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Month: July 2015
Lamenting Scarcity, God’s Ability
Grace and Peace to you
My Sisters and Brothers in Christ
As we attend to the emptiness within ourselves
How can we ignore the emptiness that gnaws in others?
Those who are crying out for sustenance
Because we are all invited to the Table
From the One who Fills us with Grace, Mercy and Love
Jesus Christ, Our Savior and Lord
Amen.
(pause)
Hunger is an ugliness that permeates our society
We are inundated with pleas from those who dangle precariously
In the middle of our streets
Men who have served their country
And now are begging for their country to serve them
Worn out because of lack of quality of life
We are overwhelmed with mothers who walk a tight line
Between humility and shamefulness
Clinging desperately to their responsibility
Of feeding those close to them, any way possible
Worn out because of lack of quality of life
(pause)
Hunger is the ugly sin
that chafes at the delicate skin of humanity
Humanity rushes past those who follow us into grocery stores
Into places of abundance
Who are only hoping to cure the pains of hunger
For maybe just one day
Meanwhile humanity endlessly grumbles about rising costs
Hiding fears of not having enough to satisfy themselves
Pushing down deep the ghosts of starvation past
That lingers in their subconscious
Lamenting that they cannot help anyone else beyond their reach
Oblivious to the realization when hunger is soothed
It soothes the abysmal feeling of loneliness and being unwanted
Soothes also the distress of rejection and neglect
This crisis of feeding and comforting the hungry rises to a boiling point
We can no longer overlook its lingering presence
(pause)
But what about another different hunger
That regardless of how well off
Or well connected
Or contented we are as people
This hunger continually eats away at ourselves
Until starving, we search in desperation for anything
To fill our souls?
(pause)
This Hunger for compassion,
for recognition,
for deliverance
Without question brings us to our knees
when this world robs us of the essentials of living
This hunger strips us of our ego, our worries, our individuality
Where we unabashedly claim what is offered at the Table
(pause)
I encountered a young man this week
Stripped of the ability to communicate clearly
Stripped of being able-bodied or being seen as fully human
But wanting to come before the feet
of the One Who Fills us with Good News
Wanting to be filled with forgiveness and mercy
Wanting too, to dine at the Table healed and made whole
He hungers for real fulfillment
And his hunger, beloved
Is something that we as people of God
Have actually the ability to FILL HIS HUNGER UP
(pause)
What can we offer in our baskets
To those wandering into this place
That saturates their hunger
Replacing the ill
Empty
Junk food of the world
Yet we seem time again to focus in on the scarcity in our baskets
That it simply cannot be enough
“Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?
Or cannot make an impact
“But what are they among so many people?”
Or make any difference?
(pause)
Can we be bold enough
To confess that we too have experienced
Hunger
Just as these crowds
Who continued to follow Jesus Christ around
In our Gospel text.
(pause)
They heard the rumors
The reports
And came running to hear this Rabbi
This Prophet
This Son of God
Who had the power to relieve them of their troublesome hunger.
(pause)
Many were hungry
They were the poor
The outcasts
The Lower caste
They did not have enough in their coffers
To stroll in the marketplaces
And freely without a second thought
Buy riches in meat and fish
That these people, the working class
Rarely had the opportunity to reap the benefits of their hard labor
(pause)
Having the luxury of eating every day of a week
Was either cause for celebration
Or because of a celebration
(pause)
But that is not what drove them
To sit at Jesus’s feet
They were hungry
They were thirsty
They were TIRED of this scarcity existence
Of being ridiculed for who they were
Because they stubbornly survived
On the Love of God that they had known
And CLUNG TO
That they refused to consume
what the Occupiers were forcibly feeding them
To assimilate into their doctrines and their laws
To forget their history and these divine commandments handed down
To turn their back on their sisters and brothers
Leaving them to flounder
Leaving them to waste away
Until their weakness drove them,
Just as it drives us sometimes
To accept spiritual placebos
That satisfies a temporary need
But cannot cure the deprivation of emptiness
That vibrates deep within those places we are hurting
Reminding us painfully
We need to be fed and made whole
(pause)
Inviting people into our homes
Sharing food among ourselves
as brothers and sisters in Christ
Is a sign of welcome, of friendship
Inviting people into this place
Sharing of ourselves
Sharing the Grace and Love that comes from God
Is a sign of commitment to the fellowship, the relationship
That flows through us through God
Because of God
And that is the Good News!
