Category: Sermon Texts

As was described in lakewooducc.org/2011/06/05/angela-wells-installed-as-pastor-at-venice-ucc/, Angela Wells is pastor for the next three months at Venice UCC, in Venice, Florida. Since so many of us know her and follow her candidacy, Angela has agreed to having her sermons posted on the Lakewood website. They will all be posted under the “Sermon” category and the titles will begin with her name for easy identification. Here is the first of these sermons.

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Sermon June 1, 2011 Venice UCC
Angela V. Wells
Master of Divinity Candidate
Union Theological Seminary

And 40 days after Easter, he ascended into Heaven, leaving this mortal world and entering the Heavenly one, to sit at the right hand of God, so says the Apostles Creed. The disciples were lost and confused, as was often the case during their journeys. Just before Jesus “was lifted up in a cloud before their eyes,” they asked, him, “Are you going to restore sovereignty to Israel?” They are reverting to what they know, to their previous reality. They long for the restoration of David’s monarchy and the restoration of ancient Israel, before the Roman empire.They think the glory days are back! In a season of unrest and change, we turn to what we know, we turn to our past experiences to inform our future decision and to help us cope. I am continually surprised and refreshed by the disciples’ honesty, their inquiry and their modern relevance. Sure, they lived over 2,000 years ago, but they were still so human, just like us. They asked questions just as we would ask, they experienced similar confounding emotions. They were regular men with average jobs, most were fishermen, and Matthew was a tax collector. They were working men that had to support their families, although they took a great risk by leaving their jobs and following Jesus. I find their innocence very comforting. They fell asleep so many times when Jesus asked them to stay awake. Many times I have been tempted to fall asleep in class, when I was supposed to be paying attention, but not in seminary, of course!

Now this passage does show a more pious side of the disciples, they returned to Jerusalem and it tells us that they “devoted themselves to constant prayer.” We might be tempted to think of someone who does this as being more devout than ourselves, but we must remember that they just saw two people dressed in white appear to them after their teacher ascended to heaven in a cloud of smoke. If I saw something so visually stimulating, I would probably go and devote myself to constant prayer as well. I might even be terrified.

The disciples were entering a season of change. After the crucifixion, Jesus appeared to his disciples in various ways for 40 days. Then, on the 40th day after the resurrection, he ascended into Heaven, and the disciples had no idea when he was to return. We still have no idea when he is to return, although as we know from the most recent example of May 21st, many people try to predict when Jesus will come back to us. The two messengers promised them that one day Jesus would return in the same way that he left them, but here we are, still anxiously waiting. Which is why we must always be prepared. Jesus promised his followers a new comforter, as we heard last week, but right now they are in a state of flux, or transition, existing in a liminal place. Their teacher has left them, they have not yet received their new guide. Surely, we can relate to this sense of the unknown. Churches are losing members and closing their doors, we no longer have the denominational devotion that we once had, and yet according to the Pew Forum, 88% of the U.S. population says that they still believe in God. Christianity has been co-opted and become a hybrid of Jesus’ original message. Those of us that attend church have to justify and defend our position, saying that we aren’t all hypocrites. Somehow, to be open-minded and non-judgmental has become mutually exclusive with the label Christianity. Our pastors and leaders are in sex scandals, accused of abusing their power through behaving inappropriately with parishioners. And this isn’t just in the Catholic church. Other churches are accused of having unethical finances, pastors use church funds for personal reasons. How come so many people call themselves “spiritual” but not “religious”? How has organized religion, specifically Christianity, become associated with endless meetings, inefficiency and power struggles?

If Christianity is a brand, then we are doing a poor job at maintaining our image. If the modern church was ever in an era of transition, it is now. The 18th century enlightenment taught us that religion and rational thought are not mutually exclusive, but why do so many secular people believe that one must suspend reason in order to have faith? On the one hand, we are in an era promoting critical thinking and independent thought. People have alternative news sources, technological advancements have allowed for the rapid exchange of information. It is no longer taboo to question what we are taught or why we are even taught it. We even analyze what we aren’t learning and what it means that such information is excluded from the curriculum or even the lectionary. In the age of questioning everything, why are the conservative churches that essentially “tell” people what to believe the ones that are proliferating?

The religious landscape is changing, but religion certainly isn’t going anywhere. The mainline protestant churches had carved out a niche for themselves in modern society, but somehow we have lost our grip. The church needs to reinvent itself so that it is relevant in the 21st century and is welcoming of people who are “unchurched”. We can no longer assume that a visitor that walks in our doors knows any books of the Bible or has ever been to church before. Churches need to move themselves away from bureaucracy and politics towards social justice work. People will be involved with a group if it gives them a sense of belonging, and they feel like they are making a difference. I believe that this church as well as my home church in St. Petersburg, Florida , are both committed to making this change. Both of these congregations have recently restructured so that not so much power is concentrated in the hands of a few, and that most peoples’ energy goes towards outreach, missions or enrichment, instead of energy-zapping meetings. I do not believe that the church is dying, otherwise I wouldn’t be entering the ministry. I do believe that the church is experiencing growing pains and it is now more than ever that we have to stay committed to our mission. In previous eras, you could take it for granted that people were going to become members of the church because there was denominational loyalty. It was the status quo to belong to a church and attend services every Sunday. Now, this is no longer the case. We can no longer just trust that people will go to church because its what they’ve always done, because it isn’t what the younger generation has always done. It is no longer a social faux pas to say that one doesn’t belong to a church.

I believe that we exist to meet a need in society that no other social club can fill. However, if we let ourselves become a social club, then we have a lot of competition. People can join the bowling league, the bingo league, the lawn bowling club, become members at the local golf course. But those places are not trying to spiritually enrich people. Those places are not where you go to worship something that is so much greater than anything we ever try to conceptualize. Those places are not reminding people that they are a beloved child of God and that they are never alone. Just this past week I was giving pastoral care to someone who experienced a family crisis. Those places don’t have people that want sit with you, mourn with you and be with you `as long as you need. Those places don’t have the Called to Care ministry, or Stephen Ministers. Churches are absolutely needed in this era, but we have to keep reminding ourselves and others of why we are here, because nobody else will. Nobody else is going to give us our place in society, we have to carve it out. We have to give the media good reasons to report about what’s going on in our local churches. We must show people that Christianity is not about burning the Qur’an, even though that’s what they see on the 6 o’clock news.

