SermonsWe hope to have podcasts at some time in the future, but until then posts of occasional sermons will be found on this page.

Genesis 32:22-31
Psalm 17:1-7,16
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21

A true story for you that I’ve borrowed from a sermon by the late Rev. Jerry Fuller:
    “After months of hard work and years of saving, the day came for Reb and Jackay to open their own restaurant. All that was needed was the final health inspection and the issuing of their business permit. That was scheduled for first thing that morning: then “Our Place,” as they called their restaurant would be in business.
    But that morning the winds and rains of Hurricane Hugo hit, unexpectedly making its way 200 miles inland to their North Carolina town. Trees were uprooted, power lines were down: homes and stores destroyed. Reb and Jackay hurried to their restaurant. The building stood – there was no damage.
    A deputy sheriff pulled up and told them that their restaurant, the fire station next door and a service station down the road were the only ones of their kind with electricity. Reb and Jackay called the health inspector to come immediately so they could open, but because of the power outage, he couldn’t get into his office to issue the permit. No permit, no business opening. With a refrigerator stocked with 300 pounds of bacon and beef and bushels of tomatoes, lettuce and bread, there was only one thing to do: give the food away.
    They told the deputy, “Tell your coworkers and other emergency people you see that we’ll have free BLT’s and coffee for anybody who wants to drop by.” Soon firemen, policemen, linemen and other workers were filing into Our Place. When the couple heard that another restaurant was scalping people by charging ten dollars for two eggs, toast and bacon, they placed a sign in their window: FREE BLT’S—FREE COFFEE. Families, travelers and street people were welcomed.
    Then something began to happen. People started to clean counters and sweep floors. Volunteers took over the dish washing from Jackay and helped Reb at the grill. Hearing about what was going on at Our Place from the local radio station, people from a neighboring town brought food from their freezers. Stores and dairies sent over chicken, milk and foodstuffs of all kinds.
    And so the long day went. Those first cups of coffee and BLT’s somehow stretched to 16,000 meals. The restaurant’s small stock increased by 500 loaves of bread, cases of mayonnaise, 350 pots of coffee and bushels of produce.” A story of abundance found amidst a situation of great scarcity.
    Jesus had just learned of the death of John the Baptist. He wanted to go off by himself to mourn and pray. But the crowds followed him; and with compassion he turned back to be with them, to teach and to heal. They were so hungry for his words that his broken heart could not say “no” to them. And then comes the miracle of the loaves and fishes.
    Some people, myself included, have at times considered the possibility that this story is like the one I just told you: that when the people saw the disciples begin to hand around the meager offering of food, that they all brought out their lunch pouches and began sharing with one another. No miracle at all, you think? Ah, but the actual feeding in this story is not really the miracle, or the point of the story. The main thrust here, I believe, is in the actions of Jesus, and what those actions did with that crowd of 5,000 men, plus women and children. When the disciples, charged with feeding the hungry crowd, brought him five loaves and two fish, Jesus took, blessed, broke and gave it. These are the four decisive verbs of our sacramental existence. Jesus conducted a Eucharist: a Thanksgiving. He demonstrated that the world is filled with abundance and brought forth with generosity. If bread is broken and shared, there is enough for all. Jesus engaged in a sacramental reordering of what the disciples and many others there believed was reality – that there was not enough. And in doing so, He transformed the crowd into a community, a sacramental community united in their need for one another and in the bread they shared.
    To quote Walter Bruggeman: “The profane is the opposite of the sacramental. “ Profane" means flat, empty, one-dimensional, exhausted. The market ideology of our world wants us to believe that the world is profane--life consists of buying and selling, weighing, measuring and trading, and then finally sinking down into death and nothingness.” He who dies with the most toys wins.
