Sermons

June 24, 2007

As the introductions told you, my name is Lia Scholl and I run a growing non-profit that ministers to exotic dancers. The short of it is that I train women to be chaplains in strip clubs. Those women, organized in teams, visit the clubs regularly, and provide friendship to the dancers.

June 17, 2007

The South I grew up in was not that far removed from the time of lynching. Some of the Freedom Riders who came to Tallahassee left with serious and permanent disabilities. In Chicago, our Boy Scout leader was shot between the eyes by a Blackstone Ranger. Both in Tallahassee and in Chicago I was as afraid of the police as I was of the criminals. I learned there were good police and bad police, good Blackstone Rangers and bad, good Ku Klux Klan members and bad, good Sergeants and bad, good officers and bad. I was learning that there is bad in the best of us and good in the worst of us. 

June 10, 2007 

This sermon is inspired by a lot of doubts I’ve had recently about what attitude to take toward the Christian Right – or more broadly, toward people who claim to be Christians but live it out in ways I disagree with.

It’s a sermon full of confusion and contradiction, and I want to warn you beforehand that it starts that way and just keeps going.  Fifteen minutes from now, I’m going to sound just as uncertain as I did at the beginning.  It’s not the kind of sermon that clarifies or offers insight – other than an insight into what it feels like to live in the tension of opposing spiritual demands.  That’s too bad, because I like the other kind of sermon – the kind where I’m pretty sure I’m right about something – and both of my previous sermons were that kind.  This one, as I say, is not.

May 13, 2007

One of the real fears that stalked Seekers when we were considering whether to buy this property and renovate it, was whether it would swallow up our joy, turn us into penny-pinchers or worse, saddle us with unmanageable debt. Money became a measure of our fears.

But as we lived into our fears, one step at a time, for ten long years between the decision to move and arrival in this place, financial support at Seekers continued to grow. It was a sign that the Holy Spirit was at work–that the Advocate continued to operate, bringing us hope and courage that we could continue to be generous in our support of the missions that mattered because one or another of us was directly involved. That was always the guiding principle–our money followed someone’s passion, commitment and energy. Love did cast out fear as, week by week, we made decisions about giving in the privacy of our hearts. The culture of generosity is made of many parts–money, time, energy, optimism, questions, even resistance. But today, I want to focus on money.

May 6, 2007

I can feel a new order trying to take root in me in many ways. An obvious place is in my coming fulltime to Seekers, and to stepping into the job of Sunday School Coordinator here. I have left something behind in order to create something deeper and wider here, with you. Another place where I see a new order is that I can’t seem to write sermons as I used to. I find myself wishing I could–I had more confidence in my sermons when they were tight, clear, narrative. But right now it is in the poet’s voice that my preaching wants to come out. Perhaps it is that the poet’s voice reflects the longings I long to connect with. "Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there", writes Rumi.