Some churches are trying to stay relevant by using contemporary music or moving away from traditional liturgies. These churches are updating their worship style, but are they updating their theology? Are they allowing for people with questions, critiques and criticisms to have a safe place to express themselves? I believe that the United Church of Christ and other mainline Protestant churches are still needed here. Religious attendance might be declining, but people are still yearning, still searching. We are in a time of transition, just like the disciples, but we have been given the power of the Holy Spirit and each of us has the ability to affect change for the Christian church in the new century. It is easy to become disheartened, but we need to keep supporting each other, reminding each other of why we are here and then carry that message outwards. While the national UCC is putting a lot of work into re-branding ourselves and getting our name in public on a macro level, I still believe that work needs to be done on a one-to-one basis. People are more likely to come to church if they have a personal invitation, and a personal connection with the church before they ever set foot in the door. Yes, you can advertise through the newspaper or other media outlets, but it is that personal connection that gets people involved. Perhaps you know someone who seems isolated, or someone who is suffering. Maybe someone is not fulfilled in their life and is looking for meaning. Maybe it’s just a friend that you go out to eat with (you seem to do that a lot around here). Maybe next time you see them, tell them that you would like them to come to church with you before you meet up on Sunday afternoon.

The disciples were anxious, did not know what lay ahead. All they knew was that it would be different from what they had known. I am anxious, because I do not know what lies ahead. I am entering a profession that needs a new job description, although we are not sure what that is yet. Yes, the church is changing, but we have no idea what form that will take. All I know is that people need what we have to offer. Just as the disciples devoted themselves to prayer and reflection, so we must rededicate ourselves to our cause and then share our light, we must not hide it under a bushel, but share what we offer. One on one, person to person, we must show the world that we are a different voice from what they know of Christianity. Bring your questions, bring your hang-ups, bring your concerns, unlike the airlines, we don’t charge for extra baggage.

LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
2601 54th Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33712
727-867-7961
lakewooducc.org
LakewoodUCC@gmail.com

Date: May 29, 2011
Scripture Lesson: Acts 17:22-31
Sermon: Groping for God
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

On a trail in the mountains, a hiker stopped near the edge of a drop off to take in the vista. As he went to get out his camera, his foot slipped on the steep incline which ended a few feet away at the edge of a precipice. In trying to regain his balance and manage his camera and day pack, the hiker slid to the edge of the cliff and grabbed on to a scrubby bush nearby as his feet dangled over the edge and his pack and camera tumbled through the air landing hundreds of feet below on the jagged rock. The hiker was alone and hadn’t seen anyone else on the isolated trail all day. Hanging between life and death he prayed, “God, save me.” He heard a faint voice. “Let go.” Again he petitioned, “God, save me!” He heard the same response. Louder this time. “Let go.” He glanced to each side, and even hazarded a fleeting look downward. Again he begged, “God, save me.” And again, he heard the response, “Let go!” Finally, the man shouted, “Hey, is there anyone else up there?”

Depending on our circumstances and situation, we can be very willing to adapt our image and conception of God! This applies not only to our individual circumstances as humans, but also to the human species throughout history. Primitive humans millennia ago had very different conceptions of God than we do today, based on their experience and understanding and development. When you don’t know how lightening is formed, it is easy to conceive of a spirit being who throws bolts of fire. Confronted with an erupting volcano, we can see how people could imagine a divine spirit hollering below the surface of the earth to create such a disruption. As we look back, we see different manifestations of humans groping for God, for the divine. As humans have evolved, we have attributed occurrences in nature as well as human behavior to divine beings. Yes, many cultures have gods of rain and sun but we also see gods of war. We see the god of war in the Old Testament. The Hebrew people believed that God led them into battle and was responsible for the outcome. To slight God in any way was to jeopardize the outcome of the conflict. When they won, they attributed the victory to God. When they lost, they attributed the failure to their lack of devotion to God.

By the time of Jesus, we don’t see Jesus referring to this warrior god. The conception of God we see from Jesus is more focused on God as creator of the cosmos, and of the human community which is intended to reflect divine creativity by creating communities of compassion, justice, loving relationships, and spiritual devotion . So Jesus teaches about the realm of God, the beloved community; human relationships and communities that reflect divine caring, support, and grace. He talks about giving devotion and reverence to the God of love for the whole world. This is a far cry from thinking about gods as individual divine beings that put stars in the sky and make fire burn. As humanity has developed and evolved, the conception of God has changed and adapted to new understandings and situations. We see a continual groping for God.

Human conceptions of God are also contextual. In a tropical context 2000 years ago, the people would not have imagined a god of snow. Talking about God in one context may be quite different from talking about God in another context. We might very well say something very different about God in a village in Africa where most of the people are dying of AIDS than we would in an MIT classroom. Context comes into play in our imaging of God. We see this with Paul, the New Testament apostle, in the reading we heard this morning. Just a few verses earlier in the book of Acts, Paul has been accused of being a hayseed, a simple rural person. He is seen as naive and ignorant. Now, here he is in the big cosmopolitan, sophisticated capital of Athens, home of democracy and Socrates, speaking in the areopagus, the center for philosophical discourse. In this speech, a portion of which we heard this morning, Paul conveys his thoughts with intellectual insight appropriate to the setting. He talks about all the shrines and temples he has seen. He quotes an inscription he has read. He includes quotations from two prominent Greek philosophers in his discourse. He meets the Athenians on their own terms. He adapts himself to his context. He puts across his message in a way that the intellectuals of Athens will be able to hear and consider given their frame of reference. Paul takes his context into consideration. He meets the challenge of the groping for God of the intellectually elite Athenians.

This is the challenge and the opportunity facing each new generation of every culture and context. Paul tells us that humans of every era are innately spiritual beings created with a groping for God. The ongoing challenge of the spiritual life and the religious community is to address this inherent spiritual need, this groping for God, in ways that make sense for the time and the context.

