Sermons
If only I’d known that parenthood involved the daily, dreaded question, “What’s for dinner?” EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. From the time they were born needing to be fed every two hours, to the toddler years when we didn’t dare go out of the house without packing a variety of snacks, to the school years chaotic mornings feeding them and preparing for lunches too. Now with three teenagers in the house, we are often eating on the run, on our way to or from baseball games or choir rehearsals.
We may not turn into prophets like John or Amos, but we are ordinary people called to deliver an extraordinary message. In the letter to the Ephesians read today, Paul names the new believers as God’s blessed, God’s chosen and God’s adopted children. It's kind of like a pep talk that coaches give to their players just before sending them back into the game that seems like a lost cause. Yet we are sent back into the game after worship each week to proclaim God’s inbreaking reign to all the powers that profess to rule this world. And we do not do it alone. God loves us enough in our brokenness to entrust us to be the body of Christ in the world. To share God’s love and light with others and to receive that same love and light through others when we need it most.
Would you be willing to be on the lookout this week--maybe this entire summer--and share when you experience God’s reign of extravagant, wild, out of control grace being shared. Where are the places you see hope coming to life among death and fear? When do you sense God at work in the world? Let’s help each other see what Jesus was helping his disciples to see, that God comes among us in the unexpected, that the reign of God is made known in the mystery of Christ among us.
I know intimately and well, maybe you do too, the hunger to belong, to have someone safe and loving to belong to. We know what it’s like to yearn for someone who can hold all of who we are, and love us still, without flinching. That is exactly what Jesus does for the crowds that day. He invites them in, their whole selves, with their flaws and hurts fully exposed and he asks them to stay, and he makes them family. So, stop hiding. Come out come out wherever you are! Jesus—the gardener, the healer, the one who loves you fully, without flinching, welcomes you into his family.
The angels asked, “...why do you stand here looking into the sky?” The mission-field Jesus calls us to is down here, in front of us, to our right and to our left. We are not abandoned, but given an opportunity to love fiercely and boldly in Jesus’ name. The Holy Spirit is with us now and empowers us to receive the fullness of God’s love and to share that love and peace with others. May go out this day to boldly serve in Jesus’ name right here in our neighborhood and to the ends of the earth.
We shout through muted masks, “Christ is Risen indeed! Alleluia!” While still in our disbelief and wondering we go out to be the good news for others. We hold one another in grief, we speak up when we see systemic oppression, we stand with our neighbors who are hurting. And in sharing our scars with one another, new life springs forth. Resurrection and rebirth are enfleshed within each other’s scars. We proclaim to one another, “Can you believe it?” Well…no and yes. The good news of Christ’s resurrection and God’s embodied grace is hard to imagine sometimes, and yet it is the best news I’ve heard all day.
We are called to take up the cross and expect that God is fully present in the suffering and brokenness of the world. We are called to take up the cross and be honest about our brokenness and demonstrate our willingness to enter into the brokenness of others. We are called to take up the cross because we follow the One who not only took up his cross, but also revealed that nothing in this world, not even the hate and darkness and death can defeat the love and light and life of God.
The Holy One delights in you. She wraps her arms around you and scoops you into her warm embrace when you are hurting. He sees you when you make mistakes, or bad decisions, and instead of piercing you with a parental stare down, looks at you lovingly with tears in his eye. They give their very life to you in sacrificial love, because you are adored and delighted in by the same God who delights in Jesus.
Will you live out your baptismal calling and say no to all that defiles God? Say NO to white supremacy and it’s demonic legacy in our country? Say NO to serving self above all else? Say NO to unjust systems that benefit one group of people at the expense of others? Say NO to abuse of self, others and our planet? Say NO to empty promises and complicity? This day, every day, boldly shout a strong NO to all that destroys and deceives, and turn toward the Holy One’s YES that proclaims, “You are beloved of God.”
May the Holy One give us the grace to remember that we cannot create Christmas, we can only receive it. Just as the Grinch could not stop it, we can’t make it happen either. Because we learn over and over again that Christmas is more than boxes and tags and ribbons and bows. More than traditions and celebrations. God enters the world and lives among us this night, and for all our days, full of grace and truth. Full of love and promise.
We are waiting for many things, some of which will come soon, like Christmas, and others that may or may not ever come. Paul's advice helps us to live fully in the present, grateful for all that God has provided for us. We may discover, in a paradoxical way, that we are waiting for what we already have. And yet we continue to sigh, and to beg, “Come Lord Jesus, come.”
We practice generosity, so that we might be more generous, even on the days that are hard. We practice graciousness, so that we might be more gracious, even on the days that are hard. We practice joy, so that we might be more joyous- even on the days that are hard.
Practicing these gifts, and others entrusted to us, won’t always be easy, that’s certain. There may be times we prefer to go and hide in sorrow, anxiety, and grief. But I’m confident the Holy One can hold us in our anxiety and in generosity, keep us in graciousness, even in the midst of sorrow, and invite us into joy even when full of grief.
It’s not going to be easy, but it is possible to love my neighbor, even the ones I don’t particularly like, because this love is motivated by and expressed through the unconditional love we receive every day from the Holy One. Whether we deserve it or not, whether we feel it or not, God’s love for us overflows.
We have all been set free to sing a song of freedom because God has won the victory for all. We worship a God--at the festive Easter Vigil, or in these ordinary, yet extraordinary times from our home--whose heart beats for the suffering and marginalized, but also extends to the influential and the privileged. By God’s grace alone, we are free to live a new life in Christ, reborn every day in God’s love and mercy for the world.
God calls us to speak about unjust systems that oppress, even if we don’t feel equipped or well-spoken enough to make a difference. God calls us to stand with those who are hurt by violence and natural disasters, or who have no sense of belonging, even if we don’t know exactly what to do. God calls us to open our eyes and hearts to the pain and suffering of others. And God calls us to take off our shoes--to be vulnerable and open to the God who embraces us in our own pain and suffering. God is the one who always holds the action, is never stagnant or still. I AM loves. I AM restores. I AM forgives. I AM calls. I AM is with us whenever we find ourselves on holy ground
The Holy One is with us wherever we go. If only we’d open our eyes to see and hear God’s blessing in the most unexpected places and parts of our lives. Sometimes it’s just too hard to recognize God’s presence among us or to recognize ourselves as holy and beloved by God. Like Jacob we run from our past and worry about our future.
Yet God knows your greatest joys and deepest pains and loves you anyway. Receive this promise, like Jacob did, from the Holy One who is with you in your dreams and in your journey to an unknown future.
May you find sacred places and times to rest in God’s presence even in the most unexpected and surprising times.
Just like many great love stories in the Bible, this one began with well-springs of water at the baptismal font, when promises were made by God and humans. In those waters we were claimed as God’s beloved, a relationship with the Holy one was born, and God’s faithfulness secured. We are invited to embrace this never-ending love story and say “Yes!” Yes, to God’s love for us. Yes, to God’s love for the world. Yes, to God’s faithfulness, trusting that God will provide all that we need as we work to love our neighbors as ourselves, trusting that God provides for all generations.
Today we remember that dust and ashes are Good News. They point us toward the power and love of God - both at the beginning and the end. They remind us that God is with us as we live between dust and dust, and that today and always, we are called to repent and return. Turn toward the one who created and keeps us in love's embrace.
