Sermons

Gail Arnall

October 14, 2018

Some years ago, there was a British conference on comparative religions.  Experts from around the world debated whether any beliefs were unique to the Christian faith.  They began to eliminate possibilities:  The incarnation?  No…  God in human form?  No…. Resurrection?  No.  The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room.  “What’s going on,” he asked.  They explained the question—what, if anything, is Christianity’s unique contribution among world religions.  “That’s easy,” he said.  It’s grace.”

My mission group is reading Philip Yancey’s book, What’s So Amazing About Grace? I want to share from this book and then pose some questions about our response to God’s grace.

The notion of God’s love, coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against all of our instincts.  But in Christianity, God’s love is unconditional.  Perhaps aware of our in-built resistance to grace, Jesus talked about it a lot:  the sun shines on people both good and bad; birds gather seeds for free without plowing or harvesting; unattended wildflowers flourish.  Jesus saw grace everywhere.  He didn’t analyze it.  He didn’t define it.  He almost never used the word.  But he conveyed grace through stories – what we know as parable.

Camp Meeting Weekend
Oct 7, 2018

Texts: Mark10:13-16
           Mark 9:33-37     
           Matt 18:3-5  
           1 Corinthians 1:20-29

Mark 10:13-16    ¹³ People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them.  ¹⁴ When Jesus saw this, he was indignant.  He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.¹⁵ Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” ¹⁶ And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.

Good morning 8^th Day!   Today I hope to weave together the lectionary (and other related) scriptures we just heard with the theme of our weekend “The Courage to Be.” At the end of my teaching, I would like to have a brief dialogue in small groups of three on the subject of courage, so listen up so you’ll know how to respond!

In the first passage read, the Gospel for today, Mark 10, Jesus chastises his disciples for trying to keep the parents and their children away from him.  He is “indignant” - a word that comes from the Latin indignus “unworthy, not fitting,” and may be defined as “an anger aroused by something perceived as an indignity, an offense or injustice.” Jesus is immediately aroused by his disciples unjustly keeping the children away, as in that society children were supposed to be seen and not heard.  This, I believe, would be characteristic of Jesus, who was always sensitive to those on the outside of the community, whether they be prostitute or tax collector, leper or Samaritan.  He goes further, though.  He then uses this moment with the children as a teaching moment, saying, “The Kingdom belongs to such as these.  …anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

August 12, 2018

Text: Ephesians 5:1

Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Good morning church, I’m excited to be with you all today.  I just re-read this verse from Ephesians because my hope today is that this verse will be like a wet-willy.  For those of you who didn’t have siblings, a wet-willy is when you surprise someone next to you by licking your finger and putting your finger in their ear.  If you have not had the fun experience of being given a wet-willy, allow me to say that it is very strange.  My sisters would be able to confirm this for you!

Like a wet-willy, I hope that this verse from Ephesians sticks with you a little bit:

Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children, and live a life of love…

What a simple command!   May the simplicity of this Gospel command disarm you and lead you today toward freedom, laughter, and courage.  Amen.

August 5, 2018

I want to thank David Dorsey for inviting me to speak today. The last time I gave a teaching, it was the last Sunday 8^th Day met in the “back room” of the Potter’s House before we moved to the Festival Center. I also want to thank Kate Lasso, my friend and spiritual director, who encouraged me to accept David’s invitation. It is always a rich learning experience to prepare a teaching.

Last Sunday Richard and I went to see the movie Mama Mia! Here We Go Again. For those of you who don’t know about Mama Mia, it was a musical stage play which was later made into a movie starring Meryl Streep. It is a story about a carefree woman, Streep, who moves to Greece in the 1970’s, falls in love, and has a daughter. The story incorporates the incredibly infectious music of the super group from Sweden, ABBA. I lived in Southern California in the 1970’s and ABBA was part of the sound track of that era.

When I go to the movies, I almost always become completely immersed in the feelings and atmosphere of the movie I am attending. While watching Mama Mia last weekend, I started to cry. It is a comedy with music, intended to make the audience smile, laugh, and sing along. Why was I crying?

July 22, 2018

Thank you for inviting me back to share something real with you that is close to my heart.

In the past months I have read and re-read two books by young African-American Christian leaders. Drew Hart’s Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism; and Austin Channing Brown’s Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness.  And since reading Professor George Yancy’s incredible love letter, “Dear White America,” published in the New York Times about three years ago, I have returned to it often and more so in recent months, and searched my soul.

Drew Hart and Austin Channing Brown both write about being young, gifted, African-American Christian activists and leaders working or studying in white, liberal, Christian churches and universities. Professor Yancy writes to white people with tough love and invites us to have the courage to engage our racism honestly, to let ourselves be vulnerable and look into the “disagreeable mirror” he holds up for us, so we can actually finally see how we nice white people are complicit with systemic and institutional power and privilege and the suffering it brings on African-American people. And change. Learn to change.

July 15, 2018

PRAYER

• Prophetic voices, where are they? Are there even any prophetic voices out there anymore? Was MLK the last prophetic voice? How should one be a prophetic voice?
• These are all questions that both liberal and conservative Christians have really wrestled with in the past couple of years (notwithstanding many years prior).
• Today’s text from Amos, and in fact the whole book of Amos, are really a response to many of those questions.
• Amos not only sets an example for how to be prophetic but he challenges each of us, that daily choose to live as Christ did, to discern how we can be prophetic - because let's face it being prophetic is deeply, and oftentimes painfully, counter-cultural and counter-normative.
  

July 1, 2018
Texts: [Full texts printed after the message]
     Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15, 2:23-24
     Psalm 130
     2 Corinthians 8:7-15
     Mark 5:21-43

To remind us of what we just heard, I want to repeat a line from each one of our readings.  Lines that really jumped out at me:

Book of Wisdom: God does not rejoice in the destruction of the living
Psalm: You changed my mourning into dancing
Epistle: Whoever had much did not have more, and whoever had little did not have less
Gospel: Talitha koum.  She should be given something to eat. 

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Oh!   I love these readings.  Maybe it’s because I am such a tactile person.  Each of these readings is so deeply human and so deeply physical.  What’s more human than dying, mourning, dancing, the struggle for justice, and rising and eating?

June 10, 2018
Texts: Psalm 130
         2 Corinthians 4:16-18

I’m happy to have a chance to share with you in a teaching right before I make a major transition in my life.  I am leaving the Washington, D.C., area after 27 years and moving to the small city of Harrisonburg, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley.  (Yes, it officially is a “city.”)  I will pack up my things and move on July 2.  In mid-August I will start a new job as an English teacher at Harrisonburg High School.  I have loved this faith community and grown a lot by being connected to many of you over the last 13 years.  Your support has seen me through a couple of major transitions in my life.  I’ve appreciated so much the annual silent retreat and emphasis on being attentive to our inner journeys, not just our outward actions.  And I’ve had a lot of fun with you.

In November I gave a teaching about how I was asking the question, “How can I be useful to God?” I reflected then on how I was feeling burned out as a teacher in DC public schools.  I focused on scripture from 1 Thessalonians about how God “tests our hearts.”

I decided to look for a new job and I hoped that I would be able to find one at my age.