In Paul’s situation, not only is he in the hotbed of erudition in the ancient world, but he is also part of a spiritual community that anticipated the return of Jesus Christ in their life time. They are looking for Jesus to come back and begin the apocalyptic end times during their time on earth. Paul would have been shocked to hear that there were Christians who expected Christ to return on May 21, 2011. Impossible. Paul knew that would all be over and done with before the year 100 CE. He would have thought it was ludicrous to expect the beginning of the end 2000 years hence. When we take Paul’s assumptions and context into consideration, it sheds new light on how we see some of the teachings of the New Testament. Some things weren’t meant to be long term directives to apply for thousands of years, but were meant to apply to the understanding of the immediate circumstances. The end is at hand. But – Jesus did not come back as those early Christians expected. So the continuing Christian community had to evolve and develop in new directions, given the unanticipated circumstances. They had to grope for God in new ways and find new ways to express their spiritual devotion and faithfulness that were not based on a presumed imminent second coming of Christ.

Today, in many ways our context and circumstances are unlike anything that could have been anticipated by biblical writers. And we find ourselves facing the challenge of all previous generations. We grope for God in our day and time. Given our experience. Given our stage of development and circumstances. And people around the world in differing contexts grope for God in the ways that they feel led to do so as well.

Just think about this Memorial Day in the context of the Christian church in the United States. Our church sees this as an opportunity to be reminded of the cost of war and renew our commitment to seeking peace through non violent conflict resolution. There are other churches that will reflect on this day as we do. There are also churches that will take this secular holiday as an opportunity to emphasize the importance of supporting the United States of America, its war efforts, and its aspirations to be the leader of the world. For those churches, this day is an opportunity to observe a civil holiday in a religious context giving religious credence to America’s agenda of dominance and pre-eminence.

When we think of Memorial Day at the Cadet Chapel at the United States Military Academy at West Point, what might we imagine there? How might groping for God look in that context on Memorial Day weekend? Might we expect an emphasis on peace? Or on patriotism? Or something else? In the book, Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith, the author, Suzanne Strempek Shea, offers reviews of visits to different churches, one each Sunday, for a year. On the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, Shea chose to visit the Chapel at West Point. She wanted to be sure to attend a service that would pay respects to the fallen soldiers that we remember on Memorial Day weekend. Shea quotes the sermon given in the generic Protestant service at the Cadet Chapel: “Sometimes we get distracted, draw away, get caught at work, at home, have physical struggles and the lowest lows, and we go, ‘I’m lost, I can’t find Him.’ I tell you: God has never taken his eyes off his children. God says, ‘Acknowledge that you walked away. Acknowledge, repent, return, and you can enjoy and embrace again – we’ll walk together.’ If we don’t walk with God, this life is as good as it gets. If we do, the best is yet to come.” Shea goes on to describe the service: The sermon is over. . . “Chaplain Darrell’s friendly and matter-of-fact delivery delivered goods that were another appreciated reminder – as simple as the nudge to ask for help. To remember that we’re never alone.”

Shea continues, “But I’m still waiting for some mention of Memorial Day. This is the United States Military Academy, statues to deceased war heroes at every turn. The program states that some of the flowers on the altar have been donated in memory of First Lieutenant Laura Walker, USMA Class of 2003. She’d hardly left this place. Why not mention her?”

“. . . She was buried in the cemetery past which she used to run, and down the hill from the Cadet Chapel at West Point. Where, on this Memorial Day weekend Sunday, at the Cadet Chapel’s Protestant service, not a word about the dead was uttered.” [Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith, Suzanne Strempek Shea, pp. 50, 52] This surprised Shea, and it surprises me, it may surprise you, as well, but then we are all groping for God in differing ways in different circumstances and in diverse contexts. And this chaplain felt that this was the way to grope for God on that Memorial Day Sunday.

There are many ways of groping for God. Paul tells us, “From one ancestor God made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and God allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for God and find God – though indeed God is not far from each one of us.” [Acts 17:26-27] Our job is to grope for God, given our experience and our context. This is an invitation to invest ourselves in this quest. And to expect the results to be different in differing contexts. And as Paul shows us with his intellectual, erudite presentation to the Athenians, it is completely appropriate for us to bring our intellect to our spiritual quest. Indeed, our intellectual abilities are a gift of God intended to be fully engaged in our groping for God. There is no assumption that the groping for God necessitates adopting superstitious beliefs or magical thinking that is not integrated with our intellectual knowledge. We must also incorporate into our groping for God an awareness of the limits of our intellectual development and the acceptance of mystery as part of the spiritual quest.

The invitation to grope for God is a celebration of the spiritual journey of the human species, which takes place in different ways in different times and differing contexts and circumstances. We should expect that people have conceived of God in different ways throughout the ages. We should expect our groping for God to yield surprising results in the eons ahead. We should anticipate experiencing God in different ways as we make our journey through our individual lives. I know that my conception and experience of God is far different now than it was ten years ago or twenty years ago or forty years ago. To grope for God is to expect to have a changing, emerging view of God in light of our specific experiences and as the experience of the human species continues to unfold. There is always mystery. We will never fully know. It is always groping. Searching, reaching, reflecting, guessing, missing, and holding on. All of it.

While the spiritual quest may be very much a journey into the unknown, the only thing that truly scares me about religion is when I hear a conception of God that is fixed, certain, inflexible, absolute, and assumed to be unquestioningly correct. For me this is not the result of groping, but of idolatry. As Paul says, “. . we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.” [Acts 17:29] God is meant to groped for, ever accessible, ever elusive: never fully known. We should strap ourselves down for the journey, and expect an exciting adventure, but we should never encumber God.

The native mountaineering guides in the Himalayas, known as sherpas, are intimately acquainted with the face of Mount Everest. They live in its shadow. As guides, they know the where the crevasses are and where to find the ropes for the climbers. They know the weather patterns and avalanche dangers. However, the sherpas know Everest only from one side – the view from their home valley. When they have been shown images of Everest from other sides, they do not recognize the mountain. They do not believe that it is Everest. Their disbelief changes to amazement when they realize that something with which they are so familiar can have other sides to it. This is how it is as we as a human species grope for God. There are new vistas and differing perspectives yielding new insights and images. [The Christian Century, 5/17/11, p.8]

May we expect to see God in new ways as we continue the human quest of groping for God. Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

Date: May 22, 2011
Scripture Lessons: John 14:1-14 and Acts 7:55-60
Sermon: Anxiety Antidote
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

A couple of months ago, the electronic keyboard from the church sanctuary was stolen. It was eventually located at a pawn shop by the police and we have it back. In this process, the police showed me a picture of the woman who they believe is responsible for the theft. Evidently, she has an 8 year old child, and told the police that she stole the keyboard to get money to support her child. Mind you, we got the keyboard from the pawn shop for $100. That was enough to motivate her to steal from a church and risk a jail sentence. She must have been really anxious and desperate about how she was going to care for her child.

