Sermons

October 9, 2022

Texts: (For full texts, go to the end of this manuscript)
     2 Kings 5:1-15
     Luke 17:11-19

Here is the Zoom link to Jay’s teaching: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/kS8HYqzEdZfIUp4rhRKE0vXUndaBfOJioGRVl9XOwfSmxZp8UOJnXTEnOFbunHez.mwMLvYxGeB4j9uxi?startTime=1665326569000

I find that it’s not popular in progressive Christian spaces to speak about sin.  It’s a word that comes with a lot of baggage.  Sin is a word that is used to shame, oppress, and judge.  I think for example of the way “sin” is deployed against queer and trans people to twist pleasure into guilt and bodies into shame.  I think of how sin has been used to induce guilt — petrifying, crushing guilt.  I think of how sin is used to foster self-hatred and justify authoritarian disciplinary measures to create submissive subjects.

But I’m not ready to throw “Sin” out yet, because if we give up on the concept of sin, I fear we might lose an important religious framework for naming the evils and violence that plague our work.  In the Western church, Sin is often understood in legal terms: breaking a law, committing a crime, wrongdoing in need of punishment.  In this framework, salvation means to be saved from impending punishment or from the consequences of one’s actions.  However, the Eastern churches (in general) have a very different concept of Sin. 

October 2, 2022

If the concept of god has any validity or use, it can only be used to make us freer and more loving.  If god cannot do this, then it is time that we got rid of him!

James Baldwin

Throughout this sharing I will share reading and thoughts from the Author Cole-Arthur Riley’s book This Here Flesh:  Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us.

I want to share an old man’s story:

One night, I did leave the house and walked for hours, wishing to disencumber myself.  But my bones failed me, and the light of an all-night diner were irresistible.  I entered the steamy, greasy warmth, felt the meat smell clinging to my clothing.  I sat down at the counter and picked up a matchbox.  On it was printed, ACE 24-Hour Cafe · Where Nice People Meet.  And tears came to my eyes for the hopefulness, the sweetness, the enduring promise of plain human love.  And I understood the incarnation.  For, I have believed for the first time: Christ took on flesh for love, because the flesh is lovable.

The waitress looked at me, an old man with a night’s growth of grey-green beard.  My eyes, I knew, were feverish, the mad eyes she must have gotten used to on the late-night shift.  She said, “How about another cup of coffee, dear?” I smiled and thanked her.

                                                            -Mary Gordon, “In the Company of Women”

September 11, 2022
Texts:
     Exodus 32:7-14
     Luke 15:1-10

Here is the zoom link to Ann’s teaching: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/627GIwnzY_nP_qkdaKLwxGivItu0o7bvL2gs3P_8QhEZv4UvdyXt1SdiyOm2aRc.U2CmkC0c6Wbb1Z-u?startTime=1662906645000

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells parables about individuals who lose something of great value to them, search for it, find it, and then rejoice with family and neighbors.  Lost sheep and lost coin.  The final story that Luke records in chapter 15 is The Prodigal Son.  The boy wanders away, eats with the pigs, and then gives his father great joy because he comes back home.

Let’s reflect a little on what the Scripture can teach us about losing and finding.  And rejoicing.

Events in our recent history have compelled my imagination, and I have tried to connect them to our Scriptures.

Today is Sept 11, nine/one/one.   For some of us, those numbers will always evoke the horror on our TV screens: the plane ramming into the tall tower of the World Trade Building in New York.  9/11/2001 and the sudden violent deaths — literally out of the blue — of thousands of people who were just going about their daily lives.  I’m still having trouble all these years later trying to discover whether a coin of good might be salvaged from the losses that day.  Because that loss led to more loss, especially the disaster of the so called “war on terror,” and the thousands upon thousands of lives destroyed in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

September 4, 2022

Text:
     Luke 14:25-33
     Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Here is the link to the zoom recording for Meade’s teaching. The video is not particularly good. The audio cuts out approximately the 10th minute and doesn't come back in again until the 12th minute.

