Matthew 14:22-33-“The Weight of Fear”

Synopsis:

After feeding the multitude, Jesus sends the disciples off to set sail while he finally gets away to pray. During the night, a great storm rises and the disciples are battered to and fro. Early in the morning, Jesus defies gravity and transverses the waters to meet the disciples exactly where they are. They think he is a ghost, but Peter asks to be invited onto the water. He begins to walk on the water. Not until he looks around he sees the storms and rising tide and begins to sink with fear. Jesus catches him, but still asks him, why didn’t he trust God with what was first firm beneath his feet. FDR said to our nation in a time when we were facing a Great Depression and an impending World War, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and in this Gospel story we see how Peter’s fears cause to sink, rather than being still and trusting God is the God of the wind and the waves.

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52-"Eighth Sunday after Pentecost"

Synopsis:

Jesus offers two of his shortest parables about how God grows greatness from small beginnings. Much like St. Patrick of Ireland and Father Greg Boyle of Los Angeles who let God planted them in small places, great growth came to change the world around them. Although, we have a hard time seeing what God is growing in us and around us. Part of our call as people of faith is to bear witness by holding up a mirror and telling others, “Look was God has grown!”

Matthew 13:1-9- " Sixth Sunday after Pentecost"

Synopsis:

Jesus shares a beloved parable (an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, as the old preachers would say). This is one of the few parables where Jesus tells his disciples exactly what he means because specificity matters. Like saying “Black lives matter,” rather than “All lives matter,” it is important to speak with specificity, so Jesus warns his disciples about the different “soils” of the soul–hard, shallow, and thorny–but that there is good, soft soil in which God is growing good fruit. Within each human heart are all of these soils–no one is 100% evil or 100% good. We all have hard places to till up, but we also have good, soft soil where God is at work in our lives. In David Wilcox’s Carpenter Story, we hear a story about the power of creativity and compassion to help till two hard hearts and reconcile two neighbors, turned enemies, turned friends again by a traveling carpenter.

Matthew 10:40-42- "Fourth Sunday after Pentecost"

Synopsis:

On the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, we continue with Jesus teaching to his disciples as he prepares them to be sent into a dangerous world. Finally, he tells them to look for those who will offer cups of cold water to them, those agents of hospitality and grace in unexpected places. We live in a world hungering and thirsting for justice, and each of us have a cup of cold water to share with God’s beloved, but the needs are so great feels like watering the desert. And yet, if we all share our cups of cold water, God will continue to quench every thirst.

Matthew 10:24-39-"Third Sunday after Pentecost"

Synopsis:

On the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Jesus calls his disciples to fearless discipleship in a dangerous world. What does fearless love look like in our world today? It doesn’t take long to see such grace. In Louisville, we saw images of protestors protecting a police officer who was separated from his partners in downtown underneath the Bearno’s Pizza sign. Love compels us to listen, to learn, and to do as the great, Black theologian Howard Thurman says we must follow Jesus and, “Jesus stands with those whose backs are against the wall.”

Romans 5:1-8- " A World without Pain"

Synopsis:

Joanne Cameron, “A World without Pain,” Cameron tells the story of living a life with Marsili syndrome: a genetic mutation which dulls pain and some sensory experiences. About a third of the population has some form of this mutation. Paul tells us that it is in fact our experiences of suffering produce, endurance, character, then hope. God love is proved, though, in that while we were at our weakness, Christ died for us. Christ took on the shame of a criminals death, because the powers of hate, violence, and Empire in our world could no longer tolerate the Gospel he preached and the power he shared with common folks and outcasts. Those who suffer, if they find healing, will be lead to deeper empathy and compassion for others. God does not cause suffering, but seeks help humans salvage good in our response to pain.

Matthew 28:16-20- " Trinity Sunday: Holy Dance Divine"

Synopsis:

In what is know by many as the Great Commission, Jesus sends his disciples into the world on mission but not alone. He sends them in the fellowship of the Trinity, in one of the rare moments in scripture where the trinitarian formula is shared. This concept will create the first major theological debates in the Early Church, but the core of the trinitarian controversy is a question of relationship. Is God, how the Greek Philosophers imagined God, a Prime Mover, pure, distance, and untouched by humans suffering? Or, is God as the Hebrews confessed and as Jesus revealed, a God marked by cruciform love, eternally committed to relationship with the children of God and creation itself? Jesus sends his disciples not on a mission to promote a new religion, but to announce the Good News that God invites the whole of creation, neighbors and enemies, strangers and family, into the trinitarian dance of love.

