Sermon Notes

Traditions are a fundamental part of our human experience.  They ground us, they connect us to one another and they often bring meaning, peace and joy to our lives.  We are entering into the fall season that will usher in all kinds of beloved traditions…traditions at church, traditions at home, traditions in our neighborhoods and community.  But tradition, according to our scripture reading for this week, can also lead us down a slippery slope…especially in our lives of faith.  Because traditions can become worn out.  They can lose that which makes them lively and life giving.  They can become small and legalistic.  They can become more important, in and of themselves, than that which inspired them in the first place.  

As we have been moving out of pandemic lock down mode over these last months, as I’ve begun to attend a few social functions, I find myself more frequently asking this age old question:  What should I wear? Our reading from Ephesians is a good indicator that this truly MAY be an age old question!  The author talks about this very thing…what we should wear.  Granted, they’re not talking about what we should wear to church or work or the grocery store.  Rather the focus is on what we should wear, how we should clothe ourselves, for “battle” against the struggles we face.  This passage is moving for some and troubling for others with its warrior imagery.  We’ll spend time this Sunday exploring this text in relation to the last of the “Jesus as bread of life” texts from the Gospel of John.  

“Take.  Eat.  This is my body, broken for you.”  Those of us who are newer to Christianity might have an advantage here and be more able to perceive how shocking these words were to Jesus’ contemporaries.  Folks who gathered around Jesus, including his own disciples, balked when Jesus started talking about “eating his flesh” and “drinking his blood.”  And who can blame them?  At face value, it’s a fairly gory notion. But in this passage Jesus says, “Unless you do this…you have no life in you.”  That’s the piece we’ll focus on in worship this Sunday.  What does Jesus mean when he says this?  Is Jesus talking about physical life?  Eternal life?  Or is there something else?

Just like our bodies experience hunger pangs, our hearts and spirits can also experience “soul pangs.”  It seems as if we’re born into this world with certain hungers for love, belonging, connection, joy, play, peace and so much more.  We often experience these “hungers” in isolation, not acknowledging them to others and, very frequently, not even acknowledging them to ourselves.  Many of us, myself included, try to fill these soul pangs with food or drink or activity that doesn’t come close to truly meeting our needs.  It is part of our human condition to experience hunger…not only hunger in our bodies but hunger in our spirits as well.  

This Sunday we are blessed to have Adam Marshall-Lopez with us to preach and lead in worship.  This week’s text from 2 Samuel is a portion of a larger narrative and describes the encounter between David and the prophet, Nathan.  This section of scripture reminds me of how life is a constant learning process and an on-going journey.  We are always on a path of discovering who we are and how we are in relationship with God, others and ourselves.  We have good moments and not so good moments and hopefully we can learn from them all.  

This Sunday we’ll wrap up our July sermon series with our fourth and final question, “Where Do We Go from Here?”  How many times in our lives have we asked ourselves this very question?  Probably a countless number!  Sometimes we’ve asked this question quite literally, especially in the days before GPS! But many a time we’ve asked ourselves this question in a much more figurative way.  Where am I going from here?  What is ahead for me?  For us?  For our families, our friends, our faith community?  The future is not crystal clear and we are not able to predict what is ahead.  But still, we ask the question, seeking direction, guidance, wisdom and light for our path.  

It’s often hard to know how to ask another person about their pain.  It’s equally hard to take the risk of being vulnerable and talking about our own.  So why do it at all?  This Sunday we’ll explore the value of making space for one another’s pain on both a personal level and in the public domain.  We’ll also dig into our scripture passage from Mark with its reminders that the Divine not only doesn’t shy away from human suffering but always seems to be right in the thick of it.  

It’s often hard to know how to ask another person about their pain.  It’s equally hard to take the risk of being vulnerable and talking about our own.  So why do it at all?  This Sunday we’ll explore the value of making space for one another’s pain on both a personal level and in the public domain.  We’ll also dig into our scripture passage from Mark with its reminders that the Divine not only doesn’t shy away from human suffering but always seems to be right in the thick of it.  

Where are you from? This is the first week of our four week sermon series “I’ve Been Meaning to Ask.” This is an opportunity to turn back toward one another, child of God to child of God, leaning in with courageous and heartfelt questions.

What does God want from God’s people when it comes to buildings?  What does God NOT want?  What needs to be broken down first in order to build up?  How do we know, in God’s realm, when it’s time to build?  Who is the builder?  What is being built?  I hope you’ll ponder those thoughts and we’ll delve into this and more on Sunday!