I think it must be divine providence that on this Independence Day weekend, as our two congregations are once again gathered for worship in this rapidly gentrifying neighborhood in which many of our long-time neighbors are getting pushed out by rising rents and unbalanced development; in a month in which our nation has had to grieve the loss of nine more Black lives, lives that matter, to a White racist, who also happened to be Lutheran, who still in this day and age had easy access to guns; a month in which nearly a dozen Black churches across the South have burned to the ground with at least three confirmed as arson and other investigations still pending; that the scriptures once again ask us to examine how our prejudices have stood in the way of the deeds of power God is dying to accomplish in and for us.
Category: Sermons
Sermon: June 14, 2015: Third Sunday after Pentecost
Anytime we treat our own small lives like they have the power to change the course of history; anytime we act as though the small and overlooked peoples of the earth have as much worth as the rest of humanity; anytime we move children from the margin to the middle; anytime we insist that the pace of change slow down enough to consider the impact on the most negatively affected minority; anytime we remember and act on the reality that each of us is carrying the seed of the God of creation in the soil of ourselves, then the reign of God has drawn near.
Sermon: Sunday, May 17, 2015: Seventh Sunday of Easter
We’ve been waiting. A lot. Ever since we voted back in January to list our property for sale, we’ve been waiting to find out what would happen next. Waiting while a small group selected a broker. Waiting to hear if there would be any interest in the building. Waiting to find out if prospective buyers might keep the building a house of worship, or might keep the structure and repurpose it to meet the needs of underserved communities in our neighborhood — low-income families, or seniors looking for affordable elder care, or if something entirely new might come into being at this site. Waiting to hear where we might go in the interim. Waiting to hear who will come with us. It’s a lot of waiting, and it’s not easy. We can understand why impatient editors might want to skip this scene for the sake of advancing the plot, but that wouldn’t be true to how we experience real life, in which moments of high drama are accompanied by long periods of waiting.
By Proclamation 