Sermons from Ankeny UCC: Recent Episodes
Nathan Willard and Ankeny UCC
In Pastor Nathan's final sermon before his term as pastor ends, he reminds us of Christ as the invisible God, sustaining us and providing us with a model not only of hope, but of service in the church and the world.
Christmas marks the shift between the world of anticipating Christ and the world of fulfilling Christ. This year, and every year, we can keep the spirit of his birth alive by keeping Christmas well.
What happens if we put John the Baptist in conversation with Bob Iger? What lessons in leadership do we learn?
Just because something is comfortable doesn't make it good, and just because something is uncomfortable doesn't mean it should be unwelcome. John urges us to reject complacency as we prepare to change our lives.
As we think about Jesus as the eternal sovereign, we remember that this promise came about in times of distress, and that it can provide not only challenge to those in power, but comfort for those who see no future.
On All Saints, we remember the hopes we have of a future beyond our understanding, and in which the final barriers between God and ourselves are removed. And we pause to give ourselves a chance to mourn what the busyness of our lives prevented.
The protestant reformation, begun in response to exploitation of the poor, reminds us to always look for opportunities to hold ourselves accountable to the demands of justice.
Jesus lays out what it looks like to forgive as we ought to forgive. In his trying examples, he highlights all the de-escalation we can do much more easily.
The Holy Spirit empowers us all in different ways. When we are most alone, know that the Holy Spirit remembered you, too.
Today's text is graphic, painful, and destructive, concerning sexual violence against Tamar by her half-brother Amnon. When looking at this too-familiar act and responses to it from 2500 years ago, we are compelled to ask, "why is this still so current?"
In the election season, as we become focused on the group we are a part of and our righteousness, it is important to remember that it is what comes out of our mouth that shows who we are.
It's the creation of a new heaven and a new earth that puts Revelation at the end of the Bible. We begin in creation and end in re-creation.
Hebrews 2 illustrates what it means that Jesus was fully human, and why it was important that he was.
If only we'd listened to Paul's admonitions about judgement in Romans 2! These verses not only lay out the ways we could have avoided millennia of antisemitism, but also how to avoid the misguided notion that our actions are okay because "it's us doing them."
The story of Abigail and Nabal reminds us that the prophets and scribes of old often remembered the women, left off the lists of kings, who made the events of ancient Israel and the ancient church possible.
Romans 12 contains Paul's illustration of what he thinks it looks like to embody the grace we have received, leaving us with some of his most famous and memorable turns of phrase. In the midst of a world that excels at telling us what to hate, his reminder to always seek the good is indeed countercultural.
The dichotomy of insecurity and inspiration that came into Jersualem's royal household serves as a model for our reactions to disruption throughout our lives--including in the national parks.
As a people, we so often want to avoid the burden of making decisions. God is there to remind us that we're never alone when we do.
The book of 1 Samuel reminds us that power tends to corrupt. One antidote to the corruption of power is the vesting of it in all of God's people.
All actions come with unintended consequences. As we celebrate a patriotic holiday, we should remember how often victory carried with it the seeds of destruction, and pay attention to winning not only for ourselves, but for the whole world in a non-zero-sum game.
Throughout the Bible, we see women's stories subsumed into the stories of their sons and husbands. Taking them independently, we can glimpse pictures of the ways power is enforced upon them. As we do, we should see glimpses of the way God subverts and undermines the control societies and family structures place upon the bodies of women in God's care.
The church described early in the Book of Acts exemplified caring for all. For them, it meant the sacrifice by those who had much to create equality among the whole community.
What is the Holy Trinity, exactly, and why is it important to understand? One reason is that it informs our understanding of God as beyond the bounds of our easy definition.
Jesus may be gone, but the Holy Spirit continues to push us toward changing ourselves, our church, and our world.
We're a church that serves beyond. What does that mean? It means doing the work of Jesus outside the doors of the church, and being bold to try and change the world for the better, both through charity and through agitation.
Paul writes about the tomb dedicated to an unknown (really an unnamed) god in Athens. How often do we treat those around us in church as unnamed and unknown?
In a world beset by unstable institutions and changing bedrocks and assumptions, we need a faith that teaches us how to adapt and change to meet the challenges of different eras. Listening to how God speaks through time, and watching the ways God's people have changed themselves and their faith helps us to find new ways to be faithful in our own context.
Progressive Christian Theology means learning from the stories in the Bible that life is complicated and messy, and that the only thing in front of us is to understand the people that present themselves and find ways to help them be whole.
Even before Pentecost, Jesus told his disciples that they'd have to do the work of building his ministry in the world. As a welcoming church family, we recognize that the people we encounter make us grow as much as they make the church grow.
The story of Thomas's encounter with the risen Christ shows us not only what our own reactions to good news can often look like, but the hope that there is always time and opportunity for us, too. No matter what we think we've missed.
Christ is Risen! In a new body that reminds us resurrection is not restoration, but the beginning of something new.
Christ enters Jerusalem in community. He exists with God and the Holy Spirit in the community of the Trinity. And we exist in community with them and with one another. As we conclude our series Merely Christian, we reflect on the necessity of community to understanding Christ.
What does morality demand of us that come into a windfall? What does it demand of us in our interaction with others? And how do we square our grand idea for where we are going with the choices that confront us daily?
Christians believe a lot of things. That's part of the deal with having free will. Central among them all is that something miraculous happened on the cross. We may not fully understand what, or how, but the world changed underneath our feet.
As we continue our theme of Merely Christian, we look at what Jesus says about people who reassure themselves that they are good people because they are, at least, better than others.
C.S. Lewis starts Mere Christianity by laying the groundwork for all religion: is there some morality outside ourselves? How might this question be illustrated in this story of Jesus feeding the 5000?
As we embark on our Lenten practice and Study of C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, we ask ourselves, "what is the center of our faith?" In a world where faith is weaponized, we must understand our own core and be prepared to understand how our faith interacts with the world around us.
We like to think that the world around us changes based on who we think is helped by the reality we choose to inhabit. War, violence against bodies, and acts beyond interpretation show us that this is vanity and that we must accept that, behind our interpretations of the world around us sometimes live things that we cannot explain away. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is an invitation to us to reconcile ourselves to the world as it is.
We often fool ourselves into thinking messengers who challenge us are flawed and should be dismissed. But Jesus tells us that being only human is an opportunity for hope.
Song of Songs reminds us that editors of the Bible throughout the ages have found it important to acknowledge the whole truths of our existence, and not to give into the idea that we are disembodied.
Paul and Silas went to help a woman and free her from (some) exploitation. Then they got thrown in the stocks. What happens when we challenge systems that exploit people?
It's easy, when reading the healing stories of Jesus, to miss the stories of the people being healed. It's important to listen to the details, so that we can hear the stories of the people we'd like to help, too.
In 2022, what actions can we take that take you back to the moment you were first called to the church universal or to Ankeny UCC in particular?
We choose the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and where we came from. As we look at America today, let's look at our past and recognize truths we'd like to throw away, so we can tell a story of liberation with our lives and our faith.
The urge to always be more, to always find the extra 2%, to live up to expectations of others or ourselves, can be overwhelming. Sometimes, it's better to simply show up and be present.
In a Christian world, we sometimes miss the wonder and the challenge of a Christ born into his own world. How can we experience and feel the transforming love Christ represents?
It is another in the increasingly misnamed Plague Year. We are gathered again at Christmas, and yet we are not. Is the night half-bright or half-dark (much like our Christmas lights)?
Ruth and Naomi eventually find security in Boaz's house. But in linking this story to the story of Judah and Tamar, the writers remind us that pregnancies don't always lead to joy, either.
Jesus's parables about the fig tree and the master coming in the night are a little confusing. Are we supposed to look for signs about the future, or not? If one story is supposed to provide additional motivation for the other, which one? Maybe the core message is: what would you do if you knew that everything you did mattered?
The core challenge of the Good News to people from the earliest days of the church has been: what does faith look like?
Some prophet, long ago, noticed the implications of God being the God of all people--that God's promise was equally for all people.
On Reformation Day, we remember always the foundations of our faith, our lodestone for forming and re-forming our church: Nothing can come between us and the love of God.
As we think about stewarding our resources, we think about those of us who are among the 99 sheep left together.
The parable of the talents is confusing. But in the end, it speaks to our need to overcome indecision and use what we have been given.
As we celebrate the bountiful harvest, we remember when we did not have enough and give thanks for all the Good Things.
Sometimes, the world around us overwhelms our sense of awe at God's creation. In those moments, we must find ways to praise God for the opportunities for change in front of us.
Psalm 149 shows the abrupt change we sometimes have when our proclamations of praise and conception of ourselves as servants of God encounter our inconvenience, defensiveness, and reactivity.
Specifics of context make all the distance in understanding the advice to the early church. What are our specifics, and how do they guide the advice we give?
Jesus's instructions to us are to look outside ourselves, outside our comfort, and find his promise and support in the work that we do to bring all people into our mission.
People who grow up as Christians sometimes miss out on the experience of encountering the Gospel for the first time. For the woman at the well, being known and seen by this Christ who could help her with her burden filled her with such joy that she couldn't contain it within herself.
The Bible is peppered with stories of resistance, of people in the midst of oppression or suppression somehow finding ways to express some power. The book of Esther is one of these stories, with the seemingly-powerless Esther inspired by Mordecai's admonitions to test out her access to the king.
Hagar and Ishamael run from Abram and Sarai's house. Rachel Held Evans teaches us to not forget their story as we search for the magic of the Bible.
Acts concludes with Paul's implicit charge to future followers: go forth among the Gentiles. In our world, we are the ones to heed his call to examine our own hearts and complacency.
Lois was a champion of both intellectual engagement and bringing our service out into the world. We will miss her greatly.
As we welcome new members into Ankeny UCC, we look to Paul's outreach to followers of John the Baptist and understand how the diversity of our faith journeys changes us all and challenges us to grow.
Sometimes, the stories are just a little bit funny, and we have to lean into the reality that we present our whole lives to God and one another.
Paul's message to Athens is not only that God has always been with them, but also that we are called to do more than just talk.
Psalm 137 shows grief and humiliation at its most raw. It reminds us always to remember the choice to be kind, or not, and the consequences of exercising our power by choosing to humiliate.
Lydia, who ran into Paul on a business trip, saw in the message of Christ an opportunity to change her life by risking her reputation and providing Paul a place to stay after prison. This newly-baptized woman modeled hope for all of the early church, just as new church members do every day around us.
Peter's vision completes the work God is doing with the early church in the wake of Jesus's resurrection. This time, God reminds us that no matter what direction the church will go in the future, it must be founded on the notion that we must never mistake our judgment of who is pure with God's decree that we all are.