Because Jesus Himself
“took the loaves,
and when He had given thanks,
He distributed them to those who were seated”
The Good News is
Jesus Christ offered up of Himself
Offers Up of Himself to us, beloved
His Body
Jesus is the Visible Sign
Of Forgiveness
Of Love
Of the Saving Grace
Regardless of whether we have more than enough
Or can’t offer anything
(pause)
And when we are fretful about what isn’t in our baskets
And we can’t feed or satisfy the thirst in others
Or when our baskets are empty
Because our very own beings are bone dry
Because this world has robbed us of our nourishment
So that we offer of ourselves, through comfort
Through prayer
Through faith
The Good News is that THERE IS MORE THAN ENOUGH
There is more than enough of the Risen Christ
To fill us up
And our neighbors
And those living in assisted living
And those living in places of desperation
And those who are hungry
And all of us
The Good News of Jesus Christ is that there is more than enough
More of God’s Mercy and Grace
To quench our longing for acceptance
Because God Loves Us so much
His Son Shared of Himself
At God’s Table.
Thanks Be To God.
The Pastoral is Political: #ifIdieinpolicecustody
“Even Superheroes, Disciples and We need Rest”-8th Sunday after Pentecost
These Sermons through out this year and beyond, are the ones that I preach and share with my new community of Redeemer Lutheran Church, South Holland IL
Grace and peace to you
My sisters and brothers in Christ
As we struggle with this concept of rest
And we allow ourselves to be led
To that deserted place
Where we are face to face
With the One who has the power
To bring us healing
And newness of Life,
Jesus Christ
Our Savior and Lord,
Amen.
(pause)
Finding peace and rest
Being in that place where Our Creator God dwells
Does not always manifest in those perfect, picturesque places
Sometimes we find God among the desolate and the deserted
(pause)
Detroit is one of those places
Detroit could be the epitome
Of how desolation as we understand
Impacts and affects our connectedness in Creation
(pause)
Bleakness has infected this once vibrant, moving city
Leaving the echoes of blame
Of finger pointing
Bouncing endlessly off of those who were called to serve
Who failed
And who escaped, fleeing the city
While leaving those whom they were called to serve, behind
Who bear the brunt of the endless, accusatory questions
Of Why? How?
(pause)
Despair lingers and hovers over the atmosphere
Those places where education and learning
Should vibrantly be filling every nook
Instead they are left with nothing, with emptiness
That when this beloved collective community
reaches out their hands to touch
To pass the peace, and share God’s Love
With their neighbors (pause slightly)
Their neighbors are too far away.
(pause)
There are labels that are rudely plastered up
As signs of shame
For the wider community to peer and poke and ridicule
That the city of Detroit should be forgotten
A Godforsaken place
(pause)
Our Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton recently remarked,
And I am sure we would all agree
That is not how God sees Detroit,
Or any other place in this Creation
Which has suffered
Because humanity has forgotten to compassionately Love
(pause)
I speak of Detroit because this is where 30,000 of our Lutheran
Sisters and brothers, friends and youth are
They heard Jesus’s invitation to “Come away to a desolate place,
And rest a while”
This word for desolate in the Biblical Greek, Eremos
Has a different meaning than what we know
Of the word desolate in the vernacular
(pause)
Eremos means solitude
And it is in these places of solitude
God transforms these feelings of abandonment we carry with us
So that these places become havens of Rest
Sacred spaces where we are able to BREATHE
(pause)
I’m not sure if these 30,000 wonderful Lutheran youth are truly resting,
And by all of the news feeds and social media I would have to say no-
But the Good News has flooded this once deserted city
And this City is hearing how much it is Loved
Because those youth are speaking and actively living out this call
That Love Does.
(pause)
Think about your desolate place
An unlikely place where you can be refilled over and again
With Love
Because there is God
(pause)
Shall I share with you my desolate place?
It’s an untouched prairie
Full of wild thistles and beautiful irises,
Dragonflies and fragile bees.