John 14:15-21- "The Orphans of God"

Synopsis:

On the Sixth Sunday of Eastertide, Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit, the Paraklete or the Advocate, who will come beside them and walk with them after Jesus has left. Yet, Jesus leaves them in the body but his promise of the Holy Spirit is to not leave them orphaned. In the story of the Exonerated Five (formerly called the Central Park Five), we see the resilience of love and what it means to be not left orphaned but advocates for those our society forgets who God will not ever forget.

John 14:1-10- "All the Way Home"

Synopsis:

On the Fifth Sunday of Eastertide, Jesus shares his final meal and swansong words with his disciples before his crucifixion. The promise he makes to them is that they will not be abandoned, even though Thomas says they don’t know the way to follow him. Jesus replies, “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” and they already know him so they will know how to make it all the way home to God’s loving arms.

Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19- “Feeling Heard”

Synopsis:

The Psalmist tells us, “I love the LORD, because God has heard my voice and my supplications.” In times of uncertainty, we want to “feel heard.” As the old Celtic proverb says, “Bidden or not bidden, God is Here.” God is always listening, and the Jesus-Story of God’s compassionate love invites us to see how, despite appearances, it is an Easter World. So, while God hears us, God is also still speaking into our present circumstances…so, are we listening?

John 4:5-14-" Clearing the Way for Christ: Seeing Our Circumstances with Fresh Eyes (COVID #2)"

Synopsis

So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’

John 3:1-17-"Clearing the Way for Christ: Seeing Others with Fresh Eyes"

Synopsis:

Jesus is visited at night by the respected rabbi Nicodemus. He visited at night because Nicodemus doesn’t want anyone to see him. In a world before streetlights and lampposts, night time was a dangerous place, but the danger of socializing with a radical rabbi like Jesus was a greater threat to popular Nicodemus. Jesus invitation to Nicodemus flips his world upside down when Jesus tells him that he has come because “God so loved the world,” not just the chosen, biological of Abraham descendants. The wind of Spirit, “blows where it chooses,” and those born again of the Spirit cannot be contained by restrictive, exclusionary religious systems. The Holy Spirit came down on Pentecost to not only set fire to our hearts but to open our eyes to see each other–of every race, place, and faith–as our God-given siblings. While we want to build walls between who is in an who is out, the Spirit keeps circling our hearts until the walls come tumbling down so we can look into our neighbor’s face with fresh eyes and see a fellow child of God.

Genesis 2:15-17-"Clearing the Way for Christ: Seeing Ourselves with Fresh Eyes"

Synopsis:

The writers of Genesis offer us two accounts of the creation. The first concludes with a very good creation and God taking a sabbath rest to which all creation is invited. The second concludes with the creation of relationship where the human is torn apart in two making the first community, the first relationship. If we choose to read Genesis literally we already run into problems because there are two creation accounts that are opposites, so it is better to see Genesis as the ancients divinely inspired way of describe the state of world and the human condition. Immediately, the humans choose the one thing they are told not to do because they are told they will become “like gods themselves,” so they eat of the fruit. Immediately, they see more than they ever wanted to see and they feel shame. Their bodies are not a source of life, joy, and love as God intended, but a sign of their lack, embarrassment, and shame. Seeing ourselves as we truly are with fresh eyes, naked before the God who loves us and accepts us is the first step towards healing and reconciliation as we clear the way for Christ to come and speak words over our lives: “You are loved, you are forgiven, and you are welcome.”

Deuteronomy 30:15-20- "The Light Has Changed: Who Lives, Who Dies, and a Story Worth Telling"

Synopsis:

Moses stands on a mountainside for a second time for the second retelling of the law, and the summation of the law should sound familiar to Christian ears reading backwards who know Jesus’ synopsis of all ethics: love God and love neighbor like you love yourself. Moses offers an every consequence: If you choose life, you will live long, but if you choose death you will surely die. But, the surprising twist is religion is not about rule-following, purity culture, or clean living. Religion is about our relationship with God, our fellow humans, and the earth we inhabit. Living with an ethic of love is a matter of life and death. In the alternate texts for today, Matthew speaks about the importance of reconciliation, and Paul writes about division in the church and the importances of moving beyond “teams” to the unity of the Gospel. In light of Moses’ words, it is our relationships with each other that are a matter of life and death, so let us choose lives which bring the light of love, forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace in all of our spaces.

