Constructive Faith

delivered on July 31st, 2011

They say you can’t really get more than one point across in a sermon, and they are probably right, but I was on a tear this week and there are way too many in this one, so I figured I’d tell you what they were so you could choose which one to listen for… if you choose an early one, you might even squeeze in a nap. Here they are: everything before Moses is probably a folktale, Christians played a key role in the abolition of slavery, Anabaptists are kinda cool, we’ve got to do something about economic slavery, and children are starving right now, right here in the U.S. In fact, now that you know what I’m going to say, maybe I should just sit down and get us all to the beach that much sooner. Or maybe not… Continue reading “Icebergs to Melt”

Everyone knows Amy Winehouse died, that the NFL lockout has ended, that a Christian terrorist slaughtered innocent children in Norway, that right-wing extremists are holding the US economy hostage in their attack on the Christian value of caring for the poor and vulnerable. But few will know that a great Christian thinker died last week. Even though I had been expecting it, even I didn’t know until I read the Harvard Divinity Dean’s “Year in Review.”

Gordon Kaufman was a Christian in the Anabaptist tradition, and shared that tradition’s commitment to non-violence. But he was also a thoroughly post-modern theologian. His “Essay on Theological Method” established the program for constructive theology. His “In Face of Mystery” was the closest thing to a summa that can exist in the discipline. His last two works, “In the beginning… creativity” and “Jesus and Creativity” gave evidence that he was still pondering the mysteries of God in his last years.

I was blessed to complete a one-on-one class with Professor Kaufman, and then to have him as my M.Div. paper adviser. It was under his tutelage that I became committed to the constructive task of building the new church. I would not have that commitment to the practical and lived experience of the people of God if not for the rigorous thinking Professor Kaufman taught me.

I pray for his family and for all he touched, and encourage those who have not studied his works to take this opportunity to do so.

Blessings,
Gary

delivered on July 24th, 2011 at Sayville Congregational United Church of Christ

I looked at Connie earlier this week and asked her, “Who the heck came up with this week’s theme?” For I chose what I thought was a Summer theme of celebration, one that matched our values as a progressive Christian covenant community, I chose Summer of Love, but some of these Sundays are, quite frankly, a challenge. Its easy enough to find Christian prophetic witness in the struggle against slavery, what stronger grounding can you have than the story of the Exodus people fleeing slavery? And its not so hard to find a Christian basis for equality and justice for women, for despite the centuries-long efforts by some traditions to deny it, women were clearly important equal partners in the ministry of those who followed Jesus, patriarchy be damned! It’s not even that hard to find scriptural support for worker’s rights, and therefore for the Christian commitment to labor justice, something Scott Walker and the Koch brothers might want to keep in mind. But it is pretty difficult to find a direct connection between the Christian faith and disabled rights. There are historical reasons for this. Continue reading “Lord, (sorta) heal us!”

delivered June 26, 2011
at Sayville Congregational United Church of Christ

If you are paying any attention at all, you cannot help but be outraged. Unchecked greed has wrecked our economy, crippled our democracy, turned the financial industry into a vast criminal enterprise, and destroyed countless lives here and abroad. Political extremists use the same tricks, the same language, that were used by the National Socialists in Germany in the 1930’s. This week I went into our local auto repair shop / gas station, just down the street, and found racist images of the president and vile right-wing hatred. And these are just a couple of examples of the evil we face, and it is not personified evil, it is not the work of a Satan, it is us and our neighbors and the things we support when we spend our money… it is enough to drive us to despair! Continue reading “River of Oil, Rivers of Justice”

Transforming God.
As the slaves in Egypt turned mud and straw into bricks,
As others transform wheat and yeast into bread,
As you transform us into faithful disciples,
So we ask you to transform these offerings,
The fruit of our own labor,
Making of them the stuff of your kingdom,
Weaving a cloak of justice, sewing a quilt of love.
Amen.

June 19th, 2011

Martin Luther famously said that Trinity Sunday was the one Sunday a year when the preacher should remain silent, for there is nothing that can really be said about the mystery of the Trinity. But before you get too excited, you should also know that the late Reverend Peter Gomes said that anything worth preaching about was worth at least forty minutes. So let’s say we split the difference?