The only sounds I hear
Are the hidden, tiny frogs which bellow in the rushes
And the giant trees which sing and echo
“The Lord is my Shepard, I shall not want.”
(pause)
When we hear this invitation to rest,
Whether we willingly lay down in those green pastures
Or bypass the beauty of still waters
It is because our very beings are experiencing tiredness, right?
What was this desolate place that Jesus Christ called His disciples to
In our Gospel text this morning?
(pause)
The disciples we can imagine, also too, were tired
One day they are ordinary
The next they find themselves foolishly following the Son of Man
Just as many others who foolishly followed Him, hearing His Voice
Or seeing His Presence
Whether they went joyously, or were still questioning who He was
They followed Him into this space of Resting
Because only there, with Jesus
Their brokenness
Their hurts
Their suffering
Could be healed
By simply being still.
It’s no accident that the Psalmist laments
That GOD MAKES US LIE DOWN
How else can we be made whole,
If we have not rested?
(pause)
So the disciples are charged now with carrying many burdens
They are called to reach out and bring healing to those they know
And those who are strangers
But these burdens of people’s fears
Their sorrows
Their frustrations
Must have weighed heavily upon them as disciples,
As leaders
As teachers
Just like you and me.
Sometimes I think we as people of faith,
We hear these stories and forget
That these brothers in Christ were human, not superheroes
They were blessed with this gift to transform this World
Through the Power of the Word
That came not through their own will
But the WILL OF GOD.
(pause)
And so Jesus knowing their limitations and their burdens
Calls them back from their labors
To Rest.
To be renewed
To be reenergized
To them to have the experience too
Of God’s Mercy, Grace
(pause)
This invitation extends to us too, beloved
We have heard the call to bear one another’s burdens
To shelter those who are without a community,
A home
Where they are showered with compassion
Mercy,
Grace,
Peace
And Love
Regardless of how broken, or imperfect their journey has become
In those moments when we are too, carrying our own burdens of heartache
The Good News is that Jesus Christ
Calls us too into these desolate places,
Because that is where GOD DWELLS
It is in that shadow of the Cross
God Waits
God reaches
God Weeps
God TRANSFORMS
GOD DEFEATS DEATH
God claims US AS GOD’s OWN
God resides in the oddest of places
In places marked by death on the Cross
Where Jesus Christ bore the burden of our sins
Freeing us from any despair
That we are not loved
And that there is a place for all of us
Where we are always and eternally,
With God.
(use this time to invite them to the activity of writing down on the index cards, what keeps them from being in restful places-and what they can do or elimate out of their daily lives so that they do rest, and hear God, and are refreshed, renewed.)
Thanks Be to God.
What the World Needs Now, Is Love Sweet Love: A Wedding Sermon
The Wedding of Alicia Dailey and Jacob Hinkle from 1 Peter 4:8-11…
Grace and Peace to you
My sisters and brothers in Christ
As we struggle to love one another selflessly
Just as the One Who Loves Us
Because He gave of Himself
Out of Love
So that we might Live,
Jesus Christ
Our Risen Savior and Lord,
Amen.
What the World Needs Now
Is Love, Sweet Love
It’s the Only Thing,
That there’s just too little Of-
(pause)
Do we hear the conviction in this simple song?
Do we hear the truth, reverberating back out to us?
Because sometimes we don’t listen to the Word in our Scriptures
Which clearly are giving us a Commandment to Love
And so we have to be reminded about Love in other places.
(pause)
When this song came out, it was 1967
There were struggles in our society about love-
About loving our neighbor
About having compassion for those
Who regardless of who they were
About seeing,
More importantly the reflection of the Creator in their features
(pause)
What the World needs know
Is Love, Sweet Love
Not just for some
But for everyone.
The sad truth is that over 50 years later,
We still have not grasped this notion of Love.
We continue to struggle in our global society about Love,
We are so immersed in this strive to achieve things
Or success
Or status
We are so stressed out about how this journey of Life
Becomes so rocky and perilous
We have become so individualistic and self-absorbed
We are blinded to the pain and suffering etched
On those faces of fellow sisters and brothers in Christ
And in Faith
Walking right past us.
