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Shiny

  Y’all know I’m a liturgy and history nerd. This Sunday is another of those church holidays that most folks don’t think about, but that I love preaching on. It’s Transfiguration Sunday. It’s the very end of the season of Epiphany, and the last Sunday before we go into Lent. It’s a “white stole” Sunday, too, in honor of the special glimpses of God we observe today. We have 2 stories this morning about a once in a lifetime encounter with divinity. We hear the story of Moses descending Mount Sinai after one of his conversations with God about the Law. Unbeknownst to Moses, talking to God made him glow. But the light was so striking that even his brother Aaron was afraid to go anywhere near him. I mean, I think I understand. If one of my sisters suddenly looked like a Glow Worm I’d have questions, too. When Moses realized he shimmered after talking to God, he started wearing a veil around the Hebrews as base camp, for their comfort. Then he’d take the veil off to go back up Mount Sina...
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Enemy

  It’s “love your enemy” Sunday, y’all. The most uncomfortable words ever to come out of Jesus’ mouth. This teaching happens immediately after last week’s Gospel passage–the Sermon on the Plain, Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. Jesus is still standing on flat land, on eye level with everyone standing around him. The words he just said really dressed down a few key groups of people–the wealth hoarders, the food hoarders, and Jesus’ perpetual frenemies, the Pharisees. If any of those words describe you, should you bother to stay to hear more? And if none of those words describe you, if you are in the groups Jesus just called blessed–the poor, the food insecure, and the mourning–now what? If Jesus tells me that I’m blessed and woe will come to you, does that make you my enemy? And, if so, how am I supposed to treat you? Bringing up the word “enemy” in a spiritual circle is a great way to halt a conversation. That word makes us very uncomfortable, and that discomfort is coming from a ...
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Blessed

  The words we’re hearing today in our Gospel reading are words that sound vaguely familiar, but like they’re coming from the “wrong guy”. I’ve preached these sentiments many times before, and I quote them at nearly every funeral I preside over. You all have doubtless heard these words many times over, too, and heavily quoted in the public sphere for all kinds of reasons, good, bad, and otherwise. But most of us aren’t used to hearing these words coming out of Luke’s pen. Instead we prefer to hear these words as adapted by his near predecessor Matthew.  First, you get some background information on biblical scholarship and criticism, courtesy of your nerdy pastor who needs to fully utilize that master’s degree, because it was very expensive. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are what we call “the synoptic Gospels”, literally meaning that you can “look at them together”, and you’ll see giant chunks of words written exactly the same. We’re pretty sure that Mark, the shortest and hastiest ...
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Before?

  Today’s sermon was brought to you by a typo. When I sent the bulletin information to Mary, I was struck by the two uses of the word “before” in the Old Testament reading from Jeremiah, and I didn’t have any other plans for the sermon, I was waiting for the Saturday afternoon surge of inspiration to hit me, likely between scoops of cookie dough ice cream. But when Mary sent out the bulletin, I took a close look at it, and noticed that she added something to my sermon title–a question mark. So, suddenly, the title of my sermon was no longer “Before”, statement, but “Before?” question. Huh. Then I realized…it’s perfect. This passage from Jeremiah chapter one, Jeremiah’s call narrative, has long been a favorite passage of mine. But I’ve preached it several times before, and 13 years deep in this line of work, coming up with new things to say about multi-thousand year old words can be a challenge. Not always, but certainly this week. “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And b...
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This Won't End with a Dead Horse

  In order to prepare myself for this sermon, I needed to rewatch the 1984 film, The Neverending Story . Now, this is going to be a reference that will instantly split us all up into generational groups. Some of us have a few pivotal scenes from that movie permanently seared into our memories, some of you may have watched at least part of that movie with your kids, and some of you have never heard of The Neverending Story and have no idea what I’m talking about. Don’t worry, I’m going to get everyone on the same page. At the start of the film, we meet a little boy named Bastian. He’s in a vulnerable, grieving place. His mother recently passed away, he’s being bullied at school, his dad doesn’t really “get” him, and his grades at school are lagging because he’s not so concerned with math tests and homework right now, he’s more focused on the dreams he’s been having about his mom. Then a bookstore owner shows him a new book he might love, but that isn’t a “safe” read like the many o...
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Do Whatever He Tells You

  John 2: 1-11  The Wedding at Cana 2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to me and to you? [ a ] My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the person in charge of the banquet.” So they took it. 9 When the person in charge tasted the water that had become wine and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), that person called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the...
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God's Family

  Whenever I talk about baptism, and especially Jesus’ baptism, I’m deeply indebted to a little boy that I met at Fairport UMC, way back when I was a seminary student interning there. Me and the little boy’s mom had a common connection–Asbury First UMC in Rochester, where her family used to go. She explained that they were once members, and her older child was baptized there, but when she moved out to the suburbs there was just no earthly way to get young children out of bed, fed, dressed, ready, and out the door in time to make it to a church that was twenty minutes away. Now that I have my own Motley Crew, I have to agree, I think it would be easier to get my kids to Mars than to church most Sundays. So, this mom found a new church home right in Fairport. But when her little boy, who was maybe 8 or 9 at the time, heard the word “baptized”, his ears perked up, because this boring mom conversation suddenly became interesting, so he ran over and asked: “Mommy, what’s ‘baptized’?” Hi...
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