We often talk about Saul's "Damascus Road" conversion. But of course, his mind, heart, and actions don't change on the Damascus Road. For that, he needs to be subject to someone else's power, and they must show mercy. Only by being in a place to perceive his own actions through someone else's experience could he be changed.
The story of the early church is one of unlearning assumptions and learning the power of the Holy Spirit. When Philip ran into the Ethiopian eunuch on the road, the Holy Spirit showed him that the gospel was for all people.
In this somewhat idealized vision of the early church, we see what the Holy Spirit can do when the church is trying to build something together. In the midst of confusion, rather than sowing dissent, it builds a unity of purpose that helps us to understand our conflicts and work through them. It inspires us to sacrifice for one another. And it reminds us that, even when things are not what we expected, we are not alone.
On the birthday of the church, the Holy Spirit gave the disciples a gift that helped them overcome their fear, build relationships, and leave a place of familiarity.
The first chapter of Acts reminds us that Jesus's time on earth ended, but that the church went on. In the wake of Easter, what will we do to bring the news of resurrection into the world, and build the realm God calls us to build?
Entering Holy Week, Jesus is up all night struggling to face our final fear: certain death. What do we discover about ourselves in his anxious hours?
The work of reconciliation begins with recognizing the discomfort that comes from recognizing that the stories we have told ourselves about the world, and ourselves, do not match up with with the world we see.
In moments of urgent need, we do what we can. If that means anointing one about to die, we do that. If that means giving to the poor, we do that, too.
In these linked stories from Jesus's ministry in Jerusalem, we see the message: preaching sacrifice for others while using their sacrifice for your own ends is the opposite of holiness.
The Psalmist reminds us that the first step toward reconciliation and the work of building God's world together is repenting of our sin. In America, to build the nation we profess to be means understanding how we have fallen short and making amends.
When Bartimaeus calls out "Jesus, son of David, have mercy!", he understands Jesus better than the disciples. He then asks Jesus to help him see. He understands why he is close to Jesus, even if the disciples sometimes don't. In this Lent, we need to ask what brings us into discipleship? Is it a need for glory and security? Or is it a need to learn from Christ's example and build the sovereign realm of God? In a world where democracy is under assault in many states, including Iowa, we ask how we might go beyond words into actions that help people's voices be heard.
Jesus tells us to welcome children in our midst, and also to learn from their minds and examples. What are their lessons?
Jesus reminds me that we never truly stand alone, but that in the power of community relationships, we can build the abundant world of God.
Jesus reminds us that what may be clear to us may not be clear to others. But even as we work to tell stories that others understand, we need to understand that we don't get to control how the message is received.
One striking part of Jesus's ministry was the way he refused to show the fullness of who he was before the time was ripe. Perhaps he did not want people to compare him to the picture they had in their heads of what a savior looked like. Too often we imagine we know what a leader, an engineer, a soldier, a patriot, a terrorist looks like, and so miss the reality that unfolds before us.
As Mark tells the story, the Pharisees in Levi's house assume that the people Jesus is eating with are not righteous. Jesus turns it around and questions their authority to decide who counts and who doesn't count. In the capitol hill insurrection, we saw people who thought some votes shouldn't count. In the midst of it all, Jesus reminds us to always question our instinct that some people ought to count and others ought not to count, and to ask instead, what future can we build when all people count? For further thoughts on the cross and the lynching tree, see James Cone's book The Cross and the Lynching Tree.
In the midst of darkness, when we receive joy, we are called to share it. Maybe it will change someone else's life the way Mary changed Elizabeth's life!
The peace of Christ is not passive. It is not the absence of active conflict. It is the reconciliation of conflicts within ourselves, with each other, and with God, with the person God calls us to be.
As we head into Thanksgiving week, the story of the Israelites coming to their promised land and finding it inhabited resonates. As we see the complications in the story of Joshua, we should see the complications in our own stories, and give thanks that we have the opportunity to work towards reconciliation.
At the foot of Mount Sinai, the people Israel saw the model of our relationships with one another, based on mutual love and obligation. In this time, our mutual obligation to live God's compassion in the world means wearing masks and even limiting our Thanksgivings.
Like with the Israelites in the desert, sometimes we need to recognize Manna from heaven and just say, "thanks."
We are in the midst of a worsening pandemic. On this All Saints' Day, we recall that Joseph asked that his bones be transported back to Canaan in the Exodus, and the people remembered. We remember, too, and in that remembrance recommit ourselves to stopping the unnecessary deaths in our communities.
The final escape from Egypt by the Israelites came at a terrible cost. The scripture tells us that the cost is not what should be celebrated, but the escape. Every year we are called to remember the escape from literal slavery and death, and to celebrate. We celebrate when we make cause with people being held in prison without cause, when we make cause with people who suffer from violence, and when we recognize oppression that causes people to fear for their lives.
Moses can't lead alone; neither can Aaron lead alone. Together, always, we can do and proclaim God's love.
Shiphrah and Puah's names were passed down through history because, in the face of Pharoah's terrible and unpredictable anger, they found a way to nonetheless save the children they were called to serve.
Joseph, the unlikely tax collector, shows us how we can manage the challenges of the world only collectively, and never individually.
Joseph's brothers convince themselves that the world will go back to the way it was before him if only they can eliminate him. But the world changes in unexpected ways.
Jesus's sermon on the mount includes Christianity's most famous prayer. As we pray it, think about what it says about what we need to build the sovereign realm of God together.
Too often, we do not recognize violence we support as violence nonetheless. Following Jesus means de-escalating the force and violence of a situation. Always.
The Book of Eccelsiastes contains some difficult-to-understand sentiments, often dealing with the pointlessness of much human endeavor. In this passage, though, we see the underlying argument--what is our role on earth but to worship God, work to build the dreamed-of realm of God and celebrate what we have every day?
Jonah is filled with righteous anger than Ninevah has not been destroyed. It's a reminder that our hate and anger and clouded sense of justice does not match God's.
Jonah finally answers God's call. And the Ninevites...listen? What does that mean for us?
We are in the belly of the whale, with Covid-19 hemming us in and draining us of hope and opportunity (and college sports). Jonah, and Jonah's author, have some lessons for us.
Jonah the anti-prophet shows us that running away from our jobs and pretending the world we live in does not exist is not effective. The sailors show us that doing the work we are called to in the midst of a storm we did not make can bring us closer to God.
Joy in God and in the Gospel comes from bringing our whole selves. Often, that means standing in solidarity with others, even when we aren't leading.
The 4th of July reminds us of our obligation to hold ourselves and our nations accountable to the future we want to see.
Nearly everything in the Bible comes with a context. Pulling a sentence free of that context and applying it to any situation in life evades the truth of scripture. Meanwhile, Jesus gives us a lens through which to read the law and the prophets: the Great Commandment.
One thing we sometimes do in Christianity is forget that the Torah contains a lot of thinking about what it means to love God and love neighbor. If Jesus comes to fulfill the law, what is the law he comes to fulfill? Reading the statutes opens us to seeing new ways we may be obligated to one another.
By reading the Bible only in snippets, we can tell different stories. And in churches, we do. Reading the whole thing, and wrestling with it, and discussing it with others, helps us understand where all those stories come from. And the same is true in our own lives.
Loving all the torah, studying it, meditating it, understanding our feelings over the passages we hate to love and love to hate, and love to love, and bring comfort, and challenge, helps us to look at our own lives and imagine the story of a world that is complex and conflicting.
We always must remember how many gifts of the spirit are dedicated to listening and communicating. In the midst of an oppression that is the legacy of a country founded on an economy of slavery, we must listen to the wide variety of cries that we hear, and make sure that violence is not the only language that we speak and understand.
In a more theological sermon, we examine Paul's arguments about resurrection and ask whether the argument he makes reflects our lived experience. After all, there are many different ways to understand resurrection.
Through a mirror, dimly, we see the world. So often, our reactions to others are reflections of how we see ourselves. Paul reminds us that we need to grow into the world Jesus brings in resurrection, being aware of our filters and struggling in love to overcome them and allow Jesus's light to illuminate our relations with others.
Paul complaining about division in Christianity is a little funny to careful readers, but his warning to avoid tribalism in our thinking is sound.
Sometimes in Christianity, the only meaning of Jesus that is said to be important is his death. But Jesus lived and embodied life, and rose again, and meaning may be found in his life and death and resurrection. Likewise, we often point at the people of Jerusalem, who were Jews, when focusing on his death. In Acts, we see that the crime of Jesus was one against Rome, and not against the Temple, reminding us that only Rome had the power of crucifixion.
In the culmination of three weeks where we asked, "What Next?" we see that, empowered by the holy spirit, disciples like we can step outside our comfort zones and heal this world around us.
The message in Acts 1 is clear: Jesus was not conquered in death, and it's on us to take his message and mission into the world. And since we aren't Jesus, we need to have discussion, debate, and prayerful consideration of what Jesus is calling us to do.
In this Easter season, when we see death around us, and perhaps wonder when we, too, may leave our caves, we remember the natural fear and trembling that accompanied Jesus's absence from the tomb. And we remember that we live with the fear, and proclaim the good news anyway.
Maybe Pilate was coming in by the other road, encouraging Judeans to show their loyalty to the Empire. Maybe he wasn't. Jesus's entry on a colt shows the humility God expects of leaders who are to endure.
Jesus predicts the sovereign realm of God will come in the lifetimes of the people among him. What if he is preparing all of us for all the upheavals of the world?
We are reminded by the story that follows Jesus laying out the greatest commandment what power we have to love God will all our hearts. Sometimes, we miss the sacrifice that comes in loving God and loving neighbors as ourselves. In this time, it's good to remember that giving more than we are comfortable with can push us to grow in love.
We're showing our love by not spreading germs. In Jesus's terms, we're trying to figure out how to tend God's vineyard together. Sometimes, it's easy to forget this work until there's a crisis. Being stewards means always remembering public health and good leadership and management, and committing ourselves to remembering that we are public people.
It's important that Jesus's transfiguration comes only after he warns Peter not to be ashamed of his impending death. We are reminded that it is easy to promote Christ when Christ's power is obvious. It is easy to proclaim the victory. It is harder to remember that before Christ rose, Jesus was beaten down, alienated, and isolated by the Romans. So perhaps Jesus is reminding Peter that the Gospel will always be found not on the mountaintop, but in the gutter.
Sometimes, leaders say things that are good ideas, but don't necessarily bring us closer to God. Sometimes we have good ideas that don't bring us closer to God. Sometimes we have bad ideas. Jesus challenges us to listen with a discerning ear.
John the Baptist's death shows us the lengths to which those in power will go to suppress criticism. The way we tell the story shows how they also often evade responsibility for their actions. But the story remains.
Jesus's adventures among the Gerasenes warn us that pushing our demons out of sight do not make them any less potent. Only when we exorcise them from ourselves and reconcile ourselves to them can we heal ourselves and society.
