Sermons
I’m acutely aware that what we see is only partly informed by the light waves that strike our eyes which in turn send signals to our brains that register as blue sky, green grass or whatever. The reality is we only see a fraction of what passes before us largely because we tend to see what we expect to see while failing to notice everything else.
Listen to or read Sharon’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”
Poor Thomas. Poor, poor Thomas. We have nicknamed him “Doubting Thomas”, and I think it is a most unfair nickname. He already has one, Didymus, which means “the twin”, but think of other nicknames people have received. Simon Peter—Peter, the Rock. That’s a good, solid, strong nickname. How about “the Beloved Disciple”? I’m pretty sure John gave himself that nickname, but it’s a good one. We still call John the Beloved Disciple today. Mary Magdalene is quite likely a nickname. For many years people thought it was Mary of Magdala, but archaeologists have failed to find a town called Magdala. Scholars have come up with the idea that it is “Mary Magdalena”, meaning “Mary the Tower”. They are all great nicknames, but “Doubting Thomas”?
For my sermon I am going to make an argument, and the argument is this. I am going to defend the proposition that we need to rebrand Thomas. No longer Doubting Thomas, but what can we call him? We’ll try to figure that out together.
Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”
On this day, we celebrate the Good News of that historic moment nearly two thousand years ago that changed the world when Mary Magdalene found the tomb empty and discovered that Jesus had been raised. All four Gospel tell the story a little bit different, but they all agree on two facts: Mary Magdalene was there - sometimes by herself, sometimes with others – and the tomb was empty for Christ was alive. This was an event that showed that that Rome’s brutality – and let’s say it, evil – did not get the final word. It was a moment that showed that death did not get the final word.
Click “Read More” to read Bingham’s full sermon.
But Nicodemus offers us a different model of how some come to the faith. Not one with blinding lights, not one with a sudden transformation, but one that has questions and wonderings and doubts. It is a slow transformation of the heart and mind and soul that eventually gets there when it matters most.
Listen to or read Bingham’s entire sermon by clicking “read more.”
Perhaps like you, I got smudged this last Wednesday.
The 18th, as you may recall, was Ash Wednesday, the first day in the season of Lent. It’s a day that dares us think about this thing called life, but also about this thing called death – a day in which we are reminded of the dust from which we were created and the dust to which we shall return. Perhaps more than anything, though, it’s a day that reminds us of our humanness, that in the midst of being real, fleshy, messy human beings, a need for the Holy still exists.
Listen to or read Cara Meredith’s entire sermon by clicking “read more.”
Here we are this Sunday where Jesus tells us to be salt and light. “You are the light of the world.” We too are light as we seek to follow Jesus, to receive, shine and share that divine light in our world. Jesus tells us and shows us how we are to be light, to shine and illuminate our world today. “Let you light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to God.”
Our world is FULL of darkness right now. We are living in a time where it is hard to find, or shine light.
Listen to or read Ryan’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”
These past few weeks, we have been working our way through the opening of Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians.
In today’s installment, Paul asks a question that always piques my interest: “Where is the debater of this age?” See, I used to do debate, sometimes called policy debate or cx debate, in high school and college, traveling all over the country to tournaments. So, when Paul talks about debaters, I notice.
His question here, however, is not a serious question. In the Roman world and the Greek world before it, debate was popular, all forms of oratory were. And all educated people, of which Paul is certainly one, would have been trained in the art of debate. Paul knows exactly where to go to find a debater in that age. No, this is not a serious question, it is a rhetorical question designed to mock. Ultimately, he is trying to set up an argument for why the faith we proclaim is better than the values of the world.
Debate is ultimately about wins and losses, and you are to strive for the wins. Victory and success. The whole point is to convince the audience or judge or judges that you are right and that your opponent is wrong. This was as true then; it still is today. In debate, there are winners and losers.
To win, to persuade people of your rightness, every debater would have used Aristotle’s three-fold approach to persuasion, found in the book Rhetoric. Everyone would have read this book in school, Paul most certainly read this book in school. In Rhetoric, Aristotle argues that you need to use some combination of your own ethos (your presence, expertise, position), the pathos of your audience (their worries, fears, anxieties), and your logos (your words, the carefully structured logic – logos/logic – the carefully structured logic of your words). Ethos, pathos, and logos.
But the logos Paul really cares about is not the logos of our arguments, but the Logos of God. Logos means Word. In the beginning was the Word, the Logos, and the Logos became flesh and lived among us. Paul points to the true Logos. Not the debater’s logos, not Aristotle's logos, but the true and ultimate Logos, the incarnate Logos, the incarnate Word: Jesus Christ.
And the image of the logos with which Paul starts the argument of this letter is the Logos hanging there on the cross. "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God." This is counter to everything that the debater - of Paul's age, of our age, of every age - cares about. Losing instead of winning; failure instead of success.
The cross: that shameful tool of execution of the Roman State, designed to make a point to the whole body politic by publicly humiliating the victim. The cross: the ancient equivalent of the electric chair or the lynching tree or the gun used in a summary execution by an agent of the state on the street.
The Cross - this horrendous thing - is the foundation of true wisdom, true knowledge, true discernment, true boasting. The cross is the foundation of Paul's argument – remember we are just starting this letter, he is still laying the foundation for his argument that will unfold – the cross is the foundation of the argument that is going to take him into his wild claims later in the letter about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, a baptized member of the Body of Christ - when he will claim that even the weakest, lowliest member is not only necessary, but often the most valuable - and his audacious claims about the primacy of love over every other gift.
This argument is an echo what Jesus proclaimed from the mountain that we heard in the Gospel today: blessed are the poor, the mourners, the meek, the hungry, the thirsty, the merciful, the pure, the peacemakers, the persecuted. Jesus lifts up the lowly and proclaims that they are blessed.
What kind of blessings are these? Certainly not blessings as the world understands blessing. These are not things that the typical debater is going to use as evidence of blessing. But these are the way of Jesus. These are the blessings of the way of the cross. "Foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God."
Winning is seductive. Success pulls at us constantly. Power is like the siren calling out to Odysseus. And yet, as Paul reminds us, winning, success, and power are nothing compared to God. The foolishness of God is greater than our wisdom; the weakness of God greater than our strength. Winning, success, and power are all useless in the light of the cross.
This argument is also an echo of Micah in our first reading trying to plead his case before the mountains. And yet, proclaim he must and proclaim we must, to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.
What foolishness it is to do these three things in our world that seems to delight in injustice, to love meanness, and to run arrogantly from our God, run arrogantly as if we were God. All foolishness. But it is the foolish wisdom of God. And we have to keep proclaiming this foolish wisdom.
Keep proclaiming justice, kindness, and humility. Keep proclaiming the love taught in the words of the Beatitudes. Keep proclaiming the cross. These are the way of Jesus. Do not weary of this of this proclamation. Even as the world calls you foolish for prioritizing service over power, humility over arrogance, love over fear. Do not weary. For that power of God will carry you through to the end. Amen.
