Sermons

August 30, 2015
Text: Mark 7: 1-23

Good Morning –

Sharing my reflection on God's word with us this morning, I want to acknowledge and give thanks for fierce, heartfelt reflections by Austin Channing, a young African-American pastor for her meditations on being an angry Black, Christian woman.  I also honor Dr Cornel West, for the refiner's fire that burns within him, that is his light.

The last time I shared with you on a Sunday morning, I shared how, thanks to my former colleague, Blossom Williams, an African-American woman about my age, I came to realize how my world view – if we think of our world view as an umbrella – my world view was actually only big enough for me.  Thanks to Blossom, I woke up and knew that I want my world view to be much bigger – to cover and include the world views of my sisters and brothers of color as well as myself and others who grew up unconscious of the privilege that comes to us without our asking – just because we are so-called White.  The last time I shared with you on a Sunday morning, I spoke about how God was putting people in my life who are helping me get a bigger umbrella. 

August 23, 2015

Texts:
John 15:12-17
Romans 12:4-5
Hebrews 10: 24-25
Ps 133

Recently in our Bread of Life church we held a School of Christian living class.  It was a survey class working with topics such as Prayer, Call, Money, Power, and Community. 

I was most fascinated by our class on community, and that is the theme of my sharing this morning. 

In our class we worked with the question, "What does it mean to belong to one another in Christian community and what has been our own personal experience with it."

Sunday August 2, 2015

Texts: (NRSV & MSG)
Hebrew -- Ex 16:2-4, 9-15; and Ps 78: 23-29
Christian – Jn 6: 24-35; and Eph 4: 1-16

This is the 18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Ordinary Time for the church year means that it is not extraordinary.  Extraordinary time would be around the major Holy Days: Christmas, Easter, Lent, and Pentecost.  This Ordinary Time takes up the largest part of the church year.  Summer is always in Ordinary time, and in this part of summer there are five Sunday gospel readings in a row from the Gospel of John.  John’s gospel is well known for its emphasis on Divine Indwelling as seen in the often-quoted image of vine & branches -- I am the vine, you are the branches.  Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit….  (Jn 15:5).  All five Sunday readings are from chapter 6:1-71, which is often called the Bread of Life Chapter.  This Sunday is the second of the five Sundays and picks up from last Sunday’s reading on Feeding of the Five Thousand.  It focuses on the Dialogue (Discussion) between Jesus and the Crowd about the Feeding.  In the next three Sundays, Jesus will expand on this discussion in several Discourses on the Bread of Life.  Biblical Discourses differ from dialogues.  In discourses Jesus speaks and the crowd listens while in dialogue there is a back and forth conversation.

The Universal Family of God and How I Came to Know this Universality

July 26 2015
Text: Ephesians 3: 14-21

Good morning.  I come before you today desirous of sharing, and putting together, pieces of my life and seeking illumination of it in the light of faith. 

Geographically, I feel that my life is a triangle centered upon three points (from each of them that I have gone out).  These are Washington, DC, where I did most of my growing up and have raised my own family, Washington state, where I did much growing and learning of life, and in El Salvador where I lived for six years as I joined in walking with a People seeking peace and justice, where I yet often visit.

I was in Guatemala and El Salvador at the end of March and beginning of April.  I came back, and then just over two weeks ago went out to the Northwest, and am here once again in Washington, DC.  This triangle is as a sacred circle that leads me ever deeper into the labyrinth of life.

July 19, 2015

Good morning, thank you for this lovely opportunity to share in spiritual teaching.

This time it will be about the idea of sharing our spiritual and material blessings. But before that, I want to point out that today is an important date for the Lutheran church that I’ve grown up in. In El Salvador and Nicaragua, July 19^th is the Day of the Youth.

I’d like us to stand for a moment of silence:

• For the young people who have died for a better El Salvador.
• For those that have had to grow up too soon.
• For the young people in our families and communities here in the United States.
• For those struggling to find their place in the world as adults, we pray that our society can provide what they need to find their calling and the courage to seek it.
• For the young immigrant dreamers and their parents that walk a difficult path.
• For youth without a home and those that must live in many homes.
• Let us be happy also, for the young people in 8^th Day that, like birds, leave the nest and come back a little older. Such as Benjamin that has been coordinating youth teachings each second Sunday, Eugene who is a bright star helping with Sunday services, and Javier who has been working to help people with technology, and many others. May God help them keep helping us.