We are all embodied--we do not exist apart from our bodies, their strengths and their weaknesses. Each of us has a different experience in the world because of our bodies, and we cannot fully understand them all. Jesus's appearance in a body shows God's love and experience of the bodily challenges we face. The stories of healing show Jesus's understanding of the ways our bodies affect us.
We always have the choice between cruelty and compassion. This week, the 5th circuit chose cruelty. Jesus reminds us, always, that though we cannot control the outcome of our actions, we can scatter seeds and find, unexpectedly, that they may bloom.
Note: there was a sound recording issue, so half of the sermon is faint.
In this week's reading, Jesus heals a body, tries to heal society, and heals a spiritual rift. Some readings of this text suggest that our bodily injury is caused by spiritual failings. While our bodies manifest the scars of our minds, our experience teaches us that this is not the whole story. Perhaps Jesus is cautioning us not to let our self-criticism keep us from living out our callings in the world.
In the New Testament portion of our lectionary year, we hear the awkward phrasing and cut-down language of Mark, and ask what goes in-between. Reading through the spaces gives us a chance to understand what the gospel looks like in our lives.
Lessons and Carols services have been sneaking commentaries into our worship for over a hundred years. Let's listen to what they have to say.
Isaiah's words to the Israelite refugees in Babylon brings the comfort that in the midst of suffering, in the midst of tremendous loss, people and governments may change, what is permanent is revealed as temporary, and what remains is God's love.
Isaiah reminds us we must never lose sight of the world as it should be and worship the world as it is. It's a lesson for us, too.
The story of Elijah and the Baals seems like it comes from a distant world. But one enduring message is that no matter how many times we put in work so that the sport saves us, or our team will save us, or our work will save us or our tribe will save us, they never will. At the end of the day, it is God in love and through God's servants that show us we are not alone.
Rehoboam inherits his throne, surrounds himself with princelings, and does not pay attention to the work required to keep a kingdom together. In his cruelty, he loses the prized status as intermediary between God and the people in all of Israel. From this, we learn that the demonstration of power through cruelty is never what God calls for.
Sometimes, the moment when the story changes totally doesn't look like the moment when the story changes. Sometimes, it looks that way in hindsight, and sometimes we convince ourselves that it does.
This week, the United States military moved out of the way of Turkish militias invading Syria. This move left many of us feeling confused, as it didn't seem to fit with any traditional foreign policy of the US or a new stance toward demobilization (as it was accompanied by an increase in troops in Saudi Arabia). The story of the Old Testament is in many ways a story of the migration of people, and the suffering of people forced to move. Ruth gives us the story of what it means to bear witness to that suffering, and helps explain why this move strikes such an emotional chord with us as we leave allies to the attacks of authoritarian governments in Turkey and Russia.
Charts and maps:
Moab: http://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/tools/map-gallery/m/map-Moab
Global Refugee numbers 1952-2017: https://www.axios.com/refugee-population-world-9d7e786e-3773-4d17-ac0b-5baa3bee031e.html
Up-to-Date UN Refugee figures at a glance: https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html
Shifting origins of refugees to the US since 1975: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/10/07/key-facts-about-refugees-to-the-u-s/ft_19-10-07_refugees_shifting-origins-refugees-us-since-1975/
Also from pew: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/10/07/key-facts-about-refugees-to-the-u-s/
The Ten Commandments lay out what it looks like to love God and love neighbor. Jesus's example shows us that worshipping God means standing against the worship of wealth, power, and individuals. Including football coaches, our "team" identity, and politicians.
We are often tempted to tell stories of our righteousness, of how we have always been on the side of good. Jacob shows the power of a story that marks us as changed, and leaves us with scars from the wrestling we had to do to change ourselves.
In the face of absurdity, Sarah laughed. And with God's help, the absurd happened anyway. Her lesson reminds us that there is always hope, even if it comes from places and in ways we do not expect.
God calls us by name, and God sees that we are not whole unless we are in relationship. Using names, understanding names, allows us to build the relationship that God saw we needed and worked to enable.
Pastor Nathan is back from sabbatical. On Pentecost, Luke describes what it was like to hear all those voices on Pentecost, and Pastor Nathan thinks it must be a little bit like Taizé. In Philippians, Paul talks about his love and hopes for the Philippians while he is away from them, and Pastor Nathan thinks about what he learned about the constant work of daily change while away from Ankeny UCC.
As the church and minister prepare to go on sabbatical, Paul exhorts us to be assured of God's love, because God loved us and came in the form of Jesus to us without first expecting us to be reconciled. This gives us the model to remember that perfection is not a requirement for attempts at restoring relationship with one another.
On our Sunday recognizing servant leaders and graduates, we talk about our core identity as a church that Cares Within. Sometimes that means listening, sometimes that means leading, sometimes that means visiting. It all is done in the recognition that following Christ means following someone who was subject to the power of Empire, someone weak by the terms of Empire and earthly power. It's a reminder that we are reminded by him to reach out and connect with one another and leave our shame at our weakness on the cross.
In our church identity statement, we profess to be a church "serving beyond." As the context of church changes, each generation must understand how we are called to go beyond the walls and connect with others. How is that calling taking us out into the world in our own context?
Defining the boundaries of Progressive Christian Theology can be hard, often because it's all about asking questions and understanding that the answers may be unsatisfying. But we should never stop wondering whether we can expand our understanding of gospel beyond the limits we've put on it.
This sermon incorporates an interview with Racheld Held Evans from Biologos.org.
Image from: https://twitter.com/pattyjoy60/status/1124791495180025856
To kick off our 2019 sermon series on our church identity, we take a look at the great commission and our call to make disciples of all the nations. Welcome must be intentional, and must include listening to the voices of our siblings in this world.
The empty cross gives us the freedom to imagine new worlds, create new hopes, and live with the presence of Christ among us to build God's sovereign realm together. It calls us to look forward to what could be, rather than back to what was.
The conflict between the triumph of the palms and the suffering and death of Jesus during Holy Week looms over our worship on the last day of Lent. What are we to do with the quick disappearance of the crowd? Where is the hope for us?
The core of the social gospel reminds us that it's not our job to judge others, but to do what we can to ease suffering. A fitting 250th sermon posted to the website.
Our life stories have many treasures. Sharing them multiplies them, building our faith and the community around us.
Matthew's recounting of Jesus's teachings about discipleship continue with a troubling example of welcome and rejection at a wedding feast. Once we are part of a Christian community, how do we hold ourselves accountable with the same standards as we hold people who come to join?
Jesus's parable of the vineyard shows us the resentment that can build when we think others deserve what we have less than we do. But much of that resentment comes from the way we tell our stories. Jesus tells us to act out of generosity first, and so build God's sovereign realm together.
One of the amazing predictions Jesus makes is that, in our church life, we're going to sin against one another. The question is whether than sin is an invitation to deeper relationship or an excuse to fracture.
Jesus was changed on the mountaintop, giving us hope that we, too, could be transformed. In the unlikely world of race and sports, we see people change through confession, testimony, and listening.
The Jon Miller piece referred to in the sermon: https://www.hawkeyenation.com/basketball/how-sports-can-teach
Marc Morehouse:
https://www.thegazette.com/subject/sports/hawkeyes/iowa-mens-basketball/gary-dolphin-suspension-iowa-basketball-king-kong-20190225
What unifies the stories of the Death of John the Baptist, the Feeding of the 5,000, and Jesus walking on water? Jesus's response to the palpable fear of his disciples: be not afraid. Have faith, and act generously.
When Jesus tells us to enter through the narrow gate, one of the things he's talking about is the real work of reconciliation. When tastes change and things we used to think go out of fashion, have we changed? Have we done the work of thinking through what is different for us now? How have we reconciled who we were with who we are and who we hope to be?
Note, Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer came out in 1927. For more information about the history of minstrelsy, I recommend the BackStory Radio Podcast with Dr. Rhae Lynn Barnes: The Faces of Racism A History of Blackface and Minstrelsy in American Culture
In the prayer Jesus teaches us, we ask that God provide "our daily bread." What is that? How can we know? When we are giving to others, it makes us feel good. By asking what we need to give, we go from feeling good because we are giving to an object of our charity to feeling good because we are in relationship with one of God's beloved children.
Sometimes, in the pressure to be entrepreneurial of today's world, we miss our opportunities to shine by mastering the work in front of us, working with and serving others whatever our work is.
Matthew reminds us that Jesus's time in the wilderness came at the beginning of his ministry, and not at the end. As we head into a sabbatical year, we wonder, where are we going next?
Jesus's Baptism by John reminds us of the sign of hope Noah received after the flood, and prepares us for Jesus's servant leadership at the time of death. But it also shows us a model of parenthood too often neglected when discussing "biblical" models--fathers expressing love for their sons. God our Parent nurtures us as both Father and Mother, and in that fullness expresses delight at Jesus.
Epiphany is all about recognition. Recognition that Jesus means something important for the whole world. For the folks in the East, for the folks in Judea, and for us. Wherever we are.
The lineages of Jesus we get in Matthew and Luke go toward understanding who Matthew and Luke thought Jesus was, and what was important about Jesus. Since then, people have been capturing in verse and prose what is important about Jesus to them. Carols all tell us what the writers thought was important about Jesus's life. Singing those carols helps us to understand what Jesus means to us.
Why do we sing Lessons and Carols? On the 100th anniversary of the first singing at King's College Cambridge, we remember that it was a new service, and one that brings our own lived experiences into church and helps us to make meaning in the voices of poets and musicians throughout the years who have worked to explain the scriptures we read. Merry Christmas!
The history of the nativity is long, and the questions about its meaning began with the two versions of the story we get in Matthew and Luke (today and tomorrow). As we interpret these questions about who Jesus was, and what his birth meant for our lives, let us never forget one thing: it was a broken world Jesus came into, and yet he came anyway.
Esther and Mordecai remind us that sometimes we have power and are afraid to admit it. Using that power comes with risks, but it also might lead to hope and reconciliation, whether that looks like all of your people being spared, or a workplace more aware of its outspoken rules.
Habakkuk preaches into a world in which defeat is certain. When all is hopeless, and suffering is guaranteed, we must embrace the God who suffers with us and connects us to the story of creation. That story always goes through suffering, but suffering is not the story.
In the season of Thanksgiving, we remember the prophetic words of Isaiah to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem in the face of the unbeatable destructive might of the Assyrian army, "be not afraid". When Assyria laid siege to Jerusalem, their army turned back. Whether it was because Jerusalem paid them off, or because something happened in the camp, there was no battle. No matter the method, the people in Jerusalem and in the armies were spared. In this world, let us give thanks when violent conflict can be stopped.
On the centennial of Armistice Day, we remember all the losses of war, and celebrate that God does not demand the sacrifices of our children.
