Healing Faith
The Rev. Dr. Kimberleigh Buchanan
Organization: The United Church in Tallahassee (UCT)
Denomination: United Church of Christ
“Healing Faith,” Dr. Kim Buchanan’s sermon for June 30, is based on the encounter of Jesus with the woman who suffered from hemorrhages found in Mark 5:21-43. “Over the centuries this woman’s story has been told, many people — perhaps especially other women — have found courage in her gutsy faith,” she says. “Looking at her actions through the lens of community and isolation, though, the question comes —What if her faith didn’t have to be gutsy? How might the story have gone differently if the woman had had a community of friends and family?”
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Is Jesus in Your Boat?
The Rev. Dr. Quincy Brown
Organization: Snellville Community Church, Snellville, GA
Denomination: Independent
Dr. Quincy Brown says the good news of this gospel story is that Jesus tells the disciples to cross to the other side of the late, meaning that he will be present with them - and us - when we are crossing over the obstacles, problems, and uncertain situations in our lives.
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Ezekiel's Tree
The Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III
Organization: Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, IL
Denomination: United Church of Christ
The Rev. Dr. Otis Moss explores the prophet/poet Ezekiel's words about God's tree, where diversity and equality thrive because they are sourced in the rich soil of faith and the power of the Son.
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Trading Our Sorrows
The Rev. Dr. Joy J. Moore
Organization: Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN
Denomination: United Methodist Church
In her sermon, Dr. Joy J. Moore say the people of Samuel’s day don’t seek hospitality and holiness; they settle for profit, power, and prestige. And the same is true today, as we still put our trust in those in power rather than in the king that God has given us in Jesus Christ—a far different kind than any earthly king.
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The Man with the Withered Hand
The Rev. Dr. Ellen Richardson
Organization: Episcopal Church of the Advent, Williamston, NC
Denomination: The Episcopal Church
In her sermon, Dr. Ellen Richardson says Jesus broke the rules to heal people, to restore them to a fullness of life denied by their afflictions, you told us. His healing was a way of entering into the suffering of others, a response not of pity, but of empathy. This is how the man with the withered hand was healed--and he came out of the shadows and into the light.
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The Banana Slug, the Leaves, and the Triune God
The Rev. Dr. Greg Cootsona
Organization: Science for the Church
Denomination: Presbyterian Church (USA)
In his Trinity Sunday sermon, Dr. Greg Cootsona says that realizing that our Triune God is with us might be as simple as pausing and taking in the beauty that’s around us. So let's pay attention.
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Understood
The Rev. Juan Carlos Huertas
Organization: First-Plymouth Congregational Church, Lincoln, Nebraska
Denomination: United Methodist Church
The Rev. Juan Carlos Huertas says Ascension Sunday moved us from the long narrative of Jesus’ life, which culminated with his death and resurrection, and now lands us at this moment--and as Jesus ascends to the heavens, we like the disciples are left wondering--what now?
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Why Are You Looking Up?
The Rev. Juan Carlos Huertas
Organization: First-Plymouth Congregational Church, Lincoln, Nebraska
Denomination: United Methodist Church
The Rev. Juan Carlos Huertas says Ascension Sunday moves us from the long narrative of Jesus’ life that culminated with his death and resurrection and now lands us at this moment--and as Jesus ascends to the heavens, we, like his disciples, are left wondering--what now?
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Bring Love to Your Neighborhood
The Rev. Chelsea D. Waite
Organization: Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA
Denomination: Other
The Rev. Chelsea Waite encourages us to inhale the love that flows from God to Christ, to the Holy Spirit, to us. Society still seems to refuse to accept the call of Jesus in John 15 to “love one another as I have loved you,” period. Simply love—without trying to figure out what we can get out of the deal.
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Justice Denied—Except from the God of Love
The Rev. Dr. David Gushee
Organization: McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA
Denomination: Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
In this world, the poor, the ravaged, the humiliated ones are left on the outside. But in the justice of God, the poor and afflicted, the ravaged and humiliated shall be welcomed. In their pride and in their prejudice, human beings (even religious people; perhaps especially religious people) devote so very much energy to judging and excluding people like dark-skinned Ethiopians, the disabled and the different, the poor and the homeless. But God does not see people the way that we do, and so, the psalmist is sure that all those who seek shall praise God and find God's welcome.
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Just Keep Walking
The Rev. Susan Sparks
Organization: Madison Avenue Baptist Church, New York, NY
Denomination: American Baptist Churches USA
When we focus on the word “walk” in Psalm 23, we realize that any time we find ourselves in the shadow of the valley of death or the shadow of a huge obstacle or the shadow of change and transition, the best and only thing we can do is keep walking. Just keep walking. You want to obsess over finding cause and effect. Fine. But just keep walking. You want to rail at God about your pain or misfortunes. Fine. Just keep walking. You want to ask why all the time. Fine. Just keep walking. Why? Because with movement comes meaning.
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Witness for the Resurrection
The Rev. Dr. Micah T. J. Jackson
Organization: Bexley Seabury Seminary, Chicago, IL
Denomination: The Episcopal Church
History abounds with stories about what can happen when people hear the Good News shared by a believer. You’ve probably heard one. Maybe you are one of these stories of lives changed by an encounter with the resurrected Christ though the witness of someone else. Sometimes it’s as simple as a foster parent I know who regularly says to those she cares for, “God loves you, and I do, too.” Other times it’s the answer to a question. A person may ask you, “How are you able to...
