Constructive Faith

a sermon delivered on January 29, 2012 at Sayville Congregational United Church of Christ

We begin at the end, because the story of Kurt Gödel does not end well, and hopefully this sermon will. Gödel was one of the three great minds of the early 20th century who closed the door on the great project of the Enlightenment. More on that later. Through the middle of the last century, he could be seen most days strolling home from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey, with his dear friend, Albert Einstein, one of the other two great reality-changing thinkers of the time…  Gödel was a difficult man verging on madness, and in the end it was madness that killed him, for he came to believe someone was trying to poison him, and when his elderly wife was hospitalized, he starved himself to death, not trusting anyone else with his food. It was a tragic end, to be sure, for a brilliant career. More than a decade earlier there was a more endearing reference to Gödel’s sanity when Einstein remarked to a friend that Gödel really had finally gone mad. When asked why, Einstein replied that the man had voted for Eisenhower. Continue reading “Positively Wrong”

a sermon delivered January 22, 2012 at Sayville Congregational United Church of Christ

I got on the train, like I had many times before that year. I had my backpack, my passport, a baguette, sausage and cheese in case I got hungry. I also had my Thomas Cooke guide with train schedules for all of Europe and my Let’s Go guide, letting me know where I could find a hostel, cheap eats, and the best times to visit various attractions. And so we pulled out a Gare du Nord heading to Metz. Now, I am bilingual… I speak English and Southern, but I do not speak French. None-the-less, I did manage to understand the announcement, made in French, that revealed that half of the cars in the train were going to Metz, and that at some point half would split off and head to Luxembourg. And I was in the wrong half. Continue reading “On the complexity of not going to Metz”

a sermon delivered on January 15th, 2012 at Sayville Congregational United Church of Christ

Scholar John Dominic Crossan stated the problem succinctly when it comes to how we interpret the Bible. Either the ancients wrote a text they believed to be literally true, and many of us are smart enough to read it symbolically; or, the ancients wrote a text they believed to be symbolically true, and many of us are dumb enough to take it literally. Crossan believes the latter. I tend to think it is somewhere in between, the ancients realizing parts were true and parts symbolic, and that many contemporary American Christians are unable to admit to themselves and the world that they are choosing which parts are symbolic and which are literal. Continue reading “Monkey-Soul-A-Phobia”

It is not uncommon for folks, on learning that I am a Christian minister, to say to me something like this: “Well, all paths lead to the same place.” I usually politely nod, move on to other topics. But I don’t really believe it.

As we begin our three week sermon series on “Lessons Learned from Other Religions,” I thought it might be helpful to clarify how we use the term “universalist,” and why I am specifically a Christian. Continue reading “On Being 2/3 Universalist”

It is very old, primordial, this fear of the dark, this ancient human fear of what is unknown. It is the salt in the soup of our souls, this desire to know, to explore, to illuminate, and to hate what is obscured. Dylan Thomas advises us: “Do not go gentle into that good night,” further advising us to “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Death and birth, ignorance and knowledge, these are tropes, figures that transcend any single culture, the raging at the dark seen in our ritual candle lighting, in the bonfires of the ancients. And here, in the long dark of winter, we celebrate light. Continue reading “Dusk: January 8, 2012”

Despite the hullabaloo in Times Square last night, the vast amounts of alcohol consumed, the soon-to-be broken resolutions that were made, despite all of this, this day is no different than any other day. Yes, we mark the end of the secular year, which for purposes of historical dating makes a difference, as we will remember the next few weeks every time we mistakenly write 2011. And we will close the financial books, some starting to gather information for their taxes while others drag their feet until April 14th. But for many, the “year” starts at other times. Our Jewish brothers and sisters started their year some months ago. Communist China and people that share the Chinese cultural heritage have a different New Year. Twelve month a year Christians marked the beginning of the year with the start of Advent, in a cycle that is meant to loosely re-create the narrative arc of Christ’s life. And nine month a year Christians marked the start of the year with the beginning of the academic year.

So, it is one more day, really, as good a time as any to reflect and plan. Continue reading “New Year’s Homily: To plant and to pluck, to gather and to throw”

Okay… three homilies in 24 hours, each slightly different but on the same basic theme… hmmm….

Here they are:

Family Service: One Holy Night

On this night, and in fact during this entire season we view as unique and holy, much of the world puts its normal routines on hold. We gather with family, even that crazy uncle we’d like to pretend wasn’t related to us. Some will enter Christian houses of worship after many months, sometimes years, away. We celebrate our Savior’s birth, or at least go through the routine of celebrating that birth, even if we give salvation little or no thought for most of the year. We declare this to be one holy night. Continue reading “Christmas Homilies”

Preparations for Christmastide are going well. I’ve written an original script for our brown-bag pageant called “Meanwhile in Hollywood,” have both Christmas Eve services ready, and am now working on our informal Christmas morning “pajamas” service. This is the prayer we will use to open that morning.

Brother Jesus, you came to us in love, closing the gap between the divine, the quantum swirling mysterious Creativity that calls the world into being. You shared in our humanness, and marked us forever with your holiness. In your life you taught us how to be fully human, how to align our lives with God’s great purpose, how to boldly proclaim God’s just and caring realm. In your death you showed us how to come to our own ends, and in your resurrection you taught us that the forces of sin, evil and death will not triumph. But this day, this holy day, we recall the various stories your followers used to understand how you came into the world, unique, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Bless this gathering, reminding us always that we are people of the promise walking along the Way, together in love. Amen.

There was once a pastor who was settling in quite nicely into the pulpit of a church he had served for three years. He loved his new community, had made great friends, and had benefited from the wisdom of several of the congregation’s elders. One particular gentleman, we’ll call him Wallace, had been a deacon many times over, had even served on the search committee that had selected the pastor, and was especially cherished. So it broke the pastor’s heart when he noticed Wallace falling asleep during the sermon. And not just falling asleep, falling asleep there in the front pew, where everybody could see the head nod, hear the gentle snore. The pastor was determined to make his sermons more interesting, spent hours tweaking, all to no avail. Finally it dawned on him… maybe it wasn’t the sermons. Wallace was getting up in years, maybe there was a health problem. And like a good pastor, he switched into care mode, gently dropping hints, and finally just coming right out and asking Wallace if there was a health issue they could address in prayer. No, Wallace assured the pastor, everything was just spiffy. Continue reading “Path to Peace”

Used as the Prayer of Confession on Advent 2

Our lives hum along,
the hum of dozens of electronic devices,
the capacitors of our lives holding us captive,
the hum of our tires on the road as we zip about,
free to drive and trapped in our driven-ness.
Our lives are musical,
the music of ringtones demanding,
interrupting our concentration,
the music of jingles designed to fuel our need,
the squawking heads of desire.

Amidst all this noice,
this captivity and squawking,
you come,
Our Savior and Our God.

Forgive us our willingness to be held captive,
and grant us your liberation,
grant us your peace,
for we know you still call,
still call,
always calling us to peace,
to freedom,
to reconciliation. Amen.