Sermons

Good morning community. Please hear my prayer –

Let the words of my mouth
And the meditation of my heart
Find favor in your Heart
O my Beloved, my strength and
My joy!
Amen, and amen.

I take these words from Nan Merrill’s version of Psalm 19 in her Psalms for Praying, from which I also draw inspiration for the opening of this sermon. Ms. Merrill offers the first stanza of Psalm 67 not as prayer, but as a strong reminder of the Holy One’s power in our lives, and couples that with an injunction, to my mind anyway, that as believers we are charged with responsibility for the spreading of love throughout creation.

When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

– John 13:31-35

“Love one another.” This commandment sounds terribly simple, unspectacular, and banal. And yet, Jesus gives this commandment to his disciples. Moreover, he gives them this commandment after washing their feet and teaching them to do the same. He gives them this commandment on their last night together before his death. “I am going away and soon you will be on your own”, he tells them, “but in my absence please, above everything else, ‘love one another’.” But, why? Why is this important? What makes this commandment is remarkable?

A few years ago the New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast published a graphic memoir about her never-ending and unsuccessful attempts to get her aging parents to focus on end-of-life issues.  The title of the book is, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? This morning, I’m afraid I’m going to ask you to focus for 15 minutes or so on death – but not so much as an “end-of-life” issue as a challenge for Christians, taking off from our readings this week.

Sometime in 2011 I came across an article in the Washington Post about a Palestinian American named Nasser Abufarha that set my life in a new direction. The article reported that one day in 2003 Nasser, as a doctoral candidate at the U of Wisconsin, was drinking a cup of coffee at Starbucks when he noticed the Fair Trade label on his cup. He thought to himself, “I should be able to go back to my village in the West Bank (Palestine) and organize the impoverished olive farmers, into cooperatives, offer them an above-market fair trade price for their olives, teach them organic farming practices, and sell their olive oil as fair trade and organic to outlets in Europe and the United States.”

The Call Changes.  What’s next.   I spoke about discovering CALL during turbulent times in race torn. Memphis in the late 60’s–crossing over and creating music with “forbidden” children in hidden places. In college I became a part of a touring reader’s theater group WORDMASTERS which performed moral/political work interpreting great literature- to help untangle Vietnam War, Sexuality, and civil right’s struggles for young people.  As a theater major I experienced the Word becoming Flesh in these performances.  I discussed the role of the director Edwina Snyder in helping me find “Call” by letting go of dysfunctional attachments and opening my hand to spiritual gifts that would pull me forward into the world of healing through Art. Seeker’s became a part of my forward movement- Sonya Dyer and Marjory Bankson gave me encouragement to pursue my growing edge which brought me to Bokamoso and Maryann Carpenter.  I found freedom in this call which drew on everything I loved, and helped me see that the gifts I brought to the table were not mine- but were blessings I received by saying “yes” to call.