Author: The Rev. J. Gary Brinn

Note: I preach in a variety of styles, from traditional text behind a pulpit to no-notes and walking about. An intermediate style begins with a short sketch, though I often wander away from the text during delivery. The following sketch is prepared for the March 16 service with the lectionary reading focusing on Nicodemus.

Most of us were forced to read T.S. Eliot’s classic poem The Wasteland in high school, long before we had the maturity or skill to interpret this complicated text by a well educated and experienced poet.

Often, Eliot’s work is interpreted as depressing, the complaint of a morose observer in a bleak time. This interpretation misses something fundamental in Eliot’s masterpiece. The Wasteland is a modern and poetic retelling of the Fisher King story found in the Arthurian legend, itself an interpretation of ancient and often pagan rituals and myths related to fertility and life.

Rather than a depressing tale of life in the early 20th century, The Wasteland is a story of hope, for it ends with rain and birth. The wasteland is restored. The land that was barren due to the infertile king, pierced in the groin, is once again fertile. Continue reading “Nicodemus, Eliot and Blood”

The following rite was composed using traditional forms. Please note that the witnesses listed near the end of the Communion prayer change monthly. This is the rite we use most frequently and services, though there is a second rite in which the people speak the words of institution which is also used.

Communion Prayer

O Divine Mystery we name as God, it is right and proper that we should come together as your people to offer you thanks and praise, acknowledging our utter dependence on you. In holy creativity you wrote a new story, calling the world into being, choreographing the dance of the atom, composing cosmic symphonies. In the story of the Hebrew people, we hear our own story, slowly discovering a world charged with your grace and glory, and growing in faith. Through the prophets, we draw closer to your way of life and love. In the surprising story of Jesus, we encounter you as God-with-us, we are drawn to your light, and with Jesus we are crucified and resurrected into new life, knowing that sin and death will never have the final word, for he is your Word, spoken to us and for us. We look forward to his coming again. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are bound in covenant one to another and to a common cause, to see your will be done in our world.

We thank you for the church historical and universal, and raise our voices in prayerful thanks for all who have served the common good, servants of love, those who have followed the Way of Jesus, and those who have followed other paths. We thank you for Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and for the prophet Amos, for Harriet Tubman and for Benedict of Nursia, for all who spoke and speak God’s challenging word, do God’s challenging bidding. Joining our song with theirs, with choirs of angels and saints, we boldly proclaim your praise: Continue reading “Communion Prayer, Words of Institution and Consecration”

Blessed Savior,
We confess our silence.
When hatred is taught in your name,
we are mute.
When the vulnerable are abandoned,
our tongues are stopped.
When greed and racism overwhelm us,
we politely change the subject.
Forgive us.
Give us courage.
Make us yours.
Amen.

Silence

We can drown in a sea of grief, weighed down by our guilt and sins. Or we can believe the good news, that in Christ there is forgiveness and new life. You are forgiven and called. Be the people of God. Amen.

Blessed Creator,
Your work is charged with holy imagination,
with fierce beauty,
with order and chaos.
And here we are –
yours,
fierce and beautiful,
ordered chaos,
chaotic order.
Be with us in our silences
and in our whirlwinds
in our gathering
and in our departing. Amen.

Holy Spirit,
We come from our several places,
most carrying heavy baggage.
We lug behind us bags of grief and regret,
trunks of preconceived notions,
mislabeled boxes of anger and hate.
For this hour at least,
help us to lay our burdens down,
gather us at the table,
singing, laughing, dancing
for love of our Savior.
Amen.

Note: I preach in a variety of styles, from traditional text behind a pulpit to no-notes and walking about. An intermediate style begins with a short sketch, though I often wander away from the text during delivery. The following sketch is prepared for a sermon series on Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Not so far from here, at the north end of the public property that starts with the Islip Grange, you’ll find a series of Little League fields. In just a couple of months girls and boys will start practicing for the spring season, some with our church name on their sleeves. Above them, on top of two of the light towers, will be osprey nests, and at some point fledglings.

