Sermons

November 20, 2011

1.     Justice Owned:  Ezekiel’s Call to Shepherd with Justice

Ezekiel 34:11-16

New International Version (NIV)

 11“‘For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. 16I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

November 11, 2011

Texts:
     Isaiah 56:1-8
     Ephesians Chapter 3: 14-21 

Prayer

All-Loving Spirit of God, Creator of all that is,

Whose life is our light without which

We are as a branch cut off from the living vine that can only wither and die;

Or like salt that loses its essential nature, and no longer salty, is fit for nothing at all.

You are our father, our mother, by whom every family that is true to your purpose is named.

Our failings in being true father and true mother are so great and so numerous,

Forgive us, Lord, and renew us so that we may nurture, sustain, and protect our families,

and our wider family—the whole creation You have made.

Mystery beyond our understanding, the veil still firmly in place, help us quiet our inner clamor.

May our innermost being become quiet, let us attend to your Spirit in our hearts and know You are present with us.

We give thanks that You continually draw us to You, that You gather your small community of  the 8th Day Church, as You gather all peoples.

As scripture says, ‘all who dwell in love, dwell in You.’ And, ‘the one who loves, knows God.’ 

Therefore, help us to know better the meaning of love--love that bears all things. 

Root us, ground us in love, we pray.

Amen

October 30, 2011
Texts:
     Isaiah 25:6-9
     Matthew 23:1-15, 23-24, 27, 37-39

[The following teaching, given without notes, is being written down after the event. To get what was occurring please stop here and read the texts listed above. In the service Patty Wudel read the two texts from Isaiah 25 and Matthew 23 with much care and feeling. The teaching started with the reading. I followed by placing a stool before the altar, taking the mike and sitting down on the stool.]

 Wow, what a pair of texts! – the soaring vision of Isaiah of all people coming to a mountain to share in a feast hosted by God – and the scathing anger and sadness of Jesus a few days before his crucifixion.

October 2, 2011
Text: Matthew 21:33-46

I’ve heard that our primary task when reading the parables is not to try to interpret them, but to allow them to interpret us. Jesus was speaking to a particular audience in a particular time (challenging the Pharisees the day after he had stormed the temple, overturning the tables of their status quo—revoking the idea that religion passively stands by while the poor are being trampled). He was trying to break through to a religious audience gathered at the temple. This morning, what might he be trying to say to this religious audience in this temple? How does the parable of the “evil tenants” interpret you this morning? Who are you in this story, as you are experiencing life today?

Are you the landowner, at a stage of life where you feel like it’s time to step back some, focus a bit more on being than doing, letting others manage your vineyard?

September 18, 2011

Last week we looked at our cultural commitment to a positive point of view and our faith in inevitable progress.  And we looked at how they blind us to the momentous threat to our civilization from global climate change and other environmental crises.

This morning I'd like to move on from last Sunday to:

• First, further explore the church's blindness to the shadow side of that faith in inevitable progress,
• Second, distinguish  between a "theology of glory" and a "theology of the cross,"
• And third, look at how we might live out the true Christian hope as individuals and as a community.

Before I begin, though, let me say that I really struggle with all of this.  On the one hand, I have three grandchildren and I'm heartsick over the world we're leaving to them.  We've plundered their future and that's not only sinful but incredibly sad. 

On the other hand, giving these teachings to you has made me very anxious.  Pseudo-prophets have been predicting the end of the world forever, and here I am … doing it again.  Do I have it right?  Is this just my depression speaking?  Last Sunday before coming to church, I was so anxious that I was physically shaking.  So this is hard for me, too.

September 11, 2011

I sometimes teach classes about the on-going environmental crises facing us and the devastation they’ll cause.  One of the basic messages of the course is that, like it or not, much of that disaster is inevitable.  I explain at the beginning of the course that we won’t grasp the seriousness of our situation until we understand what we’re up against.  American consumerism, the dysfunction of government, the nature of our economic system, the power of the corporations, and the dominance of media, acting together, will prevent any significant change … and the interweaving of those forces creates a totality that’s virtually invulnerable to human action.  I warn class members that the first two-thirds of our time together may be depressing and emotionally exhausting, but I ask them to hang in there with me until towards the end. 

September 4, 2011

Our subject this morning is healing prayer, I've observed each Sunday morning at worship service many prayers for healing. They are fervent, honest and hopeful. My question is, How effective are they? Is there any way we can improve them? These are questions I don't hear discussed. In fact, the whole question of healing prayer is not generally one for even small group discussions. It's sort of hush-hush, almost taboo.

Ausust 21, 2011
Text: Exodus 1:8-2:10

For those of us who grew up in Sunday school it is a very familiar story: the one called by God to lead the Israelites out of slavery and to the threshold of the Promised Land began his journey as a baby in a basket, plucked out of the water by a princess.  What The Prince of Egypt version of the story leaves out, though, is how the Israelites fell into slavery and whose courageous act of defiance made the Moses-led Exodus possible at all.

At first glance, the descent into oppression seems to come out of nowhere. The Israelites go from distinguished guests to destitute slaves in a matter of only four verses.  We are told only that the new king did not know Joseph, the young dreamer turned Pharaoh’s right hand man. Joseph provides the link between Genesis’ wandering patriarchs and Exodus’ Egypt-settled Israelites.   It is he who invited the brothers who once betrayed him to join him in his newfound home when there was no food left in Canaan.  And what eventually becomes clear is that this blessing was far from benign, for Joseph inadvertently laid the foundations for his own people’s enslavement. 

July 31, 2011

Good morning.  It with great sorrow and with great gratitude that I stand before you this morning.  Sorrow for the loss of Kate Cudlipp, a vibrant and loving part of our community, whose life was so tragically cut short.  Gratitude for Kate’s life, which has graced my life and the life of this community.  For her light that shone on this Earth.  For the love she gave and freely shared.  For the community that gathered around and prayed in 24 hour vigil.  For the community that will continue to support her partner, Carole, as she struggles with this sudden and tragic loss.

July 24, 2011

Text: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Emily Dickinson wrote in one of her poems: “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant.” The parables do that—like little poems, they tell Truth but tell it slant. They do not give us an explicit, point-by-point rule for how to live life—they simply shine light on the ordinary in a way that hints at life’s deeper meanings, and then they leave us to consider what those meanings might be. Jesus tells the disciples that it requires insight to understand the parables, and not everyone has this kind of insight. What a relief—I was afraid I might be unwell from the heat this week! Maybe I’m simply not one of the ones who will understand the nature of the new mind, the transformed heart, what Jesus was calling the kingdom of heaven.