A sermon preached at The Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on June 10, 2018.

Scripture readings (which you may wish to read prior):
Mark 2:19b-35
and Revelation 21:1-6

A word of thanks to Don,
Who offered our first reading with great finesse
Even the pronunciation of Beelzebul.

We’ve been looking at this reading from Mark in our bible studies this week and
There’s a lot going on in that text:

Jesus going back to his home town and finding a hoard of people
Who want to be near him, to hear him
In particular, To be healed by him

Or others who want to challenge him,
Confront him
Undo him.

So there’s that.

And there’s all that stuff tossed around to do that,
This language about Satan and Demons and unforgivable sins.

Even if we remember that the writers of the Gospels and Jesus himself
Were living with an ancient cosmology, an ancient way of understanding
How the universe works
For many of us this language strikes us as strange, and bizarre
And maybe useless if we don’t unpack it.

Its important for us to remember that “possession by demons” is often language
Used in the ancient period to describe what we might understand
As mental illness: bipolar conditions or schizophrenia or depression.

And while it is true that our tradition doesn’t speak very often about demons
Or possession or the exorcism that we see Jesus performing in scripture
—for good reason, since that is an ancient worldview
that doesn’t really have very much use for us—
we also don’t speak very much about mental illness,
which is a shame.

Jesus was a healer, of body, mind, and spirit.
And Jesus was interested in bringing all sorts of healing,
Including relief from mental illness. THAT we shouldn’t shy away from.

So I was pondering all of that this week, in particular.
This week with the high profile deaths of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade
Both of whom died by suicide following struggles with their own demons.

We need to talk about mental illness, and mental health
which impacts all of us, one way or another.

We particularly need to do this because the Church has resources to help
So we can encourage each other to get the medical care we need
And can love one another as we seek healing for ourselves and our loved ones.

///
This week, my thoughts kept returning to
this section of the book of Revelation
Words that are often read during memorial services
But words worth pondering today as well.

I invite you to open your head and your heart to this word to us
From the author of the Book of Revelation:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth;
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,
and the sea was no more. 

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them; 
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Death will be no more;
mourning
and crying
and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’

And the one who was seated on the throne said,
‘See, I am making all things new.’
Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ 
Then he said to me, ‘It is done!
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end.
To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

And may God bless to us our Reading
And our Understanding
And our applying of these words
To how we live our lives. Amen.

///
These days, I rarely watch television LIVE anymore.
True for almost everything except Royals Games, I think.

I did watch the Golden State Warriors sweep Cleveland
to win the NBA title this week. So sorry, LeBron fans. Always next year.

Sometimes, as the girls are sleeping soundly and I’m home folding clothes
I get the chance to catch up on my favorite shows on the DVR or Netflix.
A little Amazing Race. Some Game of Thrones.

Recently I found myself flipping through the ancient stuff on Comedy Central.
By ancient, I mean 10 or 12 years old.
And I found myself watching some re-runs of a show called Scrubs.
Do any of you remember that show?

I’ve shared this little story with some of you before:
Scrubs is a somewhat bizarre and irreverent but always entertaining comedy
about the staff at Sacred-Heart hospital.

I was watching the episode where they said goodbye to Nurse Roberts.

She was a steady hand and the voice of steadfast faith
Steadfast faith at a place where faith and hope often get challenged
and courage sometimes needs as much support as it can get.

Nurse Roberts and one of the doctors, Dr. Cox, had recently gotten into a scuffle
about the existence of God, and why bad things happen to good people.

And they go back and forth with it,
in the middle of some horrible diagnosis and some similarly horrible grief
and just when Nurse Roberts convinces Dr. Cox of the need
for faith, for hope, for believing in the promise of God’s grace,
Just as Nurse Roberts seems to win her debate
we learn that Nurse Roberts has been in a horrible car accident
on her way home from work.

She is in a coma, an injury that will eventually take her life.

Its devastating. [Read more…]

A sermon preached at Grinnell College
for the Interdenominational Christian Worship Service at Reunion 2018.
Sermon preached on June 3, 2018.