We are so wrapped up in proving ourselves right
Proving we follow the rules and regulations,
Policies
To the Letter
And somehow that proves that we are worthy
And righteous
That we forget to have compassion for those
Whom we have the ability to reach out, and embrace
To stand alongside them when they are broken
To raise our voices, reminding those who refuse to Love
Of what our calling has been given to us, about Love.
Because it is only through forgiveness and compassion
That we can truly be in community with one another
As we were created to.
Who are we,
To keep an account of one another’s sins
When we conveniently forget the sins we have committed?
(pause)
And that’s one of the biggest mistake we make
In our relationships, in our friendships, in our marriages
We find ourselves unable to love those
We hold dear
Or those we pass the peace with
Because our love is lacking in compassion,
In understanding
In forgiveness
In Mercy
In Grace
Jesus Christ came among us
And taught us
That we were to love one another
As GOD LOVES US.
If God can love us at our worst
At our clumsiness
At our imperfections
At our foolishness-
God loved us so foolishly,
Even when we as humanity over and again
Turned away from the Love of God,
God transformed something so ugly
And destructive
Into a symbol of RESURRECTION
And gave us HOPE
OF NEW LIFE
AND LOVES US ANYHOW
(pause)
And so we are reminded of that Love
And so wherever we are,
We have the power of spreading that Love
Until our world is infected with the Love that comes from God
And that’s what you both are called to,
Jake and Alicia
You are both Children of the Creator God
You are called to love one another
And share that Love with those around you.
Now, I am not saying there will not be days
When you struggle to love one another
Anyone here who loves someone so deeply
That they pledged to share the rest of their lives with
Can attest to that
But,
Never, ever walk away
Go to sleep
Ignore a text, an email
Because you are not feeling the love
Remember why you Love one another
And when you do forget
Those here gathered around you on this day of Love
Will embrace you in Love, Mercy, Grace
And you’ll remember,
That this world needs love
And it starts with each one of us.
Thanks Be to God.
i See the Sun, It Shines: Transformative Moment, and a Life update
Prophesy, Raising Our Voices
Grace and Peace to you
Beloved
As we wrestle with the foolishness
Of the Cross
That stands in opposition to this world
Encouraging, empowering us as people of Faith
To be living Witnesses
Calling us from our Ordinary Places
To Speak an Extraordinary Word
Of Love that has no end
Flowing from our Risen Savior and Lord
Jesus Christ
Amen.
(pause)
There is the never ending struggle
To speak prophetically
In those physical
Emotional
Or even spiritual
That would rather
Draw the shades
And the curtains
Blocking out the intense magnificence
Of God’s Mercy and Grace
That flows down over us
From the Holy Spirit
(pause)
Along this life’s journey
We find ourselves
Detoured and uncomfortable
Because God is tugging
Worrying at the fringes of our own spirits
Challenging us to raise our voices
To witness
To testify
To profess
Because the collective weight of our forgetfulness
Of whose we are
And what we have been called to
Has shifted away
From the plumb line in the Creator’s Hands
(pause)
So with some hesitation
We ask the perplexing question,
Use me, Lord?
Within our souls beats too much uncertainty
The uncertainty that our insignificant voices
Are missing the substantial authority
That is needed
To shift the atmosphere
Pushing humanity into clear waters of righteousness
Rinsing away the grit of life’s brokenness
(pause)
Again we ask the question,
Me, Lord?
Our very beings tremble, shaken by fears
Fearful of not being equipped enough
As the words fall sadly from our lips
Fearful of the rejection that we experience
From a scrutinizing world, we lack their credentials
Notoriety and Importance does not cling to our clothing
Even still, no one will bother to listen
Because we find ourselves at a loss
for what therapeutic words
we can share
that can stitch together open wounds
(pause)
Strangely enough
When we barge our way in,
And people listen
Listen to our prayers,
Our testifying
Our cries
We who are seen as
Prophets,
Preachers
Teachers
Run the risk
Of losing access to the inner circle
Losing access to comfort and security
Losing our jobs
Seeing friendships wither
Losing the places of connectedness
Thrust into exile and to the widening abyss
Losing even, the ability to live, breathe and exist
(pause)
And these examples before us this morning,
Our brothers John and Amos
It’s no wonder that we shy away, as people of faith
From stirring anything that trips the light prophetic
Because who of us can compare our Faith to theirs,
Especially facing Death?
