Sermons

Palm/Passion Sunday

April 2, 2023

I first heard of Jesus in Galilee. People were talking about this man who was healing people who were lame, or blind, or had leprosy. When he met people possessed by demons, he commanded the demons inside them to leave. And the demons obeyed him!

So, I had to see for myself, and I tell you, it was amazing. There was something about him I’d never seen or heard before. He healed people and he told stories that made you think. When you did, you’d see a new way of living, like he was opening your mind and heart.

So, I took a leap of faith, left my work behind, and joined the small group that went with Jesus everywhere. When we’d come into a village or town a lot of people wanting to be healed and a lot of people who just wanted to hear his stories would show up. Jesus performed miracles so amazing if I told you about them you wouldn’t believe me. Groups of Pharisees would come to debate him, but Jesus knew Torah so well that sometimes he just left the Pharisees stunned into silence. I have no idea how everyone got fed, but somehow there was always enough. We always found a place to sleep, either on the floor in people’s homes or in a stable. We were living by faith in Jesus, and it was good.

The Fifth Sunday in Lent

March 26, 2023

In the final chapter of his book The God We Never Knew, theologian Marcus Borg traces the meaning of salvation in the Bible. Borg titled this chapter “Salvation: What on Earth Do We Mean?” to make the point that the primary biblical understanding of salvation has to do with our present life – not with an afterlife. In the Hebrew scriptures, a belief in life after death is not clearly stated until the book of Daniel, only about 165 years before the birth of Jesus. The Christian scriptures also affirm the belief in an afterlife, but that’s not what salvation means. Borg says, “

An initial clue is provided by the linguistic root of the English word. Salvation comes from the same root as ‘salve,’ a healing ointment. Salvation thus has to do with healing the wounds of existence. This is no small matter, for the wounds of existence are many and deep. Some of these wounds are inflicted on us, some are the result of our own doing, and some we inflict on others.[1]

The scriptures use many images for salvation, Borg says, in terms of both God’s actions with us and our experience. Images like liberation from bondage – think of the Exodus; reconciliation after being separated from a person or a community to which we belong – this is the Exile and return. Other images are salvation as forgiveness; as knowing God directly, the way one knows a person in relationship; and salvation as the kingdom of God, the image Jesus used most often, which is both a vision of a future society and a powerful reality, already present here and now.

The Fourth Sunday in Lent

March 19, 2023

Deborah asked me to preach today, and I did my best to respond joyfully (as we commit to doing in Seekers) even though I had no idea what the lectionary readings were going to be.  I feared they would be difficult or confusing or completely mystifying but I was pleasantly surprised to find them so rich that I immediately had a lot of ideas about where to go with them.  Especially the story of Jesus healing the blind man, which contains a wonderful interplay of so many possible ways of seeing and being blind.  I’m not going to go into all of them here—it would take all day—but let me name four major categories:

1. Physical sight 
2. Psychological sight 
3. Social sight 
4. Spiritual sight 

The Third Sunday in Lent

March 12, 2023

As our Lenten theme this year Celebration Circle has chosen It Depends on Faith. I like that idea. I am thinking of faith as the foundation of my spiritual life. Like the foundation under a building faith has to be rock solid.

Traditionally, Lent is a season of preparation for the celebration of Easter. These two liturgical seasons track the natural seasons of the northern hemisphere, winter becomes spring; the time to preserve energy for the next season of growth.

In the gospel scripture, when Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well he asks for a drink of water.  As they talk she realizes who she is speaking to, and Jesus offers her living water with which she would never thirst again. Jesus then begins to tell her about her past, and she, amazed runs off to share the news. Jesus never gets the glass of water.

The Second Sunday in Lent

March 5, 2023

The reading from Romans this morning seems very difficult to me.  I wish I could transpose myself into the mind of a Greek-reading early Christian, so I could understand how these words were received!  For us today, all we have is a translation of a language that was very different from ours in many ways, and separated from our era by two millennia.  It’s a hard gap to bridge.

Not being a scholar, I’m just going to give you my sense of what the passage might mean, or at least what it means to me.  The basic point seems to be a contrast between works, and faith.  Paul tells us that a person who works deserves their wages – it’s a matter of simple justice.  But to have faith in “the one who justifies the ungodly” can give you the unearned gift of “inheriting the world.”  It sounds to me like “justifying the ungodly” means showing favor even to those who don’t obey the law, who don’t “work.”  Because that’s the second big point that Paul seems to make here.  Along with “works” comes “the law,” and Paul is really radical here: “If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the inheritors, faith is null and the promise is void.”

What contrasts with law here?  It’s the Greek word charin, usually translated as “grace.”  This word has the same root as “charisma,” which we often forget refers to “a gift of divine grace.”  So obeying the law will only get us so far; we need to ask God for grace, for favor, and Paul seems to be saying that in order to do that, we must have faith of a kind that goes beyond simply applying for our fair wages.  It’s kind of unreasonable, in a way, but it’s just the sort of thing Jesus loved to tell parables about.  Sure, any good worker can get their paycheck at the end of the day, but God is actually willing to love and bless us poor idiots who can’t get the job done.