    “But Jesus presents an entirely different kind of economy, one infused with the mystery of abundance and a cruciform kind of generosity, [one that flows out in all directions]. Five thousand plus are fed and 12 baskets of food are left over. Jesus transforms the economy by blessing it and breaking it. From broken bread comes abundance. In this and in the miraculous feeding in Mark, people do not grasp, hoard, resent, or act selfishly; they watch as heaven multiplies the bread of earth.
    When people forget that Jesus is the bread of the world, they start eating junk food--the food of the Pharisees and Herod, the bread of moralism and power. Too often the church forgets the true bread and is tempted by junk food. Our faith is not just about spiritual matters; it is about the transformation of the world. The closer we stay to Jesus, the more we will bring a new economy of abundance to ourselves and to the world.”
    Bruggeman goes on to say, “The conflict between the narratives of abundance and scarcity is the defining problem confronting our world today. The gospel story of abundance asserts that humanity came into being through the magnificent, inexplicable love of God. The baptismal service declares that God has miraculously loved each one of us into existence. And the story of abundance says that our lives will end in God, and that this wellbeing cannot be taken from us. In the words of St. Paul, neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor anything: nothing can separate us from God.”
    What we know about our beginnings and our endings, then, creates a different kind of present tense for us. We can, and are called to live according to an ethic whereby we are not driven, controlled, anxious, frantic or greedy, precisely because we know that God provides sufficiently. Therefore we can be at peace to care for others, as we have been cared for.
    We are the wealthiest people on the planet. And yet, we seem to be caught in that junk food world of always wanting more. Our lives seem to be ordered in a list of self first; family second and everyone else way down the list. The poorest one of us has so much more than most of the people in the world, yet we hustle and worry and crave to the point that we live with an attitude of scarcity: we run through life as though we’ll never have enough of whatever it might be at the present moment. All the while, hundreds of thousands around the world are starving.
    What we know in the secret recesses of our hearts is that the story of scarcity is a way that leads to death. And we, as people of God, are to counter that attitude of scarcity by witnessing to the manna in the wilderness. There is a more excellent bread than crass materialism. It is the bread of life and you don't even have to bake it.
    The great question now facing us is whether our faith is strong enough to allow us to live in a new way. Jesus said it succinctly. You cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot serve God and do what you please with your money or your power or your land. And then he says, "Don't be anxious, because everything you need will be given to you." But you must decide. Christians have a long history of trying to squeeze Jesus out of public life and reduce him to a private little Savior. But to do this is to ignore what the Bible really says. Jesus talks a great deal about the kingdom of God -- and what he means by that is a public life reorganized toward community; looking outward and being thoughtful of, and caring for those both near and far.
    It is, of course, easier to talk about these things than to live them. Many people both inside and outside of the church haven't a clue that Jesus was teaching about the economy. We haven't been taught that he did. But we must begin to understand that we are to live believing in that abundance, no matter how economically compromised we may feel. Our world absolutely requires this news. It has nothing to do with being Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, socialist or capitalist. It is much more elemental: the creation is infused with the Creator's generosity, and we can find ways, procedures and institutions, that allow that generosity to work. Like the rich young man in Mark 10, we all have many possessions. Sharing our abundance may feel impossible, but nothing is impossible for God. None of us knows what risks God's spirit may empower us to take. Our faith, ministry and hope are that the Creator will empower us to trust his generosity, so that bread may abound for all. Amen.

Here is the sermon from July 17, 2011:

    I think I could have written three sermons on the scriptures today. Each one is so filled with important messages for us. In our Old Testament reading, we have Jacob fleeing into the wilderness. For those of you not familiar with this story: Jacob, the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, fought with his older twin brother Esau even in the womb. They were fraternal twins with nothing in common. Isaac loved Esau best because he was a hunter and brought meat into the household. Their mother, Rebecca, knew by prophecy that Jacob, though he was second-born, would inherit and rule over his brothers and receive his father’s blessing. Suffice it to say that in a moment of weakness Esau gave Jacob his birthright. At a later date, Jacob outright lied to their blind father to get Isaac’s blessing and therefore, Esau’s inheritance as firstborn. Esau promises to kill Jacob, and at this point in the scriptures, Jacob is fleeing for his life, out in the wilderness, trying to go to his mother’s brother for sanctuary. He feels as though he has lost everything, and may yet lose his life. Jacob lies down to sleep without even bothering to look for a soft or pleasant place – the sun had set, and he merely moves a stone to use as a pillow, and, exhausted, falls into deep slumber.