I am a great fan of Friedrich Schleiermacher, the 19th century German theologian, and especially of his central work Der christliche Glaube nach den Grundsätzen der evangelischen Kirche, translated in an oversimplification into English as The Christian Faith. And since we are discussing something as profound and dare I say mysterious as the nature of God in trinity, I thought we might use Schleiermacher to clarify. Here he writes about the unity of God: Continue reading ““Unsermon””

Today after church we will host a rally in support of same-sex marriage rights. I have been invited to make some remarks… here is what I have prepared…

Sisters and Brothers,

Archbishop Timothy Dolan believes that granting same-sex marriage rights is a step towards autocracy, putting us on the road to a totalitarian state. Archbishop Dolan should look in the mirror, for he chooses to use his dictatorial power within an autocratic church and his influence in society to deny me the right to follow my faith. Jesus has some pretty strong words for hypocrites…

Churches are not forced to marry anyone… I regularly turn away opposite-sex couples who simply want the church as a prop in their wedding. Dolan’s argument is a straw man at best.

Scripture has been used to justify slavery and racism, ethnic cleansing and brutal crimes, and centuries of oppression. Those who project onto God their own prejudices are worshiping a god they created, not the God that created them. I call on them to abandon their idolatry, or to at least admit that their hatred does not come from God.

It is time for communities of faith to stop acting as agents of the state, to follow their own moral code and stop imposing it on others. Same-sex marriage rights are a civil right, not a religious rite. May God forgive those who mix the two. Hear me, you game-playing politicians… freedom will win… love will win… God will win! Amen.

June 12th, 2011

Last week I told you there was no such thing as “original sin.” I take it all back. There is an original sin, but it didn’t come about because of a talking serpent and a gullible Eve, so women, you’re off the hook. A millennium and a half of guilt, right off your shoulders! No, if there was such a thing as “original sin,” I believe it would be fear. All others sins find their origin in our fearful nature. Somewhere pretty early in the development of our minds we discover that there is a lot in life that we don’t control, so we set about the task of controlling what we can, and making up stories about the things we can’t. We create little mental systems and categories to convince ourselves that we understand and exert some control over our world. It’s a silly game, mostly lies, but we can’t help ourselves. Fear drives greed and tribalism, violence and lust. It even shows up in communities of faith when they are too fearful to trust God. Continue reading “Row, row, row your boat”

June 5th, 2011

God’s great creation is an amazing thing, isn’t it? Take, for example, DNA, those little chains of data that make us who we are, at least the physical part of what we are. That double helix of genetic data unzips, replicates, mutates, and, combined with a process called natural selection, produces a vast array of plants and animals that are more or less adapted to their context. It was DNA and natural selection that gave us our thumbs, these amazing opposable thumbs that sent us rocketing up the evolutionary tree, these thumbs that our cats envy… if only cats had thumbs they could open those cans, never mind that they still wouldn’t be able to read the labels to open the right cans! No, thumbs are just plain amazing, hands are just plain amazing, and with these hands, in just a few minutes, I will baptize a child. But for all the seeming magic of DNA and natural selection, for all of the miracle that is every moment in God’s creation, there is nothing magical about these hands. They’re just plain old hands, no different from yours… hands that cook and clean and paint and scratch and do all sorts of other human things you probably don’t want to hear about. So if these hands aren’t magical, it might be worth thinking about what is going to happen in this act of baptism. Continue reading “Dunkin’ & Sprinklin”

a sermon delivered  on April 3rd, 2011

We are all familiar with the stories of Jesus’ earthly ministry, with his teaching and feeding and healing. I’d like to start by looking at one particular story. Jesus came upon a man near the entrance of the synagogue. The man was on a mat and was crippled. The man said to Jesus, “Master, I know that if you wish to, you can make me whole again.” And Jesus said to the man, “You just sit there on your mat. But I forgive your sins, and if you believe in me, and give a portion of the alms given to you by passersby, then, after your miserable life has ended, you’ll go to heaven, and there will be angels carrying trays of manna, and the dog you had as a child will be there, and everyone you have ever known will be waiting for you. But in the meantime, just sit there on your mat and suffer. It’ll build character. It’s good for you.” And Jesus walked away, and the crippled man lived for the day he would die and go to heaven. Continue reading “Waltzing through the valley of the shadow of death”