Sermons

December 29, 2019

Christmastide

Years ago when my children were young, I taught the first grade Sunday School class with the Interfaith Families Project, and I told the kids the big stories about the Hebrew people and their God: Creation, Noah and the Ark, Abraham and Sarah, the Exodus, and so on. One year there was a precociously skeptical little boy in my class. After I told the story of, say, Noah’s Ark, he would ask, “Did that really happen?” And I would answer, “I don’t know if these things really happened. But what I do know is that there is so much truth in this story that people are still telling it, thousands of years later.”

The gospel stories about the birth of Jesus include many hard-to-believe elements: visits from angels; babies miraculously born to an elderly couple and to a young virgin; a star that moves across the sky, to name a few.

Today, many scholars consider these stories to be Christian midrash. Midrash refers to a Jewish method of studying sacred scripture. Midrash is a collection of stories and interpretations from Judaism’s long oral history that seeks to fill in the gaps of the biblical story. The purpose is to create understanding, meaning, and application of the scriptures.

December 22, 2019

The Fourth Sunday of Advent

This “No-Rehearsal Christmas Pageant” is borrowed from Rev. Dan Harper, who adapted and modified it for use at First Unitarian in New Bedford from Rev. Jory Agate of First Parish in Cambridge, who got it from someone else. This version was modified by Deborah Sokolove for Seekers Church from the Harper version found at https://www.danielharper.org/archive/?p=40, which says that it is in the public domain.

Parts: Mary, Joseph, Caesar Augustus, Herod, Wise Persons, Stable Animals, Star, Angels, Shepherds, Sheep

Places: Nazareth, Bethlehem, Fields, Jerusalem,

The Christmas story is rooted in old, old tales of the winter solstice. In ancient times in Europe, when the solstice came, our distant ancestors sometimes told stories of a miraculous child born to return us to the light. Throughout the world, people tell stories of a child born to a royal family, or to an important and rich family, who would grow up to lead humankind into a time of truth and justice.

The early Christians adapted these stories of miraculous births — but they added a twist to the old stories. Their miraculous child was not the son  of a king, but was merely the son of a carpenter; he was not the son of a wealthy queen, but was instead the son of a woman whose only wealth was her willingness to accept the task. And that Christian story has been told and retold innumerable times since those early Christians first began telling it 18 or 19 hundred years ago.

We are going to recreate the old story of the miraculous birth of Jesus this morning, and like many Christmas pageants, we’ll draw on two early Christian accounts of Jesus’s birth, from the books of Matthew and Luke.

December 15, 2019

The Third Sunday of Advent

After mission group last Wednesday night, I drove Deborah to the Silver Spring metro so she could catch her bus home. As we were driving, I told her that growing up, the Sundays leading up to Christmas (I am pretty sure the term Advent was never used) were easy. The first Sunday you got a sermon about the Annunciation, the second Sunday was about Joseph and the journey to Bethlehem, the third Sunday was about the shepherds and the choir of angels and the fourth Sunday was about the birth of Jesus and even the Wise Men might get squeezed into that already crowded barn, because more is always better, right? It was simple, straightforward, and hit all the important stuff. After I finished saying all that there was a pregnant silence and then Deborah said, Yeah, that was Baptist Advent, not Liturgical Advent.

So you are spared a sermon about the shepherds watching their flock by night and instead we have Isaiah waxing eloquent about deserts blooming and the lame leaping and the mute shouting for joy; the Psalmist reminds us that God executes justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry and sets prisoners free; the Epistle tells us that we must be patient; and in our Gospel, John the Baptist is in prison and sends word to Jesus asking, Are you the one or should we wait for another?

December 8, 2019

The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

December 1, 2019

The First Sunday of Advent

Good Morning Seekers family and good morning to my family here today, my husband Will. It has been some time since I have preached, yet I still remember the sudden anxiety attack that occurs upon taking the podium. Prayer helps so let us begin with a prayer: Holy One, please continue to bless us today with your presence. Please bless my words and ideas that, however lacking, they might fulfill your purposes and touch the hearts of those for whom you intend them. Amen

When I asked to speak today, I knew that the theme for this advent season would be “what do you see? What do you hear?” That was it. I had not read ahead the lectionary readings for the day. But, having returned from a 10-week pilgrimage that required walking 520 miles, I had seen and heard some amazing things that I want to share with you.  As usual, the Holy One provided a gospel reading in Matthew 24:36-44 that fits my story. I like to call such synchronicities “God winks.”

First, a word on pilgrimage.  There are many reasons that one might go on a pilgrimage.  Some of the reasons that Will and I went were -to go to a place of sacred and historical value, to be in  a thin place where the Holy One might be heard-to remember the ideas and events that shaped our lives -to be inspired and transformed -to have (hopefully) a mountaintop experience – to be removed from everyday life distractions -to perhaps experience more healing – to get guidance from the Holy One on the direction of our lives -to walk with the Holy One and -to leave behind what was getting in the way of our soul journey and -to receive guidance. I suppose you could sum this up in one of the metaphors from today’s gospel, we went to make sure that our lamps were full, and we had extra oil while we waited for the Bridegroom.