Sermons

November 18, 2018

Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost

One biblical commentary I read gave today’s gospel text an intriguing if not alarming title: “Doomsday Deceivers.”  The disciples have come with Jesus to Jerusalem – and when they see the magnificence of city they are mesmerized. “What large stones and what large buildings!”  It’s as if a group of rural peasants landed in the midst of the glitz of New York City’s times square.  But what seems most ironically humorous is that their experience immediately follows the story of the widow’s mite, who gives from her greatly from her heart of her meager wealth in contrast to the grand material wealth of the city. Ched Meyers points out the disparity here – the economic contrast of her poverty with the glorious buildings built by extracted wealth of both the Roman empire and temple power.

Jesus’ response to the disciple’s naiveté bursts the balloon of their misplaced attention:  “not one of these stones will remain…  All will be thrown down.”  Jesus is pointing to both their own deception as well as warning them of “anyone who would deceive you”  or “lead you astray.”  We might remember that the Gospel of Mark was the earliest gospel was probably written about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70AD.

November 11, 2018

Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Some of you may not be aware that the cloth napkins we use for Seekers prepared meals do not wash themselves. The main motive for choosing cloth napkins was to avoid using paper napkins. On the other environmental hand, a minute amount of more water is used to wash the napkins because individual Seekers wash them in regular laundry loads. My point is that Seekers actions have political, practical, and spiritual aspects.

How much does spiritual concern about the stewardship of nature matter for your practical, economic, and political motivations? How much of your spiritual concerns for nature is about deepening prayer practices by escaping for awhile from practical, economic, and political “worldly” concerns? Do we live on the natural Earth, or do we live in our garden world where we weed out  invasive species. Caring in the context of environmental concerns is just one kind of caring and each kind of caring has spiritual, practical, economic, and political implications. How much does our Christian faith help us sort out and prioritize such complexity?

November 4, 2018

Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

The last two weeks of September, I worked as a Disaster Spiritual Care volunteer for the American Red Cross following Hurricane Florence; Florence was the storm set tropical storm rainfall records in North and South Carolina, dumping 10 trillion gallons of water.

A little background: last year, with support from this congregation, I completed training in Clinical Pastoral Education and was approved for certification as a Clinical Chaplain.  I signed up with the Red Cross hoping to get some more opportunity to practice what I’d learned.  In September, the opportunity came.

I was based in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which was headquarters for District 3 of this particular Red Cross operation, covering 9 counties. There were several hundred Red Cross workers in district 3, but only 5 of us assigned to Spiritual Care.  Each day, I was paired up with one or two other people and assigned several Red Cross emergency shelters to travel to by car.  Each day, I spent several hours talking with people who were staying in these shelters.

October 28, 2018

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

I. Common Theme in today’s scripture lessons and in theology of Howard Thurman: Restoration to Fellowship and Community (Israel from exile, Bartimaeus’ sight, Howard Thurman’s theology)

A. Idea of community major theme of Thurman’s theology of hope: We are created for community, and any obstacle to that has to be removed.

October 21, 2018

Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost: Recommitment Sunday

In our gospel reading for today (Mark 10:35-45), Zebedee’s sons James and John ask Jesus to let them sit at his right and left hand when he is in his glory. The answer that Jesus gives them is not the one that they want to hear. He says, you don’t know what you are talking about! I’m about to drink the cup of suffering, to be baptized with blood. Are you up to that?

When they assure him that they are, he says, ok, you will get that, but it’s not up to me to give you the honor that you want, because that’s already been prepared for someone else.

He does not say who will be sitting on his right and left hand in that undefined future that scripture calls “his glory,” but it is clearly not these two pushy brothers. Instead, they almost immediately get a small taste of the cup of suffering they say they are ready for when the other ten disciples angrily confront them for their naked ambition. Jesus then says they are asking the wrong question. It’s not about who is doing the best work or the most important task or who will get honors in this life or the next. Rather, he says, in the upside-down world of the Reign of God, the first will be last and the one who wants to lead must serve the community.