An Excerpt from Sunday's "Big Game" sermon

I love a good football game.  I love the cracking sounds of helmets on helmets.  I love the acrobatics of spectacular end zone receptions.  I love when quarterbacks get hunted down and sacked for major yard loss.  Then there’s the good old fashioned “Flea Flicker”.  Who gets tired of that?   And yeah, I even enjoy pizza, wings and a couple bottles of beer.

But what I don’t believe is that God cares one little bit about a game’s outcome.  In fact given Jesus’ placement in 1^st Century Palestine, it is quite possible that Jesus doesn’t know squat about football.

Judging by this morning’s opening sentences of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, it would appear that Jesus’ values are light years away from the rough and tumble, muscular ethos of Superbowl football teams.

This morning we discover that Jesus doesn’t care who’s going to Disney World after the game tonight.  Instead he embraces the weak, the powerless and the vulnerable.  You know:  The losers!


~Pastor Doug
(Jesus' Sermon on the Mount)

Top 10 Reasons why kids are welcomed in worship...

10. Repeated exposure to the sights, sounds, symbols and crazy "Jesus loves you" stories in worship help form all Christians.

9. Children actually like sitting in those usually-empty front row seats so they can see and hear what's going on.

8. It would be expensive to paint a bunch of signs to read, "Incarnate Word only welcomes adults".

7. Practice makes perfect - teaching young children to enjoy and participate in the service helps them become active and receptive worshipping adults.

6. There are no pop quizzes in the Communion line.  We all experience the Eucharist as a mystery... you don't have to be able to explain it in order to benefit from it.  (your pastors sure can't).

5. Children have their own unique relationship with God.  Being in church helps them learn how to pray, sing, worship and otherwise strengthen that relationship.

4. If children aren't in church, who are the candy un-wrapping, restless, coughing, whispering adults going to blame for the noise?

3. Sunday worship makes great family-togetherness time.  Use the quiet space for extra hand-holding or snuggling time that may get lost during a busy week.

2. Children teach us what absolute joy looks like - and what better place to experience that than in church?

And the number one reason why kids are welcomed in worship:

1. The circle of God's family is incomplete without them!

On being "maladjusted"...

 

 

Thanks to Elizabeth Thorpe for sharing the following excerpt from a sermon given by MLK on being "maladjusted".  Truly words to live by for people of faith!

 

"There are certain technical words within every academic discipline which soon become stereotypes and clichés. Every academic discipline has its technical nomenclature. Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word in psychology. It is the word 'maladjusted.' Certainly we all want to live the well adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities. But I must honestly say to you tonight my friends that there are some things in our world, there are some things in our nation to which I’m proud to be maladjusted, to which I call upon all men of goodwill to be maladjusted until the good society is realized. I must honestly say to you that I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism and the self defeating effects of physical violence.

And I say to you that I am absolutely convinced that maybe the world is in need for the formation of a new organization: 'The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment' -- men and women who will be as maladjusted as the prophet Amos who in the midst of the injustices of his day would cry out in words that echo across the centuries: 'Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream;' as maladjusted as Abraham Lincoln who had the vision to see that this nation could not survive half slave and half free; as maladjusted as Thomas Jefferson who in the midst of an age amazingly adjusted to slavery would etch across the pages of history words lifted to cosmic proportions: 'We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness;' as maladjusted as Jesus of Nazareth that said to the men and women of his day: 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.' And through such maladjustment we will be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man’s inhumanity to man into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice."

 

  - Martin Luther King, Jr., Sermon at Temple Israel of Hollywood, 1965

Arctic Blast

As I sit here in the church gathering space, coffee urn plugged in, cookies and granola bars set out, and winter clothing lined up across a white, plastic fellowship table, windows bordering the darkness, rattle with each breath- extinguishing gust, tree limbs wave furiously illumined only by the sodium vapor lights whose metal poles creak and groan in mournful protest.  Here I sit waiting:  Waiting for anyone needing refuge and respite from the arctic blast which has overwhelmed our city.

Despite the fear and unknown of this dark and blustery night, all I can think of is the beautiful artistry of the gospel writer, John, whose paint brush leaves strokes of brilliant hues upon the easel of my heart conveying heaven’s divine beauty. 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.  What has come into being in him was life and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it... And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-4, 14).

 I am captivated by these words. “In the beginning was the Word” … “and the darkness did not overcome it” … “The Word became flesh and lived among us” … “full of grace and truth.”  I could revel in their beauty day in and day out.

 These words not only capture my attention for their beauty, but also for what they say about God.  They remind me of a God whose love is so extreme, that God wraps himself into the confining space of human flesh, entering my world of brokenness, messiness, division, heartbreak, and rejection.    

