Message: For the Good of All …

I want to encourage all of you to make every effort to be present for this Sunday’s meeting. Even if you feel you’ve already heard all that will be said. Even if you feel you’ve already said all you need to say. The value of this gathering is found not only in the content of our opinions, but in our presence with and for one another. To the person for whom this meeting is painful and scary, your presence may be a sign that they do not suffer alone. To the person who has spent countless hours planning, meeting, strategizing, and preparing, your presence may be a show of support and an expression of gratitude. We are not simply making one more decision, we are making all of these decisions together.

Sermon: Sunday, July 5, 2015: Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

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.