People are experiencing anxiety in all different kinds of ways today. This woman had economic anxiety about how to provide for her child. People have anxiety about money. About growing old. About health. About the future of the planet. People have social anxieties about dealing with others and anxieties about relationships. People have anxiety about violence and war and crime. People have anxiety about the well-being of their families. And about drugs and drinking and addiction. People have anxiety over the influence of technology on the human species. People have anxiety about jobs and lay offs and cuts in government spending. Just ask a teacher or someone who works for the state or federal government. People have anxiety about personal safety, going out at night, going to school, traveling at home and abroad. There was a letter to the editor after the killing of Osama bin Laden wondering if we were going to go back to pre-9/11 security procedures at the airports now. Ha! And our anxiety level is jacked up by media and TV and entertainment that is filled with violence. There is anxiety about rejection, failure, and the big one, DEATH. Our society is churning with anxiety. You may have come to church feeling peaceful and secure, but now you may be starting to feel anxious and unsure!

So what does our faith tradition have to say to us about all of this anxiety? The two scripture lessons that we heard this morning address this very matter. The verses we heard from John are from the beginning of what is called John’s farewell discourse. Jesus has told his disciples that he will be leaving them. That he will soon be killed. They are overwrought with anxiety. They have followed him, left home and family, risked the ire and ridicule of religious authorities, and banked on him. He’s leaving them? To suffer and die a humiliating death? That’s not what they signed on for. They are worried and anxious about their future.

We can imagine their horror. Think of someone who has worked a lifetime for a corporation that goes bankrupt, and there will be no pensions or health insurance or any benefits for career employees. Consider someone investing all of their money in a business and the partner absconds with the funds and leaves the country. What about someone who has eaten right and exercised for years only to find out they are dying of a rare form of cancer. Or the family whose child is killed in a car accident by a drunk driver. Or the spouse, who after decades of marriage announces that she/he is leaving the relationship and the family. We know what it is to face the fear and anxiety of the bottom dropping out of our lives. That’s how it was for the disciples when Jesus tells them that he is going to be killed. What will they do? How will they go on?

To address this anxiety, the writer of John’s gospel has Jesus give the disciples a long farewell speech to calm their fears and reassure them. He basically tells them, “Don’t worry, trust God.” Jesus tells his friends to stay true to all they have experienced with him. Continue to believe in the goodness and love of God and love one another. Serve others. Invest yourself in something beyond yourself – in God’s hopes and dreams. These are the basic themes of his ministry. They need only stay on the path that they are
on and everything will be fine. God can be trusted. God is faithful.

In the case of Stephen, again, we hear of a situation fraught with anxiety. Stephen has given a long speech to the religious leaders and basically highlighted God’s faithfulness and the disobedience of God’s people. These leaders are filled with fury. And they stone Stephen to death for heresy.

The people who kill Stephen are anxious. They perceive a threat to their power and authority. They feel attacked. They are afraid. Those who stone Stephen are filled with malice and fury. They are blood thirty and poisoned with hatred. They lash out in vitriolic violence. They close their ears and their hearts and open their hands to throw stones. This is basically a lynching. They deal with their anxiety by engaging in reactive violence and destruction.

So here we see a stark contrast in the response to anxiety and fear. Jesus, Stephen, and the disciples are faced with threatening situations. And Jesus advises, follow the Way. Stay true to God and to love. And Stephen is a beautiful example of following Jesus. He dies like Jesus did. He commends his spirit to God and forgives his killers. He comes across peaceful. Serene. Steady. Calm. Loving. Trusting.

Then there are those doing the stoning. We are told they are loud, they rush against Stephen, and drag him away. They are hate-filled. Violent. Hostile. Rabid. So different from Stephen and from Jesus.

In the farewell discourse when Jesus tells his followers that he is the Way, he is reminding a small group of faithful people from a specific religious tradition that the way he has shown them will indeed lead them to the fulfillment of their spiritual longings. Jesus is assuring his anxious friends that they need to continue to trust all that they have experienced of the love, generosity, compassion, and mercy of God while they have been with him. He wants them to remember that through loving and serving others they have found joy and peace. And as the anxiety escalates, the threat grows, and their fears increase, they need to stay grounded in all they have learned from him.

“I am the Way, the truth and the life,” was not directed to a situation involving the threat of other religions. This was spoken to people dealing with a threat from within their own religion. Jesus was addressing anxiety related to a threat from within, he was not making a statement about Christianity or Judaism relative to other religions. Jesus was reminding his friends to stay true to anti-violence, love, forgiveness, service, and compassion. Don’t get swept away in the frenzy of reactive violence. Don’t lash out in hatred. Don’t abandon love. Don’t get taken in by an eye for an eye. Make a witness to the truth of love as the way to full and abundant life. Don’t let your anxiety and fear lead you to abandon your trust in the God you have come to know through me.

Several months ago, our church sponsored Neighbor to Neighbor dialogues at the local library which was an opportunity for people of different faiths to come together to discuss their beliefs and religious commitments. It was done to help diffuse hostility and tension and fear among people of differing faiths. We reached out in this way showing our trust in God’s universal love as we have learned of it from Jesus Christ.

In the first century, following Jesus was about a lifestyle. It was about embodying generosity and community. It was about healing and serving others. It was about celebrating a God of love, mercy, and generosity. It was not about following rules or ascribing to doctrine and dogma about God or Jesus. Christianity began as a way of living that eschewed violence, hatred, and life centered on self interest. The Way was about relationships that crossed class and social and religious barriers. It was about helping the poor. It was about living for others and for the common good.

