Tag: God

Sermon: A Mighty River

We’re all in this together, which is a good thing. We all have a stake in the outcome, which means we all have a role in the solution; and there is a solution.  Amos teaches that God’s plan is for us to work together: caring for the poor, the hungry, the destitute, and the land; looking for the good, and rejecting the evil.

Amos and Dr. Martin Luther King present salvation in a way we don’t normally think about  … for them salvation is communal, not individual.  We cannot achieve salvation for ourselves if we allow our community, our nation, and its people, and our world, to suffer and die.

Please join me in prayer.  Lord God, may your peace and Holy Spirit fill this place. Open your scriptures to us, and may I clearly communicate that which you intend us to receive. May your Word take root and flourish within each and every one of us. And through it may we be strengthened and transformed by your unconditional, living, and limitless love for all of your Creation.

In Jesus Name, Amen.

The other day, my son and I saw a truck driving on Route 2. It was what is known as a stake body truck (I had to look that one up!): it has a flat bed with metal rails on each side, mounted on stakes.  It had a tailgate on the back, which is little unusual.  It was very old and had seen hard use: battered, bald tires. It was driven by an equally ancient man.  (As my son would say, he was even older than I am.)  The truck was filled with what looked to me like a huge pile of random tools, equipment, mysterious bags and boxes.

The bed of the truck tilted to one side at an alarming angle.  The broken tailgate was held on by a single ancient strap fastened across the back, tied to the rails on each side – which was a good thing because otherwise they would have collapsed into the road.

The driver had trouble keeping his truck in the lane.  I shudder to think of what would have happened in a sudden stop.  I could not believe he dared to drive it, let alone at highway speeds.  What was so important that he felt such a risk with all of his mysterious cargo was worth it?

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Sermon: Knowledge, Faith, and Love

Solomon is certain he has built a place worthy of being God’s dwelling place forever.  … Forever is a long time: building a permanent dwelling place for God strikes me as an attempt to create boundaries for God that work for us, but perhaps not for God.  God’s former home was that tent made out of cloth, and skins, not stone.  It was not a permanent dwelling.  And so I think of that tent as representing how our Faith is a journey, not an endpoint; a path we must walk.  We might stop occasionally to dwell for a time, but we always move on.  A tent is not a monument.

Lord God, may your peace and Holy Spirit fill this place. Open your scripture to us, and may I clearly communicate that which you intend us to receive. May your Word take root and flourish within each and every one of us; and through it may we be strengthened and transformed by your unconditional, living, and limitless love for us and all of your Creation. 

In Jesus Name, Amen.

Tom texted me yesterday and asked if I would fill in for him this morning.  I immediately said yes, certain I had a sermon somewhere in my archive that would provide a good starting point for a meditation on this morning’s scripture.  Oops.  It took a lot more work than I thought; which is probably a good thing, actually: because if it wasn’t a journey to write this sermon and prepare for this service, then it probably wasn’t worth doing.

This morning’s reading is about Israel redefining its relationship with God in the time of Solomon the Wise.  The old tent that long housed the Ark of the Covenant no longer seemed fitting to them, for their prosperous and peaceful Kingdom.  

At the end of our reading, Solomon is certain he has built a place worthy of being God’s dwelling place forever.  …Forever is a long time: building a permanent dwelling place for God strikes me as an attempt to create boundaries for God that work for us, but perhaps not for God.  God’s former home was that tent made out of cloth, and skins, not stone.  It was not a permanent dwelling.  And so I think of that tent as representing how our Faith is a journey, not an endpoint; a path we must walk.  We might stop occasionally to dwell for a time, but we always move on.  A tent is not a monument.

Also, for a while now, I’ve been pondering how Faith operates in and through us on our journey through life.

For example, we saw Faith at work last week here, at our Special Congregational Meeting  – a major stepping stone in a long period of our congregation evaluating what works, what doesn’t, what’s broken, and what needs to be replaced or rethought.  We were asked to commit ourselves to the next step in that journey in the form of a Capital Campaign, to prepare our church’s infrastructure for the future. 

That meeting, just like this worship service, and so many other things that we do – either individually or jointly – are all expressions of faith.

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A Children’s Message: “Out of Darkness”

Finger Lights
Finger Lights

Preparation:

You’ll need small and inexpensive LED lights to give to the children. I recommend “finger lights” like those shown in the image associated with this posting.  Clicking on the image will bring you to a product page for them on Amazon.com.  Be aware that there are several vendors who make these lights: some are good quality, many are not.  The ones shown here are good and reliable (and cheap, when bought in quantity).

The Presentation:

Tell me what do you think of when you hear the word “darkness”?

(Solicit responses from the children, looking for ways in which they connect to darkness, prompt if necessary.)

Why would we want to talk about darkness here, in Church?

(Solicit thoughts, looking for the idea of salvation and Jesus’ Resurrection on Easter as God’s way of redeeming us from darkness.)

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God is Dead, God is Love

There’s been quite a bit of fuss over an nationwide ad campaign sponsored by some humanist groups who are determined to make us hear, in this the Christmas Season, that they believe God does not exist.

I agree with them.

These ads are reacting against a judgmental, limiting, inflexible god who’s main purpose seems to be to oppress humanity and destroy freedom.  I would have a hard time with such a god myself.  And so, I agree, the god they are reacting to does not exist.

The God I know is a god of relationship, a god of love.  Love transforms you.  Therefore, the god I know, a god of love, cannot be inflexible and unchanging.  Just as God’s love changes us, our love must change God.  My god is not a god of oppression, inflexible judgment or limitation.  My God is a god that would (and did) die for us; a God who wants to walk with us in the both the light and dark times of our lives.

So, my advice to those offended by these “God does not exist” advertisements is to agree with those who have such a viewpoint, then show your love to them, to those who seem to hate God.  What they hate is the pain inflicted on them in the name of a god that does not exist.  Let the love that God has placed in you show them that there is a different God, a real God, a God who loves them, too.  A god who gives us the freedom to love back, or to choose to not love at all. To love God is our choice, if it isn’t a choice, then God’s love would be meaningless.

 

Copyright (c) 2010, Allen Vander Meulen III, all rights reserved.  I’m happy to share my writings with you, as long as you are not seeking (or getting) financial benefit for doing so, and as long as proper credit for my authorship is given (via mention of my name on your site, or a link back to this site).