On All Saints' Day, we look to the story of Naaman to remember that God is the God of all people. We remember that unexpected servants and saints reveal themselves in unexpected ways from unexpected countries. And that sometimes simple things do wonders.
Solomon and a worried mother show us what it looks like to create multiple winners from one encounter. It's easy to view the world as zero-sum, but the promise of God's love is that we can make choices that improve lives for everyone. In a Democracy, we must believe that.
One of the most important parts of Democracy is accountability. David's treatment of Uriah shows us the dangers of corruption to Democracy and leadership. Nathan's words remind us that we must always hold up the mirror to our friends as well as those we oppose if we are to make a just world together.
It's election season in Iowa. Let's talk about democracy. Today, what on earth could Joshua's sermon about all God has done for the exiled Israelites have to do with voting? It comes from forgetting when we were in exile. And detours through oliver cromwell.
The Ten Commandments are often read without context. What did they mean to a people finding the opportunity for self-governance for the first time? One is the message that all human leaders are human. None of them are God, and all will be human. To create an idol out of our leaders, putting them beyond question, puts them on a level with God.
When we read the Bible informed by archaeology, we find support, illustration, contradiction, and absence. Sometimes, we peel back the layers and find ways stories were used to inspire peoples and explain their worlds. Whether there were 600 or 600,000 people who came out of Egypt, the story reminds us that God is on the side of the oppressed, and so should we be.
Sometimes God makes clear God's call. But in the midst of it all, it's hard to see that call's promise coming to fruition--through Abraham's life, it was not clear that God's promise would be fulfilled. In those moments, we can look around and see how our lives, our churches, our buildings, reflect the missions we saw ourselves being called to. What message will we send to ourselves and others?
In the flood, God starts creation over. But in so doing, God also sees that intervening in human affairs and restarting the world is not a thing to be done lightly; it involves destruction and suffering. So God changes, and trusts in humans to be better, as God hopes for us to be. As we transform the world around us, do we keep our eyes focused on this vision: to reduce suffering, to not harm one another, to sustain the creation with which God has made covenant? Or do we succumb to cruelty and cause suffering? God has hope for us. We try to be better. It is not easy, but this was the life we chose, rather than the life of ignorance, closed off from our curiosity.
Philemon, the shortest book we have in the New Testament, is a straightforward letter inspiring and troubling at the same time. In it, Paul uses all of his considerable powers of persuasion to convince Philemon to be better and, perhaps, to free Onesimus from slavery. It is an example that we have of how to push those around us to better stand for love. To better stand for people without voices themselves, to better stand for people without their own power.
One of the things that keeps us from being generous with our money is our sense that if only we act well, we won't die. Jesus reminds us that we will certainly die, and that our worry does not extend our lives. So be generous.
How do we rotate our views so that we do not elevate people with wealth, especially inherited wealth? How do we transform our community into something we would joyfully give all for?
Money stored as security crumbles. Money exchanged can build relationships. Money used with purpose can be transformed into Hope, or Joy, or Reconciliation, or Love.
We practice an open table in Ankeny UCC, meaning, all are welcome to take communion. Why do we do that, when Paul seems to argue that we need to have a common understanding of communion to take communion? Maybe Paul is making a comment about the community in Corinth and maybe, following Martin Luther and John Wesley, Jesus is present at the table with us, and that presence is for all people.
Sometimes, our focus keeps us from seeing the absurdity of the situation and asking what's going on. When faced with a donkey asking us why we hit it, let's take a step back and wonder about what we're seeing.
Why do we seek membership in a church body? Peter's letter reminds us of our joy, and helps to strengthen us when we can't seem to answer it for ourselves.
Ruth 4 gets into the weeds of redemption and marriage in ancient Israel. But there's a message for us: Boaz sees hope in the future, rather than in the past. He works to help Ruth, a foreign woman without status. How do we express the hope that Jesus gives us that we can build the sovereign realm of God together?
Sometimes we miss the true, messy meaning of phrases because of code words. In Ruth, we encounter any number of double-entendres that can inspire a variety of readings. But the thing that remains clear is that Boaz had a choice: Act as if Ruth was not worthy of concern, or as if she was a person of worth and value. He chose the latter. As we look at people seeking asylum in the United States, we also have a choice.
The second chapter of Ruth shows us the complicated life of an attractive woman working in a field. It shows Ruth's dedication, but it also shows the vulnerability of someone without connection and with another person to support. In our world where we see families fleeing from violence to the United States and more and more women are coming forward with stories of sexual assault and harassment, Ruth's story echoes today.
The Bible lifts up the story of refugees, of immigrants, of foreigners who reveal God to us. The story of Ruth and Naomi gets at the question of care. Who brings the message from God that we are not alone?
Fundamentally, the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was one of translation. When we are called by the spirit to use our gifts in different ways to reach different people, we catch fire, too.
Image: Fire Goddess 3.1 by Gita Rau via flickr. Used with an NC-ND-2.0 creative commons license
Paul shows us the service that Christ gave us, by emptying himself of the powers and pretensions of God to live with us and lead by serving us. We have examples all around us that are directly at odds with the cruelty we as humans are capable of. In Christ's example, we see the best we can be.
In prison, Paul shows thanks for the care given by the Philippians, for the love expressed in their actions. We are reminded that care and love require us and inspire us to act, individually and collectively.
The implications of the Gospel are always understood in translation. We see how they were perceived in first-century Rome. What are they today?
Note: Even at the time, the anecdote about the Church of the East was misremembered by the professor mentioned and by me, so while the anecdote was accurate as to the conversation, it contained a misinterpretation. The story referenced:
"When the day of service came, he did such a great service that no one in Seleucia had performed anything like it. And after the whole assembly had eaten and drunk, he ordered the singers to come in, and the singers went in and sang hymns in such a way that the three assemblies were deeply moved. They said concerning the holy Mar Mari: "This man is a god, because he is different in every regard!" All of them came near the blessed Mar Mari and said to him: "We beg you that these singers remain here and that they should not return to their regions. And whenever your turn comes up to do the service, your service will be remitted against the wage of the singers." The holy man said to them: "I do not embezzle the wage of the singers, but if you want, I have one word to tell you and so listen to me!" They said to him: "Speak!" He said: "Become Christians, and these singers will be yours!" tl;dr: they become Christians.
From The Acts of Mar Mari the Apostle, translated by Amir Harrak, p 50-51
As we explore progressive christian theology, we ask questions about power and privilege in the Bible. Paul uses his privilege to free a female slave from possession, and, by challenging the power of her masters, is beaten and jailed. How do we see our power and privilege, and how do we use it?
Paul can be challenging sometimes. So challenging that the Jesus movement was a little dubious about his joining them in the first place. One of the biggest parts of living in community is being in relationship with folks who may irritate us, and to examine how that irritation teaches us more about ourselves and what we do.
In Christ's death, we see his humanity. In his Resurrection, we see that our identities are not centered in violence, but in the love of God. Christ's story, and ours, go through his death, but do not end in his death. It is in Resurrection that we see the power of God to transform our lives and our world.
All of Christianity goes through the cross. The cross is not the end of the story. The suffering of Christ is not the whole of Christ's story. But Christ's story goes through the suffering. Without Christ being excluded, isolated, and killed for challenging the empire of Rome, how would we know that God was with us in our moments of deepest isolation?
The condemnation of Jesus is full of ironies. But it's also full of the unspoken fears in empire. The crowd's fear of suffering the same fate as Jesus; Pilate's fear of losing his power. The fear that there's nothing that can be done. Jesus's testimony is that to accede to the rule of violence and retributive injustice may be worth than death, for we will all die. What would it look like for us to not reassure ourselves that people suffering under violence deserve it or are happy? What happens if we look at the It and respond with love, knowing that God is always with us, and we are never truly alone.
What is right action? What is righteousness? In the midst of Jesus's trial, we see people representing the power in Jerusalem all around him, afraid to take ownership of their choices. Instead, accountability goes only to the one that have captured and imprisoned. But Jesus shows us that justice and righteousness are not only expressed in the moment of judgement, but when we look at the hungry and feed them, when we listen to the cries of "not enough for the hungry and thirsty" and give them food, and when we toss back the question of, "who sinned that this man is an outcast, him or his parents" onto the questioners: that he is an outcast is the sin of those who cast him out.
Sin are those forces, external and internal, that keep us from seeing and living our identities. When we are separated from our identities and see our identities twisted, always remember that nothing can take away our identity as loved children of God.
The story of people written off as having no chance in the Olympics nonetheless winning reminds us of Jesus's choice to be a servant to his disciples. None of us is better than those we serve, and when we choose to serve another, it is a reminder that they are equal in God's eyes, people with stories to share.
Asking questions is the most holy work we can do. Believing in Christ means working to build the sovereign realm of God together, easing suffering. Mourning, and then acting, just as Jesus does when he weeps for Lazarus (who indeed died) and then acts to raise him.
In John's account of Jesus's healing of the man born blind, we see the message of the transfiguration: yes, God does great works. Let us go down among the people, who need us. In a world full of suffering, we can choose, as the Pharisees do, to pretend problems do not exist among people in our pews and our groups. Or we can do as Jesus does, and work to make all the places we gather safe spaces for people to admit when powerful people and beloved people have done wrong, and to work towards a true reconciliation. Warning: there is extensive talk about abuse.
Image: Raphael’s Transfiguration at the Vatican Museum by Nathan Abels via https://www.flickr.com/photos/nathanabels/5307426552 Used under CC-BY-NC-ND
Water is a recurring theme in John's gospel. As we look at the Samaritan woman, outcast and alone but seemingly blameless, we see the radical message that Jesus's water is for all people. This is a message that groups like No More Deaths and Humane Borders bring to the Southwestern desert where people die of thirst and hunger while crossing the border. To vandalize water in the desert is to ignore the basic obligation Jesus asks us to take on.
Jesus's dialogue with Nicodemus in John gives us context to some famous Bible verses. One of those messages to us is to be careful of assuming that those we like and favor can do no bad, and those we dislike can do no good. The world is too complicated to divide into us and them, so we should resist any attempt to use Jesus to do it.
As Jesus tells the denizens of the Temple that he can build it up in 3 days, we are reminded that the church is the people of God, and that no physical feature is forever. Change makes us wonder why we are here and what we are doing, just as the moneychangers undoubtedly did.
The lesson of the wedding at Cana is that God sees abundance where we try to see scarcity. This applies equally to the fear at the heart of racism and in the overflowing wine at a wedding feast.
Note: At one point, Pastor Nathan threatens a lecture on the difference between capitalism and monetarism. He, of course, meant a discussion about capitalism, monetarism, and mercantilism (and, really, keynesianism), as hinted at in his brief discussion of the utility of gold.
The Evangelist lays out his vision for the only way to understand Jesus: come and see.
