Houston Mennonite Church: Recent Episodes
Houston Mennonite Church
Weekly services and occasional extended discussion from Houston Mennonite Church in Houston, Texas, USA
Thank you to Dr. Claude Jager-Rubinson for preaching today. Claude is a member of Houston Mennonite Church and an Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Houston Downtown.
Scripture Reading
Romans 8:6-11
Hymn
Jesus Calls Us (VT #30)
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Opening our lives to the way of Jesus brings restored sight, and creates a new life in us.
Scripture Reading
John 9:1-41
Hymn
Praise to the Lord the Almighty (VT #88)
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The story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well is a stark contrast to the story of Nicodemus.
Scripture Reading
Genesis 12:1-4a; John 3:1-17
Hymn
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah (VT #606)
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Jesus, you have come to put the world right, to give life to the dead, and to call into existence a people born from above.
Scripture Reading
Genesis 12:1-4a; John 3:1-17
Hymn
Come What May (VT #768)
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Lent is a season of testing. Testing is the theme of the Genesis and Matthew texts. The 40 days of Lent correspond to Jesus's 40 days of testing in the wilderness. Two questions lie at the heart of our testing: What do we really want? Who are we?
Scripture Reading
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Matthew 4:1-11
Hymn
You Shall go Out with Joy (VT #847)
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What is the light I follow as I seek truth about ultimate things? Only Jesus? Where else do I turn for enlightenment?
Scripture Reading
Matthew 17:1-9
Hymn
Jesus on the Mountain Peak (VT #301)
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A fresh look at the Beatitudes
Scripture Reading
Matthew 5:1-12
Hymn
All people that on Earth do Dwell (VT #5)
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The message of God's Reign calls for wholehearted allegiance and sometimes severing of old relationships and securities. It puts people to following the way of Jesus, the one whose person and ministry embody God's Reign.
Scripture Reading
Matthew 4:12-23
Hymn
I Bind My Heart This Tide (VT#556)
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Spiritual insight is a gift. Discovering one's true identity and purpose brings a healing and joy that cannot be contained as well as the painful realization of brokenness.
Scripture Reading
Isaiah 49:1-7
Hymn
Come and Fill Our Hearts (VT #52)
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The light of Jesus Christ is a bright beacon for humankind, a light shining in the darkness and a way into a bright future for all of creation.
Scripture Reading
Ephesians 3:1-12 and Matthew 2:1-12
Hymn
In the Beginning (VT #270)
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As the advent season continues, we are invited to participate in the restoration process. We will also focus on Jesus’ escape to Egypt as a refugee.
Scripture Reading
Isaiah 63:7-9 and Matthew 2:13-23
Hymn
Beautiful Things (VT #551)
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Scripture Reading
Luke 2:1-20 and John 1:1-18
Hymn
Joy to the World (VT #240)
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In the midst of our fears, God promises that he is with us; "Do not be afraid!"
Scripture Reading
Isaiah 7:10-16; Matthew 1:18-25
Hymn
Joy to the World (VT #240)
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God accompanies us on our imperfect journey while we wait and work for the flowering of justice, peace and love. The presence of God's love, mercy, forgiveness, and presence make the wait bearable and worth it.
Scripture Reading
Matthew 1:18-25
Hymn
Beautiful Things (VT #551)
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When restoration is needed for so many things, how do we live with hope and expectation, as a restored people?
Scripture Readings
Colossian Isaiah 40:1-11 and Matthew 24:36-44
Hymn
Beautiful Things (VT #551)
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The reign of Christ was not a campaign intended to secure national borders. His was not a movement to consolidate power and privilege and wealth. Quite the opposite.
Scripture Readings
Colossian 1:11-20 and Luke 23:33-43
Hymn
God of the Bible
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Guest Lecturer Dr. Katharine Jager introduces us to the Lollard Movement, a Christian movement during the Medieval Period. The Lollards followed the teachings of John Wycliffe. Dr. Jager takes us through their formation through to their martyrdom.
Dr. Jager is a member of Houston Mennonite Church and an Associate Professor of English in the College of Humanities & Social Sciences at University of Houston Downtown. She is a poet and medieval scholar.
Scripture
Romans 12:2 and First John 2:15-17
Hymn
I Am That Great and Fiery Force (VT 663)
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"One Last Time," which is the conversation between Washington and Hamilton about Washington's decision to not run for a third term. Some of the lyrics are:
One last time -- the people will hear from me -- one last time -- and if we get this right -- we're gonna teach 'em how to say goodbye - You and I
If I say goodbye - the nation learns to move on - It out lives me when I'm gone.
Scripture Readings (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Hymn
Rain Down (VT #703)
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What to do when you're near the finish line but the road surprised you with one... last... turn...
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Hymn
Guide my feet (VT #816)
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Bill Ogden is a retired lawyer. (He says he's a "recovering" lawyer.) Bill is currently working with Memorial Assistance Ministries (MAM) after 45 years of practicing law in Houston. Before retiring from law practice in September 2019, Bill was a job coach volunteer at MAM for 6 years. He now serves as the staff liaison between MAM and its 35 member congregations. He loves his "encore career," working with people of different faiths in a common cause to support the families in need within our community.
Scripture Readings (The Inclusive Bible)
Mark 12:28-34
- Note: The Inclusive Bible is not available online
Hymn
The Blessing
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For whom is there a place at the table? To whom is an invitation sent? invite the poor. Invite the differently abled. The lame. The blind. Invite the people who have no place in society and no way to repay your hospitality. Jesus does not say: everyone has a place at God's table -- though we know this to be true. Instead, Jesus specifically lists those whom society has marginalized, ostracized, and thrown away.
Scripture (The Inclusive Bible)
Luke 14:1, 7-14 & Hebrews 13:1-2
- Note: The Inclusive Bible is not available online.
Hymn
Jesus Entered Egypt (VT 279)
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During difficult times, perseverance on the journey of faith calls for patience, vigilance, discipline, trust, life-sustaining habits, and powerful love.
Scripture Readings (The Inclusive Bible)
2 Timothy 1:1-14
- Note: The Inclusive Bible is not available online
Hymn
I Know Not Why God's Wonderous (VT 590)
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
According to Jesus, people not only are BLESSED, but also BEAR A BLESSING. They are the salt of the earth. They bless us in a way that preserves us, and seasons us, and heals us. So we see what God's kingdom is like. So we may be MOVED to take up the good adventure of following Christ.
Scripture Reading (The Inclusive Bible)
Matthew 5:1-12
*Note: The Inclusive Bible is not online
Hymn
Need Thee Every Hour (HWB 555)
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The angry God in Exodus 32 wants to punish sinners. In Luke 15 Jesus is described as welcoming sinners. How do we reconcile these images of the divine?
Scripture Readings (The Inclusive Bible)
Luke 15:1-10; Exodus 32:7-14
- Note: The Inclusive Bible is not available online
Hymn
Come Away (VT #9)
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What does it look like to walk in the way of Jesus?
Scripture Readings (The Inclusive Bible)
Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Luke 14:25-33
- Note: The Inclusive Bible is not available online
Hymn
Could It Be The God Is Singing
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
In Luke's gospel Jesus is always going to or coming from a meal and often the meal is with people he should not be sitting down to eat with, according to his critics. It is a lesson about humility.
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
None This Week
Hymn
I'm Gonna Eat at the Welcome Table
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Jesus is all about our unbending. Our standing tall. Our finding our voices, so that we can praise the God who facilitates and celebrates our freedom.
Scripture Readings (The Inclusive Bible)
Luke 13:10-17
(Note: This translation is not available online.)
Hymn
New Earth, Heavens New (VT #377)
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Because we are whole people, called to gratitude and called to action, we will encounter forces on our journey that are not life affirming. God stands against such injustice, and so do we because we are a whole people who follow the way of righteousness, the way of Jesus.
Scripture Readings (The Inclusive Bible)
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
(Note: This translation is not available online.)
Hymn
Oh, for a Thousand Tongues
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God's dream comes true when we recognize that there exists no daylight between us. Imagine, if you will, with God, a giant circle of compassion, the kind of circle that would keep us inching ourselves closer to the margins so that the margins themselves would be erased.
Scripture Reading (The Inclusive Bible)
Matthew 15:21-28
(Note: The Inclusive Bible is not available online.)
Hymn
God, Be the Love (VT #43)
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Mateo is a student at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana double-majoring in studio art, Japanese Language, and Linguistics. He was born in Guatemala City and attended high school in Costa Rico before coming to Earlham. Mateo has a passion for the intersection of queer and migrant identities and would like to be a middle school teacher.
Scripture Readings (The Inclusive Bible)
Exodus 35:30-35
(Note: This translation is not available online.)
Hymn
My Life Flows On (VT #605)
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Life in Christ makes us fully alive! When we discover the Christ life, we can put things in perspective. We are taught by Jesus how to respond to the challenges of life. Life in Christ gives us a place to be planted, a place to grow, a place to thrive.
Scripture Readings (The Inclusive Bible)
Luke 11:1-13 (The Inclusive Bible)
(Note: This translation is not available online.)
Hymn
The Earth is Yours
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Action or contemplation? Service or worship? Hospitality or prayer? For as long as the church has existed, we’ve debated these dichotomies. Which is more important: kneeling at the altar, or mopping the church floors? What we should prioritize? How should we find a good balance between the mystical and the practical?
Scripture (The Inclusive Bible)
Luke 10:36-42
(Note: This translation is not available online.)
Hymn
Longing for Light (VT #715)
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The people of God are called to act with love that overcomes drawn boundaries, love that expects no reward, and love that recognizes one human community. Love is action, not just an idea about love and mercy. We are called to be good Samaritans to the world that has plenty of folks who have fallen victim to those who would rob them of their well-being and dignity.
Scripture (The Inclusive Bible)
Luke 10:25-37
(Note: This translation is not available online.)
Hymn
Let Us Build a House (VT #36)
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What does it mean to be free?
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
Acts 16:16-34
John 8:36
Hymn
God of Grace and God of Glory (VT 716)
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Paul's vision for Christian freedom goes beyond the self-created, individualist concept of freedom and speaks to the freedom we find on the Christian journey with Christian community where we are free to love, serve, and produce the fruits of the Spirit.
Scripture Readings (ESV)
Galatians 5:1
Galatians 5:13-25
John 13:1-5
Hymn
Jesus, Be The Center (VT #584)
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Finding our way to wholeness and to our true identity as loved and forgiven and whole human beings is not always an easy journey, nevertheless, it is what we are called to in Christ.
Scripture Reading
Galatians 3:23-29
Hymn
Summoned by the God Who Made Us (VT 1)
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On this Trinity Sunday, we wonder at the mystery of the One who created us, redeemed our lives through the life and death of Jesus Christ, and sustains us in the comfort and power of the Holy Spirit.
Scripture (The Message)
Romans 5:1-5
Hymn
There's Nothing Worth More, VT 369
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If we only knew then what we know now would we have chosen to follow the resurrected god?
Scripture Reading (NRSV)
Acts 2:1-21
Hymn
Holy Spirit, Come with Power (VT #57)
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Scripture Reading (NRSV)
Isaiah 5:1-7
Hymn
Be Thou My Vision
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Hospitality, welcoming others, especially those who are different from me, is a key virtue as I seek to follow the way of Jesus and take part in the community of faith.
Scripture Reading (NRSV)
Acts 16:1-15
Hymn
You Are Good
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Grounded in God awareness and following the way of Jesus, the Christian community is created and called to be ambassadors for peace and reconciliation in the world.
Scripture Reading (NRSV)
Acts 11:1-18
Hymn
When Love is Found VT #524
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What can the story of Tabitha, a disciple of Jesus, tell us about body autonomy and control in light of recent news.
Scripture Reading (NRSV)
Romans 15:7-13
Hymn
Here in this Place (VT 10)
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Scripture (NRSV)
John 21:1-19
Hymn
Come, Christians, Join to Sing
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
The Swiss Reformation began with sausage. Scripture Reading (NRSV)
Luke 24:28-32
Hymn
Low in the Grave He Lay
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Jesus is alive and at work in the world. This gives me hope... no matter what we hold in our hands!
Scripture Readings (NLT)
Isaiah 25:6-9
Luke 24:1-12
Hymn
Forever
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Was Simon of Cyrene in the wrong place or the right place? And was of us? Are we in the wrong place or the right place?
Scripture Reading (NRSV)
Luke 23:26-56
Hymn
Fairest Lord Jesus
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We come from dust and we go to dust.
Scripture Reading (NRSV)
John 12:1-8
Hymn
Gentle Shepherd, Come And Lead Us
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Pastor LaTayna considers God and reads a letter in the aftermath of a recent death.
Scripture Reading (J.B. Phillips)
Luke 15:11-32
Hymn
Here in Your Presence
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
A life interrupted by difficulty or tragedy. Have we really caused it? Sermon by Chaplain William Cork
Scripture (The Message)
Luke 13:1-9
Hymn (Sung by congregation)
Here In This Place
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Jerusalem turned away from safety. Many of us do.
Transcript
Scripture
Luke 13:31-35
Hymn
Be Still And Know That I am God
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Our text this morning is from Luke the 13th Chapter, Verses 31 through 35. Now we read the NIV version this morning, but I wanted to read it also from The Message because sometimes it provides us with a fresh perspective.
"Just then some Pharisees came up and said, Run for your life, Herod's on the hunt and he's out to kill you. Jesus said, tell that fox, I've no time for him today. Today and tomorrow, I'm busy clearing out the demons and healing the sick. The third day I'm wrapping things up. Besides, it's not proper for a prophet to come to a bad end outside Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killer of Prophets, abusers of the messengers of God, how often I've longed to gather your children, gather your children like a hen, her brood safe under her wings, but you refused and turned away. And now it's too late. You won't see me again until the day you say bless it is he who comes in the name of the Lord."
This is a really interesting text here, because we see it begins with Herod, who had already played executioner to the prophetic John the Baptist, who, remember, is Jesus's cousin. You know, I wonder if they played together as children. They got into mischief making together. But what we know from the Gospels is that John is the one who baptized Jesus at the Jordan. And we see this Spirit descending like a dove, right? So it was an incredibly holy moment that the gospel writers chose to record.
And I imagine that hearing, just hearing the name Herod, is a source of grief for Jesus. That's the man who killed my cousin. And I imagine, perhaps for Jesus, and perhaps for his disciples, it is also a source of deep fear. This man had no problem killing your prophetic cousin, and he has no problem killing you too.
Now, here we come to the Pharisees. I had to look this up [from] back in my childhood days, but there's a song by Brian Howard called, I Just Want to Be a Sheep. Now, some of you may have grown up singing this song... I see you, Bill.
It's summer camp, or VBS. And it is a catchy tune.
I just want to be a sheet Bad, bad, bad, bad, right? And we go on.
It's very, it's very catchy. However, it is an extremely problematic song when you look at it theologically, because one of the many problematic lines is, "I don't want to be a Pharisee. I don't want to be a Pharisee because they're not fair."
You see, a bit of a stretch, Brian Howard. And please don't sing this song with your children. That [song] also talks about Canaanites and it's just not a very good song to teach your children. We can find more uses of Bad in another song.
But I note this because one of my seminary professors, Dr. Amy Jo Levine and her colleague, Marc Zvi Brettler, who's at Duke University, note in the Jewish annotated New Testament that the Gospels presentation of Pharisees is puzzling, inconsistent, and complex. So, translation: You cannot paint Pharisees in a broad stroke, just like you can't paint anyone in a broad stroke, right? Especially in a time and context that is thousands of years before you lived.
Luke is distinguishing among the Pharisees by adding that some Pharisees... to the text, some Pharisees told him, and what did they say to him? These are not the "I'm going to kill you Pharisees," because they're warning Jesus, Herod is going to kill you. So, in this text, we see the Pharisees are actually, perhaps, sort of on Jesus's side, or at the very least, they don't want to see this man being killed. They may not believe that he is the Messiah, but they also don't want him dead.
Jesus knew that God was doing a new thing, something that surely must have been on his mind as he looked toward Jerusalem in this text. And the tenderness and ache in Jesus's words as he laments is very evident. How I have long to gather you as a hen gathers her chicks.
When I was doing the research for my book, Mother God, I was watching videos of hens fighting snakes or something for their chicks. And they're really adorable... But they're also really protective. If you've ever been on a farm or seen chickens, they will be come very fierce and protect their young. And so I think about that when I think of this passage as well.
Daniel Deffenbaugh notes in Feasting on The Word, commentary that the Hebrew word in Genesis 1:2, when God creates, and the spirit is hovering over the deep face of the waters? That word is much more similar to the Greek word here of how I've long to gather you under my wings, so that brooding, that hovering over the face of the waters is similar to this "brooding" in Greek that's Jesus's use.
So the eagle is a symbol of Imperial Rome. And it's also a symbol of our United States of America, no less the image of Herod the Fox, and he really has no favorable image, favorable place in Jesus experience as he journeys to Jerusalem, it is more likely to say that the eagle and the fox [have] more in common than the than the hen.
What does this all mean for us today? I am very aware that we are living in a tumultuous time, although have we never not lived in a tumultuous time is perhaps a better question.
But with the world events in the Ukrainian and Russian politics, I have a unique insight because my husband, John, some of you know, is an ordin-- is about to be... How do I say this correctly? Good, I'll get this right for you, babe. He's going to be note ordained... He's going to become a member of the Antiochian Orthodox Church. Somebody's going to tell me how to say this later; I'm sure my husband will.
But he has a unique perspective on what's going on in Ukraine and Russia, because the Ukrainian Orthodox Church recently had a major, major schism with the Russian Orthodox Church. And those of us in Western Christianity are not as familiar with that, because it's just not on our radar. But it was a huge, huge schism, and my husband, provide me with all these updates on what's going on within the churches, because that's a big deal.
So the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is under the umbrella of the Moscow Church, which is under the umbrella of the Russian Orthodox Church, has said to the the Moscow church, we are being bombed our churches, our people, and our families are being bombed, and you need to do something. And their response is, you know, too bad. I mean, I'm sure it's more like, there are a lot of complicated issues on both sides of the... of this. And we are very aware and sending our prayers, thoughts and prayers to you as you were being bombed.
And that's far away, but we don't have to think very far when I think of the families and children who identify as trans who say, we are being bombed by legislation and government leaders who want to say that we... you have to be a mandatory reporter and report if our children are trans. I'm a clergy member and many of you out there are teachers. We are all mandatory reporters and under this law, we would be required to report any child who is transitioning or questioning their gender or sexuality as "child abuse." And I want to sit in this stand on this carpet and say that is so wrong and against the teachings of Jesus, who we say that we want to follow here at Houston Mennonite Church. We cannot say I'm sorry, this is a complicated issue. I'm going to wash my hands of this when it affects our children, it affects our families, and ultimately, it affects ourselves. Because unless we see how our trans and non binary siblings are very much a part of who we are, then we are isolating and inoculating ourselves when we cannot do that, because this is not what Jesus did and this is not who Jesus calls us to be as Christians today.
How long to gather your children, gather your children like a hen, her brood safe under her wings, but you refused and turned away. Sometimes I think this passage is for perhaps the legislators or government leaders who make these very cruel laws. But sometimes I think this passage is for us who say, I will... do I have the courage to stand up for the least of these the way Jesus would?
Will you be gathered under Jesus's protective hen wings who says, "You have to stand up, you have to choose life and life abundant and stop with this death dealing theology because it is not in my name."
"But now it is too late, you won't see me again until the day you say bless it is he who comes in the name of the Lord..." which is, of course, a preview for Palm Sunday, which is a bit of a ways away.
And I think it's interesting that the lectionary places this text so far out in lift for the second Sunday, it gives us time to think, what does it mean for us to journey to Jerusalem in this period of grief? What does it mean for us to be in grief now. I'm standing here preaching this morning, because LaTonya has lost her father and she needs the space and time to grieve that deep loss.
And I know that many of you are also facing loss, and parents who are sick and dying.
And that is all so incredibly hard. It's hard enough in a world before 2020. But in the world after that, we're in a pandemic, and we're grieving.
And we feel so alone. And so if you feel that this morning, I just want to tell you that you are not alone, that not only do your siblings here at HMC see you and want to hear you and care for you, but that God and Jesus long to gather you as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.
And I pray that we as a church will also act as a gathering force, in justice in love and peace.
Until we are face to face with our Creator. Church, may it be so Amen.
The Bible mentions veils often and removing them. So, what happens if you remove yours?
Guest Speaker: Reverend Luther Young
Scripture Reading (NRSV)
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Hymn
I Have Decided To Follow Jesus
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Two Chaplains--Bill Cork and Teresa Kim Pecinovsky--talk about the transfiguration in the light of their work caring for the sick and dying.
Scripture Reading (NIV)
Luke 9:28-36
Hymn
How Great Thou Art
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What is that moment when we transform our whole selves. Guest speaker Tammy Coia takes us through moments of the Bible and our lives when we transform.