Today, Christianity is known predominantly for its theological truth claims rather than for the behavior of its adherents. In our society as a whole, can you identify the Christians by their behavior? Do they/we act differently enough that they stand out from others? Does our lifestyle give us away? For the most part, Christians are known for believing that Jesus is God, that he came back from the dead in the body, and his followers are going to heaven. Christians are also known for expecting Jesus to return, even if they can’t get the date right! These identifying characteristics involve theoretical beliefs. That’s how Christians are identified today for the most part. For beliefs. Not primarily for behavior. Back in the day, when Stephen was stoned, Christians were known for their behavior. For their love, forgiveness, and generosity toward others. They were known for serving the poor.

When we took in the homeless here at our church some years ago that was our motivation – to show God’s love and care in our actions. Little did we know that we were going to receive significant hostility even from other Christians. Today, Christianity is mainly about beliefs about God and Jesus, rather than the ethical imperatives in the teachings of Jesus.

This past week, there was an article in the paper about a church in West Palm Beach where the congregation is in an uproar over a prayer request. After seeing the way people gleefully celebrated the killing of Osama bin Laden, Henry Borga paid $10, just as others do, to have a person put on the prayer list at his church. Borga, taking his Christian faith to heart, wanted the church to pray for the soul of bin Laden. Borga says he believes bin Laden “needs forgiveness and compassion from God.” He feels that praying for our enemies is “what God has taught us to do.” But evidently, the congregants of the Holy Name of Jesus Church do not agree. The church secretary thought the prayer request was a joke. Reacting to the prayer request for bin Laden, one church member declares: “I think it’s totally wrong, he doesn’t belong in the Catholic religion. For what he did to Americans, he doesn’t belong anywhere. It’s unconscionable, it’s sacrilegious.” The priest of the church has shown understanding and compassion for the congregation, while noting that the church has never turned down a prayer request. He concludes, “Jesus tells us, love and forgive.” [St. Petersburg Times, 5/19/11, “Church split over bin Laden prayers”]

This story reminds me of the service we had here in this sanctuary on Sept. 11,
2001, where we gathered to pray and one of the first prayer requests lifted up from
someone in the group was prayers for our enemy, Osama bin Laden.

Regardless of our feeling about bin Laden, the Way of Jesus, the ethical imperative of the one we follow, is love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. We have the example of Jesus from the cross. And Stephen as he is being stoned. In the face of hatred, anxiety, violence and fear, are we going to lash out or love? Jesus made the way clear. Love. As Mahatma Gandhi put it, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

While we may not feel that our lives are being directly threatened at this very moment, we have our share of reasons to feel anxious and fearful and worried. The teachings of Jesus still speak to us today with reassurance. Trust love, forgiveness, and compassion. Invest in generosity and service to others. Pray for your enemies and forgive them. If you can’t think of emulating Jesus because he is the divine son of God, think of Stephen. One of the multitude of followers of Jesus. A regular guy, who chose to follow the Way of Jesus because it is a path to serenity and peace. To a calm heart and a joyful life.

Earlier I mentioned the woman who was involved with stealing the keyboard from the church. She was motivated by fear and anxiety about how she was going to provide for her child. The irony is, if she had come to church, explained her situation, and asked for help, we may very well have given her the $100 she needed from the Special Needs fund. By stealing from the church, she ends up with more anxiety, not less.

In the face of fear, dread, and violence, may we not close our eyes to the power of love, compassion, generosity, and forgiveness. It is the security and serenity system that cannot be breached. As we confront the anxiety of our days, may we hold fast to the way of Jesus; the antidote to anxiety. Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

Date: May 15, 2011
Scripture Lesson: Acts 8:26-40
Sermon: Ready or Not
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

In 1996, a group of three people from this congregation approached me and asked to meet with me. They wanted to initiate a process of discussion and discernment about the congregation becoming Open and Affirming. In the United Church of Christ, Open and Affirming refers to an extravagant welcome to all to be part of the church, specifically including people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered. While Open and Affirming was adopted by the national UCC in 1985, individual churches make their own choice about endorsing this commitment.

Back in 1996, this was really a hot button topic as it still is in some churches today. And this church was small and frail and financially precarious. Survival issues were the elephant in the room back in 1996. Were we going to make it as a church? Were we viable? While I personally supported Open and Affirming at a theological level, practically speaking, it was another matter. I had to ask myself and these three people, given the precarious situation of the church, is it the right moment to bring up the most controversial, inflammatory, and incendiary issue being discussed in the church at the time? Hmmm.

As far as Open and Affirming is concerned, one of the people who approached me about it had this perspective: If we are not bold about what we stand for, then maybe it doesn’t matter if we close as a church. That swayed me. If we weren’t here for the gospel of Jesus Christ, then maybe we didn’t need to be here. Yes, some people left the church over this, but new people came, gay and
straight, which is why we are still here today.

On the one hand: What is a good time to talk about something controversial in the church? When is it a good time in the church to confront difficult issues? On the other hand: When is it a good time to share the love, joy, and peace of God with all people?

In the story we heard this morning about the encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian official, there are several controversial matters that come to play in the story. The action takes place on the road to Gaza, a wilderness road. It was, and still is, a dangerous place: Tensions and hostilities between peoples creating friction. The Ethiopian is a foreigner. Not fully welcome in Judaism. He may come to the Temple for high holy days, but he is not allowed inside.

When we think of Gaza today, we still see tension between those of different backgrounds. Animosity between Israelis and Palestinians erupts regularly over settlements and the boycott of goods and services virtually starving those who live on the Gaza strip. We are still facing the difficult issues of conflict rooted in ethnic and religious identity. When is it a good time to talk about that, in or out of the church? When is it a good time to talk about the universal love of God?

And conflicts over ethnicity are an issue not just in Israel but here in American society as well. Immigration is a hot button topic. There is routine exclusion and discrimination practiced against immigrants. The church custodians are legal immigrants from Bulgaria. They have been here well over five years, since before the economic slump. Vladimir has a master’s degree in international finance and Slava has a master’s degree in math and they have jobs cooking, cleaning, and delivering pizza. There is nothing wrong with those jobs, but they can’t get hired in anything related to their fields of expertise because their foreign educational credentials are dismissed. When is it a good time to talk about ethnocentrism and discrimination in or out of the church? When is it a good time
to talk about all people as children of God?