(note: there was a medical emergency in the church during the sermon)
John's Gospel is all about telling what we see. The corollary is to listen when people tell us what they see. That's different from our disagreements over the implications of what is happening in the world. This is the act of stopping and hearing when people talk about the things that have happened to them.
Jesus's birth always reminds us that in darkness, in places we don't think matter, in the shadows cast by the bright lights to which we are all drawn, there is always a need for illumination. Whether it was Jesus, called in those same fields as David, or the vigilant work of people fighting racism and reminding us that there are people working in Ankeny with unaffordable housing and no transportation, the light is the light of all people.
The Prologue of John re-tells the story of the Hebrew Bible in short, starting in the way that God created humanity--in community. On Advent 4 AND Christmas Eve, let's remember that we reflect the image of God when we are in community together.
We often mistake silence and quiet for peace. True peace comes only with reconciliation. Silence and quiet often hide violence being done to those without power, allowing those with power to ignore it. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to reconcile ourselves to the violence we do, and work to bring about God's peace.
Daniel reminds us that in the midst of suffering and uncertainty, our faith gives us assurance that God is with us, and we may always hope for a future. But also that our faith demands things of us and challenges us to grow.
As we rewrite our national lives to erase opportunities to give thanks, pause. Look around, relieve y0ur anxiety that you are not enough. You are a loved child of God.
Amos says God wants justice to roll down and righteousness to flow. How do we look at ourselves and see the injustice we cooperate in?
Elijah's fear was turned to hope by God's presence. God shows that it isn't in violence that God is to be found, but in the quiet hope for the future that leads to new acts.
Solomon's exploitation of labor and subjects split the kingdom. Pope Leo X's exploitation of distant Catholics split the church. But as we Protestants stripped down sanctuaries in a move toward simplicity for the Word, we missed some of the stories sculpture and stained glass told. Today, we have the opportunity to find new ways to listen to God's still-speaking voice, just as Nathan, Luther, and Calvin did so long ago.
Samuel was called from the household of Eli to preach God's word of reform to priests exploiting people in the temple. Millenia later, Martin Luther was called to reform the practice of sacrifice and offering once again, reminding us that our lives are to be a celebration of grace freely given by God in Christ Jesus.
The Open and Affirming process is the UCC's way of asking hard questions about what it means to be an LGBTQ person in Ankeny UCC, so that we have answers when people ask us, and so that we can be held accountable for our offers of welcome. Sometimes, those answers can sustain people in the wilderness of their lives.
Note: the Phelps Family church is, of course, in Kansas and not Nebraska.
Image: Rainbow by J_D_Lvia flickr. used under CC-BY-NC 2.0
Moses hears God's call, and God gives the power of his name to Moses for change. When Moses said he couldn't speak, God sent his brother Aaron to speak for him. Through the power of relationship with God and each other, Aaron and Moses freed Israel from Pharaoh. What can we do?
Image: Fire and tree shadows by Ben Coulson via flickr used under CC-by-sa 2.0 license.
God loves us all, and God's promises predates anything we do. God is in unexpected places. Right Here. Right Now.
Abraham's life is full of anxiety over his legacy. When called upon to sacrifice that legacy, he learns the lesson for all of us: God provides. In the midst of our anxiety, stop, look around, and thank God for the people and gifts that God provides.
God sets about creation methodically, creating the frame and then filling it in. So to do we set about the work of building the church by setting the frame for peace and love in Sunday School and Baptism and filling it in by sharing what it means to be a Christian with our students and new additions.
We spend so much time creating "thems" to protect "us" that we miss the centrality of Jesus's gospel: that there are no Thems. There are only Us's, and only by watching our language and resisting the urge to devalue groups of people can we focus on our own behavior and the specific behaviors of other to work on dismantling the forces that stand in the way of God's kingdom: racism, sexism, xenophobia, fear. All these work through us as well as through others, which is why Jesus calls us to transform our own hearts.
Asking questions is scary. Talking to people about something hurtful we felt because of their actions is scary. It's often easier to write them off as terrible or listen to the voices of the snakes who urge us to go around them without building a relationship. But Jesus shows us the way to maintain community is through honesty, through asking questions, and through listening for the voices of others.
Sometimes, complex theological disputes obscure key truths: the core message of Revelation is that there is always a re-creation. But that doesn't mean the world around us isn't important. It's a reminder that God put us in a world to help make it better.
Our children are always learning. If we do not show them what it means to be the church, what lessons will they draw?
There is need all around us. Sometimes people take advantage. Compassion tells us it must not harden our hearts.
Jesus says we need to welcome God's kingdom like a child. But what is a child in this world full of anxiety? What can we do as a church to welcome children and reduce rather than increase anxiety?
We continue our exploration of worship with music--who knew there was an age-old debate between sedate and enthusiastic singing. What music brings you joy and feeling?
Why do we try to use gender-neutral language to describe God? To avoid creating an idol out of language.
note: there was a slip during the sermon. The 4-letter account of the proper name of God (Yud-He-Wav-He) is called the Tetragammatron. Nathan left off a couple of syllables during the sermon. The clips are from Oh, God, Bruce Almighty, The Shack, and Dogma, in that order.
Worship outdoors under the shelter. It's a beautiful day. So we're talking about...Job? Never fear! There's hope in how we tell the story.
The Trinity shows the essential nature of God existing community. So when we come together to build closer ties, we reflect the essential nature of God.
On Pentecost, we were transformed. Every time we welcome new members into the church, we relive that transformation and begin our church lives anew.
What does Paul mean by "we are one in christ?" It means he, like Luke, recognizes that Christ seeks to break down the barriers that divide us and bring us into relationship with one another.
Living as the church, being the church, is the way to reconcile ourselves to one another without hypocrisy.
What could the experience of a person who wanted to learn about Jesus, but who did not fit neatly into sex and gender categories back in the first century tell us about Progressive Christian Theology today?
On the Emmaus Road, after Jesus's resurrection, some disciples finally get it and see the truth. Let's follow their examples and share our stories with one another as we seek to build the kingdom of God.
Listen to the personal testimony of those whose experiences are different from your own. It might be miraculous.
Luke's story shows us that working to change oppression comes at a cost. There are always powerful objections. Do Good Anyway. Work for Love rather than Hate, and break down barriers rather than erect them. This is what Resurrection looks like.
Image by Wilhelm Morgner
The story of Zaccheus and Jesus shows us the power of a meal to transform lives. To hear one another's stories requires sitting down across barriers and inviting others to the table.
Listening note: Listen to "The Christians and the Pagans" by Dar Williams after the sermon.
We sometimes get used to thinking of suffering as something deserved by others to protect ourselves. Jesus tells us to celebrate when we can end suffering and reach out to people we think are different to find other loved children of God.
When we seek reasons people are to blame for their own suffering, we are erecting barriers between them and us. How, instead, are we similar to others, and where can we go together?
In a world where government policies are being enacted to encourage fear of outsiders and immigrants, we are reminded that we have always had strangers in our midst, whose very difference caused fear and misunderstanding. But Jesus challenges us to see the whole world as our neighbors, and work to end suffering in front of us, sure that in his resurrection, we may release ourselves from fear and live into love.
On Transfiguration, we think about how we are changed by seeing who Jesus is, and also wonder what people see when they look at us.
Our filters often get in the way of seeing what is in front of us. Our assumptions about how the world has been keep us from seeing what might happen in the future. Jesus's solution? Testimony. Tell what we see first, then draw conclusions from what we see.
Compassion means "suffer with." How do we find compassion, rather than cruelty, when we have the power to do so?
We sometimes see Pharisees as needlessly attached to rules. But if we look around us at the debates in modern Christianity, we face the same challenges the Pharisees and Jesus did: in a world that is not well-ordered, how do we worship God and follow Jesus? How do we interpret the teachings we read? Jesus shows us that it is by aiming to end suffering. Especially when someone is fleeing from oppression and war.
We don't need to drop everything to follow Jesus; the best work in building Jesus's sovereign realm is in helping others, every day, where we are, by finding ways to bring food to others and show loving kindness, and by renouncing the worship of money.
We are always the stars of our own stories. What happens when someone tells us the world isn't that simple? That's the challenge the Civil Rights Movement presented to white America, and the resistance to the message was similar to the reception Jesus got in Nazareth.
Luke may not have a story about the Magi, but Jesus was still revealed in a time and place: John's sermon about not standing on your national identity, but doing good work. Not abusing your position of authority to enrich yourself, and sharing what you have with those who have less.
Ebenezer Scrooge transforms when he takes his general philosophies and principles and sees how they affect real people. We can do the same.
Maybe Jesus is God's way of saying, "no, really, I understand that you're scared and want to be safe. But the world isn't safe, and you need to help and love one another."
In the midst of pain and suffering, we sometimes get the great joy of announcing liberation. Liberation for those who have no security. Liberty to those who live under the threat of violence. Liberty to those who have been removed from their land by violence, comfort to those who mourn, and a year of jubilee, releasing those in servitude and forgiving debts. When we do, let's show our joy by dancing!
On the second Sunday in Advent, we are reminded that Biblical peace is reconciliation, not quiet. Often, prophecy from unexpected quarters is noisy and disruptive. Just ask Scrooge.
In the wake of the election, it is time to listen to one another and to believe the specific testimonies people offer. It is also time to bear witness to God's love of the stranger and the vulnerable in the face of authoritarian white supremacists who have for so long lived in the shadows but now believe this is their moment.
As surely as God made little green apples, the Cubs have won the world series. But as Chris Hayes points out, it's not the victory that matters. It's the struggle. The job in front of us. Bearing witness to evil, standing up in the face of fear.
Sometimes our worth is tied up in the outcomes. But outcomes are so often out of our control, maybe doing the job in front of us is all we can do.
Moses communes with God, and is able to focus when God and the people lose track of the reasons why they are where they are. Why are we where we are?
Joseph's brothers did some pretty bad things to him. But he was able to get away from their injury, spend time with God, and be healed (and it didn't hurt that he came to be the most powerful person in Egypt). Then he forgave them. Forgiveness isn't earned, and isn't owed, but we can work to heal the hurts we inflict.
Wait, did Abraham just complain that he didn't have anyone to give all his money to? I mean, it's great rhetoric about the pointlessness of wealth without family, but still....
Shame and Fear cause us problems. It started with the shame and fear that caused Adam and Eve to separate themselves from God. How do we model our ways out of shame and fear, so that our kids won't be bound by them?
Sometimes, we are tempted to stop listening, to talk amongst ourselves, and to avoid proclamation. But Jesus calls us to proclaim the good news, to liberate the oppressed, to declare Jubilee. What does that look like for us?
Having told our stories, the only question is: What is the story that God has led the world around us to demand us tell of the future? What is our story of now?