How must it have been for God to look on the world not from a holy place above the fray, but eye to eye, in our midst, watching the ways we mistreat each other, divide ourselves up, create hierarchies, build towers of Babel unto ourselves. How different being “flesh” must have felt from home, from golden walkways and angelic beings, echoing joyous strains of “hallelujah” all the time.

But the Word made flesh didn’t pack his bags and go back from where he came.  He didn’t turn away from that ragtag group of disciples, passionate but often completely misunderstanding the mission. He didn’t turn away from men or women, Jews or Gentiles, unholy Samaritans or oppressive Romans. He didn’t turn away from the sick or the afflicted. Even the dead caught the Word’s holy attention. The Word made flesh crashed through social barriers, religious convention, and everyone’s expectations.

 The Word made flesh chose to dwell among us, but far from building an impressive palace overshadowing us, the Word made flesh wept, experiencing the full range of our emotions, rejections, and heartaches. The Word made flesh full of grace and truth, is right here in the midst of the howling arctic winds and the frightening darkness that pushes up against these windows. Why am I sitting here at church offering a place of refuge from the frostbite-laden darkness of this night?  Because the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, is the light of the world; the light no darkness can overcome.  Not even the wind chills.  The Word made flesh is here. God incarnate. God with us. God among us.  Jesus is here, especially in the darkness.  Where else could I possibly be?

Peace and Love,

Pastor Doug

In From the Cold

“And the word became flesh and lived among us”

According to all weather reports, record cold temperatures are on their way to Rochester.  Tuesday, January 7th, may be one of the coldest days on record with projected wind chills of around −20 degrees.   Though my life may be inconvenienced by these kinds of temperatures, I at least have a warm home in which to seek refuge.  But what about those who have no such luxuries?

In my sermon this morning, I talked about our call to put flesh and blood on God’s love and mercy.  That’s what followers of the One who became flesh do.  Christ’s love and mercy don’t come through osmosis or by words on paper.  They come through us.  We are Christ’s hands and heart.

With this in mind, I invite you to join me at Incarnate Word this coming Tuesday evening from 7 to 10 pm, as I open our doors to those seeking a hot cup of coffee and a place to warm up for a while.  I’m not sure if anyone will even avail themselves of the opportunity, but I have to do something.  If you can’t join me, I invite you to offer prayers for those who have limited or no shelter.

Not sure how much of a difference these efforts will make.  But if they make a difference to one person…

Peace and Love,
Pastor Doug

A Look Toward Sunday’s Sermon

“And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us”.

What does the word becoming flesh actually look like?  I have no problem imagining shepherds abiding in the fields by night or a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, and lying in a manger, but a word becoming flesh and dwelling among us?  Not exactly a “Kodak Moment”.  Talk about theoretical.  And yet, it seems to me that if the church is going to be relevant, we need to wrestle deeply with what it means for the church that Jesus, the Lord of the Church, became flesh and dwelled among us. It sounds nice that God, through Jesus, took on our flesh and blood – healing and teaching us, but what does that mean for our daily lives?

It’s easy to talk about God moving into the neighborhood, but much harder to embody and reflect it.  If God is in the neighborhood are we?   Are we alleviating hunger, advocating for the most vulnerable among us and working for justice?  If so, we’re in the neighborhood.   

I wonder sometimes if this image of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us has had the unintended effect of saying, “Well, Christ is out in the world, so I don’t need to be”.  As followers of Christ we know better.  We know that Christ doesn’t heal and feed by osmosis.  Christ’s hands are our hands.  If Christ is dwelling among us, then he is dwelling in us.

Journeying out in the neighborhood doesn’t begin on the streets.  It begins in the place where Christ has promised to be present in a healing and feeding kind of way:  in worship.  Being in the neighborhood begins in worship.  There, I said it.   Serving up giant helpings of justice and mercy out on the streets happens only after we have received generous portions of God’s love in worship.  And if it takes longer than 60 minutes to be fed well then talk to the head-chef; the host of the meal. 

How can we possibly reflect Christ if we rarely find ourselves in the place where stories are told about him; reflections are shared; hymns are sung; and prayers are offered?  And all of this over a meal, hosted by a God whose abundant love knows no boundaries.

Our presiding bishop, Elizabeth Eaton, says it even better. 

“At the center of our life together is worship and at the center of our worship is the crucified and risen Christ.  When we gather for worship we turn our gaze away from ourselves to the source of our life and hope and salvation.  When we gather for worship, we are encountered by the living God in Scripture, proclamation of the gospel and the sacraments.  God meets us and transforms us.  We taste, touch, and see the love of God in Christ.”

See you Sunday,

Pastor Doug