Then there is the matter of the Ethiopian official’s sexual identity. This, too, makes him an outsider. Not fully welcome. Not fully included. Because of his physical condition. Again, a difficult issue still being confronted today. There is still significant tension and hostility related to sexual identity in church and society. There are still barriers related to physical condition. When is it a good time to talk about that? When is it a good time to talk about the image of God in every human being?

Related to sexual identity, gender still accounts for significant inequity in society and the church, in terms of jobs, pay, access to power, and leadership. While the UCC is better than most, there are still issues. Apparently most of the leaders being nominated for staff positions in the national UCC, to be elected at the General Synod in Tampa, are men. We just got the ballot for new trustees for our UCC Pension Boards. All men. On the ballot they give you three choices: Vote for all. Vote for none. Or vote for some and add a write-in candidate. I added another square on my ballot: Abstain. In the write-in space, I
wrote: Where are the women?

Father Roy Bourgeois who founded the School of the Americas Watch and spoke here at our church last year, has been threatened with being defrocked as a Catholic priest because he supports the ordination of women. He says, “I see this with such clarity that rather than recant, I’d rather eat at a soup kitchen and live under a bridge, and do that with deep inner peace and a clear conscience.” [The Christian Century, 5/3/11, p. 9] When is it a good time to talk about gender equality in the church and beyond? When is it a good time to talk about the creation story: Male and female, God created them? When is it a good time to talk about all people equally loved by God?

Then we see that the Ethiopian official is in charge of the entire treasury of
Queen Candace. This can also be seen as a matter of controversy. He has access
to wealth and with it, power. You know people are going to be constantly trying to influence him and gain favor from him. That is a difficult position to be in and maintain trust and integrity.

To say we have issues over public money in this country would be a gross understatement. We hear every day about what is and isn’t being funded, about taxes, about cuts, about pork, about loss of services, about the debt ceiling, etc. You can’t turn on the news, open a news webpage, or look at a newspaper without seeing issues about public money and the values involved. And the decisions about these issues are being made by people. What are their motivations and perspectives and values? US Uncut is an organization committed to eliminating loopholes and tax havens in the corporate tax code. Carl Gibson, a leader in this movement tells us, “The $3 in my wallet is more than ExxonMobil, GE, and Bank of America paid in taxes last year, combined.” [The Christian Century, 5/17/11, p. 9] I paid over $62 to fill my gas tank this week and some of it was taxes. I pay taxes, why doesn’t ExxonMobil? There’s something wrong with this picture. Public finance is clearly a controversial topic in and out of the church. When is it a good time to talk about the wellbeing of the society as a whole? When is it a good time to talk about greed? When is it a good time to talk about economic justice? When is it a good time to talk about the earth intended to sustain all people, not just some people?

The Ethiopian official is studying the words of the prophet Isaiah. Philip illuminates those teachings for him. What is the right time for the church to illuminate the words of the prophets from our cherished Bible? Prophets who rile against usury (charging exorbitant interest). Prophets who decry exploitation of the poor, ill treatment of foreigners, of the elderly, children, and widows. When is it a good time to talk about the prophets who lambast the abuse of religion to serve the interests of its leaders instead of promoting justice, compassion, and generosity? When is it a good time to talk about such things?

The Ethiopian official reads the phrases from the prophet Isaiah, “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,” “a lamb silent before its shearer,” “in his humiliation justice was denied him.” Imagine how those words resonated to him given his experience? One who has been cut, humiliated, denied. When he hears that Jesus willingly endured suffering, humiliation, and injustice by choice, out of love, imagine how he was moved. Imagine his feeling of astounding joy. It is Jesus’ expansive, self sacrificing love that drew people to his way, to his movement, to the community of his followers. When is it the right time to talk about Jesus’ love and solidarity with those who are on the fringe, the margin, outsiders, second class, suffering, demeaned, degraded, and devalued? When is it a good time to proclaim Jesus’ expansive love for all people? When is it a good time to declare our devotion to a God of universal love?

This Ethiopian official was a man of high rank and importance with significant responsibilities. Yet he leaves his post to make a perilous journey to carry out his religious devotion. He goes to Jerusalem for the Jewish high holy days. He makes this effort to practice a religion that will not even fully accept him because of his ethnicity and his sexual identity. Yet he goes, prays, and studies, with earnest devotion. When is it the right time to show our commitment to our spiritual path? Sure, we have other concerns, we can always make excuses. But when is it a good time to really practice what we preach as Christians?

Philip was in the middle of growing a new movement. Getting people to join up. And God tells him to go to this wilderness road, to this Ethiopian official. It may not have been safe. He was already doing God’s work. This official presented inclusion problems for the early Jesus movement because he was not a Jew, he was a Gentile. There was the water. What about baptism? What would they say at ‘headquarters’? This was controversial. Philip could have made excuses about how this is not the right time to involve himself with the official. When is it the right time to deal with controversial issues? When is it the right time to show the universal love of God in Jesus Christ?

We can always find excuses and explanations for what we are or aren’t doing. It’s not the right time. We are busy with something else. It will cause too many problems. We don’t want to rock the boat. We don’t have the power to change things anyway. It’s not our problem. There always excuses. We need to be on the lookout, constantly, for what is holding us back, what is standing in our way, what is preventing us from full expression of our Christian discipleship. We need to remove the obstacles and distractions that are diverting us.

Though the gospel is an inclusive message of universal love, the true core values of Christianity, the teachings of Jesus, are always going to offend someone. Given the world as it is, they should make us all at least squirm a little. They should remind us of our commitment and what we still can do to be true to our calling. It will never be the right time to deal with the controversial matters raised by the gospel. It is always the right time to demonstrate the love, joy, and peace of God.
When I was a teenager, we went to a UCC church in Minneapolis that sponsored a family camp every year. It was always one of the best weeks of the summer. So, one year we went off to camp and one of the first activities of the week was tie dying t-shirts. This was back in the first incarnation of tie dye. We all had shirts and were busy with big vats of die of many colors and rubber bands, and we used a technique to make letters and words. It was a lengthy process – soaking and rinsing and wrapping and drying. After several days, the shirts were done and we all put them on.