Last week, we started our stories with the Story of Me. Where do we come from. This year, we continue with the great definition of the Story of Us that comes in Hebrews: "But we aren’t the sort of people who timidly draw back and end up being destroyed. We’re the sort of people who have faith so that our whole beings are preserved. "
So, what makes us, us?
As we begin to ask where we are going as a church, we look at the way we build identity and tell our stories. First, by telling the story of who we are individually, then collectively, and finally, where those stories lead us to go. Individual stories affect deeply how we interpret the words that we hear, explain how to understand the testimonies and perspectives given, and what we do together.
Sometimes we need to take a step back and ask what brings us together, and where it is taking us. Where did we come from, and where are we going?
Hymns. We sing them. We like them. We sometimes struggle. So, why? How? What are these hymns in our worship, and what do they mean to us?
The Bible doesn't speak for itself. As long ago as in Exodus, we see the interpretation of God's word. And then in Hebrews, we see an interpretation of the sermon Moses gives in Exodus 32. Together, in worship every week, we also interact with the word through the sermon. Sermons, always spoken, exist only in the time and space between the preacher and the listener, in context. So together, we begin the conversation about God's word in modern life.
Note: There was a bit of a recording hiccup, so there are some artifacts in the audio.
Why do we read scripture in worship? Sometimes, it's about the absurdity of thinking we have control over the world, and to be reminded that the hope that may seem absurd isn't. Especially this week, when control in Baton Rouge, Minneapolis, and Dallas was shown to be so illusory, and hope seems so absurd.
Confessing, whether about sins or faith, is about admitting and acknowledging things we think to be true; truths about God and truths about ourselves. Maybe if we listen to others say them out loud, and articulate them well ourselves, we can use them to listen better to what people are saying to us in the outside world.
"A belief that is unspoken is incomplete, and a belief that is well spoken becomes a power for life and action." --Roger L. Shinn, Confessing Our Faith
Did you know there was a Biblical mandate to get together in the presence of God and throw big parties once a year? Go read Deuteronomy 14!
Where does the Lord's prayer locate us in our relationship to God? What is the purpose of prayer? We pray for God to intercede in the world, but often, God does that by interceding in our own hearts.
What prepares you for worship? What can build a sense of anticipation? Why do we open with this thing called a Call to Worship? And what does all that have to do with "It is an ancient mariner, and he stoppeth one of three?"
Worship 101 continues with a study of communion. Where does it fit in worship? Why was it central, and then not, and should it be again? What are we doing when we gather at the table? What are we remembering?
Image: Communion 1-3 by Weiers Coetser via flickr, CC-BY-SA 2.0 license (link in description)
Note on sermon: The etymology of Mass given is more of a post-hoc meaning. Originally, Mass was an old english migration from "missa".
In today's Worship 101 sermon, we ask what it means to pass the peace, and to close worship with a Good Word (Benediction).
Image, Hug by Jiunn Kang Too via flickr, under a CC-BY-SA 2.0 license (link to license in image description).
In the first of our Worship 101 series on Holy Trinity Sunday, we tackle a big fancy word: Invocation. Why do we call upon the names of God in our worship? Because names have power. Featuring The Doctor (and Martha Jones).
Image: Jacques Callot, The Holy Trinity in the Tree of Life, Adored by Franciscans, French, 1592 - 1635, in or after 1621, etching, Andrew W. Mellon Fund (from the National Gallery)
The spirit touched us all. Each of our gifts comes together to form one body that is a Welcoming Church Family, Exploring Progressive Christian Theology, Caring Within and Serving Beyond.
Paul makes a passioned argument for what Christ's resurrection means for our bodies. We will be transformed at the end of time, he says. But in light of Christ's failure to return, perhaps his understanding of the urgent question of our bodies isn't quite right. Perhaps the urgency is in serving, in reaching outside to build Christ's kingdom as if we were already transformed.
Paul's meditations on love remind us that love is not always comfortable.
Image: Socrates bekijkt zichzelf in een spiegel, Bernard Vaillant, Jusepe de Ribera, 1672, via the Rijksmuseum.
On the Sunday after Earth Day, how does our Progressive Christian Theology bear on our stewardship of creation?
What does it mean to explore progressive Christian Theology? One thing is that it means understanding that the Bible was written in a time and a place, within its own context. It does not stand alone. To understand it in our time and place, there are many interpretive tools and paths to choose from. One is to understand how it shows God's love and allows us to make a difference in our lives and the lives of other on the earth right now.
Sometimes, we need to look with fresh eyes at the people and stories all around us.
The graphs about dialogue in films can be found at polygraph.cool/films
After being told that the kingdom wasn't being restored immediately, the disciples realized the world they had prepared for was not the world they lived in any longer. So they came together in prayer and study to understand what God was calling them to do in this new world. In like manner, the modern church has come through an era of cultural dominance that is no longer there. How can we adapt? Where are we going?
Sometimes, the news that the Good News is for all of us is not enough, something the Angel in Mark's Gospel understood. In those times, the message people need is that the Good News is Good News for them, specifically.
Jesus's welcoming of burial rites at the expense of alms gets at the multiple aspects of church mission. It is our duty to work against oppression every day, and it is equally our duty to serve in the comings and goings of life, to remember the comforts and supports needed in the beginning and end of life.
The "little apocalypse" of Mark offers a word of hope to people facing the reality of destruction and violence. In his words of expectation, he reminds us that God has such confidence in our better natures that it is to us God has entrusted the care of the earth and God's house and children. When we are faced with losing what we have, we have choices: take from those who are weaker than us, or reach out to lift them up.
Jesus, standing in a long tradition, take the opportunity to show us the opportunities to learn what the commandments mean by looking at the world around us.
The stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what we stand for sometimes depend greatly on our point of view. What happens when the perspective changes?
Note: an example in the sermon relies heavily on this work by Steven Attewell. http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2016/02/a-peoples-history-of-the-marvel-universe-week-5-captain-america-vs-the-60s
Jesus warns us not to mistake excitement for glory, nor good feelings for Good News, and to be careful what we wish for.
Why is it harder for the wealthy to gain eternal life than for a camel to go through the head of the needle? Our comfort fools us into thinking that serving God requires no sacrifice. It fools us into thinking that our incomplete view is the whole story.
Picture: King of the Desert by Hisham Binsuwaif, used under CC-BY-SA via flickr
In the transfiguration, our view of Jesus, and of God, must change. What are those moments in your life that change how to see the other people in your lives?
Why is it that the disciples were only ready to go out and spread the word after Jesus was unable to perform acts of power in his hometown? Does his commissioning tell us something about the way we are to live the gospel even when it is unpopular?
Sometimes, journeying with Jesus means listening, watching, and hearing how to respond to the need that is left even after healing.
As Jesus's ministry grows, he finds himself needing to lead his disciples in their ministries. In the parable of the sower, he shows them that they are called to spread the word, but that its taking root and growing is out of their hands.
What if Jesus came not only to heal, but to remind us that suffering and purity are not connected? What does it look like if we understand that maybe someone's suffering isn't their fault? And what does Carrie Fisher have to do with this?
On the Sunday after Christmas, the most dedicated parishioners are rewarded with three different reactions to the news of Jesus's revelation and invited to join in our reactions, too.
At Christmas, we remember the less-than-idyllic world into which Jesus was born, and ask what it has to say about life today.
Sometimes, you need to find joy wherever you can. And so, a week before the new Star Wars movie, we wonder what the future will bring, both to the world of a Temple built by people who never saw the old one, and the rebirth of a Jedi order by people who never witnessed its golden age.
Babylon sacks Jerusalem and sends the Jews into exile for 70 years. But in the midst of exile, Isaiah sees hope that banishment will end and that the valleys and mountains will be leveled, making the road back easy. It has been a tough few weeks for us, with terrorists in Colorado in a Planned Parenthood and terrorists in San Bernadino. What do Isaiah's prophecies say to us?
In the darkness of ancient Israel, the Assyrians were on the horizon and the response of the powerful was to act out of fear, oppressing the weak, the poor, and the stranger. Isaiah warned that this was the path to destruction. This week, fear has overrun our world. Politicians have lauded internment camps and called for registering people for the way they worship God. We saw fear at people who were different, fear of refugees, fear that all we have will be destroyed. But in the midst of the fear in ancient Israel, Isaiah foretold hope that we would once again be led by justice and righteousness.
Image: Augustine Abbey in Canterbury. Miles Bambury via flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0
In the 8th century, bad futures were on the horizon for the Northern kingdom of Israel. But even as geopolitics were about to turn against Israel, the prophets cried out that things had been going badly for people in Israel for years. In the news this week, we saw cries on college campuses that things have not been going well. Violence in Egypt, Lebanon, Kenya, and Paris reminds us that the future is always uncertain. But God reminds us that even when we have failed, and even when we are facing terror and exile, even when we have ignored the cries of the oppressed, God's love does not waver, and there is hope for the future. There is hope that we may live into that love and God's hope for us.
(for copyright reasons, we are not reproducing the image used in worship, a photo of the shrine to Adel Termos by Reuters photographer Hasan Shaaban)
In today's world, our false gods are not found in our houses of worship, but in the temples to wealth and isolation all around us. We are trained to revere wealth for its own sake, and for its ability to save the things that we love. And no wealth is so highly esteemed as that gained on one's own. But wealth always depends on other people. Too often, wealth comes at a cost to all of us, and to humanity. What sacrifices do we make on its altar?
On All Saints Day, we remember all the people in our lives who have died. The fear of death makes us do funny things, so perhaps the greatest gift Jesus gives us is to remind us of its certainty and remove its mystery, that we may commit ourselves to living.
The story of David's anointing as king is the story of people recognizing they need to change the way they are doing things. The people could no longer live as they did under the judges, and so they gave up power to go in a new direction. Their first try failed, so they tried again. But in the midst of their experiments and errors, God was with them.
Our story has taken us from creation, through struggle, out of bondage, beyond the wandering in the desert and the into the attempt to have humans interpret God's laws. This has led to famine in the land, with a family fleeing from Bethlehem into Moab. When Naomi, an Israelite woman, is left without a husband or sons to protect her in the patriarchy of the ancient near east. But her question, worries, and desperation are found all around us today. How can we respond?
The Ten Commandments (as we call them) appear for the second time in Deuteronomy, as the Israelites prepare to enter the promised land. Here, they serve as a foundation for the sort of nation that should be built in the new land: one based in love of God and love of neighbor. In our churches today, we get to make choices about our futures, too. How will we grow in love of God and love of neighbor?
The Israelite people flee into Egypt to escape famine. After years, the Egyptians start to fear the mass of immigrants, as happens throughout time. Moses, after escaping the order to kill all Israelite babies, finds himself exiled from family, people, nation, and God. But it is there, when he is all alone, that God calls him back, with only the authority of his testimony that God sent him. As we think of all we want to accomplish in the world, we must begin with, "What has God done in my life?"