Scripture Reading (NRSV)
Mark 1:16-20
Hymn
Help Us to Help Each Other
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Can one have an enemy and love them? What does that mean and dare we be brave enough to do it?
Scripture Reading (NRSV)
Luke 6:27-36
Hymn
Oceans
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
What does it truly mean to hear God's Call? Chaplain William "Bill" Cork explains
Scripture Readings (NIV)
Isaiah 6:1-8
Luke 5:1-11
What is Holy Discomfort and why must we lean into it fearlessly?
Special Guest: Sana DelCorazon
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
John 21:1-17
2 Corinthians 5:16-18
Romans 12:1-2
Hymn
Jesus Calls Us
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Reverend Teresa Kim Pecinovsky brings us to the dramatic scene of Isaiah 61 and Jesus's confrontation in the synagogue, where he proclaimed he fulfilled the scripture and that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to be filled with Holy Spirit? How can we use that to work toward justice and bring about the true Jubilee.
Transcript (Text)
Transcript (PDF)
Scripture Reading (NIV)
Luke 4:14-21
Hymn
Sing A New World Into Being
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Filled with the Spirit
Reverend Teresa Kim Pecinovsky
Houston Mennonite Church
January 23, 2022
Good morning, church. It is good to see you here in person, and it is good to be with you online as well. Will you please join me in a word of prayer? Lord God, we thank you for this day we thank you for the ability to gather in person and virtually. We pray that we would hear your message this morning above all else. In Christ our Lord’s name we pray, amen.
As I prepared for today’s sermon I was looking at the lectionary text for today, the third Sunday after Epiphany. And I usually like to focus on one, maybe two texts when I’m preaching--— but as soon I saw the text from Luke 14 I knew immediately this was the text I wanted to preach on. Because Jesus is at the precipice of his ministry and if we go back just a few chapters in three, and two, and one, we find a theme already occurring.
In chapter 1 we remember Zachariah in the temple, receiving this unbelievable word from an angel: “Your wife Elizabeth, who is far beyond childbearing years, will give birth to child, a child we are told in verse 15, “will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth.”
That same Holy Spirit gives Elizabeth a prophetic word when she sees her cousin Mary from a distance, the unmarried teenager whose life had already been upended by another prophecy. Already in chapter one we see the theme of the Holy Spirit creating prophets out of ordinary people, a theme that continues into chapter two with the prophets Anna and Simeon who praise God when they meet the infant Jesus in the temple.
And we see Jesus himself as he becomes an adolescent, as he goes with his parents to Jerusalem and unknowingly—impossibly— forgetting about time and schedules and stays behind as his parents are frantically looking for him, because, my friends there is no Amber Alert system in the city of Jerusalem.
And as he becomes a young man we see Jesus, being baptized by his cousin John, that same cousin who was filled with the Holy Spirit before he was born. And we see this amazing miraculous scene where the Holy spirit comes down and alights on him in bodily form as a dove.
We see Jesus, led by that same Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted,
Jesus rebuking the devil through the power of that same Spirit, and
Jesus, FILLED with the Holy Spirit,
returning to Galilee to preach and teach in the synagogues.
And then we see Jesus is in his hometown of Nazareth and he is handed the scroll of Isaiah 61 and reads it aloud in the synagogue as he had been taught as was doing himself now. And when he reads from Isaiah he says, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim the release of the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of our Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and he sat down. And the eyes of all of the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Now those of us who are familiar with this story knows that this is quite the cliffhanger for our lectionary reading. If we weren’t familiar with this story we might think this is a nostalgic recounting of Luke of Jesus learning to become a temple leader in his local synagogue, being praised by his neighbors and community members who had known him since he was a little boy in his father’s carpenter shop. But if we read on just another verse beyond the lectionary reading we see that the story takes a very dramatic and violent turn, and this is the place in the unforeseen future that reminds us— that reminds me— that just over a week ago, about 265 miles northwest of us in Colleyville, of the 11 hour hostage crisis with our Jewish siblings at Congregation Beth Israel was occurring when they were observing the Sabbath. And lest you think that I am about to find a theological bent that interprets this passage as the “bad guy” Jews enacting violence against Jesus—I want to stop you right there. Because that is exactly the kind of antisemitic theological thinking that continues to wreak havoc and harm upon our Jewish community, over and over again. Jesus prepared for his ministry— he, we see over and over again in Luke— within the temple as a faithful, young, Jewish man, and we have to look through his story though historical Jewish lens to understand him, to understand his story, and to understand what the gospel writers were doing in their books.
And beyond that, as people of Houston Mennonite Church, the “Church of the Sermon on the Mount,” we are called to be peacemakers, and sometimes— oftentimes— that means we have to be moved by our understanding of Scripture and our world. We have to be MOVED in order to be uncomfortable enough to take risks. And so, my beloved HMC family, I want to take a risk and talk about this passage in Isaiah that Jesus quotes from. He’s quoting from Isaiah 61 verse two, “To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,” but leaves out the second portion of verse two that says, “And the day of vengeance of our God.”
Now we don’t know if Jesus himself left out this part or if it was a choice that Luke made in order to continue his theme that we see throughout his gospel that Jesus’ life and ministry was concentrated on the poor, the oppressed, the sick, the women, the children, and all those who were cast aside in their society.
Luke is sometimes referred to as the favorite gospel of the social justice movement because his theme of Jesus siding with the oppressed is so clearly laid out throughout the entire book. But we would be remiss to not note that Jesus or Luke or perhaps both, are emphasizing certain parts of scripture because that is what we all do. There is no such thing as “just reading the Bible.” Everyone interprets the Bible. And here at HMC we interpret the Bible in a larger story of God’s work in the world and we see The Sermon on the Mount and Jesus’ life and ministry as clarion calls for us to continue the prophetic call from the prophet Isaiah, to do justice, to love mercy, and to humbly walk before our God.
But Jesus doesn’t just finish with reading Isaiah in the temple. He himself had to give a word to give an interpretation to the synagogue community. And so, he sits down with the eyes of everyone in the synagogue upon him and he says, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Professor Elisabeth Johnson tells us that Jesus is likely referring to “the year of the Lord’s favor” as the year of Jubilee, from Leviticus 25, a year where outstanding debts would be forgiven, where enslaved people would be liberated, where property would be returned to its owners and even where the land itself would rest from producing. But there is very little evidence that shows that the people of Israel actually lived out this radical year of Jubilee. But it’s not that difficult for us, even today, to imagine such a resistance to this sort of anti-capitalist year, is it?
When those of us who are saddled with student debt look forward to the fulfillment of promises made by government leaders of forgiveness of student debt, only to be disappointed over and over again and frustrated by those who posit that, “I had to pay off all of my student loan debts and I will not benefit from this, so neither should you.”
It is not hard for us to imagine the kind of opposition that people would have to freeing debt and leveling and economic playing field just a little bit, when all we have to do is look at the fact that the child tax credit couldn’t be renewed and our country a form of legislation that slashed child poverty cut in half when it was enacted. It is not hard for us to imagine that setting free enslaved people, that seeing our siblings with brown and black skin as just as human as us would be an obstacle when we have the former Senate minorty leader telling us that Black Americans are not the same as white Americans when it comes to voting.
And what The Year of Jubilee had evolved into is this radical eschatological (that’s a fancy word we learn in seminary)—beyond-this world-hope. But Jesus tells us,
“I. Bring. The Year. of Jubilee.
I bring good news to the poor—
I bring released to the captives—
I bring recovery of sight to the blind—
I bring freedom to the oppressed—
I proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And when we continue to move and transition to a new direction in our personal lives in our congregational life, in our communities, and in our country we are reminded that it is not only Jesus who is called by the Holy Spirit. It is not only Jesus who is called to bring good news.
Lately, some of the people who have been bringing good news to me who have been uncovering my hidden biases and prejudice and they have been the amazing disability activists that I’m following on social media. In the midst of almost three years of a worldwide pandemic the disabled community has taught me over and over again how much I am privileged, how much that even with recent chronic illness diagnosis and with a history of mental health diagnoses I still benefit tremendously as someone who is educated, as someone who is employed with good healthcare benefits, and someone who doesn’t have to worry if I can find a competent and compassionate physician. Yes, I worry about our children, especially when our five-year-old goes to preschool, but I actually have the privilege to make that decision, where so many families have been in a terrifying limbo these past three years because they have illnesses or disabilities that make the chances of catching Covid not an inconvenience but a very deadly prospective.
These leaders in the disabled community also call me to re-examine the usage of our words and their internalize ableism. So when I look at the passage from Isaiah 61 text I have to ask myself: is recovery of sight to the blind a spiritual necessity? Have our blind and visually impaired fellow Christ followers somehow missed out on the year of the Lord’s favor? Or, are they instead, as the late disability theologian Nancy Eiesland teaches us, also made fully imago dei, in the image of God, a God who is in human form in Jesus, bearing the marks of physical and spiritual trauma, a God who can be called disabled with us. Is Jesus a God who winces every time he touches his side? Is Jesus a God with crippling chronic pain? Is Jesus a God who is completely whole even after he has been subjected to pain and abuse?
And is this same Jesus the God who has always been at work through the Holy Spirit in our church before, during and after every pastoral transition? Is this Holy Spirit still in our midst, still keeping us awake at night, still sparking fires of righteous indignation and holy anger when we are confronted with the ongoing pain and suffering of those around us, whether they be our unhoused friends freezing on the streets of Houston last night, or the children who go to bed hungry in West Virginia while their Senator pockets millions of dollars and says behind the scenes that the money given to these children would have been spent on drugs, yes, this same Holy Spirit calls us to move from indignation to action, to continuing to have enough holy imagination to be led by the Spirit in her mysterious ways to everything that comes next.
Church, may it be so. Amen.
James points to the commandments given to guide us in reconciling us back to our Creator, to take our clear awareness of love of self and grant that same love to others.
Special Guest Sermon by Vahisha Hasan.
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
James 2:8-9
James 2:14
Hymn
Let Justice Flow Down (sung by Kaycee White)
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Pastor LaTayna Purnell uses the story of Ruth and Naomi to highlight what is means to create and fulfill a covenant.
Scripture Readings (CEB)
Ruth 1:7-18
Ruth: 1:22
Hymn
This is a Day of New Beginnings
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Pastor LaTayna Purnell reflects on what beginnings mean and what the word "new" can bring to it at the beginning of 2022.
Scripture Reading (NIV)
Revelation 21:1-8
Hymn
Sing A New World Into Being
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Pastor Marty reflects on the current state of HMC on the eve of his departure as lead pastor.
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
Luke 2:6-12
John 1:1-5
John 1:14
Hymn
O Come O Come Emmanuel
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
How Mary's Song shaped Jesus and how her song can shape us.
Scripture Readings (NLT)
Micah 5:2-5a
Luke 1:46-55
Hymn
Come Thou, Long Expected Jesus
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Times are tough, and Advent doesn't promise a magic solution. It does invite us to rejoice, but perhaps less because there is much to rejoice over, and more as a spiritual exercise that can lift our spirits when down.
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Luke 3:15-18
Hymn
O Come, All Ye Faithful
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
The 2nd Sunday of Advent is Peace Sunday. Other ways of describing Peace, this oft-used word: harmony, wholeness, restoration, shalom, or even "God's all-encompassing embrace." Special guest speaker Wookbin Moh speaks on peace and anti-war action.
Special Guest: Wookbin Moh from the Korean Vision Church of Houston
** Please Note: Wookbin Moh's message contained many slides, so the audio was distilled down to the essential message, perhaps a bit clumsily. A PDF of the slides is linked below. Also, the HMC YouTube channel will contain the full message with all slides.
Slides for Wookbin Moh Message
Houston Mennonite Church YouTube Channel
Scripture (NLT)
Matthew 5:43-47
Isaiah 11:6-9
Hymn
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
As we begin our Advent season seeking hope and imagining the goodness of God, we must acknowledge the goodness of the land, creation, and the Indigenous peoples who resided here long before settlers. To imagine God’s goodness is to hold our gratitude and our remorse together, striving for reconciliation.
Special Guest Reverend Teresa Kim Pecinovski
Scripture (NIV)
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Hymn
You are Salt for the Earth (VT 190)
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Pastor Marty focuses on key passages in the Bible the expound on the meaning of Community and Communion.
Scripture Readings
The 12 scriptures below were read from the Voices Together hymnal but they are various translations. Below are the NRSV translations.
On a Journey With God
Psalm 23
The Peaceable Kingdom
Isaiah 2:4
Isaiah 11:6-9
Seeking the Peace of Houston
Jeremiah 29:7
Jeremiah 29:11-13
What does the Lord require?
Micah 6:6-8
Jesus's Agenda
Luke 4:17-19
Becoming Love
Matthew 22:37-40
The Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5-7
On a Journey with Jesus
Luke 9:23-25
Being Transformed by God
Romans 12:1-2
Becoming God's Diverse People
Philippians 2:1-11
Becoming God's People in Exile
1 Peter 2:9-11
Hymn
Put Peace Into Each Other's Hands
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Pastor Marty explains the history of Mennonites, what it means to be one, and what it means to be one at HMC.
Scripture
Mark 1:14-28
Hymn
Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Special guest Natalie Drew takes you through her life, a remarkable journey from someone who transitioned as she was, in turn, transformed by faith.
Natalie Drew's website
Natalie Drew on Twitter
MESSAGE TRANSCRIPT
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
1 John 4:7-8
1 John 1:5
Hymn
Jesus Calls Us Here to Meet Him (VT 30)
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A Life In Transition
Hi, my name is Natalie Drew. First, I want to thank Marty and Houston Mennonite for inviting me here today. I’ve known Marty for almost 5 years now, and first met him as we organized an event for RAWtools back in 2017. But if you knew me earlier in life, you’d know just how unlikely this friendship would have been.
I grew up in the Independent Fundamental Baptist world. I say “world”, but in reality it is more a cult. The IFB world is rife with abuse of all sorts…mental, spiritual, and physical. It was in this world where I first began to realize that I wasn’t like the boys in my class. This was in the mid-1980s, so language like “transgender”, “gender identity”, etc. weren’t part of our vocabulary as a culture, and certainly not in the IFB world. Even if I did possess the vocabulary to put to words what I was going through inside, I lived in a world in which it would be impossible to be honest about my struggles. So that left me confused and having to repress that inner turmoil. Having to shove it into baggage and hide it deep in the darkest parts of my closet. Living like that as a child resulted in a crushing weight, which manifested itself in anger and violence. It’s an anger and violence that would haunt and define me for decades.
As I grew, I became more violent. I was in dozens of fights at school while in elementary. I was suspended, whether in-school or out-of-school, 5 times for fighting. And strangely, no amount of violence seemed to result in my fellow Christians calling into question my faith. While in college, this anger and violence boiled to the surface to the point that, on one night, I had even loaded a gun intent on finding and harming a gay person after my old youth minister was convicted of sexually assaulting a gay teen from our youth group. Thankfully, though, this act of murder I committed in my heart never became an act of real physical harm. But I was in a dark, dark place. I walked in darkness and not with God. I wasn’t in a place to recognize the evil in my own heart, so I sought a more “acceptable” outlet. I joined the military. I could be violent, and that violence would be honored in our culture. So, after graduating from Texas A&M, I enlisted in the Army with the goal of going into Special Forces. This would serve three purposes…it would allow me to indulge my lust for violence, but surely it would also “cure” me of these struggles with gender identity. It would also give me a proper job so Heather and I could actually get married. The Army and marriage would finally prove me to be the man everyone believed I was. After a fractured vertebrae in Basic Training, though, my dreams of Special Forces were no more. I became your standard infantry soldier. After Airborne school, I was assigned to the new airborne unit in Alaska. Heather and I packed up our apartment and began the drive from North Carolina to Anchorage.
Once in Alaska, Heather and I intended to enjoy life as a young married couple, but a positive pregnancy test in our first month in Alaska changed those adventures. Reagan was born in 2006. The “cure” that I hoped marriage and parenthood would provide with regards to my gender identity never materialized. In hindsight, I see just how unfair that was to Heather and our kids to put those expectations on them, especially when they still had no idea about my struggles. I deployed to Iraq in October 2006. Reagan was 18 months old when I returned from deployment, but due to training and deployment I had only spent 3 of his first 18 months with him. While the Army took me away from my family, even when I was home, I took myself away mentally. I was distant and angry before the deployment, but this became much worse afterwards. That closet full of baggage I had been carrying around for years only became that much heavier because of the PTSD. My mental health began to deteriorate. My anger became much deeper, and I had no joy. My back was almost in as bad of shape as my mind. My lower back gave out and spinal fusion was in my future. In the meantime, however, the Army treated this pain as they treat so many issues. They threw pills at the problem. Pain pills…sleeping pills…nerve medication…3 different antidepressants…I was a mess. I began working on my MBA during this time, and recall a fellow student who, near the end of the program when I was finally sober, commented about how strung out I used to look. I told her about the addiction that had me in its grips. It’s an addiction that caused me to have no real memory of my daughter, Abby’s, first year. Addiction…gender dysphoria…depression…suicidal ideation. This became my life. This was my life as I left the Army after being medically retired in 2010.
Civilian life was calling me. Looking back, this is when I really begin to see God at work in my life. First, I stumbled into a job in HR. For anyone who knew me at that time, HR would have been the last career expected of me. This job took us to Houston, and eventually to the decision to buy a house in Cinco Ranch. At this time, Heather and I could count on one hand the number of times we had been to church over the past decade. If you asked us, we would have said we were Christians, but in reality, nothing in our lives would point to that. But buying that house changed everything. It just so happened to be across the street from Cinco Ranch Church of Christ. Heather grew up in the Church of Christ, and with it being across the street from our neighborhood, we knew that both our parents would ask if we visited. So, we decided to check that box just so we could say we’d been. That decision changed our lives forever. I remember experiencing something in a church that I had never experienced before. I felt loved. From complete strangers. It wasn’t superficial niceness, but it felt like genuine love.
This sparked a fire in both Heather and I. We would lay in bed at night reading our Bibles. We really became fixated on the red letters. I would email questions to the preaching minister, Aaron. What my questions really boiled down to was “what if Jesus really was serious when He said these things?” This is when we first began to explore nonviolence. This was a challenge for someone who had been consumed with violence to the point of making a career out of it. I would read verses like Isaiah 2:4 about how in His kingdom, we would beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. We would learn of war no more. I would wonder that if we’re to be “missionaries” of His kingdom in this world, then shouldn’t we live out what that will look like here and now? I would read about how God is love, then begin questioning what it means to love. What love looks like. 1 John 4:7-8 tells us that God is love, and those who do not love don’t know God. I then would read works like Crucifixion of the Warrior God by Greg Boyd, and realize that to understand what love truly looks like, then we only need look at Christ hanging on the cross. While we were His enemies, He died for us. What does love look like? It looks like sacrificing your life, even for your enemies. I couldn’t reconcile violence, much less killing, with love.
I always came back to those red letters though. I would read what Christ said in Matt 5:44-45, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven”. The “so that” speaks so loudly. It is a condition. If you are to be a “son of your Father”, then one need to love their enemies. Or as The Didache said, “Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast on behalf of those who persecute you: for what thanks will be due to you, if ye love only those who love you? Do not the Gentiles also do the same? But love those who hate you, and you shall not have an enemy.” Love turns enemies to friends. It’s the only way to truly change hearts, and this understanding changed everything about us.
I was hooked. The fire was lit. Now I just needed to find an outlet. This is when I found RAWtools. Given how important of a role Isaiah 2:4 played in my transition from soldier to pacifist, it was only fitting that RAWtools resonated with me immediately. For those who don’t know, RAWtools turns guns into garden tools. They live out Isaiah 2:4. They are true missionaries to the kingdom. I found Christian Peacemaker Teams, and was even able to spend two weeks in Palestine listening to the stories of those living under military occupation and apartheid. Two weeks of listening, living among, and learning from Palestinians and Israelis who are striving for peace and nonviolent reconciliation. Throughout this period of spiritual growth, though, I still suffered tremendously. Maybe I had hoped that becoming addicted to something honorable would ease the pain of gender dysphoria and depression. It didn’t.
Suicidal ideation engulfed me. I’ve lost close friends to suicide. The wounds and scars don’t go away once you leave the battlefield. They stay with you, and the war never stops. The battlefield merely changes. This neverending war took Ricky. It took Will. The pain of their loss may have been the only reason why I didn’t lose that battle myself. But my struggle was less with combat-related PTSD, and moreso with the gender dysphoria. It was unrelenting. I could no longer hide it. I had come out to Heather. I had come out to the kids. But this is something that I hadn’t been able to fully process in 30+ years, so they were far behind me in this department. I would come home from work, crawl into bed, and just cry. I was beyond miserable. It was torture. It was hell. It had become so bad that I had asked Heather to just sit with me while I take pills and slowly fall asleep. I was terrified of dying alone. I was even more terrified of Heather or the kids finding me. I just wanted all us to sit there, say goodbye, and hold my hand as I fell asleep for good. This was the last straw. The problem had become too great. This is when we decided it was time to at least talk to a doctor about hormone therapy.