Our senior minister, not only the top authority at the church, but also
approaching retirement, had put letters on his shirt, words, evidently. He proudly put on his t-shirt surrounded by a group of us teenagers. We looked at his shirt. We looked at him. We were puzzled. We tried to restrain our giggling and laughter. On his shirt, we saw a capital D, a lower case o, then a straight vertical line, and a cross or a t, we weren’t sure which, all evenly spaced. It looked like this: D o I t. “Dolt?” We really could not suppress our laughter. Who would put “dolt” across a t-shirt? Bless him, poor Phil Sarles could not figure out what we were laughing about. Your shirt. It says, “dolt.” He looked at us confused. What he saw on his shirt was Do It. (And this was in the olden days way before the Nike motto.) Do it! Don’t hold back. Seize the opportunity. Do it.

The time will never be right to be bold about gospel values that are controversial and threatening to some. The time is always right to spread the universal, extravagant love of God. God is calling . The gospel of love is waiting. The love, joy, and peace are ripe. Do it. To some, you may seem like a dolt. Don’t worry about that. Like Philip and the Ethiopian official – ready or not. Do it! Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

Date: April 17, 2011

Scripture Lesson: Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon: Reconciling Grace

Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

When I was in elementary school we attended a large United Church of Christ congregation in the Washington, D.C. vicinity. There was lots of programming for children and youth. On Wednesdays after school and into the evening, we had a program called “Expanded Plan.” There were groups, rehearsals, and classes held along with a dinner each week. One Wednesday a friend and I skipped our group and instead went into the girls’ bathroom and rolled the room with all the spare toilet paper that we could find. We had a ball and proceeded with gleeful abandon! As we finished the job, the door of the bathroom began to open slowly and in walked the Director of Christian Education, Marian K. Tate, an elderly woman with graying hair and a slight stoop. She examined the result of our exploits and invited us to her office. Oh boy. Somehow, we simply had not expected to be discovered. We figured everyone was busy in drama group, Bible Study, choir rehearsal, youth orchestra, and Confirmation class. We never expected Ms Tate, or anyone else for that matter, to be patrolling the restrooms. Getting caught was a shock.

So, we followed Ms Tate to her office, bracing ourselves for a severe scolding, maybe expulsion from Expanded Plan, and certainly a call to our parents. At that time, my father was the Conference Minister for the Central Atlantic area of the UCC, a higher up church bureaucrat. That would certainly be embarrassing.

As we sat down, Ms Tate closed the door and sat down as well. She looked at us. We were ready for her to let it fly. Instead, she asked us what changes or improvements we could suggest for the Expanded Plan program. What kinds of activities would we enjoy? She wanted to know how to make the program better so that we would want to participate. Evidently she felt our misbehavior stemmed from boredom. We were flabbergasted! We mumbled something about liking things as they were. We didn’t have any dissatisfaction. Then she sent us back to our group. That was it. No scolding. No calls to our parents. Nothing. She took the tact that our bathroom shenanigans were the result of a deficiency in the program. And that was the end of it. In my young mind, this was pure grace. There was no other explanation.

Well, in a context like that, you can see how easy it is to grow up believing in a God of grace, love and forgiveness. That’s what was embodied in our church time and again in various ways. We were taught love, forgiveness, compassion, generosity, and justice. We were told that all people were children of God, even those people in Vietnam with whom we were at war. God loves everyone no matter what. Each and every human being is created in the image of God, holy and sacred. And we are good. We were shown that Jesus taught peace and non-violence. We were taught that God, unlike people, could forgive and forget. God always gave second chances, and 10th chances, and 70 times 7 chances. We were shown a God of hope and new life. Everyone good and everyone loved. Yes, we were capable of terrible things, but always with the potential and capacity for good. We were not taught that people would be going to hell after they died. Hell, if there was such a thing, was what we experience here when we are not loving and forgiving and compassionate and generous with ourselves and everyone else. That’s what we learned in word and deed at church. We worshiped a God of unconditional, amazing love and grace.

When it came to Lent and Holy Week and we had our special services, and yes, we sang of our sins:

Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?

Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee!

Twas I, Lord Jesus, I, it was denied thee;

I crucified thee.

And

My song is love unknown, My Savior’s love to me,

Love to the loveless shown,

That they might lovely be.

O who am I, That for my sake,

My Lord should take Frail flesh, and die?

My Lord should take Frail flesh, and die?

And

What thou, my Lord, hast suffered Was all for sinners’ gain;

Mine, mine was the transgression, But thine the deadly pain.

Lo, here I fall, My Savior! ‘Tis I deserve thy place;

Look on me with thy favor, Vouchsafe to me thy grace.

As we sang these hymns each year in Holy Week, I knew we were sinful people. We had all this potential for good, like Jesus, and we were squandering it. We weren’t doing enough to help the poor. We were killing people in a war on the other side of the globe. Blacks didn’t have equal rights. Women did not have equal rights. I knew our guilt was our lack of solidarity with Jesus when it came to caring for the sick, the poor, and the oppressed. It was my lack of generosity, my apathy, my collusion with the systems of injustice and violence in society. We weren’t doing enough to make this world the way God wanted it to be: A happy home for everyone.

Growing up in church, we were taught to understand that if Jesus came today, he would probably still be crucified for challenging those in power and authority; for bucking the status quo; for being anti Establishment. And we would probably let it happen. We thought of all the people committed to justice and peace who were being targeted and harassed around us like the peaceful demonstrators in the South and the students at Kent State. Yes, we were taught our potential for denying and opposing God’s unconditional, nonviolent love.

When I heard the stories of Holy Week, I knew it was possible for the same people who shouted, “Hosanna!” to later in the week shout, “Crucify!” I could understand that because I had experienced my own fickleness. I knew about betrayal of principles in a situation of fear. When threatened, I knew that I could say and do things that in other circumstances would seem completely out of character. As human beings, we are, after all, gifted with free will. And sometimes we choose the good, the true, the loving approach. And sometimes we don’t. So I could understand how even the disciples could say they are going to stay with Jesus, and then, when push came to shove, desert him. Faced with fear, worried about survival, an almost instinctual defense kicks in that we have to override to truly take the higher path. I could see going with instinct. I could sympathize with desertion of principles. Our sin, our transgression, that thwarts love and compassion.