July 5, 2015

Texts:
Genesis 41: 1-8; 47:17-19
Mark 6: 34-44

As I was searching for information on climate change, I came across opinions from different sources affirming that today, with US elections coming up next year and other world changing events, there is a common feeling that there is something new and different going on.  People worldwide are realizing that the gap between the 1% superrich of the world and the 99% of the poor is becoming unbearable; they are pointing fingers at the system that’s responsible.

People are realizing more and more that old institutions and ways of doing things no longer work, with more people being faced with the reality of inequality worldwide and here in the US with the failed foreign adventures in the Middle East and Afghanistan and the great recession of 2008 when the housing market collapsed and the big banks got bailed out.  People are beginning to name the main culprit market capitalism and seeing the tentacles that this creature has spread out in people’s lives.  Today coalitions are being formed and large alliances are coming together.

June 28, 2015

The following is Connie Ridgway’s contribution to a 3-part sermon by members of the New Creation mission group.

Scriptures:  

Lamentations 3:22-26; 28-29.  

The Lord’s true love is surely not spent,
nor has your compassion failed,
they are new every morning,
so great is your constancy.  

The Lord, I say, is all that I have;
therefore I will wait for you patiently.

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.

It is good that one wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord, to sit alone in silence when the Lord has imposed it, to put one’s mouth to the dust (there may yet be hope). 

June 7, 2015

Texts: Mark 10:17-27
          II Corinthians

I've wanted for a long time to offer a teaching about money.  I've hesitated, though, in part because I haven't been able to figure out exactly what Jesus was saying about it.  But then I thought that since no one else has figured it out, you wouldn't expect me to in twenty-five minutes, so I'll just consider some of the questions the Gospel asks us.  The other part of my hesitation is that it's one thing to talk about money when, like Marja and me, you have more than enough and another thing when, like some of you, you're struggling to make ends meet.  But if we're going to be part of the same community, we're going to have face the issue of money together, too.

I'm told that Jesus talked more about material wealth and possessions than about any other subject except the Kin-dom of God.  Given that almost all of us in this country are wealthy compared to most of the rest of the world, I suppose it's not surprising that the American church has largely ignored, stretched or distorted Christian theology to avoid the biblical teachings on money.

May 31, 2015, Pentecost

I want to tell you about a book I'm about to read.  I would have told you about a book I was actually reading except that I accidentally sent it to my granddaughter on my Prime account. The book is called The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. I can almost hear the sound of 8th Day folks thinking, "ewww, snails" or "oh no, it's commitment Sunday and Pentecost!"  But first listen to this blurb from the book reviewer:

"Elisabeth Tova Bailey tells the inspiring and intimate story of her year-long encounter with a Neohelix albolabris—a common forest snail. While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches as the snail takes up residence on her nightstand. Intrigued by its molluscan anatomy, cryptic defenses, clear decision making ability, hydraulic locomotion, and mysterious courtship activities, Bailey becomes an astute and amused observer. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is a remarkable journey of survival and resilience, showing us how a small part of the natural world illuminates our own human existence."

I love this kind of thinking -- an odd fresh way of looking at things you think you already know all about.

May 10, 2014, Mother's Day

Text: Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
1John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17

John 15:9-17

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 his 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 him in my name.
I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

INTRODUCTION

This time between Easter and Pentecost seems like “chrysalis time.” When the caterpillar has spun it’s cocoon and is being transformed into a butterfly. It’s a time when things are changing, even if some of them are out of sight. I’m reminded of coming here to the Potter’s House for the dedication and feeling the massive changes that had gone on for a long time, out of sight for many of us, changes that are now just becoming evident out on the street. Yesterday as I joined the Faithonomics conference here, and at the Festival Center I was aware of how much vital, transforming energy is flowing through our faith communities.