Sermons

February 26, 2012

Texts: Genesis 9:8-17; Mark 1:9-15               

God established a covenant with Noah and all Noah’s descendants, including even the animals and every living thing, that the earth would never again be destroyed by a flood. God’s image was being revised. Yes, they reasoned, God does get angry and destroy things…yet God also has the capacity to repent and begin again. And if God can repent and begin again, and we are created in that same image, then can we not learn to repent, too?

So later, when John the Baptist comes preaching repentance, it strikes a familiar chord in the memory of the people. This is like other times that God and the people have turned from the sin of their old ways and have begun again. And now, John says, one who has been heralded by the prophets through the ages, who will make possible what we by our own power have not been able to do, is at hand, actually bringing God’s realm into the earthly realm so that we will be able to see it, and live it, together.

February 12, 2012

Walter Brueggeman has named a concept and written a book about a Journey to the Common Good. It calls me toward responsibilities that reach a bit beyond those I'd acknowledged. It calls me to care just as much for others as I care for myself. It calls me to face disappointment with the same kind of energy I get from success. The concept is easy but the practice is difficult,-- too difficult for me to describe clearly. It reminds me that even the things I believe in most, like feeding the poor, need to be tested against their effect on all people, all beings and the world itself. At first glance, the common-good sounds pretty close to the moral stance to which we all aspire.

February 5, 2012
Text: I Cor. 9:19-23

Some years ago there was an interfaith conference of Christians and Buddhists. At the conference the Christians went out of their way to avoid talking about differences and instead insisted in talking about what Christians and Buddhists have in common. The Buddhist response was that talking about our common beliefs doesn’t get us anywhere. They were more interested in the differences – in what makes you who you are and us who we are. They said that when we put that on the table we can really begin to talk.

This story speaks to me. It challenges me to look at the bigger issue which is how the Christian faith leads in a different direction than the dominant American culture. I don’t see Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism as threats to Christian churches. The threat is our culture – its competing beliefs, values and ways of thinking. The more we can distinguish ourselves from this culture, the more we are equipped to search for truth with people of other religions.

January 8, 2012

Texts:

2 Cor. 4:7 -12, 16 -18
John 1:6-8

I have a Book of Hours by Elizabeth Yates (well worn) that has quotes, meditations and prayers for every hour of the day. I have sworn that I would only read the hr. of the day, when I was actually in that hour. And so I wondered if I would ever get to read this little book during the hrs. of 4am and 5am….Then one day, I was awake at 4am and I read this:

“The future glory of the Resurrection begins in this life, as a hidden seed planted in the ground, as a spring of living water raised from a deep well.

Christmas, December 25, 2011

When I was asked to deliver the message on December 25th, I thought, “Wow! Here’s my opportunity to debunk all the myths of the December 25th being the birthdate of Jesus."

Then I thought, This is Church, not Mythbusters."

In the studies I’ve undertaken over the past ten years I’ve really come to appreciate the Jesus story.  What a story it is!

In trying to understand his story, I began with the Jewishness of Jesus and his family.

December 18, 2011

Sing:

Ave Maria, Gratia Plena
Dominus tecum,

Speak: Greetings, Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with you, The eternal envelopes you

Sing:

benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus sventris tui Je-sus

Speak: You are worthy of praise among women,
and worthy of praise is the fruit of your womb, Jesus

December 11, 2011

This summer I visited the town of Appalachia in Wise county which is in the south west corner of Virginia. There I met with a group called the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards. They are trying to protect the mountain above their town from being blown apart by mountaintop coal mining. One third of their county has already been destroyed by this kind of mining with dire results for the people who live in the area. They are being poisoned by toxic coal dust, and their water is being polluted with toxic waste containing dozens of heavy metals including arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium. Families who were once surrounded by some of the most beautiful land on earth are now fighting to save what is left of their mountains and to save their own lives.

Coal companies doing mountaintop removal mining begin by removing all vegetation and topsoil which also effectively removes all wild life.

December 4, 2011

While preparing for today, it occurred to me that the Advent season is a sliver of time during which we symbolically re-create what countless generations of Hebrews did many centuries ago – they waited for the Messiah to come.  During Advent we prepare ourselves for Christ’s birth – for his first coming.  Of course there are differences between our experience and that of the Hebrews – for one, we move methodically through the 4 Sundays of Advent, knowing exactly when Christmas will come and when the waiting will end.  Believing in Christ’s first coming is fundamental to the Christian Church – we begin our Church year every year preparing to receive baby Jesus – it’s an annual ritual we reenact.  As we move through the year, towards Easter, we are exhorted to live out in the here and now the promise gift of reconciliation through Christ that is ours. 

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