Sermons

June 11, 2018

Trinity Sunday (First Sunday after Pentecost)

I hope, in this sermon,

• to give a bit more detail to a peace and justice prayer I provided some weeks ago.
• to connect to the Hebrew scriptures in a way that may be meaningful for others.
• to give a bit more voice to how I have found my way into the Eyes to See mission group.

I won’t be explicitly referencing Trinity concepts, although for some that is the central view of the Lectionary readings for today.

I won’t be focusing on gender views of the Trinity but do recommend you read Deborah’s sermon from three years ago. Working with the same texts, Deborah worked with our gender perceptions of God and you may want to reacquaint yourself with that sermon and its relevance today. And, if you haven’t thought about doing this before, you can find years of sermons on the Seekers website. Because we follow the lectionary readings that repeat every three years, you can read a number of sermons inspired by these texts.

June 4, 2017

Day of Pentecost

There is something about Pentecost that intrigues me.

Our story begins with the disciples locked in a room. Liturgically, they have been there since last Sunday after they saw Jesus ascend into heaven. Historically, all we know is that when the day of Pentecost came they were together in one room. Pentecost or the Festival of Weeks celebrates the first fruits of the harvest. It is also a time to celebrate the giving of the Torah on Mt Sinai. The name, Pentecost, is Greek and is derived from the counting of days from Passover- a total of 50 days. This was a big holiday and Jerusalem was filled with Jews from all over the known world, who had come to Temple, bringing the first fruits of their harvests.

The story continues with the sound of wind and the tongues of fire and then the disciples began to speak in other languages. I want to point out here that it wasn’t the sound of rushing wind or the light of the tongues of fire that brought people to where the disciples were staying. No, it was the sound of them speaking! The Bible says:
At this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

But then come the skeptics. “Oh no,” they sneer, “These men are just drunk.” But Peter rebuffs them and says, “Come on guys, it is only 9:00 in the morning. We aren’t drunk.” And then he explains that this is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel, when God would pour out his spirit on men and women. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

I have preached several times on Pentecost now. I am not sure how that came about, but maybe the fact that I am an interpreter and translator had something to do with my either being asked or volunteering.

May 28, 2017

Ascension

This morning I bring you a report from my mission field. The last time I spoke to you here was June 19th of last year, the day before I embarked upon this mission. For the past year I have been a resident with Urban Teachers, a clinically based, masters degree program in education. Clinically based means that, for this school year, I have been teaching with a host teacher in a D.C. charter school classroom from 8 am until 3:15 pm every day, then attending graduate courses four evenings per week, 5:30 to 8:30, and doing a lot of homework every weekend. Plus lesson planning and preparation. In my sermon last year, I said this: “Can I really do this? Make such a huge career change – at my age? Can I get un-stuck from my habits of thought and action that consume so much time and energy? What will it be like to go to graduate school with a bunch of 22-year-olds, and work for employers young enough to be my children? . . . How can I give up my perfectionism, my attachments, . . . my compulsion to control my environment? Can I spend all day, every day, with people? I’m an introvert, for goodness sake. Can I really do this?”

The answer, one year later, is yes, I can do this, I have done it, am doing it, and, depending on grace, will continue to do it. And, yes, it’s intense, and difficult. I do it one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time.

So, in my report this morning from the mission field, I’m going to tell you a few of my successes, a few of my failures, and what I depend on to keep going.

May 21, 2017

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Histories are not complete accounts of the billions of random past events. History is always a narrative, a set of selected events that, when put together, tell a particular story — for example the story of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire or the story of the “Discovery” of America.”

The Palestinian and Israeli narratives are accounts of the same conflict. But, they are very different for two reasons. First, each is part of a much larger national history. And, for most of recorded history, the Jewish and Palestinian-Arab nations lived through very different experiences in very different places in the world. Second, the two narratives tell two different, but equally true, stories. One is the story of the colonization of Palestine by European Jews and the destruction of Arab Palestinian society that followed. The other is the story of the Jewish people’s return to their historic national homeland after many centuries of oppression in the Diaspora. Now hang on to your seats because in the next 15 minutes we are going to fly through two thousand years of history … twice!

May 14, 2017

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Acts 7:55-60
1 Peter 2:2-10

It is wonderful to be here with you all today. Despite the infrequency of my visits, Seekers has become something akin to a second or third spiritual home for me – a place I know I will belong, as well as find beauty and rest. And it is one of a very small constellation of congregations that I will encourage my spiritually restless friends and acquaintances to visit; where I know they will be received with love and a hospitable curiosity concerning their lives. As a space frequently used by The Potter’s House and Interfaith Power and Light for retreats, Seekers has come to signify for me a set aside place for conversations about the things that matter most: our vision, our values, and the sacred and mundane means we will use to strive towards them. I want to thank you, too, for all of your continued support of our efforts on Columbia Road. It is difficult to express how much it means to me to receive a kind note and gift out of the blue, particularly during a period when I and we have felt stretched and challenged, sometimes to our limits.