Even that wasn’t easy. I had so much spiritual baggage that had to be unpacked. How can I reconcile transitioning with my faith? What about Genesis 1:27? I truly believe, because of who Jesus showed us who the Father truly is, that God loves me and His heart is broken when we suffer. I knew God didn’t want me to die. He’s a God of life. He gives life and gives it abundantly. But I knew living this life of fraud, pretending to be a man, made me want to die. I wanted the opposite of life. Then I heard of a literary device that was common in Ancient Near Eastern culture called “merism”. It’s a broad view of a conception that is conveyed by two distinct parts of that conception. For example, Genesis tells us God created day and night, but we know he created dusk and dawn. Genesis tells us God created seas and land, but we know that there are marshes, swamps, rivers, and lakes. We know that God is the Alpha and Omega, but He’s also everything in between. God created male and female…yes. He also created everything in between. He created transgender people. He created intersex people. He created us all.
So I had the peace that I had prayed for with regards to this decision. Heather and the kids were on board. They saw my mental health improve almost over night once I started hormones. I never thought I would socially transition though. Especially after moving to College Station. The dysphoria was better, but it was still there. I was still living my life as a fraud. Any step in our transition, though, had to be taken as a family. If Heather or the kids were not on board with a step, I didn’t take it. We moved to College Station in 2018, and I assumed I had taken all the steps I would take. I thought the depression was manageable. It wasn’t. It began intensifying, although never reaching the point of suicidal. I couldn’t take it anymore, and in the fall of 2019, with Heather’s blessing, I came out fully to my coworkers and on January 6, 2020, I stepped into the world for the first time ever as Natalie. As I told myself that day, 2020 would be greatest year ever.
This step was such a liberation. When I thought I would be rejected by those we had gone to church with, or those who I had gotten to know closely on social media, the exact opposite was the case. The people from Cinco Ranch, the people from Sugar Grove Church of Christ, the people on twitter…they all wrapped their arms around me. I know many may not agree with, or understand, my decision to transition, but they’ve shown me nothing but love. They’ve never misgendered me. We’ve also found this amazing community on Twitter (hi! WCT folks!) that have shown us that chosen family is family. We’ve grown so close with these people. We’ve met a few, will likely never meet thousands, but they are all family nonetheless. They’ve helped deepen my faith. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t without cost. While we’ve been shown nothing but love from those we went to church with, we’ve also lost so many family and lifelong friends. There are nieces and nephews we can’t see because of who I am, and the fact that Heather loves me for who I am. But for everyone we’ve lost, we’ve gained 100. We’ve also found a new ministry, as people reach out who are standing where we used to. In the church, married, but struggling with their gender identity. We’ve counseled couples just by sharing our story. Where I feared rejection, we’ve actually found a way to serve God and love others. Best of all, there’s no more suicidal ideation.
I very well could be wrong on matters of nonviolence and who I am as a transgender woman, but I also know that perfect theology is not the criteria of sincere faith. God is a God who accommodates and meets us where we are in order to maintain relationship with us. We see that throughout scripture. So I rest in that. I rest in the knowledge that God is love. That His love is so much bigger and more radical than one can ever imagine. My hope is in that love. I’m alive because of it. I am who I am because of it. I know that love can transform any darkness into light. As a violent, homophobic, and transphobic combat infantry sergeant turned pacifist transgender woman and follower of Christ, I know just how transformative it can be.
Finally, while I’m up here, I want to end by thanking specifically Heather and our kids, Reagan and Abby. I’m here because you all loved me relentlessly through this. You all loved me when I tried to prove how unlovable I was. You make me a better person and the woman I am today. If grace is receiving something you don’t deserve, then you all are evidence of God’s grace in my life. I love you all. Oh, and hi Lynell & Dan! See y’all in a few weeks!
What can running teach us about the things in are lives that are hindering us and how can a renewed focus on God help retrain our eyes on what's ahead and what really matters?
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
Hebrews 11:13-16
Hebrews 12:1-2
Hymn
The Lord Lift You Up (VT 832)
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
When was the last time you shouted with God?
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
Psalm 126
Hymn
Christ, Be All Around Me - Sung by Kaycee White
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
It’s healthy and oftentimes necessary for people to deconstruct their faith to rid it of toxic, violent, misogynistic or racist thought and practice. But that process can be painful and scary. How can we put our faith back together after it has fallen apart?
SHOW NOTE: Due to copyright restrictions, the podcast fades out during Pastor Marty's sermon at the beginning of a song and returns at the end. That song is Mad at God by Sarah Saint James. We encourage you to watch it.
Mad At God
Scripture Readings (NIV)
Matthew 7:15-27
1 Corinthians 3:11
Hymn
Gravity of Love (VT 494)
Sung by Kaycee White
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Could flaws and imperfections be a strength?
Scripture Readings (NIV)
Psalm 30
Revelation 21:1-5
Hymn
Beauty for Brokenness (VT 512)
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What can our fore-Freedom Fighters teach us about fighting for our rights today? Pastor LaTayna explains.
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
Deuteronomy 8:2-3
Deuteronomy 14B-16A
Hymn
In lieu of a hymn this week, we ask you to watch This is Me.
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In 1922, the Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen wrote:
The South is crucifying Christ again
By all the laws of ancient rote and rule:
The ribald cries of “Save yourself” and "Fool"
Din in his ears, the thorns grope for his brain,
And where they bite, swift springing rivers stain
His gaudy, purple robe of ridicule
With sullen red; and acid wine to cool
His thirst is thrust at him, with lurking pain.
Christ's awful wrong is that he's dark of hue,
The sin for which no blamelessness atones;
But lest the sameness of the cross should tire,
They kill him now with famished tongues of fire,
And while he burns, good men, and women, too,
Shout, battling for black and brittle bones.
It is not just the South that is crucifying Christ—it’s America; it is all of us. Any time an innocent person is executed, Christ is crucified again. Christ was crucified again at a grocery store in Boulder, and metro Atlanta, and at a fed-ex facility in Indiana, and in early Septhember here in Houston, and countless other places. Christ was crucified again at a school in Columbine, CO and Newtown, CT, Parkland, FL, , santa fe, at a mental hospital in San Bernardino, CA, and a movie theatre in Aurora, CO. Christ is crucified again every week on the streets of Houston, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, and New Orleans. 6 years ago on June 17, Christ was crucified again at a Black church in Charleston, SC, and 5 years ago on June 12 at a gay nightclub in Orlando, FL.
Everyone needs sanctuary. Many people find their sanctuary in a church, a synagogue, a mosque, or a temple, but those who have been excluded from communities of faith, breaking them from our faith security so we often have had to find sanctuary somewhere else. For many in the LGBTQ community, the first place where they could be safe, the first place where they could connect with their true selves—the first place where they could find sanctuary, was at a bar or a nightclub. Back in the 50s and 60s, there was nowhere for the LGBT community to go. They were not welcome in restaurants or community centers and they were certainly not welcome in churches. The only place they could go to be themselves were bars, and one of the first nightclubs that opened to the LGBTq community was the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York.
The Mafia owned the Stonewall Inn and it was not the nicest place in Manhattan. It had no running water, no liquor license, no fire exits, and the toilets were constantly overflowing. But it was the only gay bar in the city that allowed dancing, and so it catered to a racially diverse assortment of patrons and was popular among the poorest and most marginalized people in the LGBTQ community: drag queens, transgender people, lesbians, male prostitutes, and homeless gay youth. Police raids on gay bars like the Stonewall Inn were routine in the 60s, and they were used to terrorize and humiliate. In 1969, the growing tensions in America around civil rights for women, African-Americans, and LGBTQ people increased the frequency of these raids on gay bars by the police and, on June 28, the gay community had had enough. The Stonewall Inn was their safe place, their refuge, their sanctuary, and they were not going to let that be taken from them. When the police came to harass them this time, they resisted, and, over the next two days, there were riots in the streets of New York.
Harriet Tubman, the famed Black fugitive slave, who became a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad and helped hundreds of the enslaved escape to freedom carried a gun on her missions. Near the end of her life, someone asked how often she used it to defend herself from slave patrollers and bounty hunters. She is said to have answered, with a gleam in her eye, that the gun wasn’t for the bounty hunters, but the escapees. She explained that the journey to freedom was long and challenging, full of hardship and danger, uncertainty, brokenness and fear. And it would happen that some wanted to give up and return to the familiar place they left. But doing so would put everyone else in danger, compromising the safety of those on the road to freedom.
It was then that Harriet would pull out her gun, declaring, “You will live free or die!” and force the frightened to keep going. Once they were on the road to freedom, she would not allow them to turn back.
In the reading of today’s liturgy, we join the Israelites after their freedom from enslavement and rescue at the Red Sea. Between Egypt (enslavement) and the Promised Land (fulfillment) was “the wilderness” – a place of vulnerability, fear, and uncertainty. Here they wandered anxiously, unsure of when or where their journey would end.
Over and over, they grumbled and complained, “We want to go back. It was easier in Egypt. We knew what to expect. Life was simpler. We could die out here.”
Over and over, God kept pushing them on. Not with a gun. But with food: manna – a mysterious daily bread. Every day, she sent them a “just enough” portion for that day, just enough to keep them steadfast on the path to freedom, liberation, and fulfillment. This daily “just enough” portion was their assurance that even in the wilderness, God was with them. It was God’s way of saying that once you’re on the journey to freedom, there’s no turning back.
I think of these sacred stories as we celebrate Pride . It’s a time of celebration, rejoicing, and reflection on hard-won victories. And there is so much to be thankful for. Personally, I am of a generation who never imagined living in a time like this:
· a time when our loving commitments are legally recognized and protected;
· a time when we can serve openly and proudly in the military;
· a time when our history can be taught and studied at colleges and universities;
· a time when we can run for President being out and with our same-gender spouse at our side.
The times in which we live are truly astonishing. We have much to be proud of and to give thanks.
But in so many ways we are still a people in the wilderness, still on an uncertain and perilous journey:
· We still are not legally protected from employment or housing discrimination in too many states.
· We are still being dismissed from employment despite years of exemplary service.
· Our love is still publicly denigrated by too many, both in and outside the church walls.
· Many religious leaders still live closeted lives, fearing to be publicly known for how God made them to be.
· So many young people are still closeted to their families, or homeless because of their parents’ rejection of their sexuality and/or gender identity.
· For so many younger queer people, school still is a dangerous environment which negatively impacts their opportunities to thrive.
· And even now, so many queer people still live with the fear of abuse and the terror of death, especially those of us who are Black, or persons of color, or trans women, or “all of the above.”
We are still in the wilderness; we have not yet arrived at liberation. And, to be honest, like my Black forebears and our faith ancestors, at times we are tempted to go back to “Egypt”: to go back into the closet; to take refuge in the rewards and protections it offers; to mute our voices; to dim our “fabulousness” in order to be approved and accepted. To belong and fit in. To be like everybody else.
Here is where you might expect me to make a pivot and speak of the Eucharist as our “manna,” as our strength for continuing the wilderness journey to liberation. But this Pride sunday we are in pandemic times, when the Eucharistic manna is not available for many, perhaps most, of us.
So, we need some reminder to us that WE are the body of Christ! WE are called to be the “just enough” daily bread to support, care, and love each other on the road to freedom. “We, many though we are, are one body.” In our care and love for one another, we become life-giving manna – Christ’s presence, Christ’s embodiment – that keeps us steadfast on the journey to freedom. We help one another to be witnesses of personal authenticity and agents of social justice. We become signs of God, present with us.
Our manna sustains us for a world where all people in the LGBTQ community are loved and protected, offered sanctuary, and treated with respect and dignity. Our manna sustains us for a world where all people of color are loved and protected, offered sanctuary, and treated with respect and dignity. Our manna supports our work towards a world where there is less brokenness, less gun violence, less death of innocent people, and less violence and death in general. Our manna nourishes a world where Christians, Muslims, and Jews treat each other with love instead of hate. Most importantly, manna fuels the hope that does not sit around and wait for the world to change or turn back from the wilderness, but that actively works towards liberation - to make the world more like the kingdom of God, a beloved community.
We are called to be manna – the Bread of Life – for one another. We help each other believe in the holiness of our bodies and the sacredness of our loving. Thus we become the rainbow body of Christ, sustenance even in the wilderness. This is how we celebrate Pride while still on the journey to freedom.
What to do when “my soul is full of troubles”? In this fourth sermon about Picking up the Pieces, pastor Marty digs into the Bible’s brutal honesty about how painful it can be to be human. The Bible doesn’t cover up anguish, or the sins of ancestors, and neither should we
Scripture Readings (NIV)
Psalm 88
Hymn
Gravity of Love (VT 494)
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Pastor Marty addresses the environmental degradation that threatens our planet. Is it too late to pick up the pieces of our broken planet? What can we do to heal our climate, and find relief from the anxieties of the climate disaster we’re living in?
Scripture Readings (NIV)
Psalm 104:24-32
Habakkuk 3:17-18
Hymn
The Peace of the Earth (VT 838)
Pastor Marty explores the story of Job, a good person whose life falls apart. What can we do to pick up the pieces of our lives when it falls apart?
Scripture Readings (CEB)
Job 1:13-19
Job 3:1-11
Hymn
You Are All We Have (VT 701)
There are so many stress points right now that can break us: a raging pandemic, loss of confidence in democracy, divisive relationships, personal crisis, the grief of loss.
What can we do to pick up the pieces of our lives? How can we heal when we feel broken?
Scripture (NLT):
Isaiah 58:6-12
Hymn:
Beauty for Brokenness (VT512)
Text/Music: Graham Kendrick
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Peter told Jesus, "NO!" Why? What does that say for each one of us who wants to teach like Jesus taught?
Sermon Transcript
Scripture Reading (NIV) - John 13:1-17
Hymn:
Whatsoever You Do - by Willard J Jabusch
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We are familiar with hearing this text during the Lenten season as we prepare for Easter and the Easter season. It provides an example of love. The word love conjures up many images. It makes some people smile and others laugh and yes, the word love can make some cry.
The act of love made Peter tell Jesus “NO.” No, I will not receive this, it is inappropriate for you to wash my feet as an act of love. That is something slaves do for their masters because they are supposed to.
Peter, like many of us, are slow to realize what love looks like because we have only seen love in this form or that form. But never like this. From someone who is more than special. Someone who has been sent to change the way we understand the world and how it operates. And more importantly, someone sent to show us what humanity can look like with the love Jesus demonstrated.
We point to Jesus and say, he had superpowers to stoop low, tie a towel around his waist and wash the dusty stinky feet of his disciples to show them he was not too high and mighty as their teacher and
Lord to meet their basic need of cleanliness; to show hospitality; to serve. We point to Jesus and say he had the superpowers to serve everybody, even his enemies, even the disciple who would betray him.
Most of you thought of Judas, but remember Peter betrayed Jesus also. Fear and greed can blind you to love. Shame, guilt and unforgiveness can be blockers to opportunities to serve/ to connect with your whole heart and self and to live life loving and loved.
Judas’ burden of guilt and shame resulted in suicide. But not even suicide can block the love, mercy and grace sent from God. We continue to try to understand how the gifts of mercy and grace work.
Even after denying Jesus three times, the risen Christ still reached out to Peter — that’s mercy and invited him to serve; made space—that’s grace.
We have been reminded that we are formed, woven, poured out and now lifted by love, in love and with love.
The July 18th issue of the New York Times Magazine was shared with me. The article titled “The Judge” written by Stephen Carter, who was one of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall’s clerks, is full of stories from Thurgood Marshall’s life on the bench. Carter was given the honor of serving as the interviewer for Marshall’s official oral history for the Federal Judicial Center. Carter shared several stories from his interviews with Thurgood Marshall, who died in 1993 after serving 24 years on the Supreme Court. Thurgood Marshall was the first African American Supreme Court Justice. Marshall was appointed in 1967 by President Lyndon Johnson.
Jesus prepared his disciples to love as he had loved. Jesus in life and as the resurrected Christ never missed an opportunity to show an example of love; to be or act as a conduit, to show a different level of humanity. And Jesus said to us: go and do as I have done.
In the NY Times article, Carter shared a story of Thurgood Marshall’s encounter in a pool hall in the 1940’s somewhere in the Deep South. Marshall was at a table drinking with friends when a Black man he did not know approaches and asks to speak to him. Marshall invites him to sit but the man preferred to stand. The man said:
“I hear you’re a lawyer; is that right?”
Marshall responded, “That’s right.”
The man said, “You’re educated? You’ve been to college?”
Marshall responded, “I have.”
The man asked, “So do you know anything about this resurrection business?”
Marshall said, “A bit.”
The man said, “Well, I hope you have some influence. Because if I come back after I die, I want you to arrange for me to come back as a rat or a pig or even a bug. Anything. Just don’t let it be a Negro.”
When I read this, I stopped, my heart swelled, and my eyes filled with water. The author wrote that Marshall told this story to illustrate what the struggle was about in the 1940’s. He wrote, “School desegregation, or employment equality or voting rights were all important, but none were ends in themselves.” They were goals, he said “in the service of creating a world in which black people would no longer see themselves the way the stranger in the pool hall had.”
We have all been formed, woven, poured out and lifted-given some status, a part of a community that can make a difference to achieve the goal of creating a world in which no one sees themselves as less than human or as only for others’ pleasure or entertainment.
Simone Biles, the greatest of all times in gymnastics; lifted for her earth-defying jumps, twists and turns, showed young women last week that love of your mind and body is worth more than fame and wealth when she removed herself from competition as she was experiencing “twistees-” her mind and body not being in sync. The world saw this act of self-care-the act of having a high regard for your own wellbeing and happiness to enable healthy relationships and actions. This young woman’s actions have now spurred a resurgence of the importance of total wellbeing, especially for athletics. One who was lifted up, was able to shine light on a subject that is too often not discussed.
Our status of being human and made in the image of God should not be taken for granted. But as Jesus showed, we must be taught. Jesus taught the disciples how to use status to lift others up and connect them to their higher selves. We must pass that teaching on.
Thurgood Marshall sat at the table with many segregationists, people who did not think like he did. He sat at the table to accomplish a goal- that everyone would see themselves as worthy. Black nurses were finally hired in Southern State hospitals, even the colored only hospitals after he reminded a segregationist that Black males in hospitals were not being cared for by Black nurses. The segregationist warned Marshall that he would get that changed, but he would not like the way he would do it. To convince trustees of a State hospitals, the governor at that time said, “I was visiting the hospital the other day and went over to the colored ward and to my astonishment saw the flower of Southern womanhood tending to every need of a colored man.” Putting one down was used to open the door. Marshall continued to remind Carter of the goal- to create a world in which all people saw their worth and could serve as God had given them gifts.
Love comes in different forms, but love always open doors, connects to resources, affirms gifts, elevates your mind to love yourself and to love others. We must teach as Jesus taught. We must use our status to make humanity look like the love Jesus demonstrated.
Let’s be bold. Go and do as Jesus taught. Lift up to connect for humanity is waiting to see the love that Jesus taught.
Amen!
In this summer review we showcase the breadth and depth of insight we experience at HMC. Each of the church members who shared on our summer theme are revisited, introducing us to themes of deconstruction, the feminine divine, and dissent.
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
Psalm 46
Hymn:
We Long To Know Her (VT 44)
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As we see in Luke 4, Jesus’ God hears the cries of victims and brings liberation to the oppressed, oftentimes in doing so enraging good religious people like us.
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
Luke 4 : 16-30
Hymn
Let's Walk Together (VT6)
Laurie Zelman and Mark Miller
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Summer Sharing: David Cooper
Transcript
Scripture Readings (NIV)
Psalm 27
Hymn
I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light (SJ 95)
Words and Music: Kathleen Thomerson
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God My Protector
When Rebecca asked me to share during our summer series on the names of God, my first inclination was to decline.
I’m deep in the process of deconstructing almost 60 years of Christianity, and I’m still in the early phases of reconstruction.
But I felt that perhaps someone needs to hear my story, so here I am.
In order to explain where I am today in my relationship with God, I need to provide context for the journey that I’m on.
I was raised in a very conservative Anabaptist denomination, which taught me that God was this angry, vengeful, wrathful deity who was sitting on his throne in heaven waiting to smite anyone who displeased him.
I call this God “The God Who Smites Me”.
We had to be quiet in church so we didn’t disturb God or make him upset.
And God was very much male, which carried through to the church leadership and into our homes.
Men were in charge of everything, and women were there to serve them.
This image of God was very useful in keeping us in line, but it robbed us of any true joy or freedom.
The people I grew up with in that church were miserable and oppressed.