They leaned into the restorative power of the Light of God!
They stood against the artificial shadows
And piercing light
Of glistening, menacing temples built for humanity
For Kings
(pause)
John and Amos were like most prophets
Many whom we could speak into this space
They were not popular
Not welcomed
Not wanted
(pause)
John was that aggravating reminder to Herod
That the sacred space of forgiveness
And repentance
And Love
Was accessible and open
To those who had searched
To those who had no status
To those who truly did not have to rely
On the tangible, fault-filled
Whims of humanity
“Show us your steadfast love, O Lord
And grant us your salvation”
John the Baptist’s presence
Pointed to the way that God’s beloved children
Should follow
To obedience
To submission
To the feet of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ
Where we hear the Psalmist lament,
“Restore us again, O God of our salvation
And put away your indignation toward us.”
(pause)
Amos’s visions that he freely shared with the people of God
Shook them from their places of slumber
Their forgetfulness
Their haughtiness
They were God’s chosen people
No one could stand in their way of progress
And dominance
God loved them, right?
“I will never again pass them by,” says the Lord
But God’s people had strayed from the plumb line
God’s people were guilty of breaking their contract with God
They had strayed from worshiping Yahweh
And Yahweh alone
They had failed in the obligation to provide
For those among them
Whose lives should have been held holy
As God held them holy.
(pause)
And when Amos freely shared his vision
Of God’s Wrath
“You only I have known…
Therefore I will punish you,
For all your iniquities”
Amos was threatened with exile, with deportation
“Flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there,
Prophesy there.”
Amos was treading on dangerous,
Treacherous, treasonous ground
That his spreading of Good News
In this form of tough love
Was not so readily received
By those who knew that all of their status
Titles, and stature
They did not stumble upon it
By their own control
(pause)
Amos cried out to all who would hear him
“For this says the Lord, to the house of Israel,
Seek me, and live”
John cried out in the wilderness
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
Make his path straight”
What prophets are speaking to you right now?
What prophetic Word is stirring in your spirit?
Do you know that you have the POWER
TO SPEAK LIFE
Even when Misery comes,
Even when Heartache comes
Even when Death comes
There is always the Good News
Jesus Christ, the Son of Man
Cries out to the depths of our hearts now
Proclaiming
That God will never leave God’s People
When we step out on Faith,
And speak God’s Word
When we stand in the blinding Light of God
Even if we are ridiculed,
Even if people think we sound ridiculous
Even if people shun us
Mock us
Cast us out…
It is because of the transformative POWER OF THE CROSS
The moment of giving up of His LIFE
There was NEW LIFE
A NEW COVENANT
A NEW OUTCOME
No matter how the world tries to shut us down
There is nothing that can shut up
The Restorative and Resurrecting Power
Of God’s Word!
(pause)
I thought it was interesting that when I first came
To Redeemer,
I saw the signs in your parking lot
“Enter Worship”
“Depart in Service”
We come as community
As brothers and sisters in Christ
Fed, renewed at the Table
Where all are welcomed.
As you depart this place
Hear the word of God
Echoing through Amos
As you pass that sign
“Go, prophesy to my people.”
Thanks Be to God.
Overwhelmed
It’s been challenging to say in the least
these past couple of weeks
Existing as a human being in places that are hostile to who I am
as a child of the Creator
painted in beautiful hues of brown
sparkling jewel
overwhelming to know that some people are blind seeing God etched in the lines on my face
and so, searching for sacred spaces where I can breathe and be is the new normal
My soul has ached, wept, cried out and been angry
My spirit shows the scars from being in the midst of the battle
Where can I find solitude, serenity and peace
with those who do see Christ clearly staring back at them, with love
from my eyes?
Where is the place where my ringing voice for justice be welcomed?
Where can I learn from those whose words, songs and language are different from mine own
in so many ways?
Overwhelmed
Waiting
Clinging to the Holy Spirit..
o s
