Sometimes I preach: On Covenants and Tea Kettles (8/21/16)

So here we are. The night before Jesus is handed over. The final night with his disciples. We have worked through Jesus’s birth, his childhood, his baptism and temptation, his miracles, his teachings and here we are, the last night.

If you go to Jerusalem, you can visit the the Upper Room. And I’ve actually been there. But I’ll be honest with you. I don’t really remember it that well,  because I was really really hungry because we had been fasting all day and I knew all we had to do was get through this last stop and then we were going to get to break our fast with communion. And so I was pretty preoccupied thinking about the snacks that were waiting for us back on the bus. And the room itself was pretty standard, mostly stone and columns and so when I try to picture the Upper Room, I mostly just picture being hungry.

There is probably a deep theological point to be made there and maybe in a different sermon one day you’ll hear that but for right now , but again, going with the honesty theme, it was not a spiritual hunger. It was regular old “come on guys let’s keep moving, the snacks are waiting” kind of hunger.

Maybe the disciples were too and maybe they were distracted when Jesus was breaking the bread. Maybe they were just really ready for the meal to be done, for church to be over so they could go home, or I mean, for Passover to be over so they could go to bed. Maybe they skipped over hearing the words: this is the blood of the new covenant, poured out for you.

Listen to the rest here: http://ssumc.org/visitors/recent-sermons/

Sometimes I preach: " The Divine Dance" Trinity Sunday (5/22/16)

Excerpt:

Meanwhile, while part of the early church were in this debate, trying to come to terms with this divine mystery, other parts were more concerned with the relationship of the Trinity and what they do, rather than trying to define who they are.

These Christians started thinking about how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit existed before time and creation and how they have been relationship with one another from the beginning.

One monk, John of Damascus, came up with an image to trying to define this relationship using a fancy Greek word: perichoreisis.  

It basically means dancing between. He thought about how God is love and always has been and how the three members of the Trinity have shared in that love since since before time began. That before the world began, there was God, there was communion, there was a divine dance. And they dwell together, circling one another, making space for another.

God at the very core is not solitude but rather community. One in Three, Three in One.

Dancing, dwelling together, making space for one another.

And miraculously, through the in-breaking of Christ into the world, we have been invited to participate in that dance, in that relationship, in that communion. It’s what Jesus says over and over in John that we will be one with him as he and the Father are one. We are invited into that mystery.