I remember telling my mother once that it seemed like everyone was walking around with rubber bands wrapped around them too tightly; they were so tense and stiff.
By the time I was a teenager, I came to the conclusion that if this is was what it meant to be a Christian, I wasn’t interested.
I walked away from the church when I went to college, but deep in my heart I knew that I needed God in my life; I just didn’t know who this God was.
I strayed as far from my moral upbringing as possible, perhaps to test if God really loved me, or perhaps to just finally breathe freely after all those years of stifling rules and regulations.
But God didn’t give up on me, and I distinctly heard God’s spirit speaking to me one night when I had hit my moral rock bottom: “What are doing here?”
I felt like the prodigal son, who finally came to his senses as he was wallowing in the muck with the pigs.
Like him, I returned home and found a new family in a church that was primarily LGBT (we hadn’t added all the other letters yet back then).
They introduced me to a loving God who wanted everyone to be happy and have fun.
Unlike the angry God I grew up with, this God was more like a doting grandfather who let his grandkids do anything they wanted.
I call this God, “The God Who Spoils Me”.
I became a Christian in this setting, but it never felt quite right.
Many of the people in that church didn’t seem to behave in ways that I felt were “Christian” enough.
So after a while, a few friends and I left and started our own church, where we could do things the right way.
This led me to a fundamentalist mindset, where rules were important and everyone needed to get saved or else.
Our God was more loving than the one I grew up with, but he was obsessed with sin. I call this God, “The God Who Judges Me”.
We had a woman pastor and other women in leadership roles, but the toxicity of patriarchy still permeated everything we did.
I eventually left that church when I was relocated to Phoenix, where I landed in a church with a different God.
This God was all about the party in our worship services: he loved dancing and singing and banners and tambourines and spectacle.
I call this God, “The God Who Needs to be Entertained”.
Everything was based on feelings and experiences, and doctrine was something relegated to those dusty old mainline churches.
It was during this time that I had one of the darkest nights of my soul, and I found little comfort in the carefree attitudes of my church family.
My pain and suffering seemed to be an inconvenience to them, like a wet blanket, so I left.
Eventually, I ended up in a church where I was chosen to replace the retiring pastor.
The God of this church was very orderly and refined, and he seemed to like the old Baptist hymns the best.
Unfortunately, I fell into a hybrid of the previous iterations of church that I had experienced.
We had a God who enjoyed loud music, but was also obsessed with right living.
I call this God, “The God Who Is Confused”.
That church closed a couple years after I took over, mostly due to the fact that we couldn’t compete with the flashy churches that had all the bells and whistles.
Being totally deflated and feeling defeated, I began my years in the wilderness, aimlessly wandering from church to church, looking for a God that I could relate to.
At some point I gave up even looking, but I still knew that God was there in the background; I just didn’t know what to call this being.
I ended up finding my way to a mainline church where I was welcomed and affirmed, and their God was nice and loving, so I was okay with that until I moved to Houston and found HMC.
It was here that I finally found the freedom to unpack everything I ever thought I knew about God and Christianity.
I was introduced to a God who is concerned about peace and social justice and absolute inclusion.
So I entered into my deconstruction phase, which is where I am today.
I’ve had to question everything I ever thought I knew, and am slowly rebuilding my faith and doctrine.
But I still wasn’t sure who my God is, or what name to use.
It wasn’t until we had that basket on the alter last month with a bunch of names of God in it that I finally landed on the perfect name for God: My Protector.
As I look back over my life, I see so many times that God was there, watching over me, protecting me, secretly guarding my steps.
God saved me from fire, and water, and suicide, and AIDS, and multiple brushes with serious injury or death.
God also restored my fortunes when I had major financial setbacks or was taken advantage of by so-called friends.
God sat with me and wept with me during my darkest nights, and cheered me on to get up just one more day and try to make a go of it.
God was there for me when no one else was around.
One of my favorite Psalms is 27, which was read today.
It has several powerful images of God: stronghold, shelter, rock.
God is the one I can run to when life gets tough and I have no one else to turn to. God is there even when family or friends turn their backs on me.
I love the way this Psalm ends:
I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
As far as God’s maleness, the more I learn about God, the more convinced I am that God is non- binary.
After all, we are all created in God’s image, so how can God be only male?
I’m becoming more comfortable using they/them to refer to God, but it’s a process, so forgive me when I slip into old patterns.
Thank you for letting me share my story with you.
I pray that someone was blessed by my meditation today.
Does changing a faith mean weakening a faith? Or can one go deeper at the same time?
Summer Sharing: Kate Stal
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
Psalms 5:1-4
1 John 4:7-8
Hymn
Words by: Les Petites Soers de Jésus (Eng: The Little Sisters of Jesus)
Lord Jesus, You Shall Be My Song (VT 581)
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Pastor Purnell's visit to Peace Camp causes her to muse over what it means for us to go beyond peace.
Scripture Readings (The Message)
Micah 4:1-5
Hymn:
Like The Murmur of The Dove's Song (VT56)
Text: Carl P. Daw, Jr. / Music: Peter Cutts
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NAMES OF GOD
There’s an ancient apophatic treatise called “The Cloud of Unknowing,” [SLIDE 1] that’s all about how difficult it is to describe the unknowable mystery of God, and that’s how I’ve felt about my task today. How can we describe the Alpha and the Omega, that which exists beyond all human understanding? How does a person take the wordless experience of contemplative prayer and try to explain or name it? The “Cloud of Unknowing” begins with a prayer: [SLIDE 2] “Goostly freende in God, I preie thee and I beseche thee that thou wilt have a besi beholding to the cours and the maner of thi cleeping.” And I am going to use that prayer in the hopes today that I can “clepe” or name my experience of God.
Many of you know that I am a birthright Quaker and that this has influenced my understanding of God and the names for/of God. Because of this, I have a very “Cloud of Unknowing” mystic association with the Divine. I lack language to even describe God because my family’s variety of Quakerism deeply rejects received tradition, in favor of what’s called continuing revelation, or direct experience of the Divine. Early Quaker leaders would say God has come to speak to his people himself. So I didn’t even own a Bible until I was in college. I’d heard and read and sung many names for God--the “wonderful counselor,” “Lord of Hosts,” the Lamb. But I did not have a specific name I spoke when I went to Meeting for Worship.
But just because you don’t have a name to speak does not mean that voice doesn’t speak to you. I was taught to sit in silent prayer and wait expectantly for God to call to me. Sometimes that meant a word or phrase in the mind. Other times it was a nudge or a hunch, and others, extreme nausea, shaking, an incredible reluctance. I’d have to discern, then, whether this “speaking to me” was intended for me alone or for the larger group. This speech was unrehearsed, spontaneous. If it was for the group, you rise and speak; if it just for you, you keep listening and waiting until you discern what you are being called to do.
To be called is to have a vocation, and as I reflected on this, I went to the OED and looked up the term. [SLIDE 3] Vocatio is Latin and for things having to do with speech—voice, vocal, vocabulary. And vocation has traditionally been used in an ecclesiastical sense, such as when someone is called to serve the church, and later, comes to refer to an occupation or a career. [Slide 4] Vocatio is what happens to St. Augustine when he is having a dark night of the soul, weeping in his backyard when he hears the sound of children playing and shouting, “tolle lege! Pick it up and read!” And it’s this shouting voice that ultimately spurs Augustine’s complete conversion. He picks up the Bible, and he reads.
As these textual examples likely attest, I am a poet and a medievalist by vocation, and so when I reflected on these questions what came to me also was an Old English poem “Caedmon’s Hymn.” [slide 5] Caedmon is an illiterate cowherd, and introverted; he lives in Whitby in northern England, and at a monastery nearby there’s an abbess called Hild. His “Hymn” is the first recorded poem in the English language, which the Venerable Bede includes in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Composed orally in the 7th c and written down in the 8th, the text looks like this. [slide 6] There’s narrative, and then the poem. The Old English is on the left and the translation is on the right. The gist is this: Caedmon is so shy that he leaves a gathering—what the Old English calls a “beorscipe” or beer party—instead of improvising and performing poetry. He hides in the barn and falls asleep amidst his cows, [SLIDE 7] at which point he hears a voice that calls him by name. Even though Caedmon is the least likely candidate to be a poet, the voice hails him: “Caedmon, sing me something.” Caedmon protests, he says, “I just left the beer party because I can’t do that,” and the voice says, “yeah, nevertheless, you must sing.” The voice uses imperatives: Caedmon has no choice, even though he’s reluctant. He must sing. And then what emerges is incredible poetry on the Creation story, so innovative and inspired that Caedmon’s entire life is changed and centuries later we are still reading and thinking about this poem. [HYMN recitation: slide 8 and slide 9]
[slide 10] Caedmon uses many names for God. There are eight in total, which is a lot for a poem that’s only nine lines long. God is called “heofonrices weard,” “meotodes,” “wuldorfaeder,” “drihten,” “halig scyppend,” “moncynnes weard,” “frea aelmihtig.” [slide 11] He is the protector of heaven, the measurer, the glory father, the holy shaper/creator, the guardian of mankind, almighty free one.
For me, the weirdest and least recognizable is “drihten,” which is an Old English word that is often used for God, and generally means “Lord. It resonated because it made me think about my own use of “Lord!” as an exclamation. [slide 12] But note the parallel meaning in Latin: “dominus,” which is where we get the verb “dominate.” In a hierarchical society like 7th c. Britain, it might make sense to call God the ultimate dominator. But as a 21st c. someone in a female, disabled body, I have all too often been on the nasty receiving end of domination. I have intimate experience being bullied, ignored, transgressed by people and systems that are bigger than I am, and which use their size to dominate. When I looked up “dright,” that sense of violent abuse of power intensified. This is a term used to refer to massed armies, a multitude of warriors processing, “the Lord of hosts.” [slide 13]
This warlike meaning was not in keeping with my own, experiential sense of God as the force that nudges me. While that force may have commanded me, it is never violent. More than this, the times when I have felt led by God to speak or preach, out of worship, have been about questions of justice, equality, the end of violence, about the love that passes all understanding. When I think of God, I think of abstract nouns like integrity, equality, simplicity, pacifism—not names but practices of living that require a kind of uncomfortable but necessary estrangement from the ways of the world, not the march of a powerful army bearing down on the enemy. And while an army of men and weapons might be incredibly concrete and real, and peace a mere ideal abstraction, we also know that abstract nouns do have force in the world. Love, after all, is something we cannot touch or hold in our hands. But we know in our bones what love can do and mean and make possible.
“Drihten” and “lord” make their meaning from inequality and domination. Yet Galatians 3:28 tells us, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” There are no hierarchies in God’s love or God’s way of calling us to live, even if those hierarchies might persist in our society and in the language that we use to name the Divine. We are equal before God, no matter the bodies or histories or languages we are born into.
[slide 14] As I sat with these questions, I found myself returning again to Caedmon being compelled to make poetry out of dark nothingness. Despite the eight names Caedmon gives to God in his “Hymn,” the voice that compels him is … nameless. It’s “some man” who comes and stands near him, who hails and greets him and calls him by name. [slide 12] Caedmon is known by this voice. And despite Caedmon’s protestations, his reluctance, the man continues to gently nudge him: “nevertheless, you must sing.” Caedmon doesn’t have a choice, but he is not being dominated or forced; he is being led to do the thing he has not yet imagined for himself. The voice says: “sing me frumsceaft,” “sing to me about the Creation story.” In other words, create poetry about Creation itself, become a maker in the way that God is a maker. Use language to invent a world, Caedmon.
[slide 15] Perhaps the point here is not the names that we might call God, in all of their ineffectiveness, their inadequate grasp. Rather, it is that God knows us and calls us. He uses our names, plucks us out of the crowd, does that thing with his fingers where he invites us to come sit close. What matters is not how we define God but how God defines us. God asks that we do what he/she/they tells us to do with our lives and our gifts, no matter which worldly societies believe we are less than, believe we shouldn’t speak, believe we are not worth listening to. Out of an empty dream, a cowherd is called to shape language into poetry and his life (and all of English literature) is altered.
What matters, therefore, is hewing to what God demands of us even when—especially when—those demands may estrange us from where and who we’ve come from. It is not about how we address God but how we pattern our lives with integrity, following God’s call. So maybe we should think of God less as a concrete noun, and more as a directive verb, demanding of us our best selves, urging us to contribute to meaning and beauty and justice, leading us into the places where we least expect to go but are most vitally needed.
"What matters is not how we define God but how God defines us. God asks that we do what he, or she, or they, tell us to do with our lives and our gifts no matter which worldly societies believe we are less-than, believe we shouldn't speak, believe we are not worth listening to. [...] What matters is hewing to what God demands of us..."
Summer Witness: Katharine Jager-Rubinson, Associate Professor of English, University of Houston
PDF of Message Slides
Scripture Readings (NIV, AMP, The Message)
Galatians 3:28 NIV
Galatians 3:28 AMP
Galatians 3:28 MSG
Hymn:
Spirit of The Living God (Lyrics)
Text and Music: Daniel Iverson
Message Transcript
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Summer Witness: Roxie Voran
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
Genesis 1:1-2
Psalm 139:13-18
Revelation 21:1
Hymn:
Creating God, Your Fingers Trace (VT 427)
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Matthew 11:16-19
“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
Everyone loves a party! So goes the old saying. And what’s usually not to love about being invited, at least that used to be the case in the “old days” before the pandemic. Our Gospel text for today prompts us to ask how we respond to existential invitations in our lives. Invitation is a fascinating word. It is derived from the verb vito which actually means to shun or to avoid. The prefix in reverses the meaning. To invite someone is to actively move beyond shunning or avoiding. It is to open to a relationship. Some definitions add the meaning of entering or offering a challenge. 1 In other words, an invitation offers the challenge to open toward one another regardless of the judgments and avoidances that have kept us from coming together.
Living through this pandemic leaves us carefully weighing every invitation that comes our way from meeting up with friends to returning to school, church or work. 2 This is especially true as infections rise during the roller coaster ride of re-openings and on-going pitting of best practices against personal liberties and political ambitions. This Fourth of July weekend always invites a celebration of national ideals. I suspect that many of us feel that this offers a particularly poignant invitation to reconsider who we are and who God is. It is time to ask again how we wish to grow into the great promise of equality and freedom for all upon which this nation was founded 245 years ago. It is an invitation to face the grievances and injustices that have been coming to the fore in recent months rather than avoiding them.
Our Gospel text offers an intriguing image that may also speak to our times. Jesus has been addressing the crowds about John the Baptist who challenged those who came out to the Jordan to be baptized to turn their lives around. Jesus praises John as being even greater than a prophet but adds that something new is now being ushered in through Jesus himself. He calls on everyone to pay attention to the times (Matthew 11:11-15). Then Jesus offers this critique: “But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’
In the Jewish culture of his day, men were those who would play flutes at weddings while those invited danced with joy. It was the role of women to wail at funerals to acknowledge the depth of pain involved in people’s sufferings and losses. In Jesus’ example, we have children enacting the role of adults, reminding us of the ways our own behaviors shape the next generation, positively or negatively. Each side is so immersed in its own experience that one cannot participate in the experience of the other or affirm its meaning and value. Each ends up feeling ignored, perhaps even shunned or avoided, to go back to our definition of the word invitation. This speaks to how we struggle to embrace the complexities and paradoxes of life. Life is a cause for celebration and weddings are an image for the promise of new life arising out of a union as well. Death, struggle and suffering are also part and parcel of our lived experience. I wonder if Jesus is inviting us to be present to and honor both, to let one inform the other.
Jesus goes on to point out how many people so easily dismissed John the Baptist as being too harsh in his chosen asceticism (deprivations) and too focused on calling out suffering and wrong doing. Too much wailing and not enough joy, some might have said. Some even said John had a demon (Mt 11:18). And Jesus, who celebrated at weddings and sought fellowship with people whom others shunned and avoided, like the tax collectors, was dismissed as a glutton and drunkard. Maybe some dismissed him as dancing too much and being oblivious to what they felt should be judged harshly. Jesus points out how quickly we seek refuge in our own judgments rather than deal with the actual challenge inherent in the invitation that is being offered to us. We look for a point we want to criticize and go no further. It is always easier to reduce another person, an issue or cause to something we can object to rather than letting
ourselves be challenged and transformed - a complex and often time-consuming and painful process. It is the way of the cross.
Jesus also challenges his listeners to move beyond a focus on words to actual deeds, saying: “Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds (Mt 11:19).” Jesus did not just talk. He lived his life as an embodied invitation to a deeper and active love rooted in our mutual interdependence and origin in the one ground – God. Jesus sought intimacy, proximity, with others who struggled and were marginalized. Some were being shunned by their society for perceived or real misdeeds. Others were victims of injustice and oppression. Jesus even loved those who were blind to their own self-righteous judgments and arrogance that helped to keep systems of oppression in place. As one rooted in wisdom and embodying it, Jesus could love others amidst the contradictions and paradoxes of life. He was not afraid to suffer, and even die, with and for others. He also encouraged and modeled the power of resurrection and rejoicing in our shared lives.
What do we make of all this in light of the fact that we just observed Independence Day at a time when our country is so divided? Many enjoy waving the flag and showing pride in the life loving, creative and independent spirit and beauty of this country. We want to play the flute and dance. We are also now hearing more clearly the shouts of protest and the wailing over the repercussions still felt today from the injustices of slavery, the on-going ramifications of systemic and personal discrimination from employment to education to health care, and the public brutality against persons of color. We are learning about the way trauma is transferred in human bodies as well as our minds generation to generation. We are being forced to look at our biases in how we tell the history of this nation as statues are being dismantled.
The Declaration of Independence is full of noble aspirations and it is full of grievances against injustices by the British. I must admit I had completely forgotten about the long list of injustices named to justify the move toward independence. Ironically, it was written by white men of privilege who could see and articulate their own suffering but remained blind to the suffering they imposed on others based on the color of their skin, ethnicity or gender. For example, this Declaration mentions Native Americans only as brutal savages employed by the British, denying their humanity. It also ignores the fact that its authors lived and profited on land taken away from Native tribes and worked by enslaved human beings. The slaves of Jefferson, the author of this bold statement, had no rights but were counted as 2/3rd of a human being merely to secure a higher population and representation count for whites in in southern states. Women did not bear mention at all. “All men,” that is white landing owning males, “are created equal.”
It is no wonder that black abolitionist Frederick Douglas had this to say in his 1852 speech entitled: “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro”: 3
The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn…What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.
These are strong prophetic words that are still felt in many ways by fellow citizens of color today. Since Jesus refused to ignore people on the margins and lived a life of solidarity. These themes and challenges are also a matter of faith. As Frederick Douglas named so clearly, prayers and sermons and hymns always run the risk of being another occasion for fraud and hypocrisy. We cannot close our ears to the mourning of those who continue to suffer as we seek to celebrate what is good and beautiful. Douglas foreshadowed the destruction of the Civil War in his day. Especially those of you who identified as white and privileged have to decide whether you will accept the invitation of our day to let the cries of our siblings of all colors change us. This will require still more changes in policies and laws. Most deeply, it will require a change of heart as we stop avoiding facing the demons of our collective past and present. Following Christ’s invitation, let us endeavor to truly learn to see Christ in each other. May Christ’s wisdom be vindicated by our collective deeds. Only then can our song, our dancing, also become authentic and mutual.
1 https://www.wordsense.eu
2 There are also many who have no real choice about returning to work to feed their families.
3 He originally gave the speech at a meeting of the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. https:
On this July 4 in a country so deeply divided, how can we love as Jesus did? Sermon by Pastor LaTayna Purnell
Scripture Readings (NIV)
Matthew 11:16-19
Hymn:
I Want to Walk As a Child of the Light(SJ 77)
Sermon Transcript
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
This week is Houston Mennonite Church's first public gathering in 67 weeks. Pastor Marty will speak about coming home again into the family of faith, about what is still the same, and what can now different. This sermon is a celebration of the church as an expression of Jesus' love and care. If you're looking for a progressive inclusive church, HMC may be a place for you.
Scripture Readings (NCV)
Psalm 126
Romans 12:3-13
Hymn:
You Are Salt of the Earth (VT 190)
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
In this sermon, Pastor Marty invites us into the freedom of God’s uncertainty. How have we made idols out of narrow images of God?
Scripture Readings (NIV)
Acts 17:16-29
Hymn
I Sought the Lord (VT 161)
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
This summer we're exploring meaningful names of God and how our images of God have changed during our life. In this podcast we listen in as Raye speaks about pursuing the good. How are you pursuing goodness and God?
Scripture Readings (NRSV)
Colossians 4: 5-6
Romans 12: 9-18
Romans 12: 21
Hymn
Will You Let Me Be Your Servant (YT 778)
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
What name do you call God? Have your names or images of God changed throughout your life? This summer we will explore these questions by hearing from different members of the congregation. This week, we will hear from Pastor Marty talking about several scriptures loaded with different names for God.