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/LmD586VAqF_HasxsQy-oQFHEqGQqmiHsKt4bzr0MXpZRDy4Ra4Kuei8Tl08k1Xc3.FolqYxi-UXWeYFOE?startTime=1662301681000

For the last two Sundays, Jesus was under the scrutiny of the Pharisees.  He healed the woman on the Sabbath.  When criticized That he was doing “work,” he “schooled” them how the Sabbath rest meant freedom from oppressive work for even the ox and horse so, of course, Sabbath rest meant freedom from an oppressive health condition for a woman. 

Last Sunday, Jesus suggested to the Pharisees that it is good to humble ourselves and invite the “lowly” of our society into our homes and to our holy tables of worship and midrash.  He is again “schooling” the Pharisees that God’s table is meant for freeing our world from the oppression of hierarchy itself.  Free to have no place different than right beside the stranger or the foreigner.

August 28, 2022

Texts:

     Proverbs 25:6-7
     Luke 14:1, 7-14

Here is the Zoom link to Wendy’s teaching.  Note that a minute or two into the teaching the Zoom audio stops.  It takes a minute or two, but Kevin does get it fixed so stay with it.

When I mentioned to my husband David that I would be working on my teaching for this Sunday, he asked what the topic was.  When I said, “humility,” he responded, “I presume you will be using me as a prime example.”  David has been known to comment on more than one occasion, “Humility is my greatest asset.”  I might argue with this statement, but, on the other hand, if I were to sum up in one sentence the gist of this sermon, I’d say that “humility is knowing oneself.”  David is a person who is not shy about his assets or his foibles, is very down-to-earth in many ways, and has a dry sense of humor.  Humility, down-to-earthiness (humus), and humor all come from the same root.  So perhaps he is my prime example of humility!  What I do know is that being David’s wife is a humbling experience for me.  I suppose being married is a humbling experience for most people, because you can’t really maintain a close relationship for a long time without finding out about your own foibles and defects of character — as well as those of your partner.

August 15, 2022

Texts:
     Luke 12: 49-56
     Hebrews 11:29 – 12:2

[The Zoom recording does not begin until several minutes into the teaching, below.]

July 31, 2022

Text: Matthew 9:20-22

Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.  She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” 

Jesus turned and saw her.  “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment. 

Let’s begin with a meditation

Close your eyes; take a deep breath.  

Try to close the faucet of the endless drip of your anxious mind .
Bring yourself to presence and to the present.

Imagine the Black people in our congregation 
Maybe pick a single person; hold that person's spirit in your heart 
The Black people in our congregation are descendants of enslaved Africans, but that is not their whole history; each one has a special history within the system of slavery.  Each one has a special family, a special history separate from slavery altogether, a special story within their own life, a special birth.
They are "uniquely unique," as Karen’s mother Olene says.  Each brings special gifts to this community.  But not only that; each one is also a descendant of kings and queens of Africa.  Each is a few generations distant from the mother continent of the human race.  Each is closely connected in history to the cradle of civilization.

July 10, 2022
This is the link to the Zoom recording of Kate’s sermon.

Texts:
     Luke 10:38-42
     Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.  39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.  40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.  She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?  Tell her to help me!”

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.  Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Oh, Martha, Martha.  In hindsight, listening to this passage Jesus’ final conclusion seems rather obvious — that “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”  Obvious to everyone except Martha, perhaps.

July 3, 2022

Texts:
     Isaiah 66:10-14
     John 10:1-20

The Zoom link for Crisely’s teaching is here.

Good morning, friends.  What a joy to gather with you today to celebrate Mariela’s life in this loving community, as we get to make explicit what is already implicit: Mariela’s belovedness as a child of God. 

I’ve been sitting with what to share with you this morning, and you might not be surprised to hear that it kept getting pushed to the backburner due to someone else requiring my full attention. 

Until I realized, perhaps this little one is exactly to whom I should turn for our teaching this morning.  In these almost two weeks since her coming into this world, Mariela keeps reflecting a deep wisdom back to me.  Mariela is teaching me how to receive.