Sermons

July 11, 2021

With the backdrop of facts vs fiction hovering over us daily, the reading from Mark triggered a sense of hope in me.  Today I want to talk about the enlightenment this passage has brought to my heart.  The Bible talks of “being filled with the Holy Spirit,” The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous describes this as a spiritual awakening.  I suggest that our spiritual experiences can and do transform both us and our traditions.  A tradition according to Merriam-Webster is “the handing down of information, beliefs, or customs from one generation to another.”  From the Oxford Languages dictionary Theology tradition “is a doctrine believed to have divine authority though not in the scriptures.”

Where do our spiritual journeys begin?

Is your spiritual journey defined by your traditions?  Which traditions have had the most influence:  Career, family, religious, cathartic, unexplained experiences of enlightenment and wonder, therapy?

July 4, 2021

In our School of Christian Living this spring, the Reverend Maybelle Bennett from the Covenant Christian Community and Marjory Bankson facilitated an exploration of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical, Hamilton. The class had about equal numbers of Seekers and Covenant members, and about equal numbers of Blacks and Whites. Because Hamilton had been cast with people of color in almost all its roles, it helped us see the founding of our nation with a new perspective. I found the discussions to be enlightening.

One of its themes is sung by George Washington, who had learned that “You have no control: who lives, who dies, who tells your story.” At the end he sings this again, and then is joined by the entire company to ask, “Will they tell your story? Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” On our nation’s 245th birthday, we are struggling with whose story it is and isn’t and therefore what our national story is and isn’t, who is and who isn’t allowed to tell it from their perspective, and even how and to whom it shall and shall not be told. Suffice it to say that the story of America I was taught is NOT our nation’s entire story; nor is our entire nation’s story. It was and is primarily White Christian men’s story.

June 27, 2021

I understand that you have been focusing on the Trinity for three weeks, and are now considering the trinitarian journey – the “Journey Inward, Journey Outward, Journey Together.”  I am here to share with you today about the journey inward.  I will share from my own experience and my experience at Dayspring as the director of the Silent Retreat Center.

So, what is the journey inward, or the inward journey?  It is the journey into the self, by which we know ourselves more deeply, including the things we feel guilty about and suppress, our fears and regrets, as well as hidden treasures.  We also come to know more fully the mystery of our own soul, where we are touched by and in relationship with the Holy One, in our depths.  Gordon Cosby put it this way in the introduction to Elizabeth O’Connor’s book Search of Silence: “The one journey that ultimately matters is the journey into the place of stillness deep within one’s self.  To reach that place is to be home; to fail to reach it is to be forever restless.  At the place of ‘central silence,’ one’s own life and spirit are united with the life and Spirit of God.  The fire of God’s presence is experienced.  The soul is immersed in love.”  Prayer, meditation, silent retreat, immersion in nature, journaling and creativity are all aspects of the journey inward.  A part of this work is taking dreams and visions seriously, working to understand and assimilate them.

June 20, 2021

Lucy said:

So first, I want to acknowledge that we are a diverse group, with White people, and Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in our midst. But today, we are white people,  speaking primarily to white people about our white experience.

To me, white supremacy speaks to the American culture and systems we live in that have been built on the belief that white people constitute a superior race. It teaches white people to see people who are not white as strangers. Because of it, our ancestors committed murder and theft, and because of it we have learned from our ancestors to justify murder and theft.  It is a system and a culture into which we have been born and by which we have been traumatized.