In our lives, we encounter challenges that are bigger than an individual. And yet we sometimes blame ourselves for all the negative outcomes we see, for all of the bad things that happen in our presence. As we worship as a church in seeming decline, we wonder what it that can keep us going. In this story of Abraham and Sarah, the visitors who bring the fulfillment of prophecy are only in their presence because of hospitality. Hospitality allowed these heavenly visitors to sanctify Sarah's despair. How can we invest in the stranger, too?
Photo: Abraham en Sarah-Hempel/Spijkenisse via flickr , Roel Van Duersen, licensed under Creative Commons CC-BY 2.0
As we embark on the Narrative Lectionary, we ask questions about the beginning of our story relating to God and one another. And so, before patriarchy, before marriage, before childbirth, we look at what God saw looking at a solitary human: the need for companionship. And we start to understand why there has been such a change in how we define marriage in these past few years.
James famously warns us that faith without faithful action is dead. In the preceding stories he tells, he makes clear that the highest virtue is mercy, and that leaving people to starve with only good wishes is not faithful action.
We are faced with an enormous human crisis as a result of the Syrian civil wars. Where can we find hope and faithful action?
Image Source: John Englart (Takver)/Flickr CC-by-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/takver/9377515138
What's with this book of love poetry hidden in the middle of the Bible? Maybe it's a reminder to take advantage of the bodies God made for us, to find joy in pleasure and beauty, and understanding. To look back at the beauty of young love and forward to love beyond this life and say, "oh, what it is to be young and in love," and use it to speak truth about what it is. One note: I slightly misstated the Karl Barth reference--he was slightly more nuanced, and said that nearly all love and marriage is to answer the question of posterity, except in the Song of Solomon.
Image: Magritte's "The Lovers 2"
On our day of backpack blessing, we remember that our whole lives are lessons to those around us. What are we teaching them? The Disciples who sent children away from Jesus, their parents who brought them to him, and Jesus, in his reaction to them, all taught lessons, some intentional and some not. So let us share what we believe by our lives and our words.
Backpack fashion" by flickr user Comrade Foot: https://flic.kr/p/cE9YVh, used under a https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ Creative Commons license
Painting: Saint Sophia the Almighty Wisdom by Nicholas Roerich
There is a reason movements have anthems. In Ephesians, we are told that, because we live in evil times, we should open ourselves up to the Spirit and act wisely, filling ourselves up not with wine to the point of drunkenness, but instead with the energy that came down on Pentecost (and was mistaken for drunkenness). In our lives, we face choices every day about what our salvation looks like, and how we want to build our kingdom of God. Perhaps, when we are feeling low, or when we are feeling anxious, or when we are seeing the worst in other people instead of the best, we should sing hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs.
The sermon series on the early kings of Israel ends with the downfall of David's reign. We are reminded how important it is to remember the faults in our past, and the follies of great leaders. Remembering that great people can do terrible things cautions us to be intentional in our actions, to seek the good and look at ourselves through outside eyes. Jesus tells us we need not fear being found wanting.
In John's account of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, where five loaves and two fish feed an assembly of five thousand people, it is a small boy who provides the initial offering. In that, there is a lesson that sometimes large, intractable problems should be viewed through the lens of a child, stripping away Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt, and creepy cynicism to remind us of our first principles.
On this morning, we dedicated an offering of food from our pantries and gardens to the Des Moines Area Religious Council's Ankeny Food Pantry.
As we move on into the expansion of the kingdom of Israel under King David, we read about the celebration that accompanies the arrival in Jerusalem of the ark, and God's Presence. In our month-long food drive, we take particular note of the amount of food that David sacrifices and distributes to the awaiting crowd. Joy at God's presence causes us to share our bounty with others, and the hope of God's presence is that all may be fed.
The new King David rebuilds the monarchy in Israel, rebuilds Israel into a united kingdom, rebuilds the fortress in Jerusalem after leaving his original capitol in Hebron. This is the story of the Bible, that we have the opportunity to build and rebuild, that no defeat is permanent, and only one victory permanent, but that we are called to build and rebuild the world around us.
After 40 days of indecision and standoff between Goliath and the Israelites, David finds that the traditional armor of warfare is too constricting, and prevents action. So he leaves himself vulnerable, and equips himself with the tools he has, and defeats Goliath. In the wake of the shootings at Emanuel AME in Charleston, SC, we are called to confront the Goliath of racism in our lives by shedding all the defenses we have raised against seeing it.
Art: The Tears of Mother Emanuel by John I. Jennings.
Our introduction to King David finds him out of view of the great prophet Samuel. God tells him to keep looking, a message we ought to keep in mind.
The Bible contains many different kinds of stories. In this transition between the Bible as prehistory and the Bible as history, the parental relationship of God to God's children is most evident. What can we learn about our tendency to seek what other people have, and rulers like other people to fight our battles and restore our greatness?
Image from http://www.bible-history.com/maps/kingdom_saul.html
The Holy Trinity is a great mystery. Maybe we can help understand it in relation to ourselves with three questions: What is your name? What is your quest? What is your favorite color?
(pictured, an unladen African Swallow in flight, courtesy of Alan Manson via https://flic.kr/p/rzTZ63, copyleft https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)
Our Pentecost, like the Pentecost of Judaism, is a celebration of God's actions in the world. In our case, it's a reminder that, when we are confused and think that we cannot go on, the Holy Spirit will be there to support us, if only we listen to her voice. For her voice will remind us that we are empowered to help one another and to serve our neighbors and our God, both of whom we love.
The Ascension is a part of the Jesus story we often forget. On this Sunday, we celebrated the penultimate departure of Jesus from his ministry among us on earth. We were reminded of the handoff in his duties from him to us. Just as students are instructed by their teachers and professors for years and then sent into the world, with his departure, we are here, caring for one another and assured of God's confidence in us.
As the Holy Spirit demonstrates that it knows no boundaries, we are called to look at the institutions that empower some people and not others, that oppress some and enrich others. Jesus's life, death, and resurrection were not calls for personal improvement only, but also challenges to systems that deny the full worth of all of God's children.
Today, we recognized the servant leaders and artists in our congregation. As we explore our identity statement, "A welcoming church family exploring progressive Christian theology, caring within and serving beyond," we ask what it means to care within and serve beyond, and why it matters.
The third in a sermon series on our church identity, today Exploring Progressive Christian Theology.
In Jesus's message on the Good Shepherd, he reminds us that the good shepherd does not leave sheep to the mercy of the wolves. We are challenged to protect all of God's people, God's sheep. But sometimes, when searching for a sheep, we'll find a goat. Progressive Christian Theology is all about incorporating these unexpected, smelly, messy goats and reconciling them with our picture of the kingdom, whether they are historical understandings of the Bible that suggest things didn't always happen the way they are mentioned, whether they are things in our lives that demand discussion in God's context, or whether they are strangers we never expected to need or be needed by.
The image referenced, Shepherd with a Large Goat, can be found here: http://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/50386
In the second sermon in our series on our church identity, we again address the topic of welcome.
When we talk about welcome in the church, we often think about greetings and mindset, which are important. But equally important are our actions for creating sanctuary and welcoming the presence of God into our space. For this, we create rituals that attune our minds to the a love of God and neighbor that we may bring with us into the world.
This is the first sermon in our 2015 series on our church identity.
In the week after Easter, we read about the disciple Thomas. As we continue to explore our identity, we see in the early Christian community a person lashing out in grief and remaining one of the disciples. What can this teach us about welcoming difference and individuals in our church?
Mark's story of resurrection ends with fear, silence, and amazement. Can we relate to that feeling in our own lives? The story of resurrection is left for us to tell in our own ways with our own reactions and our own lessons.
What turns the crowd from adoring Jesus to attacking Jesus? Why does he go from being a hero to a goat? Perhaps the realization that he did not represent a restoration to the former political glory of Israel, or the immediate overthrow of Rome (or at least attempt), but for an internal reformation caused people to look to the next great hope, while missing the great offer Jesus was making, to choose the kingdom of God over the empire of violence.
Following on our previous sermons reminding us that we do not know the full story of anything we see, and that we should not be afraid of lifting up our shames for everyone to see, we wonder what that means for us who live with those who transgress against us. Dumbledore shows us how to do it.
Sometimes, we forget the blinders we put on to see the world, making it hard to understand the world the first century Christians were living in. Luckily, fantasy writers sometimes remind us how easy it is to be wooed by the narratives of conventional wisdom and cynicism, so sometimes, we can see the world through the lens of Oberyn Martell.
Romans used the crucifix to remind people of the consequences of opposing the occupation. Fear of the crucifix, and of the ultimate consequences, kept people in line. Jesus sought to invert these crucifixes, making them signs of release and triumph rather than death and defeat. Likewise, we can be trapped by our feelings of shame and fear. Shining light onto the things that make us feel shame let us build bridges with others and move into reconciliation. So, if we feel shame, let us understand why, and admit it, and show love for one another as we accept Jesus's challenge to lift up our cross and find ways to love one another into reconciliation.
Wilderness is something we do not see in the United States much these days, but just as we create the wilderness we do enjoy, we can create our own mental and spiritual wildernesses, and they can be as tempting and dangerous as those filled with animals. We are tempted to think we are all alone, that no one can understand us, that no one wants us, but perhaps we can follow Jesus's example--before he went out to the wilderness, he was told that he was a loved child of God, and this helped him come back out of the wilderness. The same is true for us.
Jesus tells us that seeds of faith may be scattered on the easy path of the road, to be crushed. On the rocky soil of sudden trouble, to fade quickly away. In a patch of thorns, choking it aside with cries of hypocrisy and isolation. But it is in the long-lasting muck of human existence that we find wisdom and transformation.
On a snow-cancelled day, we look to Jesus to help us get past our shame at not being better than we think we are. Your shame is forgiven. Now come out into the world!
There are many messages in the story of Jonah. But, really, how would you feel if asked to preach the message of repentance from the evil ways of deflation in Boston? Maybe just a little anxious and worried? Maybe this book is a message that God wants us to confront the causes of our anxieties and find ways to face our fears, because the outcomes may not be as bad as we imagine (and, at any rate, are almost certainly better than stewing in the belly of a fish).
Jesus's baptism showed us how the Holy Spirit can come upon any one of us. The life of Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us that the Holy Spirit's presence makes the powerful uncomfortable, and that controversy often follows it. In this time when we celebrate a memory of Dr. King that does not recall the controversy, it is important to recognize that prophets are often not recognized when they are living, and that we must love deeply even when we are suspicious about motives and individuals. Recognizing flaws in ourselves and society gives us hope that we can change them.
What is it that makes us feel the presence of God, or the possibility of that presence? How can we create a worship space that encourages us to feel something that leaves us different than when we arrived?