Scripture Readings
All of the following are based on the CEB, but have been lightly edited for inclusivity.
Psalm 18:1-3
John 6:35
John 8:12
John 10:11
John 11:25
John 14:6
John 15:1
Hymn
Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow
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Romans 15:1-13
Radical Welcome of the Other
by Dr. LaTayna Purnell
Last March our familiar ways were taken away from us. We were forced to find a new way to be church literally overnight. This path did not work for everyone. Some could not, and others chose, not to participate in our internet offerings. But the path also brought unexpected gifts. Some were able to be with us who would have been excluded if we were still in the church building. We entered one another’s homes, met our pets, showed off stuffies, and found a spiritual connection in our shared love of nature and family, and the little joys of life. We all listened and we all spoke as we suffered and grieved together over what was happening in our world. Our sharing of joys and concerns went far beyond what we had ever done before, and it was transformative. Many of us felt that it got us through. Now once again we are on the brink of a major change. Soon some of us will return to the Church building, but we will not return to life as it was. The day we officially step back into the church we will step into a new stretch of wilderness that no one has seen before. We have no map, but we know there will be challenges ahead. The toll of the pandemic is not over, and ecological degradation continues to worsen, and racial injustices are being perpetrated, and white supremacist Christian nationalists are undermining democracy. Meanwhile, spiritual communities all over America are shrinking, even as we face an escalating spiritual crisis. How can we serve the spiritual and practical needs of our community if the vast majority will never come through our doors? How can we help the Spirit speed human evolution toward oneness and new ways of living that can save the life that the Spirit created?
In Stephanie Spellers' book titled “ Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other, and the Spirit of transformation,” 1 she defines Radical welcome as the spiritual practice of embracing and being changed by the gifts, presence, voice, and power of The Other: the people systemically cast out of or marginalized within a church/school, a denomination, and/or society.” Spellers go on to say, “ Your church/school may be predominantly white or Latinx, wealthy or working-class, gay or straight, middle-aged or fairly young. Regardless of your demographic profile, you still have a margin, a disempowered Other who is in your midst or just outside your door. In fact, you may be The Other. Radical welcome is concerned with the transformation and opening of individual hearts, congregations, and systems so that the Other might find in your community a warm place and a mutual embrace and so that you are finally free to embrace and be transformed by an authentic relationship with the margin.
To give us a snapshot of what I’m talking about, I want to share a story from the immortal wisdom of The Simpsons, a cartoon from the 90s about a lovable oaf named Homer and his family. In this episode, Homer is upset as he thinks back to when he was a child and wanted to join the treehouse club. In the story, we see a group of kids eagerly climbing up the treehouse ladder, excited to be part of the group. There is another kid at the top of the ladder, who we realize is the club’s bouncer. He’s waving excitedly... “Hey, Billy... Hey Joey! Come on in! There’s plenty of room.” Young Homer reaches the top when the bouncer says... “Sorry – not you Homer” “Why not?” The bouncer points to a sign, he doesn’t even say anything. The sign says – “No Homers Club”. Homer, indignant, says, “But you let in Homer Glubgut!” “It says no Homerrrrz. We’re allowed to have one.” And we hear young Homer’s classic whine of defeat as he turns away.
Have you ever been Homer Simpson? So close to getting to be ‘in’ the group? Made it all the way to the door to be shut out? Have you been Billy and Joey? Invited in with open arms – even called by name and asked to join the party? Have you been the bouncer? Maybe not even realized it until later? In charge of who is in the community and who is out? In charge of enforcing the ‘rules’?
What about that other character - Homer Glubgut? He’s “in” the group because of a technicality – yet part of a group that literally disavows his name. Walking on eggshells, waiting to be kicked out whenever they decide?
This story is all too familiar – we played out these characters in our own lives, rotating the roles.
God’s story involves her acting with grace and mercy by sending Her Son - a prophet who welcomes all. And guess what? – Paul says we’ve got to welcome everyone just like Jesus did.
Scripture does not shy away from this topic, as we are repeatedly given visions of what God’s community looks like and what it doesn’t look like. In fact, Paul’s letter to the Roman church is all about a church that is dealing with who’s “in” and who’s “out”. They are a mix of Jew and Gentile, in a time of significant anti-Jewish sentiment, and they are trying to come to some understanding of whether or not these two groups of people belong in the same club. They have tried to make each other the ‘outcast’. Theologian NT Wright says that “Christian Gentiles and Christian Jews find themselves in uneasy coexistence.” He describes the end of Paul’s letter as saying, “The community that is created by this gospel must live as the true, renewed humanity, in its internal and eternal life. In particular, it must reflect God’s intention that Jew and Gentile come together as one worshiping body in Christ.”2
Perhaps one of the clearest examples of welcoming the outcast is in the story about the Samaritan woman at the well, John 4:9, The Samaritan woman asked, “Why do you, a Jewish man, ask for something to drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” because Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other. In other words, it was so important for you to know that these two groups of people didn’t get along. And yet, Jesus engages with her - Jesus engaged with this person anyways – one who is an outcast from the Jewish community.
So – what about today's scripture?
To answer that question, we must know where we stand. And in particular, where do we stand in the wake of violence? As we mark the death of George Floyd earlier this week and the 100-year anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre tomorrow. and countless more...These people were presumed targeted victims of hate because of their black identity. We mourn and we lament the loss. But friends, the church cannot pretend this was a random act of violence or terrorism. Loving our neighbor – Jesus’ commandment – starts with knowing their name. Loving our neighbor means we must stand up against racism – and church, we aren’t doing as good a job as we can. At best, we are afraid to talk about it. At worst, we are part of the community that creates a culture of fear and encourages hatred and oppression. Folks, we are the bouncers at the treehouse.
So, why is that a bad thing – why do we need this welcoming attitude that Paul keeps talking about? Why should we try to model Jesus’ radical welcome to the fringes of society?
You see, Jesus gave a sacrifice to the community. Therefore, the community is obligated to respond not just in mutual love for Jesus as some type of individual action, but we love each other for the recognition and sacrifice of Jesus’ act for the other. Jesus' death wasn’t just for me to be saved by grace, but it was for me to recognize that act of love and sacrifice in you, the Jesus, the God-image in you, to be bound by this and to be bound to you as my brother and sister.
Love, therefore, is not some type of reaction to a tragic life event, or a sharing of common interests, but love, Christian love, is a binding that the Messiah died for the other person, too. If I have faith in that, then I must recognize and honor God’s sacrifice in you and in all children of God. To cast someone to the edges, to push them to the fringes, to make life difficult for them, is to ignore God’s sacrifice.
You see, thinking of Jesus’ sacrifice to the community is significant. Paul here is talking about faith as a community experience. We may focus so much on our individual faith and relationship with God, that we lose sight of the community. Paul’s letter is offering a faith where we build each other up. It’s not me building you up, it’s not you building me up, it’s the entire community taking responsibility.
And in taking responsibility we worship God - not individually, not 1 hour on Sunday morning, but through an ongoing reflection of our lives and relationships. Friends, the work of the church is not just left up to the clergy– the work of the church is every day and we must all be constant, active participants. And I challenge and encourage you to live fully into this call.
Welcoming each other, going out of our comfort zones, this is the way that the Kin-dom of God is brought here on Earth; this is the way we glorify God together in harmony. THIS is the challenge in the wake of the 2020s reckoning with race, in the wake of Charleston, in the wake of murder, the wake of war and violence, in the wake of bigotry and hatred. We MUST welcome the outcast, the one we’ve put on the fringe of society. Because we are a kin-dom people crying out for peace.
Let me remind you what Paul says in verses 2 and 3 Talk about welcoming the ‘other’, even to the point of ridicule? Engaging in uncomfortable spaces? Entering into a relationship with people on the fringes, who have been discounted by society? This is what Paul is telling us to do in the passage. We are to welcome each other as Christ did – we are to build each other up.
Who is on the fringe and how do we know? Let me give you some clarity. The further someone is away from you, the harder it is to see the Jesus in them. In other words, if you can’t recognize God’s sacrifice, God’s image in that person, or you find ways to justify pushing them further out, then they are OUT of your comfort zone, they are out of your treehouse. And it is as soon as they are out that things become dangerous, that hatred and fear are rampant. This is where oppression begins, where homophobia, and ageism, and sexism, classism, and racism can thrive. You see God knows this, and so we are encouraged to do the opposite – we are encouraged to welcome each other so that we can see the God-image in everyone.
Welcoming the ‘Other’ is not an easy task. Paul knows it’s hard. God knows it’s hard. That’s why we see in verses 6 and 13, strong, significant references to hope. Paul’s call to action here is a tough goal to meet and surely we may fail. He knows that the cost of discipleship is high. He knows that what he’s asking for is a whole lot. He asks us to be patient, to build up our neighbor, even to the point of ridicule. Then later he calls us to this crazy, radical welcome – we are to welcome the way Christ welcomed us. Is that even possible? The divine welcoming us into the Kingdom of God? How do we do that for each other, is that even possible?
Well no . . . we can’t do that, not alone anyway. But Paul tells us that our God is a God of hope. The ability to welcome the person on the fringes into our community is given to us through the Holy Spirit as we seek to create Christian relationship, it’s given to us through the modeling of Jesus’ life in how he welcomed others like the Samaritan woman, it’s given to us in the faith that God will fulfill his covenant and will reconcile all peoples to Her. God equips us to do the work. Our communities, our church, MUST welcome the outcast with open arms.
In the past year, we have changed the way we gather and what we do together, and the way we worship. We have changed the way we use the internet, we have organized ourselves to reach out to the community in new ways. Will we need to evolve further, still searching for new ways to meet the unfolding crisis of our time? Where and How Do We Go from Here? We must consistently build Christian relationships and welcome each other as Christ welcomed us. WE must welcome the Other as we were welcomed.
We must offer a radical welcome!
Amen.
1 Spellers, Stephanie. 2006. Radical welcome: embracing God, the other, and the spirit of transformation. New York: Church Publishing. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1522146.
2 Wright, N. T. 2018. Surprised by hope: rethinking heaven, the resurrection, and the mission of the church.
We must consistently build Christian relationships and welcome each other as Christ welcomed us. WE must welcome the Other as we were welcomed. We must offer a radical welcome!
Scripture Reading
Romans 15:1-13 (Inclusive Bible) Note: This translation is not online. ASV is offered as a substitute.
Hymn:
How Can I Say (VT 388)
Text and Song: V. Michael McKay
Sermon Transcript
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Today we celebrate the birth of the church through the sending of God’s Spirit, an event referred to as Pentecost. What difference does the presence of God’s Spirit make in the early church’s story? What difference does it make in our day to day lives as followers of Jesus?
Scripture Readings
Acts 2:1-4 (NRSV)
Galatians 5:22-26 (NRSV)
Hymn
Holy Spirit, Come with Power (VT57)
Text: Anne Neufeld Rupp
Music attributed to B.F. White
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In this sermon, Pastor Marty reflects on how God's Spirit interrupts Peter and widens his circle as he comes to understand that “God shows no partiality.” How is God interrupting the church today with Justice and Love? In this time of exclusion and polarity, how is God calling us to be community?
Scripture Readings
Acts 10:34-37 (NIRV)
Galatians 3:26-29 (NIRV)
Hymn:
Let's Walk Together (VT6)
Laurie Zelman and Mark Miller
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Celebrating what God has done in and through the lives of people we know. Who is God inviting us to fight for and include? How can we be allies to the voiceless?
Scripture Readings : Acts 9:1-19 (NLT)
Hymn: Beauty For Brokenness (VT 512)
Text/Music Graham Kendrick
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Saul’s life is interrupted and transformed when Jesus asks him a question oppressed communities often ask, “Why are you hurting me?” Saul doesn’t come “just as I am” as if “all are welcome.” He must first conform to the ways of Jesus and accept his history of violence. How is our life, our narrative, our behavior, being interrupted by the cry of the oppressed?
Special Sermon by Dr. LaTayna Purnell
Sermon Transcript
Scripture Readings
Acts 9:1-19 (NCV)
Hymn:
Jesus Stand Among Us (HWB #25)
Author: W. Pennefather (1873) // Tune: WEM IN LEIDENSTAGEN
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On April 24, 2021, the members of Houston Mennonite Church came together for the first time in nearly a year. On this date, they celebrated the publication of Voices Together, the new hymnal, through song.
This podcast contains segments of the raw audio recorded at the event.
Sharing the good news may not look like what we assume. In this sermon we look God's call to walk with those who have experienced the humiliation of injustice.
Scripture Readings
Acts 8:26-40 (NRSV)
Hymn
Strangers No More (#409 VT)
Words: Kenneth I. Morse
Composer: Dianne Huffman Morningstar
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Scripture Readings
Isaiah 1:14-17
Acts 7:54-8:1
Hymn
Sing a New World into Being
Words: Mary Louise Bringle
Music: Ludvig van Beethoven
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Special Guest Speaker: Heidi Regier Kreider
Scripture Readings:
John 20:19-31 (NIV)
Scriptural References:
John 1:1-4
Acts 4:32-35
Hymn: Come and Fill Our Hearts (with Your Peace)
Communauté de Taizé (1982)
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Scripture Readings:
Isaiah 25:6-9
Mark 16:1-8
Hymn:
Lift Your Glad Voices by Henry Ware, Jr. (pub 1817)
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Scripture Readings:
Mark 11:1-11 ESV
Hymn: Hail to the Lord's Anointed (HWB 185)
Text: James Montgomery
Music: John Farmer
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Great Physician and Healer,
We thank you for the wide variety of gifts and abilities you bestow upon your image bearers. As we look back on this past year full of chaos and sickness, we thank you for those in the healthcare field, who have acted as instruments of hope and healing. We pray for those who have been on the front lines battling, with their bodies and minds, the Covid-19 virus. Guide the minds and hands of our doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants, therapists, administrators, and others as they continue to work together to battle this virus. Give them wisdom, give them energy and stamina in the midst of their mentally and physically draining work. We ask you to keep their minds sharp, their morale high, and their reserves of compassion fully fueled. Keep discouragement at bay. For those who do jobs most of us would be happy to avoid, we thank you for their service. They are vital to the proper functioning of our healthcare system. For all involved in this fight over the past year, comfort and care for their families. Thank you, Lord, for the continued willingness of everyone in the healthcare field to prevent, treat, and fight this pandemic. Great Physician, may they all be instruments in your healing hands.
Amen.
Scripture Readings:
Matthew 9:18-26
Matthew 25:34b-26 Starts at Quote**
Hymn: Whatsoever you do - Willard F Jabusch
Video of Atlanta Victims Names and Pronunciation
Great Physician And Healer Prayer
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Scripture Readings:
Exodus 33:17-23
Exodus 34:6-7
1 Corinthians 2:9-11
Hymn: You Are Holy (SS 34) Text and Music Per Harling
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Scripture Readings:
Genesis 12:1-8
Genesis 21:14-20 (The Voice)
Hymn: The God of Sarah Praise (Lyrics by David Bjorlin)
Sermon Text
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Words by David Bjorlin
The God of Sarah praise
the God of dreams long dead
who births new life from barren ground
disarming dread.
Though grief lasts through the night
joy rises with the sun
God leaves us laughing in surprise at
death undone.
The God of Abr’ham praise
the God of all who roam
who guides us into foreign lands
and makes our home.
Though darkness shrouds our path
the stars as pledges shine
God’s covenant will be fulfilled
by love’s design.
The God of Hagar praise
the God of “second best”
who sees the lost and overlooked
and calls them blessed
Though wandering alone
through deserts of despair
God leads us to a well of hope
and meets us there
I am Hagar
March 7, 2021
LaTayna Purnell
You probably do not know me very well. I am certainly not as famous as Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Joseph, or the other big names of Genesis. But I am part of your history. And a little of me exists in you. I am Hagar, the mother of Ishmael.
My story began in Egypt, for that was my home. The Hebrew Scriptures do not tell how I ended up in Abraham’s household. So, I’ll fill in some of the details.
You see, I was one of the Pharaoh’s slaves. That’s how I met Abraham and Sarah. Their God had sent them to a place called Canaan. After they had settled, their land was hit with a horrible famine. Abraham and Sarah journeyed to Egypt to survive.
Well, when they arrived in Egypt, they told the Pharaoh that they were brother and sister. The Pharaoh was rather smitten with Sarah, and he treated Abraham with the utmost respect.
Your Bible tells this part of the story. It says that Abraham was given sheep, oxen, male and female slaves, female donkeys, and camels. Pharaoh gave him these things because of Sarah. I was given to Abraham to be used as a slave. That’s how I got into the story.
Well, as the days passed, Pharaoh learned the truth about Abraham and Sarah. You see, they weren’t brother and sister at all! They were husband and wife. Abraham had been afraid that the Pharaoh would kill him to take Sarah as a wife. So Abraham lied. Well, the Pharaoh was very angry, so he sent Abraham and Sarah away from Egypt.
It’s funny how things change so quickly. One minute I was a servant of Pharaoh’s, the next I was a servant of Abraham’s, and the next I was traveling to a place far, far away. Forces beyond my control carried me, and there was nothing I could do.
Well, when we arrived in Canaan, God spoke to Abraham. As an Egyptian, I did not know God. I worshiped other gods, but I could not help wondering about this being of theirs. Their God was always guiding them and telling them things. Their God told them that they were going to have many children and that their children would inherit the land. Well, this was rather unlikely, for both Abraham and Sarah were far too old for children. I found the whole thing rather sad.
Despite this, sometimes I would go off by myself and try to talk to their God. As a servant, I was used to worshiping the gods of my master, so it only seemed natural that I would try to worship Abraham’s God. Well, it felt sort of silly, I must admit. There was no statue to which I could bow. I lifted my face to the sky, and I watched, and I listened—for what? I did not know.
I heard nothing. I saw nothing. I felt nothing.
The next part of my story may sound strange to your ears. You see, our customs and culture were much different from yours. A woman’s purpose, a woman’s place, was to have children. If a woman did not provide an heir for her husband, she could be divorced. It was believed that a woman that did not have a child was not blessed by God.
The followers of God did not know about the randomness of miscarriage, SIDS, or infertility. It all blurred together as one fact. A barren woman was not blessed.
Well, quite frequently, if a wife had no child, then a slave could have a child for her. I know this sounds appalling and harsh, but in my world, it was not unusual at all. I had Abraham’s child so Abraham would have an heir.
I am not proud of the next part of the story. You see, when I realized I was going to provide an heir for Abraham, I looked at Sarah differently. Their God had blessed me! Suddenly I was doing something important. I was special.
And Sarah looked at me differently. She was jealous. I don’t think she could shake her feelings of inadequacy. As you might imagine, things became rather tense.
After my son Ishmael was born, Sarah tried to care for him, but her worthless feelings prevented it. Well, then the impossible happened. Sarah conceived and had a child. Their silly God was right. Sarah was blessed! Sarah had a purpose. Their God was with her, and I was sent away. I was sent out into the wilderness with a little bit of bread, a skin of water, and a tiny child.
That place where I wandered is a common one. You probably have been there. The failure of a marriage or the breakup of a dating relationship, the diagnosis of cancer, the death of a loved one, struggling with a class at school—all of these things may bring us there.
Theologian Delores Williams reflects upon Me in her book Sisters in the Wilderness.
Williams writes Even today, most of my situation is congruent with many African American women’s predicament of poverty, sexual and economic exploitation, surrogacy, domestic violence, homelessness, rape, motherhood, single parenting. By running away from Sarah and Abraham, I became the first female in the Bible to liberate myself from oppressive power. Williams states that I have spoken to generation after generation of black women because my story has been validated as true by suffering black people.
Sometimes the wilderness appears gradually during the months and years of raising a family, or in the night when sleep won’t come. Or it may appear suddenly when you are called into the boss’s office one day and told you no longer have a job. The 23rd Psalm speaks of green grass and still waters. But often when we search for direction and answers, those waters seem to be only a fantasy. Back to my story
Well, that was my experience that day. I was paralyzed inside! I couldn’t think, I couldn’t feel, I couldn’t cry. Ishmael kept asking me, “Where are we going? Where are we going?” I did not answer him, for I did not know. We simply wandered, with no direction and no purpose.
Well, after a while, I realized it was time to stop. I was very tired, and my legs ached. I noticed my feet were bleeding. We sat down, and I took the bread and I broke it, and I gave Ishmael a piece. And then I took the cup, and I gave Ishmael a drink. Ishmael snuggled close to me and fell asleep.
Questions began invading my mind. Why had I been so proud? If only I had thought about what could happen. If I had believed in their God, perhaps their God would not have forsaken me.
But then I got angry. It wasn’t my fault at all. I was only a slave. I had no power. I had no control; I was forced out into this place. I tried to listen for Abraham and Sarah’s God, but I heard only silence. A terrible, earth-shattering silence.