Scripture readings (which you may wish to read prior):
2 Corinthians 4:5-12,16
Psalm 139:1-18
and Mark 2:23–3:6 (Also in the text below)

Good morning, dear friends.
It is a terrifying honor to be with you this morning.

The honor part should be self-explanatory:
I’ve always felt fortunate to be in this line of work,
And I’m grateful that it has led me to this opportunity
to lead worship today, here at the close of Reunion.

A college reunion gives us a unique opportunity to reflect on where we are
this very moment,
our past, and our future

So good to see you again! What is it you do these days?
Are those your kids? Wow.
How is life treating you?
Can you believe that the dorms are exactly the same as they used to be?
What are you hoping to do in the next ten years of your life?

A liminal moment in anyone’s life, going back to college,
The threshold between past and future.

For my part, this reunion has reminded me
Of how young I really was when I first stepped on campus
And how old I feel now, twenty years later
And how much Grinnell has shaped me.

Grinnell: with its twin pillars of academic excellence and social witness
The responsibility to apply our learning to the common good
Fits quite nicely in the daily work of Christian ministry.

I’m so glad to be back.

And it’s a terrifying honor, also, to be sure.

The single most important word of advice you hear in seminary
When you’re learning how to preach
Is to get to know and love your congregation.
You preach with the bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, they tell you,
Asking the questions your congregation asks,
Speaking a Word the congregation might need to hear.

So how do you create a pop-up worship service and do that?

In this room we have people who follow God on the way of Jesus
Through all sorts of styles, convictions, and conventions.
High church, low church, video screens or contemplative prayers
In your pew every single Sunday, or long walks in God’s majestic creation
Most Sunday’s instead.

And there are others who maybe aren’t on that path but who are interested
In what word might be spoken,
Or, lets face it, probably there are some of us
Who want to hear the incredible Alumni Choir one more time
Before heading out to a final Grinnell lunch.

So this is a bit like turning in your first paper for your first-year tutorial,
If I’m honest with you.
Where most students, religious or not, might just mutter a little prayer
Hopeful that the seeds land on good soil, take root, and grow.

It is a bit of a leap of faith. But lets try, anyway, shall we?
Whether this fits your style, with robes and hymns and printed words for prayer
Or if this is all just novel to you, lets turn toward what the word for the day might be
As we reflect on it, together, Grinnellians from all over the place.

The gospel assigned for the day
Is from the Gospel according to Mark
I invite you to open your heart and your mind to this reading from the Scriptures:

 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the cornfields;
and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 

The Pharisees said to him,
‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’

And Jesus said to them,
‘Have you never read what David did
when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food?
David entered the house of God,
when Abiathar was high priest,
and ate the bread of the Presence,
which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat,
and David gave some to his companions.’ 

Then Jesus said to them,
‘The Sabbath was made for humankind,
and not humankind for the Sabbath; 
so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.’

Again Jesus entered the synagogue,
and a man was there who had a withered hand. 

They watched Jesus
to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath,
so that they might accuse him. 

And Jesus said to the man who had the withered hand,
‘Come forward.’ 

Then Jesus said to them,
‘Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath,
to save life or to kill?’

But they were silent. 
He looked around at them with anger;
he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man,
‘Stretch out your hand.’

He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 
The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired
with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. 

And may God bless to us
Our reading,
and our understanding
And our applying of this word, to how we live our lives. Amen.

///
I want to share with you a story.
You may have heard about it.

Late last year, the New York Times reported
About an extraordinary moment of kindness.[i]

The story was about Abraham Davis, of Fort Smith, Arkansas
Who was convicted last year of vandalizing
Fort Smith’s Al Salam Mosque.

Abraham, just shy of his 21^st birthday,
borrowed his mother’s white minivan,
shared a bottle of Kentucky Deluxe Whiskey with a friend
and the two of them went and painted obscenities,
symbols of hatred, and bigotry,
on the Mosque’s windows and doors.

He was caught, on a nearby surveillance camera,
and they arrested him a few months later.
He faced up to six years in prison. [Read more…]