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Believing Is Seeing
The Rev. Peter W. Marty
Organization: St. Paul Lutheran Church, Davenport, IA
Denomination: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
I don't know many people who would buy a used car sight unseen. No, they go and they check it out. They drive the thing. This is the doctrine we live by: "Seeing is believing." But here is a truth with which we must come to terms today. The church of the resurrected Jesus Christ is founded on a complete reversal of this doctrine. Now, it is "believing is seeing," and not the other way around.
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God Says, "Nevertheless!"
The Rev. Marek Zabriskie
Organization: Christ Church Episcopal, Greenwich, CT
Denomination: The Episcopal Church
In his Easter message, the Rev. Marek Zabriskie says God's answer to whatever threatens, imperils, or ails us is to write "nevertheless" over our lives, and to move the immovable stones that are blocking us from living the kind of life that God is calling us to lead.
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Embodying the Realm of God
The Reverend Canon Ranjit K. Mathews
Organization: Episcopal Church, USA
Denomination: The Episcopal Church
On this Palm Sunday, I wonder about the opportunity we have to confess the fact that in a deep way, maybe somatically, maybe through the structures of empire, we are complicit in worshipping the machinations of empire rather than living from the sacrament of our baptism, following the vulnerable, truth-telling ways of Jesus of Nazareth. Confession, letting go, untethering from the ways of empire are the ways in which we walk into salvation through Jesus Christ. But it also means that we have to be intentional with how we live and yes, the reflective time that we have every day.
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Revolution or Revelation?
The Rev. Matthew Ian Fleming
Organization: Church Anew - A Ministry of St. Andrew Lutheran Church, Eden Prairie, MN
Denomination: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
The inimitable Elizabeth Schuyler chides Alexander Hamilton in Lin Manuel-Miranda’s fabulous couplet: “You want a revolution? I want a revelation.” The crowd may have gathered expecting a revolution, a king who would topple the government, flip the script, and change their lot. But what they received was a revelation. Jesus is absolutely revealed in our sanctuaries, whether they swell to pre-pandemic participation, or whether they tenderly care for a remnant few. We can indeed catch a glimpse of Jesus in moments of transcendence witnessing art and song and dance and spectacle. But Jesus’ reminders in this final discourse are ordinary, mundane, and simple. A seed in the ground. A grain of wheat. And a final blessing, as Jesus reminds the crowd and his beloved followers, “The light is in you.”
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The Remedy: Look, Lift Up, and Live
The Rev. Dr. William E. Flippin, Jr.
Organization: Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Denomination: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Throughout the Christian journey, looking to God’s Son in one thing required. But the good news is that God provided a remedy, a ram in the bush if you will, and is still providing remedies for the curse that plagued us. Just as the snake-bitten people aren’t able to save themselves and were dying rapidly. Therefore, God had to provide a way for them to be saved. When they confessed their sins and requested Moses to intercede, God provided a unique remedy: They had to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole. Whoever looked at the bronze snake would be healed and saved.
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Strategies for Staying Emancipated
The Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann
Organization: Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA
Denomination: United Church of Christ
The Ten Commandments are strategies for staying emancipated once you get away from Pharaoh. This new strategy, first of all, says you have to honor God - that's the first three commandments - to the exclusion of every idol, every "ism" such as racism, or sexism, or nationalism, or the worship of stuff that is rare or precious or attractive or beautiful or empowering. The new strategy means in the Ten Commandments to take the neighbor with utmost seriousness. So, the last five commandments are all about the neighbor and treating neighbors with legitimacy and dignity and viability and especially disadvantaged neighbors - not to violate the neighbor for the sake of greed.
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Expectations
The Rev. Dr. Christopher Thomas
Organization: First Baptist Church of Wilson, NC
Denomination: Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
Of course, Jesus (as he so often does) shattered my self-centered ambitions and expectations with…well, with the words he says in these verses to the crowd after calling Peter, Satan, for rebuking him. He said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Wait! If I want to be a follower of Jesus, a Christian, I have to *deny* myself…lose my life? Does Jesus mean I’ll have to be willing to die? I thought I just had to agree to a few fundamental bullet points, pray this prayer about confessing my sins, repenting, and accepting Jesus into my heart. I thought I was supposed to get baptized (all the way under, you know, the right way), come to church most Sundays, read my Bible, drink sweet tea instead of Bud Light, and stay out of trouble. I thought all I had to do to be a Christian, to get into heaven, was simple, but now – now, Jesus tells me I have to...
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The Call and Challenge Of the Wilderness
The Rev. Nontombi Naomi Tutu
Organization: All Saints' Episcopal Church, Atlanta, GA
Denomination: The Episcopal Church
I invite you to think of the ways and places that you are tempted – tempted by Satan to ignore God’s love in your heart, God’s call on your life – and to recognize that God stands ready in those places of temptation to be with you. That when we are not strong enough to withstand temptation, God says, “I am here. Turn to me. Cry to me. Pray to me and I will give you the strength, the humility you need to face temptation.” I like to think of wilderness time as fallow time, from the time when our societies were agricultural and we would leave a field after it had been harvested for a year or so to recover and leave it fallow so that it could rest, it could receive the blessing of rain and of God’s nature. And I like to think of us as fields that sometimes need that fallow time, that wilderness time.
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