Well, time passed and we still wandered. I realized that both of us were going to die. I hugged Ishmael close, and I tried to stay composed. I put him next to a bush to shade him from the sun. Then I walked away. I could not bear to watch him die.
I looked up to the sky, and I wept. I wept because I had done all that I could do and it was not enough. I wept because my son did not deserve to die. I wept because I was completely alone. I wept because the God of Abraham and Sarah was so unfair and so unloving.
And then it happened. I heard a voice call out my name. “What troubles you, Hagar? Don't be afraid.” No one had called me Hagar in such a long time. I was just the slave woman. But this voice. This voice called me Hagar. And at that moment I knew that it was the voice of God.
Delores Williams links modern-day African American women’s history most closely to My story and the experience of wilderness. It’s in the wilderness, fleeing from my oppressors, forced to take care of my child on my own, that I have an experience of God. Note, the only one in this story who calls me by name is God. God sees me. And God promises me a future of blessing and a future that is all my own. And I call God the name - El-roee. In Hebrew, El-Roee means the God who sees. I am the only person in your bible who gives God a name, and outside of the great prophet Moses himself, I and the only person who has seen God face to face and lived.
I looked around the wilderness, and I saw a well of water. I got up, filled the empty skin with water, and gave my son a cup of its coolness. Colors returned. That frozen feeling was gone. Everything was different. I was no longer a slave woman but a woman who had survived. I was Hagar, a servant of God, and I knew my life would never be the same.
I tell my story, not to give answers or solutions, for I have none. I am hopeful that I have taught you that God is concerned with those who are at the bottom of all the hierarchies, women, the enslaved, immigrate and, as is so often the case, persons in more than one category–like me. I want you to know that God sees you, hears you, knows you, loves you. And, our way with God will not always be easy. There will be pain and sorrow ahead and, the way will sometimes lead you on paths you do not wish to travel. But you will not walk alone. God, having walked with you when enslavement and oppression will be no more, when all the children and kindred of God will walk together in the saving, healing, liberating love of God, seen, heard, known. Amen.
Scripture Readings: 1 Kings 19: 1-13 (GNT)
Hymn: God is Here Among Us (Words: Gerhard Tersteegen / Tune: ARNSBERG)
https://rockhay.tripod.com/worship/music/godishere.htm
Sermon Text and Images
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God in Wilderness and Whisper
Sermon on 1 Kings 19:1-18
Rev. Teresa Kim Pecinovsky
Today’s text begins with the prophet Elijah, fresh from his triumphant victory over the prophets of Ba’al, where he summons a throwdown between the prophets of Ba’al, the Canaanite God of rain, thunder, lightning, and dew and the Hebrew God.
And the God of the Israelites responds with a fiery display from Heaven that scorches the alter, ignites the doubting Israelites, and leads to the killing of the prophets of Ba’al.
But instead of basking in his impressive display of divine fire, Elijah flees to Beersheba and beyond, to its desert.
And if we look to the text LaTayna will preach on next week we will find the enslaved woman Hagar and her young son Ishamael, thrown out by an insecure and jealous Sarah, ignored by his father Abraham. The wilderness of Beersheba is also where Hagar and Ishmael wandered, weak, and weary, until God hears her cry and saves their lives.
The wilderness desert, it seems, is a place where God frequents.
It is also an ideal place to hide, to run away to, when all hope is gone.
It certainly seemed this way for Elijah.
The Elijah of today’s text hardly seems like the same Elijah of 1 Kings 18, the confident, almost swaggering prophet who calls down fire from heaven, bests the prophets of Ba’al and ends their lives.
Can Elijah still smell the burnt smoke of his cloak from this incredible feat?
Is his face still red from the blaze of the fire that fell from heaven and consumed the watery alter?
Elijah no longer seems like this great prophet. King Ahab has informed Jezebel that Elijah has killed the prophets of Ba’al. Jezebel wastes no time and issues a hit on Elijah’s life within 24 hours.
And why, we are not told, but Elijah is afraid. He runs for his life.
He flees from Jezreel to the southern city of Beersheba, a distance of about one hundred miles.
The text explains that Beersheba is in Judah, beyond Jezebel’s reach. After a long journey Elijah has reached safety in another land. Still, he runs. First, he leaves his servant behind, and goes out a day’s journey into the wilderness.
And there, under a solitary broom tree, Elijah collapses, completely exhausted. Not just the physical exhaustion of escaping the queen’s death threats.
Elijah is deeply troubled, overwhelmed, and desperately defeated. He is depressed and in despair.
“Enough, ENOUGH Lord! It is ENOUGH!”
It is too much. Too much for just one person to bear alone. Too much to follow this reckless Spirit who leads him to go against nations and kings set on his destruction.
“I don’t know what I thought being a prophet would look like after all these years, but this ‘aint it. I’m not young anymore! It’s too much, Lord!”
It’s too much to expect that God would ask him to do it again, and again, and again.
“TAKE MY LIFE ALREADY!”
I’ve had enough. Let it be over. I’m ready to join my ancestors.
And then he falls asleep under the broom tree.
Does Elijah dream while he sleeps? Is he tortured by all the evil he has encountered in his life? Does he scream in his nightmares to the surprise of lurking animals nearby, sweat pouring down his forehead?
Is this how he sleeps most nights? Is this how he sleeps every night?
And then, it happens.
A messenger comes to him, awakes him from his slumber. And, like a quintessential homemaker, he tells Elijah,
“Get up! It’s time to eat!”
Elijah nibbles on some of his hot cake and drinks from the jug of water. He is still so, so exhausted. Maybe God gave him this simple meal to end his life on this earth. He falls back asleep.
Again, he is awoken. The angel tells him,
“Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.”
Dr. Sara Koenig, Seattle Pacific University:
“The Hebrew points us back to Elijah’s complaint in verse 4 that it was “too much” (rab), when the angel uses the same language in his frank assessment of what lies ahead. Elijah has had rab (verse 4), but he is sent on a way that is also rab for him (verse 7).”
Too much.
This part of the text has always struck me. I know there have been times in my life when the journey has felt too much for me. Where I wished God would let me die. Where I was ready to die.
And yet.
And yet, God has always sent messengers to me when I find myself in spiritual wilderness, wandering alone, desperate, and utterly exhausted. Friends who bear witness to my pain and suffering, spiritual siblings and beloved ones who meet over a cup of coffee, a screen, a meal, a box of tissues. Sometimes the messengers are professionals, like physicians or therapists. Often they are fellow wilderness travelers in whatever season of life I encounter.
But what they give is no less miraculous than an angel in the desert, because they offer strength for the journey.
When the angel awakens Elijah the second time he does as he’s told. He nourishes his body. The food he’s given sustains him 40 days and 40 nights, until he reaches the sacred place, Mount Horeb, the Mountain where Moses encountered God.
I would wager that most of us who grew up in Christian settings are far more familiar with this scene- Elijah at the mountain-and not Elijah despairing in the wilderness. The Revised Common Lectionary even omits verses 5-7 in one of its cycles.
It certainly is more in line with the fiery prophet Elijah of 1 Kings 18.
It is tempting to speed through the wilderness, even skip it, especially when we as readers know what’s coming up ahead. But Elijah did not know. He was, after all, still just a human.
Professor Christopher Davis at Memphis Theological Seminary:
“Your calling does not cancel all your challenges.
I don’t care how anointed you are.
I don’t care how appointed you are.
I don’t care how filled with the Holy Ghost you are.
At the right time or the wrong time, with the wrong person, in the wrong situation, saying the wrong thing, acting the wrong way, you will discover that you still have some human moments.”
Elijah is having some human moments in this text.
The word of the Lord comes to him, asking, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Elijah tells God: I have been faithful to you, I’ve even killed others for you. Your people, however, are a different story. They break your covenant, serve other gods and now they’re ready to kill me too. It’s a little much for one prophet, God.
Elijah gives his lament to God.
And church, God does not rebuke Elijah for his very human lament. Because lament is part of who we are as humans. And lament is part of who we are as believers.
Instead, God chooses to reveal Godself to Elijah at Mt. Horeb.
Not through a category 5 hurricane wind,
Nor through an 8.6 richter scale earthquake,
Not even through a raging wildfire from heaven.
Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney at Texas Christian University:
“...God was not present among the usual suspects. Then there was a qol dammah daqah, a sound (or voice) of a fine silence. And that is where Elijah encountered God.”
qol dammah daqah is ambiguous enough to be translated as:
“Sound of sheer silence”
“A still small voice”
“A thin quiet sound”
In his translation of the Hebrew Bible Dr. Robert Alter uses the phrase “a sound of minute stillness.”
God shows up in the unexpected places: the wilderness, in the form of a messenger. At a holy mountain, in a thin stillness.
Elijah encounters the mystery of God, in the silence instead of the chaos.
This mystery of God is sometimes referred to in a typology of Christian spirituality. This slide shows a modified version of Urban Holmes “A Circle of Sensibility” from A History of Christian Spirituality.
We see four categories with balancing sides:
Mind/Heart
Apophatic/Kataphatic
The next slide helps clarify what those academic words mean.
Kataphatic Mind: Theological renewal: reasons for belief, correct doctrine, study of theology, prayer leading to insight.
Kataphatic Heart: Personal renewal: being born again, having deep emotion in worship, prayer leading to presence.
Apophatic Heart: The Inner life: contemplation, inner peace, the monastic life, prayer leading to mystical union
Apophatic Mind: Social regeneration: social action, justice and peacemaking, spiritual relevance, prayer leading to witness.
In these categories there’s a lot of room for movement and change, depending on many factors, including the season you find yourself in right now. I can see different stages of my life in several different places on this circle, and I imagine you can as well.
During this season of Lent we will be focusing on the Apophatic tradition, the mystery of God, in worship. Today I invite you to think of where you have encountered God: in the wilderness, in a thin quiet sound, or anywhere else you had not expected for God to be revealed, in mystery.
As we reflect I will close us with a poem from the great mystic, theologian, and civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman:
Let Go of My Accumulations
My ego is like a fortress.
I have built its walls
stone by stone
to hold out the invasion
of the Love of God.
But I have stayed here long
enough. There is light,
over the barriers, Oh my God.
The darkness of my house
forgive
and overtake my soul.
I relax the barriers.
I abandon all that I think I am.
All I hope to be.
All that I believe I possess.
I let go of the past,
I withdraw my grasping hand
From the future, and in the great silence of this moment,
I alertly rest my soul.
As the sea gull lays in the wind current,
So I lay into the spirit of God,
My dearest human relationships,
My most precious dreams.
I surrender to His care all that I have called my own.
I give back
All my favorite things
Which I withhold in my storehouse.
I let go.
I give myself unto thee
Oh my God.
Amen.
Church, I pray that we would be for one another,
for our community, and our world,
messengers who provide strength for the journey
So we may encounter God
In the wilderness, in weariness and in doubt.
Where God is still present with us:
In the mystery.
Amen.
Luke 16:19-31: “'Forgive My Hat'”
Given at Houston Mennonite Church virtual service on 2/21/2021
I've come to think of this as “the parable of the chasm.”
It's the only parable with a chasm. In fact, it's the only chasm in the whole of the New Testament. And what a chasm it is. A chasm that the rich man is able to see over, to see the poor beggar Lazarus resting comfortably in Abraham's bosom on the other side (I know, the more modern translations say he is by Abraham's side, but I like the King James here.) The rich man is able to see to the other side of the chasm and even to talk with Abraham across the chasm. The one thing the rich man cannot do is cross over the chasm.
Of course, this chasm between heaven and Hades is a physical—and I would say imaginative—manifestation of the divide that existed on earth between Lazarus and the rich man. One dressed in (very expensive) purple and fine linen; the other covered with sores. The one feasting with his friends, using scraps of bread as napkins and then tossing them under the table; the other stuck outside the gate, longing for some of those table scraps. The story-teller wants to make it very clear that these two men live in different worlds—even when they are both alive on earth.
Another story-teller, Katherine Mansfield, has the same idea in her short story, “The Garden Party.” The Sheridans—well, the women—are preparing for their annual garden party on sunny early summer day that could not have been more perfect “if they had ordered it.” At their large, elegant, house on the hill there are hundreds of roses in the garden and trays full of lilies delivered by the florist. Fifteen different kinds of sandwiches with the crusts cut off and and swept off the counter by the cook. (Not quite using bread as napkins, but still . . . )
The chasm in this story is between the Sheridans and the people who live in the cottages at the bottom of the hill. There is no physical chasm between the house and the cottages, but “a broad road ran between them.” Compared to the large, beautiful house on the hill, the cottages below are “little mean dwellings.” And instead of roses in their gardens, they have cabbages and sick chickens. Even the smoke is poor: “Little rags and shreds of smoke, so unlike the great silvery plumes that uncurled from the Sheridans' chimneys.”
The Sheridans seem oblivious to the people who live on the other side of the chasm. Like the rich man, they simply ignore the poor outside their gate. Until death comes. In “The Garden Party,” none of the rich people die. But a tragic accident results in the death of Scott, a young father who lives in one of the cottages.
Laura Sheridan, one of the daughters, learns of this death as they are all preparing for the party, and she asks her sister, Jose, how they can stop the party—they can't possibly have a party with a poor man dead just down the hill. His widow and children might hear the party music and it's just too awful. Jose, however, thinks Laura is being ridiculous. She tells her sister: “If you're going to stop a band from playing every time someone has an accident, you'll lead a very strenuous life.”
And her mother refuses to cancel the party: “People like that don't expect sacrifices from us,” she says. “And it's not very sympathetic to spoil everybody's enjoyment as you're doing now.” Laura insists that the dead man's family are “nearly neighbors,” but apparently they are not neighbors enough—the chasm is too big--for the man's death to hinder the party.
These chasms—the one in Jesus' parable and the one in Mansfield's story—are obviously caused by money. The people who have a lot of it—the rich man and the Sheridans—manage to isolate themselves from the people who don't have enough of it. The rich choose to live in their own gated world and to spend their money on luxury items, on food that gets casually tossed out. These choices mean that they are cut off from friendships with the poor, from the web of community that could be theirs, from living in right relationship with their neighbors. These are both stories about the poverty of wealth.
Certainly there are chasms today between the rich and the poor. The wealth gap, as you are probably aware, is obscene—and growing. We also must talk about the racial chasm in our country—which, of course, is connected to the economic chasm—with a history going back to genocide of native peoples and enslavement of Africans. Still today, the racial wealth gap is overwhelming. The typical white household has 10 times the amount of wealth as the typical black household.
In addition to the wealth gap, there is the related experience gap. This chasm that exists between the way I experience this society as a white person and the way people of color experience it. A few years ago I remember I was driving in town and I changed lanes without signaling. I had just heard Sandra Bland's mother on NPR talking about the settlement related to her daughter's death. Bland, who was black, was arrested in the course of a routine traffic stop and later found dead in her jail cell. I remembered, as I casually switched lanes, that Sandra Bland's traffic infraction had been failing to signal a lane change.
The same week Bland’s settlement was in the news, so were the shooting deaths, at the hands of police, of Terrance Cruthcher—who van was broken down in the middle of the road—and Kieth Scott—who was sitting in his car in a parking lot. If my car broke down, I would be happy to see the police come, and I realize this is not the experience of many black people in this country. I've read about young black men having near panic attacks any time they hear or see a police car. When Kieth Scott's wife, Rakeyia, saw the police officers approaching her husband's car, she immediately yelled, “Don't shoot him! Don't shoot him!”. I have never—not once—yelled “don't shoot.”
I've had some contact with police over the years. There was the rolling stop incident. And the time the police came to me with an inquiry about a criminal I had talked to in a pastoral context. A couple of home visits by police when children had called 911—you know, for fun. There were a few issues with a missing child. And the time I turned in a large box of ammunition that we had inherited from my husband’s dad. At no point did it ever cross my mind that I or anyone I loved was in danger. Not when a police car pulled me over or when the flashing lights showed up at my house unexpectedly or when I tried to figure out the best way to dispose of unwanted ammunition. That is a chasm—a wide gap in the way I am able to experience the world compared to how most people of color experience it. And of course, police interaction is only a small small part of what creates such a wide racial chasm in our country.
“The parable of the chasm.” It's a great parable to preach social justice—to point out the vast disparity between the haves and the have nots. But it's not such a great parable when you're looking for hope. Not so great when the huge inequalities, the deep divides, the chasms, are already painfully clear and what you want, what you need, is a word of grace and encouragement and hope that we might be able to go from here to there after all—that the unbridgeable chasm just might, by the grace of God, be bridgeable.
But in the parable, it's not. Abraham is pretty adamant that the rich man cannot come up to him, and Lazarus cannot cross over into Hades with a water jug.
It's kind of a depressing parable. But I noticed that the chasm isn't the only physical division in the parable. We also have the gate. We have a gate in the parable and in “The Garden Party.” Lazarus has been thrown at the rich man's gate. Laura laments that they “can't possibly have a garden party with a man dead just outside the front gate.” There is a great chasm, yes. But there are also gates. And the thing about gates is. The beautiful, wonderful thing about gates is that they can open.
The parable hints of a better way. The rich man begs for Lazarus to be sent to his brothers and warn them. He wants Lazarus to tell them to open the gate—open the gate and share with the people in need. Open the gate while there is a gate to open. Lazarus, of course, cannot warn them. These brothers have to listen to the prophets and figure out about the gate for themselves. And we have no idea if that happens. We do not know the story of the brothers.
But Mansfield does tell us some of the story of the Sheridan sisters. After the garden party, Mrs. Sheridan has the brilliant idea to send the leftovers to the family of the man who has died. Laura is unsure of this plan, but she dutifully gets the basket and then goes down the hill, out the gate, and to the home of the recent widow.
Now the thing about Laura is, she's somewhat ridiculous. Early in the story she fancies herself just like a worker because she spends about five minutes talking to the men who will put up the marquee—but she is quickly distracted from her reflections on the evils of class distinctions by the ringing telephone. And she is quite upset about the man's death, but her mother is able to distract her and get her to enjoy the party by giving her a nice hat to wear. The same hat she thinks she should have taken off before walking among the poor cottages. Laura is somewhat horrified to be ushered into the grimy little cottage where the widow is—she wants to just set the basket down and run away. But she goes in. And offers the food. And even looks at the dead man.
Feeling like she should say something to him, she says, “Forgive my hat.”
That's how I feel sometimes, trying to go through the gate. When I think about trying to work for antiracism, I am afraid I will do it wrong—because I probably will. I'm afraid I won't give enough. I'm afraid I won't understand the people on the other side—or worse, they won't understand me. I'm afraid I will be in the way. That I will feel ridiculous. And I'm afraid that sometimes I'm more concerned about being ridiculous than I am about the people beyond the gate.
When I read “The Garden Party,” I'm kind of embarrassed for Laura, walking through the grimy streets, past the little cottages, with her basket full of leftovers and her fancy hat.
But the thing is, at least she walked through the gate. The rich man didn't do it. Laura's family didn't do it. They all stayed in their comfortable homes with their nice clothes and their full tables. The rich man finds himself on the other side of the chasm with all hope of going through the gate gone. Laura's mom and her sister Jose, still could decide to go through the gate, but there is most likely a great chasm in their future as well. Those who don't go through the gate face the chasm, that hopeless chasm that separates us from each other—and from God. So sure, Laura is ridiculous. But at least she is on the other side of the gate.
I've decided I don't like “The Parable of the Chasm” after all. I'd rather think of Jesus' story as “The Parable of the Gate.”
And I pray that we will have the vision to see the gates around us and the courage to walk through them—even if it means we must apologize for our hats.
Guest Speaker:
Joanna Harader, Pastor, Peace Mennonite Church - Lawrence, KS
Sermon Text
Scripture Readings:
Matthew 6:25-34
Hymn: Great is the Lord
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Scripture Readings:
Isaiah 24:4-6 (NLT)
Exodus 23:10-11 (NLT)
Hymn: This Is God's Wondrous World
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
For the times we have loved one-another and the times we have been lied to...
Heal us, Jesus, Savior of The World
For the times we have laughed at another's pain and the times we have been laughed at...
Heal us, Jesus, Savior of The World
For the times we have betrayed a friend and for the times we have been betrayed...
Heal us, Jesus, Savior of The World
For the times we have spoken when we should have remained silent and for the times we remained silent when we should have spoken...
Heal us, Jesus, Savior of The World
For the times our shame and anxiety have damaged relationships and the times shame and anxiety have damaged us...
Heal us, Jesus, Savior of The World
Scripture Readings:
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Luke 19:1-10
Hymn:
Gentle God, When We Are Driven
Text: Shirley Erena Murray
Music: Jillian Bray
Anointing Prayer
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Leader:
Great Physician, you touched the lives of the sick and the troubled;
your hands rested on bodies in crisis;
your words soothed broken hearts.
We call on you today, O God, because we need your healing.
People:
When we have pain, bring relief.
When we are disoriented, bring clarity.
When we confront disease or brokenness, bring healing.
