Sermons

September 26, 2021

If you are a visitor or new to worshipping with us, on the third Sunday in October, everyone – people who’ve started worshipping with us since this time last year, those who have worshipped here for years, our children, and our youth — will be invited to say the words of the appropriate commitment statement aloud and to have their name recorded in our membership book. I hope you are using the questions that Celebration Circle sent out by email to help you prepare for Recommitment Sunday. If you haven’t received these, put a message in the chat box to Brenda Seat.

I think Mark’s gospel may give us some other things to reflect upon. Today’s passage is linked to previous events, so rather than consider today’s verses in isolation, I want to summarize what occurred, including some portions that were omitted by the lectionary. Our starting point is that Jesus summoned five men – Simon (Peter), Andrew, James, John, and Levi – to leave their occupations and follow him. As he began preaching and healing people began following him. Early in his ministry along the Sea of Galilee, there were so many people who wanted to be healed that he asked the disciples to get a fishing boat ready so that he could preach from it. When he decided to go up a mountain for a retreat of prayer, he picked eight of his male followers to join the original four as his companions, this time leaving out Levi, the tax collector. We know them as the Twelve. In Mark’s gospel, they didn’t make any explicit statement of commitment. First thing to reflect upon: they didn’t commit to a community, they just obeyed Jesus’ call.

September 19, 2021

When I was a student at Arizona State University, I started hanging out at the Catholic student center. I made several friends there and, despite my almost total lack of experience with the Catholic Church — or maybe because of it — I enjoyed attending the masses and study groups. One of my friends was a woman named Onoosh Garay, a graduate student who also taught part-time at a preschool. She was a devout and progressive Catholic. One day, when a few of us were talking about school and work, Onoosh said cheerfully, “Anyone who doesn’t believe in original sin should spend a day in a preschool.”

“Original sin” is the belief that we arrive on this planet already in a state of sin, just because we’re human. It’s a belief that has been replaced, for more progressive Catholics, with “original blessing,” an idea that is also the title of a 1983 book by the Episcopal priest Matthew Fox.

Onoosh was, of course, joking about the tendency of young children to be totally self-centered, unreasonable, uncooperative, and given to biting people who get in their way.

September 12, 2021

“Who do YOU say that I am?” When Jesus asked that question of his disciples, I suspect there was dead silence as they shifted from what others said — to their own wondering: Who was he indeed! Then, as usual, Peter blurted out his answer for all of them: “You are the Messiah.”

Quickly, Jesus warned them not to tell anyone. Why? Because he was shredding their traditional understanding of “Messiah.” In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is quite clear that he is NOT the triumphal Messiah that his disciples have been hoping for. He is NOT there to restore Israel or free them from Roman rule.

Mark’s Jesus calls himself the Son of Man — who must suffer and die — like the rest of us. And furthermore, Jesus says, anyone who would follow him can also expect that fate as the path to life itself. There is nothing here about avoiding pain. In fact, Mark’s Jesus says “If you would be my disciple, take up your cross and follow me.”

Notice here that Jesus is speaking to his disciples as a group, not as individuals. This is NOT a special challenge to Peter or James or John – or to you or me. “Take up your cross” means group vulnerability or systemic loss, not individual martyrdom.

September 5, 2021

Good morning, Seeker’s family. I am again humbled by the opportunity to share what I have been hearing in prayer, primarily about transformation and love, love being our present theme.  For several Sundays now you have heard some mighty fine sermons on love. I hope you are ready to hear one more.  Let us start with a prayer:

Beloved, your children have gathered today seeking a closer connection with you and each other.  Please open our hearts and still our intellects that we may receive all that you offer. Amen.

As I have shared before, I was raised in the traditional Catholic church and carefully instructed in the reward/punishment/achievement system.  The God described to me was a law-and-order type who had books kept with details of our transgressions. Christian teaching was an elaborate system of earning heavenly rewards. God’s love had to be earned, it was not unconditional love.  Regardless, we were tasked with loving both God and neighbor.  I rejected this God as did many others.  It took me years to understand the message Jesus delivered of a God of love, and more years to accept the invitation to the feast.

August 29, 2021

Our reflection piece for this season has a couple of phrases that have really worked on me each Sunday as they are read:

“It is about being willing to have our heart become deeper as we move beyond the surface layers of our assumptions, prejudices and habits in order to truly see and receive what – and who – is before us. It is about being willing to have our heart continually shattered and remade as we take in not only the brokenness of the world but the beauty of it….” (Jan Richardson, “Blessing That Meets You in Love,” The Painted Prayerbook, https://paintedprayerbook.com/2016/01/25/blessing-that-meets-you-in-love/.)

It is ironic, or maybe it is divine inspiration, that our theme for this summer season is “How Shall We Love?,” because I am struggling about how to love right now. I am struggling to love a person I admire and respect who helped me on my path to become a lawyer and the person I am today.

He was my high school teacher and he was one of those teachers that you remember, that has a huge impact on your life. So why, you are asking yourself, is this a problem? Sounds like he would be an easy person to love.