Note: there was a problem with the lapel mic, so the audio is fairly faint.
As we celebrate 12 days of Christmas. Sing! We sing in celebration, and feel emotion, and give ourselves the opportunity to let loose. And when's a better time to wear sequined suspenders?
Keeping Christmas well means keeping the lights burning, even after we think there is darkness. Remember, love, and tell stories.
We celebrate the shortest day of the year by reminding ourselves to pass on the light of Christ and bask in the light that came in the darkness.
The real sermon text is "The Shortest Day" by Susan Cooper.
Sometimes the burden of being perfect is a little much. Let's listen to John's words that you need not be the prophet or the king. You can just be there person in the wilderness, baking cookies.
Mark sets out showing that old words can be re-heard in new places. He reminds us that we may fulfill the prophecies in Isaiah and draw strength from the God whose love is assured. And so can we, in this world where our fear of black men remains a danger to their lives.
We are reminded in this commonly-cited passage that Christianity is a religion that speaks frequently of a judgement in the kingdom of God, even if we leave such judgements up to God. But as we try to build the kingdom of God, we also need to remember what Jesus has told us the kingdom will look like and what those who inherit it will have done: to treat all of God's children as we would treat Jesus.
Deborah's story reminds us that God has called men and women on an equal basis throughout history. For this reason, we try to train our mouths and brains to remember that through the use of inclusive language. We are also reminded that the challenges laid before God's servants in earlier eras are no less than those laid before us as we try to bring about the kingdom of God.
We talk about exploring Progressive Christian Theology every week in Ankeny UCC. What does that mean? What does that look like? It looks like expanding the kingdom of God and looking for expansive views of forgiveness and love even when we could find ways to shut the door on others.
note: I'm a little unfair to fundamentalist and unitarian interpretations of scripture here, for the sake of contrast.
Jesus was an interpreter of Hebrew scriptures in the tradition of sages and scholars of the past. His innovation was to interpret those scriptures through a lens of love, setting an example for us all to follow.
In this sermon, I somewhat anachronistically speak for Hillel's opinion on God's love. It was an overstatement on my part.
God assures Moses that God's presence will travel with Israel, but challenges him by refusing to manifest in their presence. How, then, could Israel prove that they were God's chosen? God shows moses by passing through and allowing Moses to see his backside, and how the world had changed in God's wake. So it is with us.
Preached in Ankeny UCC on October 19, 2014
Why must we worship God, love God with all our hearts? God puts us in the midst of the greatest story ever told, the story of creation. When we forget God, we too often mistake the world, and the people and things in it, as ours to do with as we please.
The installation of a new minister is a strange time in the life of every church. Full of joy, but also of apprehension at the task before us in the world.
Philippians gives us insight into Paul's beliefs about the nature of Christ for the continuing community of Christ's followers. Jesus found his unique nature in community with other humans. Jesus's divinity and humanity were both located in relation to other humans. How do we keep relating and committing to one another, so we can find the divine and human in our lives?
It is sometimes hard to accept people who come late to the project of bringing about change. Those who have been working for a long time can resent people who join late. At the same time, people who did not join early sometimes feel it is too late to make a difference. We even paint pictures of ourselves that make it different to admit change is necessary. Jesus tells us that the reward is the same for all people and that no one is beyond transformation. So as we look at the cycle of domestic abuse, know that admitting the transformational power of the holy spirit is difficult, and takes work, but makes all things possible.
If you are just tuning in for the first time, stick with the sermon. It starts slowly.
Paul tells those who are strong in faith not to judge those whose faith is weaker, because everything that is done is for God. So, if you are afraid that you aren't good enough to be in church, come and talk about it. We probably don't think we are, either.
Jesus gives us incredible power to choose the life we will live forever. We have the power to define our community. But with that comes the responsibility to forgive extravagantly and to find loving ways to resolve injuries done to one another.
We often question who we are to demand change and fight injustice. Moses wondered, too, and God reminded him that he was the loved child of the Great I Am, who was and is and ever will be.
After Joseph's Pharaoh dies, the Hebrews are left vulnerable to the growing paranoia of the new Pharaoh. The inability to recognize the realties and listen to dissent leads Pharaoh to overlook the quiet resistance his daughter offers in her decision to shelter Moses in his house. Where do we unintentionally block out dissent, or fear that our voices aren't going to be heard? As a church family, how do we live with dissent and disagreement while still moving in the direction that Jesus leads us?
Preached August 24, 2014 by Rev. Nathan Willard in Ankeny UCC
We frequently think of Joseph (he of the dreamcoat) forgiving his brothers. But he also unquestionably used the power of the state first to terrorize them and then to benefit them. The situation in Ferguson, Missouri, reminds us that state power may be misused, and it is our job to recognize that the power we have must not be used solely to help our blood siblings, but all of God's children.
Errata: Pastor Nathan erroneously refers to Rebekah as the wife of Jacob in this sermon, instead of Rachel. Rebekah is, of course, Jacob's mother.
Transformation comes from struggle. In this week's sermon, Pastor Nathan looks at the struggle of Jacob, and our own empathy with Joseph's brothers' desire to put him in his place in light of his recent weekend at a fraternity leadership conference.
We get a lot of models of marriage in the Bible. What lessons do we learn from the marriages between Jacob and Leah and Jacob and Rachel? Are they models to follow, or is the model of Isaac and Rebekah better? Why do we tell both of these stories?
What makes a place sacred? We tell stories to explain the importance of certain places in our lives. But we, too, have the ability to make places sacred, especially for refugees like Jacob, far from home, faced only with the welcome of stones.
Esau and Jacob both have narratives that lead them into their conflict. How do we separate out our own aggrieved feelings from our understanding of the world around us?
Frozen follows a pattern for a good reason. We like to think we know how the stories end. It brings us comfort. But the writers of Frozen, understanding that, choose at the last minute to subvert our expectations. How they tell the story matters for what we are to take away from it. So, too, with the story of Rebekah in Genesis. Her story is told in a way that emphasizes the choice she had. This story reminds us that we can choose to tell the stories of our lives in different ways. Do we tell them so that people are allowed to be people? or do we reduce them to bit players in somebody else's story?
More than anything else, the ongoing recreation in the the Holy Trinity and the story of the creation call upon us to ask questions, to explore meaning, and to find truth all around us. But those things can only happen in community with one another. As God is in three persons, so too must our communities have a variety of voices searching for answers to our unending questions.
We've been used to seeing church look like, well, church. But Pentecost reminds us that the gift of tongues to the disciples was for the purpose of communicating with people who don't speak church.
The misogynist shootings in Santa Barbara leave us questioning whether we know how to find the divinity in all people.
Paul's unknown God reminds us on Memorial Day of the unknown soldiers who died in all wars at all times. How may we build the kingdom of God, so that we can end war forever?
This is the true institution of communion--the bread of recognition. When we dine with the disciples and see the stranger who had joined them on the road revealed as Jesus, we see that the resurrection means we may find Jesus around us wherever we love and welcome one another.
To see Thomas defined by this one rebuke by Jesus, offered for our benefit, denies him his whole story. How often have we been judged by our bad reactions in a moment of crisis, or judged others for theirs? What stories are we missing?
Mary, Peter and the Beloved Disciple all run to the resurrection. What compels us to rush out and do the work we need to do in the world? What compels us to run beyond our endurance? What do we need to do to live the resurrection?
Who are the disciples in the story of Palm Sunday? We know the crowds will turn by the end of the week, but those who remain are those who do the necessary and unglamorous work that needs to be done.
Mary and Martha suffered from the shock of Jesus's seeming failure to save their brother Lazarus. How do they handle the loss? Do we see ourselves in their reactions? We experience sorrow at both the physical loss of our loved ones and at the loss of the person we once knew but who no longer is. What does resurrection look like for those people? We do not know what Lazarus's resurrected life looked like, but we know that there was a resurrection. Can we accept the resurrections in our own lives?
Jesus's temptation is to do everything himself and avoid the messy work of people. We have the same temptation, to go alone rather than building a team. We have the same temptation to have complete control and avoid the conversation, but we cannot be there alone.
Jesus's transformation leads the way for us, the hope that we, like Elijah, Moses and Jesus, may find new life. So how does that work with the transfiguration?
Remember, an eye for an eye is a restriction on escalation. It is to remind us that no matter how angry we are, there are limits to the punishments people deserve. Jesus takes this message a step further to remind that no one deserves violence.
It's easy to get worn down in churches and non-profits by the pain of details, and not be refreshed in the mission of the church. This same thing happened in Corinth. For us, we can connect our lives to the narrative of God's creation. We are not Apollos's. We are not Paul's. We are God's.
What does it mean to show God's love in this time and place? What are the implications of the discoveries of science for our service to others? We're not sure, but let's ask some questions!
Preached February 9, 2014 in Ankeny UCC
How can we keep ourselves connected to one another, understanding how to be kind to those who are suffering, to see love in action? What lessons do Micah's attacks on the exploiting class offer to us today?
Jesus calls us all in our own languages, to make our lives into something even greater. James and John and Andrew were called to expand their fishing and fish for people. We, too, are called to use our gifts not just for our lives in the world, but to help other people be better. How are you called?
On this Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday, we ask ourselves how we continue to gain from oppression. We may not cause it, and we may not know it, and that is our privilege. So we are challenged to look and see, and refuse to walk away.
Jesus submits to John's baptism, despite being greater than John. What do we have to learn from others who may know more than we do? What was Jesus doing and thinking when he comes to John? Are there people who serve similar roles in our lives? Do we serve that role for others?
What does it mean that Jesus is the light of the world? In the mystery of John's prologue, we see a world where poetry and imagery reaches beyond our experience of the mundane world to pull us up.
The challenge for us as Christians is to feel the presence of God that we felt on Christmas Eve not only in the Christmas season, but throughout the year. How do we bring that miracle of communion with God with us even through our struggles in July and August? What does it mean to feel the Christmas Presence all the year round?
Jesus's birth story reminds us of our opportunity, every day, to be better than we could be, better than we ought to be, more welcoming, more loving, less afraid. Can we take up the challenge?
Ahaz seeks comfort from his prophet Isaiah. Isaiah provides the reassuring messages that Ahaz's enemies will be destroyed, but as we look back on further events, we see that there is no peace in violent destruction. Can we look forward to a life built on God's love, rather than on the hope of violence?
Where do we find our comfort and value? Do we look to the palaces of the mighty, or to the rough imperfections of the prophets? Where do we find our truth today? In the approval of those with higher status, or in the rough reality of our lives?
John the Baptist’s life in the margins, among a marginal people, and their vision for the future calls us to wonder where the unheard voices in our own lives might be. What drives people to the wilderness, and how can we bring them back in?
What does Isaiah's exhortation mean for us here in Ankeny? How do we spread the light of the Lord among us?