Matthew 4:12-23- "The Light Has Changed: Arise Your Light is Come"

Synopsis:

As Jesus calls his first disciples, we are invited to continue to search for the calling God has on our lives. For each of us, no matter our age and station in life, there are those who need a word or deed of comfort, of compassion, and of Good News. As those first four disciples left behind their boats, they were called back into there own neighborhoods and hometowns to follow Jesus and share the Good News of God’s Reign of Love and Justice. To what is God calling you this day?

Keywords:

Calling, Jesus, mission, Good News, evangelism, justice, compassion, love

Luke 1:46-55 - "Joy Sunday"

Synopsis:
On Joy Sunday at Broadway, the Gospel is preached in scripture and song as the Chancel Choir shares a musical masterpiece in worship. Born in Venice, Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) served as an ordained priest and Baroque Era violinist, composer, and musical educator for over thirty years at the orphanage for girls in Venice called the Ospedale Della Pieta (Hospital of Mercy). His Gloria was written in 1715 for the orphaned children of the Ospedale and performed in the Venetian opera house. Venice was the Las Vegas of 18th Century Italy and opera houses were raucous venues. With a protective consideration for the young girls in the choir, Vivaldi constructed screens to shield the choir from the intoxicated patrons of the opera. One might imagine the wild crowd turned into a weeping congregation at the angelic sounds of Vivaldi’s choir coming from mysterious silhouettes. The memory of Vivaldi’s choir of orphaned children harmonizes with Luke’s image of Mary–an afraid adolescent with child–who still sings her heart out in the liberating lyrics of the Magnificat. Her song prophesies of a world where God’s goodness, justice, and promise are fulfilled and every human flourishes with God-given worth. Mary makes a truly joyful noise worthy of any audience.

Keywords: Advent, Joy Sunday, Mary, Magnificat, justice, peace, joy, love, hope

Jeremiah 31:27-34 - "Into Exile: Written on the Heart"

Synopsis: God promises a new covenant to the Hebrew folk in the midst of Exile. This new covenant is not written on stone tablets or codified into law, but written on the hearts of God’s children. The law was necessary in the adolescence of faith, but after achieving maturity and the fullness of faith we discover the rules were always a precursor to the relationship with God and neighbor. As Christians reading this Hebrew Bible text, we cannot help but hear Paul’s teaching on the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit over and above the law. This freedom in Christ is the culmination of the promise to write God’s law on our hearts.

Keywords: Jeremiah, Exile, promise, law, grace, Holy Spirit, relationship, freedom, liberty, Christ, ethics, legalism, love

Jeremiah 29:4-14 - "Into Exile: Bloom Where You Are Planted"

Synopsis: Jeremiah challenges the Hebrews carried away in captivity to Babylon. He invites them to see exile not as a short transition period but as an opportunity to bloom where God has planted them. They are invited to build houses, plant vineyards, have children, and God promises to give them a future, “for I know the plans I have for you says the Lord…” Wherever we find ourselves in our journey, God gives us the opportunity to see ourselves as agents of God’s reconciliation as we bear witness to God’s love, compassion, and justice in our communities and lives.

Keywords: Jeremiah, Exile, hope, future, mission, faith, courage, wisdom, incarnation, presence, love, community

1 Timothy 6:6-19 - "Founded for Good Works in 1870"

Synopsis: We conclude our Stewardship Campaign with these words from these words traditionally attributed to Paul writing to his young protege, Timothy. Since her beginnings, the Church has always been a people of not only prayer and faith, but also action and good works. Paul tells young Timothy to remind his people that their security will not be founded on the accumulation of wealth and worldly security, but in lives filled with generosity, commitment, and acts of compassion and kindness for neighbors and enemies alike. This counter-cultural way of Jesus invites us into an abundant life founded for good on the life of Christ and the love of the Triune God.

Keywords: Jesus, Trinity, good works, hands and feet of Christ, stewardship, firm foundation, compassion, justice, joy, love

Luke 16:1-13 - "Founded for Good Risk in 1870"

Synopsis: High rewards demand high risk. Jesus tells this parable of the shrewd manager who risks life, limb, and livelihood to secure for himself a future when his prospects looked bleak. Because of this risk, he was rewarded greatly. This problematic parable sits strange in our souls because the protagonist is a cheat and a liar, but Jesus message is clear as day: you have to risk something big for something good. As we reflect on our past and dream about our future, what are the bold risks God is inviting you to consider in your life and in our life as a church family?

Keywords: Jesus, shrewd, courage, wisdom, risk, security, stewardship, gamble, challenge, bold, brave, love, vision