Sermons

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.

July 10, 2011    

I'm going to tell the story of my faith journey and my call to Family Place through reading excerpts from my memoir, Border Crossings: A Spiritual Journey in Medicine. The Family Place is a mission of the 8th Day Faith community. It is a community center located at 16th Street and Park Road NW where low-income families with preschool children can find services such as prenatal and parenting classes, family literacy and ESOL programs, nutrition and medical services. It’s now 31 years old and it has been supported by a Church of the Saviour Mission Group throughout its life.

June 26, 2011

Text: Matthew 10:40-42

Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.

Today is the second Sunday of Pentecost, the liturgical season in which we consider the work of the Holy Spirit as it creates churches -- collective bodies of Christ which will continue the work of Jesus beyond his lifetime.

The particular text which we have just heard might be called “Instructions for Mission.”