When we wait for tests or news, bring patience.
People:
When we live with barriers, bring courage.
When we are bound by addiction, bring freedom.
When illness separates us from others, bring friendship.
When we cannot make ends meet, help us.
Leader:
You are with us in loneliness, bringing comfort.
You are with us in despair, bringing hope.
You are the God who cares and heals.
Sill my soul, calm my roaming mind.
Give me peace; may my heart unwind.
Let me stay, your beloved guest.
Take my fear, make my worry rest.
What I hold, let me give to you.
Aid my strength when my storms drive through.
When my thoughts won't let me go, I'll sing to you:
oh, still my soul
3x
Scripture Readings: (All NRSV)
Psalm 34:18
1 Kings 19:1-12
Psalm 34:18
Jeremiah 20:14-18
Hymn: Still My Soul
Text: Katie Graber / Music: Charlene Nafziger
Anointing Prayer
Website
Topics discussed: Racism, defunding police, de-escalation, white privilege, true antiracism work
Special Guest Speaker: Kerry Connelly
Sermon Transcript
Author of: Good White Racist
Scripture: Mark 1:14-20 (ASV)
HYMN: Praise With Joy the World's Creator
Author: John L. Bell ; Author: Graham Maule
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
I am humbled and honored to have this privilege of using my voice today, of being heard today when so many other voices don’t get a platform like this, and I pray that I will represent well.
I think we can all agree that 2020 was a heck of year, and here we are, finally in 2021, where the year ahead dangles the temptation of hope before us. There is the sparkle of hope that a vaccine will soon bring an end to the lockdown that has kept us isolated from each other and decimated the economy. For many of us — though I acknowledge not all — there is hope in the transition of power that just occurred in our government. And for some of us — but again, not all — there is the hope that there might finally be movement toward healing our racial divide. At the same time many of us understand that before we can jump to healing, we need to participate in the deep labor of lament and reparation.
Hope is important. Hope can motivate us, spur us on to do the good work that is before us. Hope is the crux of Womanist theology — the theology of Black women that operates around the core ideas of embodiment and holistic justice for all people. But the liberation theology of the Latinx community also gives us a theology of hopelessness. And I think it’s important for us — especially those of us who are white, middle class, who are straight — to embrace the theology of hopelessness because the biggest danger of hope is complacency. Theologian and philosopher Miguel de la Torre says Hope is a middle class privilege. One of the things hope does to those of us who have no stake in the game, whose lives are not impacted by the reality of injustice — especially racial injustice or gendered injustice or injustices centered around sexuality — is that it allows us to say oh don’t worry. Things are getting better. Everything’s going to work out fine. Because we get to live into a hope while ignoring the horror of the present reality.
And we can believe the hope because we sit safely in our comfortable living rooms every night without the fear that ICE will break down our door any moment. We can go out for a jog and not worry that our neighbors will hunt us down with a shot gun. We can go to sleep in our beds and not fear that the police will blast through our doors, guns blazing. Our hope is a complacent hope. But today, Jesus offers us an invitation. Today, we’re invited to join the underground — a place where hope marries action and demands participation.
When we think about the work of justice and equality and racial equity I don’t stand before you claiming to have all the answers. Not at all. Actually I believe that the answers have to come from the collective — not just one identity but all of our identities need to speak into the story of justice we wish to write. But what we can do is ask the right questions. We can interrogate ourselves and the narratives we believe and ask ourselves if they are true, and if they are life giving.
I want us to think about 3 things together today, and ask some questions with you. Bear with me while we talk through this. I want us to think about invitation, I want us to think about language, and I want us to think about trees. I said bear with me.
We’re going to start with the trees.
I’ve been reading a few books lately but two have talked a lot about trees. The first one is called Of Water and the Spirit by Malidoma Patrice Some. It tells the story of how a young African boy was caught in the collision of Western Christian Colonialism and the shamanic faith story of his native land and people. It talks about the deep significance of trees in his faith journey as portals to the divine and as representatives of God’s presence but the lesson here was that the young boy who had been kidnapped from his own culture and society into the wilderness of dominant white Christian culture had lost his ability to see the presence of God.
This is my first question for us: how does our alliance with dominance — whether conscious or unconscious — keep us from experiencing the presence of God in ourselves and in others? Stay with me.
The second book, called emergent strategy by adrienne maree brown talks about how the sturdiest of tree have intertwined root systems. They don’t just dig their roots deep into the ground. Their roots reach out, they find each other, and together they build an underground network of collaboration.
My question here though is how do they know each other? How does the oak root recognize its kin?
Interestingly, though these root systems are good for the entire ecosystem, resisting soil erosion, hosting other plants and flora and fungi and animals to rest in their very beings. They all hold presence to each other. They keep each other alive.
Keep trees in your mind as we move on to talk about language.
I’m interested in the fact that the book of Mark was a book written in Greek but not classical Greek of the elite, but common Greek — the Greek of the people. And yet, not the people’s native tongue, not their Hebrew, or their Aramaic. They were speaking a language of the oppressor, of the colonizer, that they had made their own. I am fascinated by this dynamic because it shows me the paradox of how language can be the tool of both oppressor and the resistance. One of the first rules of the colonizer is to squash the local language, to force everyone to speak the language of the dominant society. But what’s so cool about the underground of resistance is that it can take that language, stir it into the soil of its culture, and use it as a way to recognize one another, to reach out in collaboration, wrap around each other, and hold on through the storm. The beautiful thing about language is that it adapts to the needs of the people, it is by its nature invitational. I love listening to scripture in other languages. I know that some in our country who have aligned themselves with dominance might insist English only! I know of course that you and I, we know that the Gospel is beautiful in any language. I sincerely apologize for what’s about to happen but here goes:
Después de que Juan fue encarcelado, Jesús fue a Galilea proclamando las buenas nuevas de Dios. “Ha llegado el momento”, dijo. “El reino de Dios se ha acercado. ¡Arrepiéntanse y crean las buenas nuevas!
That sounds beautiful despite my horrible spanish. The gospel is beautiful in any language.
Because Language is also the tool of invitation, which brings me to my third and ultimate point which is that this scripture is a scripture of invitation. This is a moment when Jesus is inviting us into the underground collaboration, to wrap ourselves around him, and around each other, and build a network of resistance against the erosion of all things good and holy and life giving and just.
In that first book about the little boy who was kidnapped from his family and forced to live in the white wilderness of dominance, when he finally returns to his mother as a young man, she wants to mother him, and he resists it. He is too old to be fed by his mother. But she insists and she says I am a mother. May I include you in who I am?
I was so struck by that invitation. And in our scripture today, spoken in the common language of a diverse people, I see Jesus asking us the same question. Jesus is asking us, May I include you in who I am? And in that invitation we are invited to include each other in who we are. That means I am invited into the discomfort of a different language rolling through my mouth and into my ears. I am invited into the beauty of radical difference. I am invited not to dig my roots deep in isolation, but to reach out to all of you, for collaboration, for justice, for peace, for presence.
We are invited to collaborate, to co-conspire with Jesus, to use the tool of our tongue to invite in, to call in, to speak out, to resist powerful wind gusts of supremacy culture, of dominance. When we are tired, when we are broken. When we are bereft. When we have made all the wrong choices. When we have trusted the wrong people. When we have loved poorly, been wronged, been victimized or when we have aligned ourselves with dominance and empire and so called authoritative religion, and supremacy, and bias, and suddenly we realize our complicity. Jesus is still there. He is still asking us if he may include us in who he is.
2000 years ago he issued an invitation into an underground collaboration. That collaboration has not been perfect over the years, and indeed it has grown up tall and too proud, and often invasive, often decimating its surroundings. But the taproot of Jesus’s original invitation has endured. It has resisted allegiances with nationalism and supremacy, because when you accept the invitation to be included in who Jesus is, if you allow yourself to truly get wrapped up in the roots of him, you are suddenly connected to a source so much larger than just yourself. A source of sustenance, of nourishment, and access to symbiotic systems of collaboration, so that even in midst of the most violent storms, those happening now, or the ones you fear are coming, you’ll know that you are wrapped up in the taproot of the collective resistance, where there is common language of peace and justice, the shalom of God and the wise Sofia of Spirit, and you will experience presence, and though you may have many questions, you will know that you are not alone.
Turning Anti-Racism From A Noun To A Verb
Sermon by LaTayna Purnell
Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Jr. Day—a federal holiday which first was proposed on April 8, 1968, just 4 days after Dr. King’s assassination. While support for the holiday at the state level grew in the 70s, as a federal holiday it wasn’t until 1979, under the Carter Administration, that it came to the floor for a vote. It failed by 5 votes. Then, in 1983 President Regan signed a law naming the 3rd Monday in January as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And it was first celebrated as such in 1986.
Every year at some point during MLK Jr. Weekend, I reread his 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail. A little history: On April 16, 1963, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. penned the now-famous letter from Birmingham Jail on the margins of a smuggled newspaper while in solitary confinement. He was writing in response to an article by eight white clergies who denounced Dr. King’s protest movement as “unwise and untimely” in a published piece called “A Call to Unity.” In the article, the White Clergy recommended that “Negro Leadership”/Dr. King, an outsider, should’ve just waited for Justice to move. Let’s review the history. Dr. King was arrested on April 12, 1963, for leading a peaceful nonviolent protest of the abhorrent conditions of African-Americans, or Negroes as they are referred to in Dr. King’s letter. This was a time of great unrest. Dr. King was invited and planned to come to Birmingham which at the time was the most segregated city in the South~really in the US. He wanted to help bring awareness of the harsh treatment of African-Americans, and to promote social change in Birmingham and subsequently, in the nation. As I studied the contents of his letter, I wondered, how Dr. King was able to have such hope that change would happen in Birmingham when it looked like a hopeless cause especially with Bull Connor firmly in charge. I encourage you to read his letter in its entirety. It is a manifesto of what nonviolent direct-action protest should be. It is all there: fear, despair, discouragement of and hope to improve the Black experience-waiting was not an option. It is as relevant today as it was in 1963.
King writes, “First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the {Negro’s} great stumbling block in [t]his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.” Ouch. The greater stumbling block to racial equality is not overt racists with a white nationalist agenda, but a complacent and complicit white moderate.
He goes on to say, “Lamentably, it is a historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.” Here King points out that racial inequality, and all forms of inequality, are rooted in structures and systems that privilege some and oppress others. His point, I believe, is that even if we were able to eliminate racists, that is even if there were no more individual people holding overtly racist views, eradicating racism in society is still another project altogether. The same could be said of misogynists and the structures which uphold misogyny, homophobic people, and systems that insist that heterosexuality is normative and everything else is somehow other, or abnormal. Certainly, one task is changing the hearts and minds of individual people and yet still another is recognizing our place in the systems and structures that perpetuate inequality and oppression.
I applaud Pastor Marty and HMC as we embark on doing the difficult and challenging work of looking squarely in the face of what it means to live in a culture where white privilege exists and continues to benefit some at the expense of others. To name the reality of benefiting from white privilege is not to say that individuals who happen to be white have not had to overcome tremendous difficulties and challenges to get where they are. It is, instead, to note that race was not one of the things they had to overcome. And, no doubt, benefited from their racial background.
If we are to get to that place where our society more closely resembles the kingdom of God, we must first be honest about how far we are, in some ways, from being there. One of the things I admire most about Rev. Dr. King was his ability to simultaneously name injustice and still see hope for transformation. His best and most revered writings and speeches cast a vision of what could be, what kingdom living really could look like, and naming the very real roadblocks in the way of achieving that vision. Dr. King frequently drew on biblical metaphor, story, and imagery when painting a picture of what a truly free and equal United States could be. His quote, “Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity” is a clear reference to verse 2 of Psalm 40, our reading for today.
Like our Psalmist, Dr. King knew what it meant to have been mired down in the bog, to find oneself in the desolate pit. And so, do all of us. Who hasn’t found themselves in a situation they didn’t know how to get out of? Who hasn’t searched every option and reached the inevitable conclusion that none of the options is a good one? And yet, how many of us can also look back and say, I’m not sure how I got out of that place, that state, that situation, but I know I didn’t do it on my own. Call it divine intervention, call it serendipity, call it perseverance, call it a God Thing, call it dumb luck, call it strength from an outside source or greater power, call it whatever you want but we know if we are honest, that we cannot and do not do it on our own.
Today the psalmist reflects on the bad times and uses the experience of overcoming those bad times as the spark of hope needed to recognize that things do change. They do, and we do, get better.
I’ve titled this sermon “Moving anti-Racism for a noun to a verb” because just as being an ally requires action (otherwise, you're really just a bystander), being anti-racist also requires action, making it a verb and not a noun. I believe this is needed to make real and lasting change—in our lives as individuals, as a community, and our society, and the wider world.
There is an urgency in the truth that we cannot wait one more day to name injustice and oppression when we see it. There is an urgency in the truth that our earth is in grave danger from the effects of the human-caused climate crisis. The urgency in the truth that as Dr. King says, “justice too long delayed is justice denied.” To wait, to not cry out, to not respond is to be complacent and complicit. As King said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” And yet we need to be patient with the pace of change. We cannot expect a radical change to happen overnight. It has taken decades, centuries, millennia to get where we are. If we are in this for the long haul, if we are to be changed and transformed, we must remind ourselves of the long arc of history.
The bad news is that the world is a mess of knotted thread where everything is tied up with every other thing. So, unraveling the knots will take both persistence and patience. But the good news is that everything is tied up with every other thing. Or to quote King again, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” The good news is that whatever thread we begin to pull on will have an impact and effect on every other thread. Our work on climate change impacts our work on racial injustice. Our work on homophobia impacts our work on misogyny. Our work on our misperceptions and misunderstandings will impact our ability to help others see their misperceptions and misunderstandings. The good news is we can start anywhere and know that whatever mantle of injustice we confront, it will reverberate out like ripples on a pond.
Our psalmist today reminds us to remember the past. To remember the pit and the desolation, to remember the struggles we have come through, struggles which have made us stronger, smarter, more compassionate, and more willing to offer grace to others, knowing the grace and mercy we have received and experienced. Our Psalmist reminds us that we can and should trust in God. That God’s steadfast love endures forever. It is not burnt offerings and temple sacrifices that God desires from us, but the transformation of our hearts—that the laws of God, be written there.
In a 2018 Christian Century article titled “myths white people believe about racism” it listed 8 myths for individuals to consider. I was struck by the first myth that “Racism is not our (white people) problem. This perspective can be seen in the question “Why do we need to talk about that?” The assumption is that we, in our faith community, are not racists. Racism is everyone's problem as we experienced on Jan 6th at the United States Capitol (I would be remiss if I didn’t name the attempted government take over as having a home in racism). Until we start naming racism when we see it or inadvertently participating in it, we cannot eradicate it. Starting next Sunday we as a church are embarking on a 6-week all-congregation anti-racist training that will allow us to learn to form each other. I could talk/preach about this all day but we will have the opportunity to share in the future. But in closing, I ask for all of us to embrace feelings of uncertainty and discomfort that may arise during this training and journey. This is complicated. There’s no such thing as getting it right. Dismantling racism is an ongoing process, in the world and in our hearts. When we work toward racial justice, we risk slamming into some perspective our privilege has shielded us from or being knocked on our ass by a story someone tells that indicts us. It’s going to be messy and you may be confronted with some difficult personal truths that you make you feel vulnerable. But that’s where the Holy Spirit does her thing. This is the most important thing you can model: wading in because God calls us into the deep water.
May God grant us the ability to move anti-racism from a noun to a verb as we embrace our journey, as we do the work it will take, to make real the truth that the kingdom of God is among us.
Amen
Sermon by LaTayna Purnell
Scripture: Matthew Psalm 40:1-11 (NLT)
O beautiful Star of Bethlehem
Author: Adger M. Pace, 1883-1959
Sermon Text
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Scripture: Matthew 1:4-11
Hymn: Spirit of God Descend
by George Croly (1854)
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
In this sermon on Epiphany, Pastor Marty talks about the wise astrologers from the East and wonders: What gifts will they bring us today?
He also ponders the unintended consequences of their behavior.
Scripture: Matthew 2:1-16
Hymn: Oh Beautiful Star of Bethlehem (Shine On)
by R. Fisher Boyce
https://hymnary.org/text/o_beautiful_star_of_bethlehem_shining
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In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Everything came into being through the word.
Perhaps that's why nature is such a spiritual experience for us because everything, all nature, all people, everything came into being through the word.
My family and I love Colorado, we've been there the last couple of summers. And for us, it's about nature, getting out of the city and being into God's huge nature where you can see the sky and the horizon for 10s of miles around. We love Colorado because we can hike through ancient Fossil Beds and climb to the highest peaks in the continental United States. We love it because we've been underground and gold mines and we've gone up to vistas where we could see in all directions.
While I was there, a couple of summers ago, I found a book by Billy Collins of poetry.
Billy Collins is now one of my favorite poets. In one of his poems called The Trouble With Poetry he has this to say about words, and imagery and poetry.
Billy Collins says, "Poetry fills me with the urge to write poetry, to sit in dark, and wait for a little flame to appear at the tip of my pencil. And along with that, the longing to steal to break into the poems of others with a flashlight and a ski mask."
I love that imagery to sit in the dark and wait for a little flame to appear at the tip of my pencil.
That captures what journaling is for me better than anything I've ever read or said to sit in the dark and wait for the little flame to appear at the end of my pencil. Collins in that same poem goes on to say, and how will poetry ever end unless the day finally arrives when we have compared everything in the world to everything else in the world. And there is nothing left to do but to quietly close our notebooks, and sit with our hands folded in our laps.
I think that that's what John does. In John chapter one. He gives us this imaginary, this imaginative poetry, the soaring language about the word and light and life. And he mixes all of these different images together into a poem, which doesn't just cause us to think it also stirs our emotions and our hearts. The best poetry causes us to feel something and to think something and john enables us to do both of those In the beginning was the Word, this expansive, eternal language. And everything that's ever been created came into being through this Word.
Brian Stoffregen in his exegetical notes about this text says it's hard to express love in mere words.
So poems and works of art are created to try and capture the emotion of love. Christianity is filled with art and songs because it is a religion based on God's love for us on earth here.
One of the things that John does in John chapter one is he does exactly what Billy Collins says, he breaks into other poems and other poets. And he looks to beg, borrow and steal what it is that they have to offer.
First, he borrows this imagery of In The Beginning.
In The Beginning is the three words that start the entire scriptures. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." It's the first sentence from Genesis chapter one. And john takes that same sentence and tweaks it just a little bit, teaching us that he is starting a new creation story. Just like in Genesis one In the beginning God created. Now john is saying that in the beginning, there is a new creation and this one comes through the word, the spoken word of God, and the living word of Christ.
But there are also other images, other poems or other people that john pulls together to weave this amazing chapter one of. Another text that he pulls from is the idea of
The Word in both Hebrew and in Greek, the concept of The Word was really the creative force in the universe. It's what brought things like light and life into being. And Hebrew The Word is Dabar. And in Hebrew when God speaks Darbar it's an action. It's something that will happen, what God says will happen.
In Greek, which is the language of the New Testament, the word for Word is Logos. In the beginning was the Logos. And the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. And so you know John grabs these other images along with creation. Now we have this imagery of the word and begins to blend it together.
This is a third imagery, a third poem that John pulls from as well.
In that Hebrew Book of Proverbs, where we meet woman wisdom, a female representation of God in the book of Proverbs, and this Lady Wisdom, this image of wisdom is what creates the world as we know it. God creates through wisdom. God is a female, who creates as if a mother giving birth to a child.
These images and there are others, John takes it, he blends them together into this amazing poem.
Like Billy Collins, the longing to steal to break into the poems of others with a flashlight and a ski mask.
John does that for us.
In the beginning was The Word.
Today we're talking about journaling as a spiritual discipline or as an act of prayer.
And what I've experienced in my own life, as I have journaled for many decades, is that when I use my words, it connects me to The Word. When I write words, it connects me to The Living Word of God.
Over the years, I have filled literally dozens of journals just like this, my favorite are Moleskin. But I've used others. Dozens of journals where I have sat down and with the tip of my pen, thought, and prayed, and wrestled with my own life, wrestled with God. I have brought scripture onto the page and asked it hard questions. I have brought my worries onto the page and interrogated them. I've listed my feelings and recognize the naming them that my feelings aren't facts.
Journaling is a classic spiritual discipline. People have been writing their thoughts about God and themselves down for literally millennia.
We can think of journaling or as writing as a place where we put our feelings and our relationships and our thoughts safely down. So that maybe we can later on share them with others or with God.
When we take our pen and hands or our keyboard with our fingertips in hand, we can use our words to connect us to The Living Word. It's our chance to let God teach us about ourselves. It's our chance to allow our own feelings and our thoughts to be the curriculum that helps us to grow in Christ.
There's no wrong way to journal.
