1 – 6a
     (Full texts of scripture below)

I want to thank Dottie for inviting me to speak to you today.  I also want to thank Marja & David Hilfiker whose financial and emotional support helped me visit the Svalbard archipelago of Norway in June.  These are some of the photos I took in Norway.  The others are from my trip to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada in 2010.  Today is the beginning of International Polar Bear Week!  The Arctic, where polar bears reside, is warming more quickly than any other part of our planet.  Preserving the Arctic, and more specifically polar bears and other Arctic wildlife, is my passion and what I believe to be my Call.

October 25, 2015
Texts: Mark 10:46-52
           Jeremiah 31:7-9

           Our text begins with a blind beggar sitting beside the road from Jericho to Jerusalem.  Jesus and his disciples, followed by a crowd, come along the same road, and in response to the blind man’s insistence Jesus speaks to him in a way that changes his condition and his life.

            Let’s follow the details, both those spoken and unspoken.  Let’s start with Bartimaeus, the blind man.  Let’s try to get under his skin into his situation and his longing.  Let’s imagine ourselves as Bartimaeus. 

            He is not a lump of clay.  He has feelings.  He has a history.  He has a story.  He has longing.  Apparently at an earlier point in his life he could see.  Something happened to take away his sight.  Mark doesn’t supply the past history but gives us enough details to get a feel for this guy. 

October 18, 2015

I am fascinated by this simple insight.  I heard this phrase while watching a PBS documentary about E.O.  Wilson, a famous biologist who has focused his studies on ants, but who is also a deep thinker about human nature.  Ants, like humans, are social animals, living in complex groups.  His thinking about ants has given him insights into understanding humans.  And, as we are social animals, this simple observation is true: “Exclusion makes us suffer, inclusion makes us thrive.”

October 11, 2015
Text: Mark 10:17-31

In today’s gospel we have a simple question: What shall I do to get eternal life?  And we have a simple answer: You know the commandments.  Do as they say.

But the man asking Jesus (in some gospels he is a rich young man) has a sense there must be something more, something he is missing that is causing this itching, gnawing feeling in his soul.  He has kept the commandments since he was a kid.  He grew up in Sunday school, went to youth group, learned the Bible stories, says his prayers, pretty much does all the right things.  Yet he still feels out of alignment, unable to escape the restless feeling that there is something more, something he is missing out on.  His inner peace doesn’t match up to what he thinks it should be given the fact that he already has the gift of eternal life.

September 27, 2015

It was 1977, I was Colby’s age and the Broadway hit Godspell came to my town.  I saw it more than once and was captivated by the simple message of the Gospels it told through story, song and dance.  Musical parables were woven into a modern day story of how Jesus’ kindness recruited followers.  This group of disparate individuals band together with a common purpose to face the ordinary challenges of life.  From that they created a community of trust and love.

There were particular lyrics that have played in my head for years.  This past summer, I took Colby (and our theater buddy Emmy Lu) to see it for the first time, the 40^th anniversary revival of the show.  Imagine the fun to be sandwiched between 16-year-old Colby and 90-year-old Emmy Lu reliving this magical performance that was so spiritually formative to me as a teen.

The same lyrics spoke to me again.

“You are the light of the world!
You are the light of the world! 
But if that light is under a bushel,
It’s lost something kind of crucial
You’ve got to stay bright to be the light of the world

You are the salt of the earth
You are the salt of the earth
But if that salt has lost it’s flavor
It ain’t got much in its favor:
You can’t have that fault and be the salt of the earth!”

September 13, 2013
Text: Psalm 116:1-9
         Mark 8: 27-38

Next Sunday I’ll begin a class on what the New Testament has to say about money and possessions.  But as I’ve prepared for the class, the question has arisen for me: Why do I care?  Most of what the NT has to say about money to people as affluent as many of us has to do with giving that money away.  What do I want to explore that for?  Would I really change my behavior if I were convinced that the NT called for me to give all my money away?  In other words, what kind of authority do I give to the NT and why?  So this teaching is less about wealth and more about exploring what undergirds my practice around money and possessions.  I’ve been trying for the last several weeks to answer this question of authority, but my attempts to explain it intellectually have seemed pretty weak, so I’m going to tell some stories and hope they help.