For me, the idea that we have free will and choose our path was what made Jesus’ choice to go to Jerusalem so incredible, so moving, so compelling. He knew he was going where there was threat and danger. He really was ready to face death for his friends. He was not going to let fear and intimidation keep him from fulfilling his religious observance of going to the Temple for the Passover. He did not let fear and intimidation keep him from teaching in the Temple, where he had a right as a rabbi to teach. He did not let fear and intimidation keep him from inviting all to be part of God’s universal community of love. He wouldn’t let religious rules about clean and unclean, and gender and position overrule God’s expansive love. He was committed to embodying universal love, regardless of who got upset about it, who felt threatened by it, who opposed it. Like the crowds and the leaders, Jesus made choices. And the choices he made involved staying true to the universal love of God. And those choices led to his being crucified on the cross. Part of what makes Jesus the one I want follow is his constancy, his

purity of heart, his commitment, his choices. To me, he shows us all that we, at our

best, have the potential to be. He is an agent of grace. He says yes to grace, and

yes to love, all the time.

That is the story, the understanding of Christianity, that I grew up with. It wasn’t until I went to seminary in my 20‘s and took an introduction to theology course that I was exposed to what is called the “substitutionary theory of the atonement.” I listened as it was explained. My eyes were wide with astonishment. The broad strokes are that people are born sinful, the result of original sin, in the garden of Eden. They cannot save themselves, their transgression is so complete. So, God has to save them. And God decided to do this by sending his son, Jesus Christ, to be crucified and die as a sacrifice for original sin. Jesus, the sinless one, is perfect, and when he dies, his death is good enough to satisfy God, pay God back, settle the account between God and sinful humanity. So the only way back to God, for a human being, born in sin, as we all are, is to believe in Jesus as the one who died for our sins and settled the score with God for us. Having gone to church my whole life, it was only in seminary that I heard of this grand plan for our salvation. For those of you who grew up with this, you must find it astonishing that I knew nothing of all this.

And when I heard it, I have to say, I found it hard to believe. In his recent book, Saving Jesus from the Church, UCC Pastor Robin Meyers cynically explains the plan this way: “The doctrine of original sin gave the church a permanent clientele in a salvation enterprise with no competition. You are born a hopeless sinner and sentenced to eternal damnation unless you ‘purchase’ the only ‘product’ that can save you.” (p. 104) That’s pretty much what the substitutionary atonement sounded like to me. It made people bad. And gave you only one way to be saved. And that was through the belief system of the church. So the church really controlled salvation.

I simply could not and cannot reconcile the God who I met at church and in my family and in the stories of Jesus that we learned in Church School and Expanded Plan with this story of all people being bad, and God having to be paid for their sin, and restitution being made through human sacrifice. If we were all created in God’s divine image, and all children of God, how could we all be bad, to the core, irredeemable, except through this payment scheme? I had learned the story of the sacrifice of Isaac. Wasn’t God against human sacrifice? Was God an accountant? I thought God did not keep score. If God wanted to save us, it surely wouldn’t involve suffering and violence and injustice, the very things Jesus was trying to eradicate. How could a God of love be behind such a scheme?

I also could not accept a plan that gave so much power and control to the church. It solidified control and put the church, i.e. male priests and the hierarchy, in a position of ultimate power over everyone’s eternal fate. Now that’s a leverage point to extract control, power, money, and submission. I grew up in a home that was all about church. My father was a pastor. Then he served over hundreds of churches offering leadership and guidance. I had heard enough stories to write a book about the crazy things that went on in church. I simply could not accept that God would put that much store in this human institution.

I also could not accept the way this story of Jesus being sent to die for our sins seemed to prescribe everyone’s roles. Where was the choice and the free will? It was put across as if Jesus was sent to be crucified and that was it. He had to do it. The disciples had to desert him. Judas had to turn him in. The people had to shout, “Crucify him!” Everything had to take place just as planned ahead of time by God to happen just this way. It is almost as if the people in the story are all puppets. That just didn’t square with the notion of people having free will. And for me, it undercut the significance of Jesus’ ministry because it made him seem like an automaton, programmed for what he did, instead like a human with free will who made choices along the way, choices of faithfulness to God, that came at the cost of his life. I was more moved by a person who would choose such love, than by someone who was simply playing out a pre-ordained part with no choice in the matter.

And, last of all, I found that this scheme was so limiting of God. The God of unconditional love and grace, I believed, could work in all kinds of ways. What about people of other religions? Where was the hope for them? What about people of no religion? Was there really only this one way to be saved? I can’t believe it. This Lenten season, we have reflected on how grace is surprising, and unpredictable, often unexpected, and always uncontrollable. This idea of Jesus being sent to die for our sins as the only way God saves us is for me just too limiting for the God of grace that we see in the Bible and in the ministry of Jesus and in the world over the eons.

For those who grew up with the substitutionary theory of the atonement and for whom it has meaning, I am sympathetic. If it is working for you as a way to understand your spiritual journey, wonderful. If this belief draws you closer to God and to your neighbor, God bless you. If this understanding of grace draws out your goodness, hold on to it. If this story fills you with unconditional love for God’s whole human family and for the world, take it! I would never want to take that away from anyone. I would never say that God can’t work this way.

What I will say, however, is that I cannot believe or accept that God works ONLY this way. I cannot accept that the substitutionary atonement concept is the only way that God saves. I cannot believe that it is the only way to appropriate the unconditional love of God. I believe that our spiritual journey may take us in other directions. God can work in other ways to draw us closer to God and to our neighbor. God can draw out our goodness in other ways. We can be filled with unconditional love for the whole human family and for the world in other ways. We can be agents of grace in myriad ways. In the book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard tells of an Eskimo who asks a priest, “If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?” The priest responds, “No, not if you did not know.” To which the Eskimo replies, “Then why did you tell me?” (Cited in Meyers, Saving Jesus From the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus, p. 104) God can work in many ways.

The week ahead is the a time to remember the most compelling stories of our faith tradition. They continue to speak to us year after year after year with multiple meanings and layers of understanding. As we proceed into the week ahead, may we not be afraid to remember and to risk letting ourselves be drawn into the unconditional love of God that we see in Jesus. May we welcome God’s grace and love however it may come. Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.