    This man is not an upright and moral man. A liar, a thief if you will, and from his family, no less! Yet it is to him that God comes. God isn’t calling to Jacob from heaven, She is standing beside Jacob; repeating the promises made to Abraham and Isaac of owning great amounts of land, having many children and possessions; how Jacob and his family will bless the nations. God says that Jacob will never be alone; God will always be with him.
    In the morning, Jacob realizes that this deserted place is the house of God. He takes the stone he used for a pillow, turns it into an altar, pours oil over it as a blessing, and names it Bethel, literally “house of God”. Throughout history, we have used oil for blessing, anointing and sanctifying, both people and places. Jacob is not worshipping the stone; he is making a sacrament, the physical and outward sign of an inward and spiritual event.
    And this event: the coming of God to Jacob, changed not only the place where it happened, it also changed Jacob. Though it’s not in our reading for today, the next verse shows the dramatic turnaround that occurred in Jacob’s life: he makes a vow, telling God that if he survives the coming ordeal and is eventually allowed back into his father’s lands in peace, he will be God’s devoted servant. This opportunist and liar has become a man of God. God’s message to Jacob about how he will be a blessing to all the peoples of the Earth is surely a blessing to us. It shows us that there is always hope – hope that, with God’s help, we can turn our lives around, from a path of destruction such as Jacob was on, to a path where we will be a blessing to others.
    Paul continues his letter to the Romans in our New Testament reading, and again I remind you that there is a great difference in the way Paul uses the word sarx or “flesh” and soma, which means “body”. Flesh has to do with an unhealthy attitude and focus on the body, whether it is an obsession with making your body perfect, or being obsessed in a sexual way. It has to do with power, over yourself or other people. The body (soma) has no negative connotation, it is neither good or bad, it is simply the body. In this passage, Paul is telling the people that because they have accepted Christ, they, and we, are God’s children, that we are heirs of God’s kingdom, brothers and sisters of Jesus.
    The Roman Christians were experiencing persecution; enduring great difficulties in their lives. Paul reminds them not to fall back into fear: that as servants of God, we have no reason to fear. This world is not as it should be – it wasn’t then, and it isn’t now. Suffering is part of all of life; we all experience great pain at some point – whether it is physical or emotional, it just is, because the world is not as God wants it to be. Paul’s point is not that anyone (including Christ) earns glory by suffering; rather, as he seeks to describe what it means to be a joint heir with Christ: he notes that the joint heir's life is characterized by the same pattern that shaped Christ's life. To be connected to Christ is to know humiliation, and exaltation. To be an heir with Christ is to share in Christ's suffering and resurrection. 

    Paul is not saying hope for heaven, in the sky, by and by. That freedom of which he writes is not freedom from the material world, but freedom within a restored creation. It is the freedom of an embodied life that reflects the image and glory of God. Paul points to that freedom and describes what it is like to hope for such a thing here and now. He uses the words for "son" and "child" to refer not to Jesus, but to his siblings, we who are led by the Spirit. As "flesh" referred to a power that enslaves us and keeps us from participating in God's glory, the Spirit is the power that frees and enlivens us for a new identity as children of God. 


    One cause of suffering for those who have received the Spirit of adoption, is that the Spirit has given us reason to hope for more than we can see. Paul’s meaning of suffering includes anything that threatens to separate us from God's love. For now, the suffering Paul speaks of is suffering that comes from knowing what the world could be, even as we live in the world as it is. Then he writes, “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” Let us be patient, my friends: for the joy engendered in our relationship with our Creator through Christ Jesus is worth the wait.
