The Perils of Pauline

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As servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities…

—2 Cor. 6:4

Introduction: Luther’s Goat

Exactly 499 years ago tomorrow, an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther nailed a list of 95 statements to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany, which listed a series of complaints against the practices of the church at that time. Most of the complaints dealt with the selling of indulgences.

Indulgences were (and still are) given by the the Roman church to reduce either time spent in purgatory after death, or the amount of penance required for a sin before death. In Luther’s day, indulgences—as bits of writing on parchment—were actually being sold from town to town by religious peddlers in order to finance construction of St. Peter’s in Rome. These bits of parchment could be purchased for the forgiveness of a sin already committed, or a juicy future sin that the buyer had his or her eye on. This was the practice, more than anything else, that got Luther’s goat.

Purpose, Mission & Vision

The United Church of Christ has adopted new Purpose, Mission, and Vision statements at the national level.

Purpose 

To love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength

and our neighbor as ourselves. 

 

 

Mission

United in Spirit and inspired by God's grace,

we welcome all, love all, and seek justice for all. 

Vision

United in Christ's love

a just world for all.

 

Source: http://www.ucc.org/news_vision_of_a_just_world_underscores_clearer_ucc_purpose_mission_10242016

'But for the Grace of God'

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I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.

—Luke 18:14

Introduction: Metanoia

The word of the day is repentance. It’s talked about a lot more in the Bible than it is in church. At least in this church. Though I doubt I talk about it more than once or twice a year, I’ve still had people literally quit the church after a sermon on repentance. But after hearing that passage from Luke just now, it’s gonna be pretty hard to ignore the subject at hand.

The word for repentance in the Bible is μετάνοια (metanoia). I think the idea behind this word is that the way we act reflects what’s in our mind, and that the way we think reflects what’s in our heart.

'A Future with Hope'

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Introduction Part A: OT vs NT

I was going to ask today how many of you have heard people say a certain thing. But I know many of you pretty well by now, so maybe I should ask how many of you have actually said this thing. And the thing is this: "I believe in the New Testament God; the Old Testament God just sounds too angry and vengeful."

I’m not saying it’s a horrible thing to say. There is a lot more of the wrath of God in the first 39 books of the Bible than in the final 27 books. But the first 39 are a much larger portion of the Bible, and they cover a lot more history—over a thousand years—when compared to the New Testament which covers just a few decades of history. I know that explanation isn’t adequate for some of you, but I hope it at least helps us put the Hebrew Bible in context.

'A Future with Hope'

Listen to this sermon here:

Introduction Part A: OT vs NT

I was going to ask today how many of you have heard people say a certain thing. But I know many of you pretty well by now, so maybe I should ask how many of you have actually said this thing. And the thing is this: "I believe in the New Testament God; the Old Testament God just sounds too angry and vengeful."

I’m not saying it’s a horrible thing to say. There is a lot more of the wrath of God in the first 39 books of the Bible than in the final 27 books. But the first 39 are a much larger portion of the Bible, and they cover a lot more history—over a thousand years—when compared to the New Testament which covers just a few decades of history. I know that explanation isn’t adequate for some of you, but I hope it at least helps us put the Hebrew Bible in context.

Turtle Island Sunday: An Alternative to Columbus Day

We're told that it was on October 12, 1492, that Christopher Columbus "discovered" America. Of course he thought it was India, but an accidental discovery is a discovery nonetheless. I suppose it still took quite a bit of courage to set sail into the unknown with the limited resources he had.

The problem with Columbus lies not so much with how he discovered America, but with what happened because of it. The first consequence was unintentional. At the time of "discovery," the indigenous peoples of the Americas were generally healthier than their European counterparts, mostly due to diet. But because they had never been exposed to diseases such as measles, influenza, plague, and (especially) smallpox, they had no resistance. The result was the death of millions. This alone makes our celebration of "discovery" a bit insensitive.

'Ask the Animals'

But ask the animals, and they will teach you.

—Job 12:7a

When you serve English-speaking churches in other countries, you meet lots of people from lots of different places. And one of the things you learn when you meet people from Britain is that the old saying is true: Americans and Britons are separated by a common language. Case in point. When I was in Europe, I was the coordinator of lots of different English-speaking programs, and when the pastor of the church in Hamburg, Germany left to come back to the United States, the congregation had to wait several months for its new pastor, so I went to Hamburg to serve them in the interim.

Though they loved their old pastor, there were lots of complaints about how nothing he did was ever familiar to them; and when I tried to pinpoint exactly what it was they found so strange, I discovered it was the hymns. Since this particular congregation was populated mostly by people from England and South Africa, it was evident that one of the problems was the songs that they were used to singing weren’t the same ones that the American pastor was used to choosing from the church’s hymnal published in the United States.

This Week's Flowers

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Sent from my iPhone

The Meeting-Place

An Invitation to the Table for World Communion Sunday

I had a weird experience this week. It’s kind of unique to me, I think, because I have my own way of dealing with telemarketers. They used to just make me angry… and they still do when I get a recording. But when it’s a real person, I’ve moved on. Now, that’s not to say that the telemarketer doesn’t get angry at me, because sometimes they do. But usually it’s a draw. That’s because when a live person tries to sell me something by calling me on the phone, I want to talk to them. But not about whatever it is they’re selling. I just want to be friends with them.

This is actually difficult for me, because I’m a natural introvert. And so I’m not very good at it. It just seems like a more “Christian” strategy than just hanging up or yelling at somebody who’s just trying to put bread on the table. I have to say I haven’t made a single friend. Some people are bemused, some are patient, but some (ironically enough) just get downright angry at me for wasting their time. But the other day I feel like my strategy finally paid off.

Francis of Assisi

But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being.

—Job 12:7-10

Most of my time in seminary, I worked at a Methodist church in New Jersey as a youth director. I can’t remember why, exactly, but a friend of mine and I both had the first Sunday of October off in 1985, and neither of us had ever been to the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in upper Manhattan. So we decided to worship there that morning.

We weren’t aware of anything special happening that day (it’s amazing the ignorance we all lived in before the advent of the internet), and since we were coming from relatively far away and didn’t end up needing the cushion we’d given ourselves, we got there quite early. Everything seemed normal—or at least as normal as it could be at one of the world’s largest churches. But the worship bulletin promised Paul Winter’s Missa Gaia (Earth Mass) and a blessing of the animals. That would explain why some of the other early arrivers brought their dogs with them. Soon it was not just dogs but cats in carriers, birds in cages, hamsters, etc. As the massive nave filled up, it appeared that my friend and I were the only people present without a house pet. By the time the service began, we were surrounded by barks, howls, meows, chirps, and every other kind of imaginable sound from the animal kingdom.