Sermons

Jesus Heals

Alice Townley — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

We started reading the book of Mark at the beginning of Advent in late November, and we are just now finishing chapter 1. This chapter is full. Mark says in effect, “Let me introduce you to Jesus, the one who prays, calls disciples, and heals.”

Building Up in Love

Rob Carlson — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Confucianism is one of the most influential religions in the world. There are some 6 million adherents world-wide. It is not, however, one of the five recognized religions in the modern empire known as the Republic of China. At least part of the reason is because Confucianism in China is in the air that people breathe. It has shaped Eastern thought and practice for centuries.

Alive, After All

Rob Carlson — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Devout Jews at the time of Jesus would make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem at least once a year. Most common was to make the journey near the time of Passover, but whenever the journey was made, it was completed on the steps leading up into the Temple itself, coming near to the Holy of Holies, the place where God was said “to dwell.” The journey itself was a reminder that, as the Passover liturgy says, “my father was a wandering Aramaean.” The father who wandered was both your earthly, biological father, and your Heavenly Father, the God who “tented” with Israel during Israel’s many wilderness wanderings.

The Wings of the Morning

Rob Carlson — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

The great Hindu sage of the 19th century, Ramakrishna, told a fable about a motherless tiger cub who wandered out of the jungle, nearly starved to death. The cub was adopted and nursed back to health by goats and brought up by them so that this young tiger acted in almost every way like a goat. Knowing no other mother or siblings, the tiger walked like a goat, ate like a goat, and sounded like a goat.

Eyes of Faith, Words of Power

Alice Townley — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

When the angel Gabriel visited Mary and announced that she would bear a son that would be called the Son of God, and of his kingdom there would be no end; Mary wondered, “How is this possible?” Gabriel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of God will fill you. For nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 1)

Then Gabriel left, and Mary was pregnant. I imagine Mary repeated those words of Gabriel like a mantra, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” I also imagine that, she sometimes wondered. Would anyone believe this baby was special? Would she be stoned before she could even carry him to term? Would Joseph leave her? He thought he could leave quietly, and then he had that dream. The time of birth neared, and then the demand for a census and a tax and such a long walk to Bethlehem. Could she do it? They arrived, and the time came for her to deliver. There was no upper room available. So there, where the people and the animals dwelt, she labored, and finally, Jesus was born. Mary swaddled him with strips of cloth, rags, and laid him in the manger, the animals’ watering hole. She could do today, barely, but what about tomorrow? The holy family teetered between the impossible and the possible.

Number the Stars

Rob Carlson — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 04:00:00 +0000

I remember a gift given to me one Christmas by my grandfather. It was one of those years when I had just turned double digits—11 or 12—when you are told that you are too old for toys, but the practical gifts that people give you are largely disappointing. I opened a large blue envelope and pulled out a piece of paper that looked like some sort of legal document. It was, upon further investigation, a description of a piece of property, someplace located between the Land of Manna and the Sea of Tranquility. These were the years when the United States Space program had set its sights on landing on the moon, and I eventually figured out that I had just been given a piece of the moon.

Then We Shall See God (November 27, 2011)

Alice Townley — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 15:00:00 +0000

What does this all mean? “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will lose its light. The stars will be falling from the heavens, and the powers in the world shaken.” Hmm… This is how Advent begins, with passages such as these, and with the nights growing longer and darker.

The One Who Fills All in All

Rob Carlson — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Musicians who write and perform the music known as “The Blues,” write from a common base of experience and shape their lyrics into one common myth. Sooner or later, the men and women who sing the blues tell a story with similar markers. Robert Johnson, Willie Dixon, George Thorogood, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Susan Tedeschi, and others all have a signature song that is a version of this myth. B.B. King will sing that “the thrill is gone, baby,” while his brother Albert insists, that he “was born under a bad sign.”

Awakened (November 13, 2011)

Rob Carlson — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:00:00 +0000

In 1969, the neurologist, Oliver Sacks, was working with patients who had been diagnosed as being in a permanent catatonic state as a result of an encephalitis epidemic that effected them decades earlier. Dr. Sacks noticed that these patients seemed to respond to certain stimuli. If he threw a rubber ball their way, many of the patients would catch it. When he put familiar music on the loud speaker, some of the patients would tap their toes. One woman actually stood up and began to dance. When he touched them, they reacted.

Let Your Light Shine (November 6, 2011)

Rob Carlson — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:00:00 +0000

It was Halloween this past Monday evening, a holiday that has become a small, secular exercise in the practice of grace among neighbors of many ethnic backgrounds. My house became the base of operations for my grandchildren: five boys, aged 4, 3, 2, 1, and 3 months. I do not know if this was designed by their parents or simply a revelation about where their collective imaginations are these days, but all five of them dressed as super-heroes. There were two Iron Men, a Spiderman, Batman, and a three-month old Superman. (Dirty diapers are his kryptonite). Yes, the Justice League was at my house Monday night, around 6 pm.