    Our Gospel is a wonderful teaching for us, though to simply read the scripture without digging deeper might only bring us confusion, and lead us in the wrong direction. We have wheat and weeds, comingled together, and the servants are anxious to pull up the weeds, to root out the “evil” in the field so that a bountiful harvest would grow, undeterred by evil weeds within the wheat field. I doubt that there is anyone here who hasn’t questioned why God allows evil to exist. Haven’t we all at some time wanted to take matters into our own hands and get rid of the evil we see? The master stops the slaves from doing anything of the sort. For one thing, it is not so easy to tell the weeds from the wheat, and for another, their roots are intertwined below the ground. Rooting out the weeds would uproot the wheat as well; doing more damage to the crop than leaving the weeds to grow until harvest.
    It sounds as though Jesus is saying that there are two groups of people in the world -- children of the kingdom and children of the evil one, wheat and weeds -- and that their destinies are fixed from the beginning. Jesus says that at the end of the age, the angels will "collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin (skandala) and all evildoers, and will throw them into the furnace of fire”. Elsewhere Jesus warns those who put a stumbling block (skandalon) before any of the "little ones" that it would be better for them to have a millstone put around their neck and to be drowned in the sea. Similarly he warns that if your hand, foot, or eye causes you to sin (skandalizo), it is better to cut it off or pluck it out and enter life blind or maimed, than to be thrown into the "hell of fire" with body intact. All of these phrases are hyperbole of course, exaggerated speech meant to jar us into recognizing the seriousness of anything that leads us, or others into sin. It seems to suggest that skandalon may be something within a person rather than the whole person.
    We know that it is not really our hand, foot, or eye that causes us to sin. Sin comes from the human heart: kardia, which in Greek refers to the inner self, the mind and will. No human is able to pluck out the inner self. Perhaps when Jesus says that the angels will collect all skandala to burn in the fire, he means that everything within us that causes sin will be burned away.
    It doesn't quite fit the logic of the parable, which seems to be talking about two groups of people and speaks of throwing all evildoers into the furnace of fire. Yet it fits with other texts in Matthew about stumbling blocks. 
Remember where Jesus tells Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block (skandalon) to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." In spite of these strong words and Peter's repeated failings, Jesus does not give up on Peter; rather, he entrusts the future of his mission to him and the rest of his disciples, who more often than not don’t understand what he’s trying to teach them. 
So perhaps we shouldn’t take the parable too literally. In the world we know, weeds do not become wheat. Yet Matthew's story holds out hope even for those who stumble -- yes, even for the one whom Jesus calls a stumbling block!
    Perhaps there were some overzealous "weeders" in Matthew's congregation who wanted to purify the community by rooting out the bad seed. This seems to be a temptation for followers of Jesus in every age. Many Christians carry on a weeding frenzy, certain that they know the difference between weeds and wheat, and that they know how to deal with the weeds! Jesus' parable makes clear that any attempt to root out the weeds will only do more damage to the crop. This has happened far too many times in congregations and denominations, with some determined to root out anyone who does not agree with the "right" interpretation of Scripture, liturgical practice, or stand on a particular issue, or way of life. There are many who pronounce judgment on people outside the church: on people of other faiths, for instance: declaring them to be destined for eternal damnation. Whether judgment is focused within the church or without, it does serious damage to the church and its mission.
    Jesus makes clear that we are not the judge of who is "in" or who is "out." In fact, in scripture we are told that God's judgment about these matters will take many by surprise: that many will be “in” that we don’t expect, and many will be “out” that we never thought would be. The Bible tells us that God is love, and Jesus tells us to be a neighbor and friend to all. We can leave the weeding to the angels, and get on with the work Jesus has called us to do: loving all those we meet and caring for those in need. Amen.