We can do a diary version. We can, like Kate said, write down our hopes or dreams or worries. We can write those hopes, dreams and worries on small bits of paper and fold them up, put them in a jar.
When I was a youth pastor, we used to write those hopes, dreams and worries on pieces of paper and then light them on fire on fire as acts of prayer, lifting those prayers up to God.
During second hour, today, I'm going to introduce you to a form of journaling that is a very simplistic and yet effective form of journaling called SALT. SALT is an acronym that stands for Situation, Attitude, Learning, and Thanks. We'll practice that later together today. But journaling and poetry writing even theology is a spiritual discipline that is an invitation to loving union with God and to embrace ourselves as much as God does. Journaling is an opportunity to slow down, to allow God to have complete access to us, to open the door of our heart continually to God.
Through journaling, poetry, writing and theology, we can abide in Jesus. We can allow God's message to penetrate us at the deepest parts of our lives.
Through journaling, we can become in sync with God and the light of Christ in us.
It can become for us a place to rest of rest and centeredness.
More than anything, how we pray, whether we pray through songs, whether we pray through meditation, whether we pray through journaling, or any of the other dozen or more ways of praying, more important than how we pray, is that we choose to be present with God.
For me, I can hardly even pray without a pen and a journal in my hand.
For other people, journaling and writing doesn't work at all. And that's okay. All of our personalities are different. For me, it works so well because an Enneagram 4 loves poetry and creativity, and I love just to pour out my thoughts and my feelings and then sort them out later.
But I do believe that when we use our words, we can connect to The Living Word. And that's my hope for us this Christmas.
Back to John chapter one for a couple more thoughts.
John 1 talks about the darkness.
Darkness is something I've experienced in my life so often. Darkness is oftentimes the place where I grow. It may feel like the place where I want to give up on life or on faith, but it often becomes that place where that small flicker that small flame can light us up and give us even the smallest flicker of hope. But I know that darkness is all around us. This Christmas, we feel like the lights have been turned off.
The pandemic has left us all feeling worried and afraid and anxious. Some of us are overstressed because our calendars are still too full. Still too many lists of things to do. Cards to write, thank yous to write, presents to buy, and that overwhelms us.
Others this Christmas season are overwhelmed or anxious and worried. We're sad, because there's not enough for us to do.
Not enough people were sending us gifts or thank you cards. Not enough people were calling us not enough people were in our contact list for us to call. So we feel the stress and the pain of the season.
Still, others are frustrated because we can't go and visit family. Others are sad because families not coming to visit us. Some of us are feeling the pain of loss this year as we have lost loved ones or reminded of loved ones who have been lost in the past. We feel the blue, the dark, the pain of Christmas.
And some of us are feeling the pain that our children don't want us to see their kids our own grandchildren, or don't want us to be part of their lives anymore.
And Christmas can be painful time for us. John 1 reminds us that darkness is part of life part of creation and part of what it means to be human. And yet the light that is the life of all humans comes into our world.
Words point us to the living word, whether it's the words of John that we can read and repeat In the beginning was The Word and The Word was with God and The Word was God and all things came into being through The Word or whether it's our own words as we pick up a pen and write our own thoughts, worries, dreams and hopes. Whether it's the words of songs or someone else, we can encounter the true and the living God in our hearts and in our homes.
So while this Christmas may have been married, perhaps it's not been married. My hope is that you would encounter the living Christ in your midst.
In Colorado [I ran across] a poem called A Texas Incarnation and I want to close with that as we celebrate the incarnation of Jesus today.
A Texas Incarnation
The table is filled with steaming bowls of buttered peas and sweet corn on the cob. a plate of barbecue chicken sausage and smoky brisket is ready to be passed through eager hands. The beer is cold. The wine is ready to pour in the lime aid is freshly squeezed. So come up to the house; Jesus wants to eat with us. Jesus, he wandered around Galilee like an ancient bourdain eating his way across the tables of friend and sinner alike. And here at our house he piles his plate and he dives right in barely stopping to say grace. He eats and he talks with his hands savoring every bite, chewing on every shared story. Drinking in every mood until intoxicated with delight and drink.
You want some salt for the peas but you hesitate to ask the Lord of the world to pass it. By the end of the meal, you've no reservations and feel perfectly at home for the first time, but Jesus is still picking corn out of his teeth.
And so you hand him a toothpick, and laugh.
Amen. May you experience the Incarnation in your heart and in your home.
Ignatian Journaling
Scripture: John 1:1-14
Hymn: When Stars Shone Down - Steven Aldredge/ed. Dan Forrest - Beckenhorst Press
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Transcript of Sermon:
https://hmcpodcast.org/a-displaced-nativity-transcript-of-12-20-2020-sermon
Special Guest Speaker: Rev. Teresa K. Pecinovsky
Scripture: Luke 2:1-20
Hymn: What Child Is This
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Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Displaced Nativity
by Rev. Teresa K. Pecinovsky
Sermon given 12/20/2020 at Houston Mennonite Church
Luke 2:1-20
Setting the stage for today’s text.
We begin with a list of leaders. Luke’s listing of Herod the Great, Quirinius, and Caesar Augustus is problematic to historians because his timeline doesn’t align with the Roman dating of these political figures.
There are similar problems with the accuracy of the Roman census and the idea that people would be required to register in their ancestral home. That would have been a logistical nightmare, even back then.
Most commentators agree that Luke is a poor historian.
However, there is no need to panic.
Luke, like the other Gospel writers, has his own theological emphasis.
Why is he setting up the context with what we might today call ‘artistic license’?
Luke is taking political leaders and timelines out of their historical place for a specific purpose.
“The naming of Caesar Augustus and Quinirius does more than provide a date; it creates the proper political and social context for Jesus’ ministry. Throughout the gospel, Luke articulates a tension between the manifest Roman political powers and the hidden and almost ironic rule of Jesus.”
- Lewis Donelson, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
We see this contrast of the Roman powers and Jesus in two big ways throughout the birth narrative.
First, Jesus is not born into wealth like Caesar, but in an odd and humble setting. Luke uses the theme of ordinary bread throughout Jesus’ birth narrative. Joseph and Mary travel to Bethlehem, a city whose name means “House of Bread.” Their firstborn child is placed in a manger, hardly the lap of luxury, but a place where animals are fed. Luke’s nod is evident here- God feeding the world through God’s son, the one who will call himself the ‘bread of life.’
Second, we see the contrast of Jesus and the Roman rulers in the scene change from a manger to a field with ordinary shepherds.
“[The shepherds] provide, as do Mary and Joseph, a contrast to Caesar Augustus. They are in the field where they protect their animals: they represent those who care for the vulnerable. They may also remind us of other shepherds: Rebecca, Rachel, Moses, and David. And we will remember them when Jesus, not in Luke’s Gospel but in Matthew, Mark, and John, speaks of himself as the shepherd of his people.”
- Amy-Jill Levine, Light of the World
Now, I had originally planned to center this sermon on the shepherds being marginalized and outcast members of society during Jesus’ day. I even sent a blub on this to the worship committee earlier this week.
Note to self: make sure to do your scholarly research BEFORE promising a certain theme, otherwise you might end up being very wrong and having to change your entire sermon.
I won’t go into all the details, but I found three different New Testament professors who reject the idea that shepherds were seen as unreliable social outcasts in first century Israel.
Furthermore, if we look at the text itself, it says that those who heard the shepherds were amazed at what they said, and not who said it. In other words, people did not think the shepherds were the stereotypical town drunks telling ridiculous stories of seeing heavenly beings. They were amazed by the content of what the shepherds told them.
But what was it that was so amazing?
The angels appear to shepherds.
I think it’s safe to assume that being visited by an angel, let alone a host of angels, was a completely terrifying experience, as each time the messengers begin with, “Do not be afraid.” These angels tell the shepherds that they bring Good News.
Now you HMC folx who have listened to Pastor Marty’s previous sermons might remember that euangelion, “Good News,” is a deeply political word. It was used to announce the victory of a war, or as part of a birth decree to promote the Roman myth that Caesar Augustus was a deity. Again, Luke is drawing on a Roman idea of power and contrasting it with Jesus’ birth.
The angels promise wondrous, joyous news, a seemingly ordinary birth for an extraordinary savior. The shepherds are told to go and see for themselves--a newborn babe is wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.
Luke tells us that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”
They quickly make their way into town and
somehow find
Mary,
Joseph,
and the baby,
just as the angels said.
And here is where we find ourselves on the cusp of, during the liturgical church calendar, five days before Christmas. We are winding our way toward the conclusion of Advent, of waiting, of hoping. Hope for a Jewish newborn baby, wrapped and lying in a manger.
“We forget the strangeness of this story because it is so familiar.”
- Cynthia Rigby, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
The nativity story is well beloved within Christian settings; for some it brings a nostalgia of church Nativity plays, choir concerts and warm family gatherings.
Perhaps we are grieving that COVID-19 has prevented us from celebrating Christmas in these traditional ways, with family, friends, and community.
So many of us are weary of months of isolation, additional anxiety, and so much uncertainty. Our medical center is inundated with COVID cases, and the most vulnerable are very sick and dying.
So hear me when I say that our grief is valid and worth giving name and space.
AND. And, the story of Jesus’ birth is still very much for us today.
We would be wise in the year that is 2020 to note that the teenage Mary gives birth far away from her home. Joseph has not brought a carpenter’s cradle for his son. They are not welcomed by familiar neighbors, but complete strangers, shepherds, in fact.
Cynthia Rigby explores this idea further: “Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and the shepherds do not travel with the anticipation that they will arrive to a familiar, homemade Christmas. They are headed to that which is uncomfortable and utterly new.”
“That which is uncomfortable and utterly new.”
The fact that Jesus, his parents, and even his first visitors are all displaced is part of the Good News for us today.
It is Good News for our siblings who live in the middle of poverty or homelessness.
It is Good News for migrants and refugees fleeing their homeland.
It is Good News for anyone who is estranged from their family of origin because of how they identify, who they love, or what boundaries they hold.
The displaced
have
always been
at the
heart
of the Nativity.
Mary and Joseph’s world have been turned upside down; they tell stories of wondrous dreams and angelic messengers.
Even now Mary’s prophetic Magnificat is being realized:
God is bringing down the powerful from their thrones and lifting up the lowly.
God’s incarnation in Jesus reminds us that he is born as a baby, lowly, helpless, as all babies are, completely dependent on his parents, and particularly Mary, to feed and care for him.
He has not come to overthrow the Roman occupation or lead an army against the rulers of the day.
Instead, Jesus comes with flesh, blood, and water.
He is placed in a feeding trough,
and instead of feeding livestock he will be given to us,
bread for the world.
Unitarian minister and abolitionist John Sullivan Dwight wrote the English lyrics to the famous Christmas carol:
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices.
Jesus is born, not as a Roman ruler, but a lowly savior. Like the shepherds we must be told, “Do not be afraid.” We must resist our fear, we must act to transform our weary world, to bring down systems of inequity, injustice, and our own indifference.
I want to invite you to dream about transforming our weary world with an excerpt from Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman’s 1985 book, The Mood of Christmas & Other Celebrations:
“The symbol of Christmas—what is it?
It is the rainbow arched over the roof of the sky when the clouds are heaving with foreboding.
It is the cry of life in the newborn babe when, forced from its mother’s nest, it claims its right to live.
It is the brooding Presence of the Eternal Spirit making crooked paths straight, rough places smooth, tired hearts refreshed, dead hopes stir with newness of life.
It is the promise of tomorrow at the close of every day, the movement of life in defiance of death,
and the assurance that love is sturdier than hate, that right is more confident than wrong, that good is more permanent than evil.”
Church, may it be so. In you, in me, and in us all.
A podcast worship intended for driving around, looking at Christmas lights.
Piano performed by Michael Clark
Scriptures read by Kate Cross
Christmas Time is Here
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Lo, How A Rose E’Er Blooming (Arr. Hayes)
I Wonder As I Wander
Joy to the World (Arr. Brickman)
Away in a Manger
Silent Night (Arr. Brickman)
The First Noel
Do You Hear What I Hear
Deck the Halls
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
The Christmas Song
Let it Snow
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
The Christmas Waltz
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Arr. Brickman)
Special thanks to Kate Cross for assembling!
This is a special episode of the Houston Mennonite Church podcast.
During Sunday's service, member Kaycee brought everyone through a small, focused meditation session. This episode the meditation session alone so you can listen and practice.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoustonMennonite
Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Meditation And The Mystery Of God
Advent Week 3
Scripture: Isaiah 61:1-4,8-11 and Luke 2:1-5
Hymn: Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming
Translated from German by Theodore Baker
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoustonMennonite
Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
The Power of Prayer And Self-Care
Advent Week 2
Hymn: Love Came Down at Christmas
Originally a poem by Christina Rossetti
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoustonMennonite
Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Scripture: Luke 1:46-55
Hymn: Comfort, comfort, O my people Author: Claude Goudimel
Book Mentioned: Too Heavy a Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of Strength Chanequa Walker-Barnes
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoustonMennonite Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
“If you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.”
This is Jesus and Matthew’s passionate promise, that if we serve the poor, migrants, imprisoned and those with inadequate healthcare, it’s like we are serving Jesus himself.
Scripture: Matthew 25:31-46
Hymn: Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ Author: Fred Kaan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoustonMennonite Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Topics:
- Hope in this time
- What to do when a community becomes threatening
- The problem with relying on POC to teach
- How to do your own work
- Church communities, allies, and antiracism
- Owning your mistakes
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoustonMennonite Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Sermon by special guest: Vahisha Hasan
Scripture:
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Hymn:
The Peace of The Earth (be with you) / La paz de la tierra esté contigo
Original text: Guatamalan Translated by: Christine Carson
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoustonMennonite Website: https://houstonmennonite.org
Recently, Houston Mennonite Church's pastor, Marty Troyer, completed a four-part series of sermons about God's Kingdom.
This episode contains all four parts.
Kingdom Plenty - God's Kingdom has enough for us all
Kingdom Hope - Jesus inspires hope in those who follow him
Kingdom Action - Jesus brings the Kingdom into this world by being a Peace Maker
Kingdom Discipleship - Being a disciple is more about doing than doctrine
Join us on Facebook or on the web.
There are 4 aspects of the king and his kingdom:
Kingdom plenty
Kingdom hope
Kingdom action
Kingdom discipleship
Jesus meant the kingdom to be an alternative to the kingdoms and politics of his day. Drew Hart says,
Where the old order dominated and violently lorded over others, the kingdom of God arose from the bottom, margins, and cracks of society, freely inviting people to share in the peace and Justice of God made available in the presence of Jesus... God's kingdom liberated people to discover who they truly were. And while participating in God's kingdom, people found that they were created in the image of the Maker of heaven and earth. (Trouble, pg 66-67)
Today's scripture has priests and elders challenging Jesus' authority as well as the parable of the father's vineyard where one son would not help with work while the other said no but, in the end, did. Both stories demonstrate authority and the meaning of grace. So, what does What is discipleship for the Kingdom in a time of cheap grace?
Scripture: Matthew 21:23-32
Hymn: The Lord's Prayer
Houston Mennonite Church attended a special service given by Reverend Dr. William J. Barber, II from the Poor People's Campaign in lieu of our own services. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecB2RJNH6SQ
So, this week, we have prepared for you four hymns from our hymn books
Come Bring Your Burdens to God Arrangement by Welile Sigabi, South Africa Transcription by Barbara Clark, Mairi Munro & Martine Stemerick http://www.giamusic.com/pdf/Come%20bring%20your%20burdens.pdf
Fresh As The Morning Music by Ron Klusmeier Words by Shirley Erena Murray https://musiklus.com/product/fresh-as-the-morning/
For The Fruit Of All Creation by Fred Pratt Green https://www.hopepublishing.com/find-hymns-hw/hw3560.aspx
Lord Jesus Christ, Be Present Now Words: Wilhelm IV of Sachsen-Weimar Translated from German to English by Catherine Winkworth https://hymnary.org/text/lord_jesus_christ_be_present_now
What is the kingdom of God?
As we anticipate another coronavirus surge, and in the weeks leading up to the election let's talk about what Jesus meant when he taught about the Kingdom of God. That feels like a relevant frame for us to understand the world, our feelings about it, and the power we have to make the world a better place. "Kingdom" talk was Jesus's robust and earthy "I have a dream” metaphor describing liberation, healing, and hope.
There are 4 aspects of the king and his kingdom we'll explore:
Kingdom plenty
Kingdom hope
Kingdom action
Kingdom discipleship
Jesus meant the kingdom to be an alternative to the kingdoms and politics of his day. Drew Hart says,
Where the old order dominated and violently lorded over others, the kingdom of God arose from the bottom, margins, and cracks of society, freely inviting people to share in the peace and Justice of God made available in the presence of Jesus... God's kingdom liberated people to discover who they truly were. And while participating in God's kingdom, people found that they were created in the image of the Maker of heaven and earth. (Trouble, pg 66-67)
This is the story of Jesus cleansing the temple, or what MLK would have called a nonviolent direct action.
Scripture: Matthew 21:12-17
Hymn: LORD JESUS CHRIST, BE PRESENT NOW (1651)
Words: Wilhelm IV of Sachsen-Weimar
Translated from German to English by Catherine Winkworth
Second Hour Discussion with Vahisha Hasan
Topics include how to find organizations on the ground already doing work and how to help them; how churches can keep themselves honest with regard to antiracism; and more.
Recorded on October 18, 2020 over Zoom services.
Houston Mennonite Church Service from October 18, 2020 Scripture: Matthew 21:1-11
Hymn: Holy Spirit, Come With Power by Anne Neufield Rupp (1970)
Guest Speaker: Vahisha Hasan, executive director Movement In Faith
Main Topic: Love, Community, and Antiracism
Houston Mennonite Church Website: https://houstonmennonite.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoustonMennonite
Houston Mennonite Church Service from October 11, 2020 Scripture: Matthew 21:1-11
Sermon Title: Kingdom Hope
What is the kingdom of God? As we anticipate another coronavirus surge, and in the weeks leading up to the election I’d like to talk about what Jesus meant when he taught about the Kingdom of God. That feels like a relevant frame for us to understand the world, our feelings about it, and the power we have to make the world a better place. “Kingdom” talk was Jesus’ robust and earthy “I have a dream” metaphor describing liberation, healing, and hope.
There are 4 aspects of the king and his kingdom I’d like to explore: Kingdom plenty, kingdom hope, kingdom action, and kingdom discipleship.
Jesus meant the kingdom to be an alternative to the kingdoms and politics of his day.
Drew Hart says, Where the old order dominated and violently lorded over others, the kingdom of God arose from the bottom, margins, and cracks of society, freely inviting people to share in the peace and Justice of God made available in the presence of Jesus... God's kingdom liberated people to discover who they truly were. And while participating in God's kingdom, people found that they were created in the image of the Maker of heaven and earth. (Trouble, pg 66-67)
This is the story of Jesus’ march on Jerusalem and the hope people had in the Messiah.
Houston Mennonite Church Website: https://houstonmennonite.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoustonMennonite
Houston Mennonite Church Service from October 4, 2020 Scripture: Matthew 20:1-16
Sermon Title: Kingdom Plenty
What is the kingdom of God? As we anticipate another coronavirus surge, and in the weeks leading up to the election I’d like to talk about what Jesus meant when he taught about the Kingdom of God. That feels like a relevant frame for us to understand the world, our feelings about it, and the power we have to make the world a better place. “Kingdom” talk was Jesus’ robust and earthy “I have a dream” metaphor describing liberation, healing, and hope.
There are 4 aspects of the king and his kingdom I’d like to explore: Kingdom plenty, kingdom hope, kingdom action, and kingdom discipleship.
Jesus meant the kingdom to be an alternative to the kingdoms and politics of his day.
Drew Hart says, Where the old order dominated and violently lorded over others, the kingdom of God arose from the bottom, margins, and cracks of society, freely inviting people to share in the peace and Justice of God made available in the presence of Jesus... God's kingdom liberated people to discover who they truly were. And while participating in God's kingdom, people found that they were created in the image of the Maker of heaven and earth. (Trouble, pg 66-67)
This week’s Kingdom plenty theme is about the parable of workers all being paid the same wages despite how hard they worked. It points to the reality that there is enough for all.
Houston Mennonite Church Website: https://houstonmennonite.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoustonMennonite
Houston Mennonite Church Service from September 20, 2020 Special guest Phuc Luu, author of Jesus of The East: Reclaiming The Gospel For The Wounded
Sermon Title: Deconstructing Penal Substitutionary Atonement https://www.phucluu.com/
Houston Mennonite Church Website: https://houstonmennonite.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoustonMennonite
Houston Mennonite Church Service from September 20, 2020 Special guest Phuc Luu, author of Jesus of The East: Reclaiming The Gospel For The Wounded.
Sermon Title: Decolonizing Christianity https://www.phucluu.com/
Houston Mennonite Church Website: https://houstonmennonite.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoustonMennonite