@EUCC Sermons

I wonder, what parochialism (what prejudice) might God be calling us to break away from, so that we can more effectively proclaim the Good News to others whom we might have otherwise have kept our distance or refused to serve?

Our respective answers to this question likely vary depending on our social location. All of us, for example, have been shaped by colonial ideals, but not all in the same ways. Some of us have been shaped in ways that have caused us to be proud of our culture, race, social status, nationality, language, and condition, while others of us have been shaped in ways that have led us to feel ashamed of these things.

Regardless of our situation--being colonizers or the colonized--God calls us to experience metanoia (a change of heart) by finding our highest and greatest identity as disciples of Christ.

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As a pastor, I know Christian talk about what God thinks, says, and does is both a duty and an occupational hazard. Every time I write a sermon or participate in Bible Study, I caution myself from speaking too specifically about God or what God thinks, because like MOST if not ALL pastors I have not received any private communication from God, at least not any as clear as the conversation Samuel or even Eli had with the LORD. And thankfully, I am not among the prophets God is currently using to promote the unconstitutional retention of President Trump. But, how then, you might ask, do I know what to say about God and what God desires in the current political situation or in any situation?

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Consider the mess that unfurled in our nation’s capital this past Wednesday, as Congress began to count the Electoral College votes and that ugly mob stormed the Capitol building. That scene was and is a crucible for showing us just how much work we have to do in order to name and dismantle racism in our nation and world, and how much work we have ahead of us.

Some folks just want to pin all of last week’s drama on Donald J. Trump, but blaming this all on him is way too simple. He is one in a large number.

Every person who has benefited from white privilege, every person who has enjoyed the fruits of oppressed laborers’ work, and every person who has naively thought that what happened last Wednesday couldn’t have happened has some serious work to do to understand white privilege, to discover how we got in this mess, and to begin to make amends.

Donald Trump couldn’t have incited the mob that busted into the Capitol if there had not been like-minded individuals in that hoard. Furthermore, that mob could never have made it into the Senate chambers and Nancy Pelosi's office if there hadn't been sympathizers amongst the Capitol Police.

Think about it, when’s the last time you’ve seen news footage of the Capitol Police backing away from a crowd, opening doors for vigilanties, or taking selfies with people who were breaking the law? Never. Compare that behavior with the way that AIDS activists, Immigration Reform advocates, and Black Lives Matter demonstrators have been treated over the years? See the difference? I bet you do.

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Last, the praise-worthy is worth searching for: There are times, as 2020 has pointed out in extreme, that it is not patently obvious what we should be praising God for, as in “Praise God for the world’s best virus,COVID 19” or “Praise God for economic turmoil.” If you ever get to the point you can’t think of a reason to praise God, it’s time to go looking. Walk outside and find a flower growing out of a crack in the sidewalk, or a beetle the size of your thumb, or a blue jay with the most intense blue you’ve ever seen. Or go online and study the new and ingenious ways people are turning plastic waste into bricks and coats and furniture and imagine our dumps, those repositories of indestructible waste, being harvested in the future. Or study up on vaccines and the people who make them. I am guessing that between nature and the God-given talents of our fellow humans, you will find something that elicits an authentic “Praise God!” and that finding that something will lift up your spirits and open your heart to finding more and more to praise.

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Christmas has a way of shining a bright light on the injustices of our world, and Christmas 2020 is no exception.

In fact, Christmas 2020 might offer the penultimate example of light shining in the darkness, and highlighting the stark disparities between rich and poor, fed and hungry, housed and homeless, white and darker, colonizers and indigenous, temporarily able- bodied and persons with different abilities, the followers of Christ, and followers of every other prophet and deity known to humanity. And the list goes on.

Christmas has a way of shining a bright light on the injustices of our world, because the Christmas message projects God’s vision of how things ought to be right next to the way things really are, and so doing, illustrate the profoundly skewed nature of the two.

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One doesn’t have to be a senior in quarantine or a person living gutting out this pandemic to know the value of personal touch--but these experiences are significant reminders of these truths that we already know, but sometimes take for granted.

Twentieth Century family therapist Virginia Satir who wrote for and spoke to popular audiences frequently noted that human beings need at least 12 healthy hugs a day in order to thrive. Twelve healthy hugs. Think about that fact. There are a lot of people who living with far fewer than 12 healthy hugs through this pandemic.

And, yet, these privations aren’t just artifacts of the pandemic. The irony of our lives in the 21st Century lives is that we have more technology, more ways of communicating with each other than ever, and yet this technology doesn’t afford us the same semblance of connectivity that is possible through in-person gatherings and personal touch.

This is why, I think, God sent a person and not an email into the world. This is why God sent Immanuel and not an IM. This is why God sent the little baby Jesus, and not a tablet of stone. God sent a person, because God knew that there was no suitable substitute to remind us that we are loved beyond our wildest imaginations. Now let that Good News seep into your soul. Merry almost Christmas! Amen.

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It wouldn’t be Advent without the sheer joy of preparing our Annual Christmas Pageant. Undaunted by COVID-19, we rose to the challenge of preparing Eden’s first ever online Christmas Pageant. With many thanks to Illustrated Ministry who provided the script and artwork and to the many Church families, musicians, teachers, and members who acted, sang, created this year’s masterpiece, we are pleased to present “Do Not be Afraid: A Virtual Christmas Pageant..”

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Our good tidings may appear simple and unrelated to our faith — they are certainly unexpected when we compare this Advent to last. Who would have thought in Dec of last year that the imminent arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine would be good tidings for this year. Who would have thought that a new administration and a national mask mandate for 100 days would be good tidings for 2021? And who would have ever imagined that Eden Church would be worshipping God online and that we would have a crew of own angels engaged in contact tracing and investigation, isolation and quarantine supports, and health education. A year ago, we didn’t know half of those words and now home-grown angels are crying out that our community can love and protect one another by getting tested and staying socially distant and we are providing the support so people can do what is difficult but necessary. At the end of this year’s completely unexpected disaster of epic proportions, these good tidings are proof that God is with us and is guiding us back to our “normal” lives, albeit making us stronger and giving us new skills and abilities along the way.

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Wanting to live, not die; wanting to thrive not just survive, these are the sentiments that inspired Isaiah, too.

Retrace the steps of Joe Buck’s life and you will find a trail map that resembles the treacherous path that Isaiah described. Joe’s military service and his fight with cancer are just two of the formidable and formative experiences that shaped his spiritual journey. These hardships tested and strengthened him, and his commitment to work for a better world. They taught him the necessity and the veracity of hope.

Joe, like so many other veterans whom I have known, became an ardent proponent of peace. Joe never forgot what it was like to be a medic on the battlefields of Europe and have to run from body to body trying to decide how to ration morphine, tie tourniquets, and choose which soldiers to carry back to the M.A.S.H., because there weren’t enough medics or time or doctors to save everyone who was wounded. These grim realities of war galvanized Joe’s commitment to work for peace.

I served in Upstate New York during the Gulf War. The younger generations dressed like beatniks headed to Peace Park for a Vietnam War protest. They were quick to organize marches around the town square, and they planted a peace pole next to the church entrance. Joe was solidly behind them. He regularly showed up with his votive candle and sturdy walking shoes ready to go the distance for peace—no matter how long and winding that road seemed to be--and he inspired others to do the same.

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While I do think that God sides with the vulnerable, I think that taking a literal interpretation of The Great Judgment is wrong. And, it’s wrong because the larger heuristic of the New Testament teaches that we are saved by God’s grace, not by our works.

New Testament scholar Douglas R. A. Hare, who is an expert on Matthew, has helped me understand that The Great Judgment is an apocalyptic vision in which the visionary imagines “all nations” gathered together on the last day, and that “all means all”--not just people who were affiliated with Israel.

If all means all, and Matthew says it does, then the “sheep” include Roman pagans who care for the most vulnerable, and the “goats” includes anyone who doesn’t care for the vulnerable--including so-called followers of Christ.

So The Great Judgment story prompts hearers to a life of self-assessment, and it encourages us to look for “sheep” and join their herd.

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I don’t know about you, but the Parable of the Talents has always been a bit unsettling for me.

I have empathy for the guy who buried his money in the ground. I was taught to be very careful with money, and even more careful with someone else's money. In addition, I was taught that being careful meant being conservative and that being conservative was synonymous with being faithful.

But, then, I was told this Parable of the Talents and its lesson seems to fly in the face of what I was taught. Rather than teaching the value of conservatism, and that conservatism is next to godliness, I hear Jesus teaching that we should “Go big or go home!” That’s right, Jesus teaches us to take bold, strategic risks. And, that, my friends, is a good thing, and it’s good news!

The Parable of the Talents invites us to ground ourselves in the knowledge that we worship a generous God who offers abundant blessings, rather than a stingy God who withholds favor.

Making this shift from a conservative approach to investing that fosters stinginess to a strategic approach to investing that leads to abundance requires that we accept more risk.

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So, in summary, Jesus advises his disciples that when waiting, they should live certain of, but not obsessed with, his return, prepared at any moment to be the light of the world that Jesus asked his disciples and the crowds at the Sermon on the Mount to be. Light, in fact, that glorifies God. Being prepared, therefore, is one half about lighting the way to the kingdom of heaven and one half living in hope of a better day, in hope that the kingdom of heaven will triumph.

In fact, some say there isn’t a better description of hope in the Bible. Hope is oil in your lamp. Hope is what helps you sleep when sleep is needed, hope is what helps you act when action is required, hope picks you up when your efforts to help those who suffer fail and you must endure longer.

Reflecting on this story, I think that regardless of how the election turns out, whether one’s candidate wins or loses, whether the map is blue or red or shades of purple, whether half the people are staunch Democrats and half the people are life-long Republicans, being prepared, truly prepared, means we who call ourselves Christian must have hope and be light by acting on behalf of that kingdom of mercy and compassion.

From today, we must worry less about 145 million who voted and how they voted and more about the 38 million people who live in poverty, earning less than $33/ day, the 27 million who do not have health insurance, the 19 million who do not have access to the internet, the 12 million or more who are unemployed, and all those who suffer mental illness, drug addiction, and live without housing, food, or assistance. And those are just the neighbors who live within the boundaries of our nation. As challenging as it seems, God calls us to be a light of mercy and compassion to the entire world.

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Sadly, human history is filled with examples of potentates blaming their victims for problems that they create or are unable to alleviate. But the good news for us as Christians, which we celebrate today, is that suffering is not our purpose. Death is not our end. There is a life beyond this life, where even death itself has died. And, until we arrive at heaven’s gates, and experience that peace that passes all understanding, we continue to experience a mixture of happy/sad days.

All Saints Day provides us with a special occasion to carve out and create a safe space for us to acknowledge these facts, and to attend to our grief so that we might also express our gratitude for those whom we have loved and lost, and experience the hope that comes through faith that our loved ones have gone to God, and where they have gone, we will one day go too.

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Moses mentored and commissioned Joshua, but the two were cut from very different cloth. Moses led the Israelites like an 18th century wagon train leader on the American frontier, while Joshua led the Hebrew people into Canaan like a 15th century Spanish conquistador landing on the shores of a continent they colonized. Moses was a nomadic shepherd. Joshua was a charismatic military leader.

Both prophets had to unite and inspire their people, and both faced a myriad of unanticipated challenges. But the challenges that each faced were very different. Moses led indentured slaves through the wilds of the Wilderness, while Joshua had to turn a band of shepherds into soldiers to conquer Cana. Both leaders were successful in their roles, because their respective gifts and graces for leadership were well matched for times in which they were called to serve.

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The prophet specifically asks God to grant him a specific blessing. That blessing was for God to show his “glory” to Moses--so that he might have more credibility with the people. But what does that mean? What does it mean for God’s glory to be revealed?

The term is multivalent. Based on how it is used both here, in verse 18, and in Exodus 16: 6-7, it seems that God’s glory is equated with God’s “aura,” with God’s radiance or with a light shining around God’s face. So that’s what Moses asks for. He asks to see God’s radiance, God’s face. But, as it turns out, he doesn’t get what he asks for.

On first blush, God declines Moses' request and counters with the offer to send an angel to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan, but God refuses to continue on the journey with the Hebrew people.

But Moses perists.

God counters with a reminder that the Hebrew people were a mess. They wouldn’t follow a leader if their lives depended upon it. So it would be better if God just sent an angel to lead them, and they parted company while the relationship was still amicable.

Moses agreed with God that the people were unworthy of the blessing that he had requested, but Moses repeated the request anyway--perhaps as much for his own sake as for the sake of the people.

Finally, for reasons that are not entirely clear, God compromises and tells Moses that if he stands in the cleft of the mountain while God passes by, God will reveal his backside to the prophet. Moses was not entirely satisfied with the deal that God proposed, but he accepted it.

Moses stepped into the cleft of the rock, and God did as God said. God revealed his backside to Moses, and the prophet went back to “herding cats” in the Wilderness, and God led the way to the Promised Land.

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Consider for a moment this modern case study of power, punishment, and mercy that is playing out in the State of Florida. You are probably aware that depending on what State you live in, committing a felony could result in a temporary or permanent suspension of your right to vote. You can also probably guess how that makes a person feel about their role in our system of government, where voting determines everything from the quality of the school your children attend to your very right to die. From 1838 to 2018, individuals convicted of felonies in Florida lost their right to vote for life. Completing their prison sentence, their parole, their probation was insufficient for restoring their fundamental right of citizenship.

Two years ago, Floridians passed a Constitutional amendment allowing felons, except those guilty of murder or sexual offense, to regain their voting rights after completing their sentence. It was estimated that 1.6 million people in Florida, roughly 8 to 10 percent of their population, would have their right to vote restored.

Then, one year ago, in 2019, the Florida State Legislature adopted legislation requiring ex-felons to pay all outstanding fees before regaining their right to vote or be punished for voting, thus creating statewide chaos and fear, as an estimated 774, 000 people sought to pay and register or simply gave up on seeking their restored rights either due to the complexity of tracking down those outstanding fees, lack of money, or fear of making another punishable error. Some claim that the Legislature’s action is blatant voter suppression, particularly aimed at black, Democratic voters, but I focus on it here as an example of how integral each of us are in public conversations about power, punishment, and mercy.

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Whether the Ten Commandments are familiar to you or not, and whether one version is more familiar to you than the other likely depends on whether you were raised in the Christian faith and, if so, which tradition you were raised in.

Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Lutheran and Calvinist Protestant traditions each have their own respective catechisms, which all list the 10 Commandments, but they don’t all list them in the same order, and they definitely don’t interpret them in the same way.

Students of Western history understand that much blood was shed and many European boundaries were altered on account of differences in the faith values expressed in these catechisms.

So even if you could care less about the order, content, or different interpretations of the 10 Commandments, you might just pause for a moment today and appreciate that the Commandments and their differing interpretation have mattered--not just to the ancient world, but the Renaissance period in Western Europe.

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According to the book of Exodus, our Hebrew ancestors regularly put this wilderness wisdom to the test during their 40-year sojourn in the wilderness of Sinai. Our ancestors were on a journey without a map, headed to a place where they had never been, and along the way, they encountered numerous obstacles, not the least of which was the lack of shelter, food, and water. And this lack of life-sustaining essentials caused them to frequently ask the question, “Is God with us?

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