SERMONS
No law against loving your neighbor
At that time 35 years ago, my pastor was not pro-choice. Most of my peers had never talked about it and would have considered themselves anti-abortion if asked. But that’s the problem when only given binary options. It’s either/or and there’s no room for gray, for nuance, for understanding and compassion.
God's freedom
You see, if we expand the definition of “possession” to include everything that conspires to keep us dead when God wants us alive, everything that keeps us bound up, when God wants us free, then this ancient story is not an oddity about a crazy demon-possessed naked man, but it is a reflection of our own lives. We too seek freedom from all that torments us. And like the healed man we find freedom (or salvation) in the presence of Jesus. Because there is no death-dealing power in this universe that can withstand the saving, healing, resurrecting power of Jesus.
What time is it?
Listen again to the scripture Leon chose, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Leon trusted this promise that no matter what season in life he was in, nothing would be able to separate him from God’s love in Christ Jesus.
You are God's delight
What if we each knew and believed and trusted that God loved us (and all of our neighbors even the hard to love ones) so very much that it made God laugh with delight to see us, to hold us, to squeeze us tight? I can’t help but think that such a thing would change the world.
Memory Incarnate
Breath it in. As if breathing in the scent of a loved one as you lie in their arms. As you hold them in your arms. As we as a community hold each other in our common mission that has been declared unto us.
Do you understand?
We learn a different language in this place. A language unlike any other. The language of forgiveness. The language of mercy. The language of acceptance. The language of diversity. A language that calls us to love this world and do all what we can to make it a better place.
Look out, not up
Look out, not up this Ascension Sunday and always. Seek and find God’s presence in places of pain and suffering, as God works through you. For we are people called to do justice and love mercy. We do not have the luxury of looking to others to fix the problems we abhor. We are called to be people who show up, tell the truth, and point to Christ, so that everyone may live life abundantly.
Choosing love
Loving as Jesus loves, is a call to be the ongoing, visible presence of God in the world. Choosing love, even when love is hard to come by. Extending love even when people are unlovely.
How Does Life Go On?
And with such a fire of new life in our midst, practically burning on our skin, how can we help but act in love to those around us? For this is what it means to be in union with God, to be one in God’s ministry of love.
The Other Side
Yet the gift of Easter is for the here and now. This is the other side. This is the feast. Throughout our lives we learn to sing the song of heaven, even here on earth, that we might make of this earth a heaven.
A Blurry Blessing
What about the scars that you and I carry? Our response to life’s hardest moments may be a kind of blur for us, but there is a blessing there as well?
I've Got the Joy!
Even if it doesn’t feel quite right to choose joy in these difficult days, maybe that’s when we let the sights and sounds and smells of Easter envelop us, even carry us. And if we doubt the resurrection is true or can’t sing or shout “alleluia joys” ourselves, then we lean into our neighbor who sings and shouts and believes for us.
Introduction to the Baptism
We will face our fears togethers. Knowing God is with us in the fire. Knowing the light of Christ shines in the darkness. And knowing that from these waters God makes all things new.
A Wonder to Behold
This day we behold the wood of the cross. We gaze upon the One whose suffering brings hope to our dying world. We behold the suffering of those in Ukraine. We behold those suffering in our city. We behold all those with broken hearts, broken bodies, troubled spirits.
The Last Bath
This does not mean that Kay’s heart is not breaking. Or that it is unbearable to hold her mother as she vomits, or to watch helplessly as Thelma struggles to swallow even one sip of water. “This does not mean that Kay does not hate the death her mother is dying. It means that when her mother pours water over her throat and neck, Kay can hear the echoes of the waters of her mother’s baptism” and the dignity of each and every body created in the image of God.
The Stones Cry Out
The stones cry out that loss is lifted high. That love triumphs. That life is stronger than death. May this passion be ours as well.
Lost and Found
And, I wonder, if Jesus sat among us now, if he would tell us other stories.
Second Chances
The gardener, though, is in it for the long haul. Give it another year. Fertilize it. Put some life-giving manure (holy you-know-what) around it. Wait and see. Give it another chance. After all, growth happens slowly. In nature. In ourselves. In the pursuit of justice.