Ospreys, like other birds of prey, use platform nests. Huge, functional, but quite chaotic, nothing neat and tidy like you might find with a swallow. In fact, platform nests often grow year after year, layers of shiny bits and decay, until they can often threaten the very tree in which they are built – too heavy, to big, especially after a storm or when battered by high winds. Continue reading “The Faithfulness of God”

This uses the brownbag audience participation format. While a handful of characters are predetermined and work printed scripts, primarily the narrators, the majority of parts are assigned on-the-fly as individuals and or the sanctuary. This was this year’s script.

Cast:
Aristobulus T. Camel – A dromedary executive with a thriving import-export business
Mattathias B. Camel – Heir-apparent of his father’s business. A teen-aged camel with attitude
Esther – human assistant to Mr. A. Camel
Gabriel
Joseph
Mary
Inn Keeper

Various
Sheep
Angels
Wise Persons
Shepherds
Barn Animals

Mattathias is lounging around playing Nintendo DS or texting or otherwise not doing his work

Aristobulus enters from rear of Sanctuary

Aristobulus – What day is it? Hey, ___________________, do you know what day it is is? It’s that day! What, what! Yo, ___________________, you know what today is!
Riffing, calling people by name, working his way up the aisle… on reaching the steps, he sees Mattathias not working. (as usual!)

What! Not working again! I do not know what I pay you for! I am going to change the name of this company from A. Camel and Son to A. Camel and Esther. At least she works. Speaking of which, where is that human? Continue reading “What Day Is It?: Brown-Bag Pageant”

Written for and originally published in the local Patch.

Let me tell you a story. It is about a man with a troubling past who rises, through corruption and violence, to rule a nation. He surrounds himself with thugs and bends the religious leaders of his nation to his will. He is aggressive, invading neighbors, and claiming territory in the region based on the presence of individuals that share his nationality. If he bullies and terrorizes his neighbors, he reserves the purest hate for the vulnerable in his own country. He trumps up charges, crafts hate-filled legislation, and incites street violence against minorities. And in the midst of this frenzy of evil, he is rewarded with the Olympics. Continue reading “Russia Ãœber Alles”

Note: I preach in a variety of styles, from traditional text behind a pulpit to no-notes and walking about. An intermediate style begins with a short sketch, though I often wander away from the text during delivery. The following sketch was prepared for a sermon series on Christmas traditions.

The Congregational side of our UCC house can lay no real claim to much of what we now claim as the traditions of Christmas. In fact, the Puritan rejection of Christmas will play into next weeks sermon. And now you already know the punchline!

The real cultural trajectory for the most common Christmas traditions flows through Germany and the Netherlands. And here we have some claim, as half of our UCC house descends from German Protestants, and our German Reformed grandparent was credentialed by their Dutch Protestant neighbors. And here we are, in the gravitational pull of New Amsterdam.

The Germans gave us lights on the tree, and a host of other traditions, and the Dutch gave us Sinterklaas and his assistant Black Peter. Fortunately, Black Peter, the current cause of anti-racist protests in Holland, didn’t make the trip, and we were left with Santa Claus, a name derived, as we all know, from Saint Nicholas, the legendary 4th century Bishop of Myra, in modern day Turkey. Legend has it, that Bishop Nicholas made a practice of giving secret gifts, and so you see how the legend develops. One account has him leaving coins in the shoes of those in need. But one tradition was stranger still. Continue reading “Stockings”

Written for Long Island’s LGB T magazine Outlook.

The Hebrew and Christian scriptures spend a lot of time on leprosy. In that long ago age, before scientific medicine, the term could be applied to many unrelated but similar appearing conditions, each more or less severe, more or less contagious, from syphilis to severe acne. Folks didn’t really understand how disease was transmitted, and certainly didn’t know anything about Mycobacterium leprae, the bacterium responsible for the actual disease, so they developed rules for isolating individuals that appeared ill. Seeing disease and mental illness as spiritual matters, they created complex rituals to certify a patient was cured and clean. Continue reading “Mycobacterium leprae”