Sermons

November 13, 2016 Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost  Larry offered his reflections around the theme  “Accepting What Is.” His full text is not available, but he concluded as follows: “I may not be here for the rest of your lives, but I will love you guys for the rest of mine.”  

November 6, 2016

Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost

 The Call Statement of Seekers says that citizenship matters. This is a sermon concerning  Christian faith grounding for citizenship.

This is the worst presidential campaign I remember and my memory goes back to cheering for Adlai Stevenson against Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.

I’m glad Paul, Keith, and Peter are hosting the School of Christian Living Class that provide opportunities to process our feelings and concerns. And yes, I think there is a lot to worry about however the results turn out.

I didn’t like the Lectionary readings for today. The best I can say for them is that they reflect anxiety, fear, and lust for revenge. The theme that God will provide a Judgment Day against all enemies both foreign and domestic seems to mirror a lot of the feelings going around in this election. I take the readings as a problem statement for this sermon.

This sermon takes on an issue that has been identified in several polls as the highest issue of concern for both Republican and Democrat voters: the economic situation in the United States. You can think of this sermon as an unlikely model for the debates and ads the candidates might have had.

October 30, 2016 Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost  Michele Frome, who served as liturgist for this Sunday, offered the following “Remarks for Remembrance” as an introduction to our Remembrance Ritual which served in lieu of a sermon. We come now to our time for remembering and honoring the saints – not just any saints, but our saints, those deceased loved ones who are especially close to our hearts and souls at this time. The Christian Church has been observing All Saints Day on or around November 1 for many, many centuries. Why do we observe this ancient tradition?  Why do we honor our loved ones who have passed, and why do we do it in community – in our church community?  I offer 3 reasons. First, we still love these people.  We want to display our love publically. Second, we are mortal.  In remembering them, we remind ourselves that this is not our permanent address. Third, because of the mystery – the unfathomable mystery of the risen Christ, the mystery that makes us both mortal and immortal, in unity with those who have gone before and those yet to come. Now I invite you to come forward, as the spirit moves…

October 23, 2016

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

I picked today to preach because I just love the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector.  I have been thinking about it since smacked me in the face three years ago when Luke was last featured in the lectionary.  That that year, like this year, I heard the following line read aloud:  “The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.’” Then he enumerates to himself all of the ways in which he is such a righteous man.  While he is congratulating himself, a tax collector is beating his breast and berating himself, begging for God’s mercy, not even daring to stand near the Pharisee or to show his face to God.  Tax collectors were despised by the Jews because they worked for the Romans.  But which man received God’s grace and mercy?  It was the tax collector, not the Pharisee.  When I heard this, three years ago, I immediately said to myself, “Thank God I am not like that Pharisee!”

October 16, 2016

Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost

This is a very hard time of year for me. As I was preparing this sermon for what is, in many ways, the most important day of our life together as a church, Recommitment Sunday, I was simultaneously aware of being in exile from a community in which I spent the first forty-two years of my life. I didn’t always observe the rules and regulations, I wasn’t always a member of a congregation, but until my baptism, I always knew that I was welcome to participate whenever and however I wanted to. When I became a Christian, I knowingly and willingly put myself outside of that community.  This Wednesday, I did not spend Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, fasting among my people. Although I no longer chant a long list of sins, beat my breast, and sing “ve’al kulam, eloha s’lichot. Selach lanu, mechol lanu, kaper lanu” these words are written on my heart. For all our sins, O God of Forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement.