Text: Psalm 46

It’s hard to be still.

If you make the space, the time, the effort, to still your body and to simply be, without distractions,  chances are one of two things will happen.  One possibility is that you’ll fall asleep, which is a pretty good indicator that you’re not getting enough of that.  The other possibility is that even though you have stilled your body you will quickly discover that it’s even harder to still your mind.  Thoughts, images, anxieties, old conversations, plans for next week, what you wish you would have said on the phone call, the cleverly crafted phrasing of your next Facebook status update, what you’re having for supper, what you wish you were having for supper – the mind is not easily stilled.  Our feet may be resting in one place, but the squirrel in our head keep bouncing around, these thoughts keep clamoring through our brains as if they run the place.

It’s the Sunday before Thanksgiving, we have a Bountiful Table spread before us, and the lectionary Psalm, Psalm 46, contains this phrase that feels like something of a prelude for entering into a spirit of gratitude.  “Be still and know that I am God.”

It’s a dense enough phrase that it could be the subject of a whole book.  Or at least a sermon.  “Be still and know that I am God.”

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“Sink down, Of hay in flame.”  If you were to get your hands on a copy of the authoritative book on biblical Hebrew translation – which, by the way, would make an excellent stocking stuffer for that special someone in your life – The Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew-English lexicon – and if you were to look up the Hebrew word in Psalm 46 translated “Be still,” RaFaH, you would note that this one…

Text: Luke 20:27-40

There’s a piece of legislation in the book of Deuteronomy called the law of levirate marriage.  In a patriarchal society in which children were seen not only as a sign of blessing and prosperity, but also as a way for a man to ensure the survival of his own name, his family line, levirate marriage was a way of seeing that there would be a son to continue that name even if a married man died before having children.  According to the law, it was the duty of the dead man’s brother to marry the childless widow, and the firstborn son that they produce together  would not be his, but would be the legal offspring of the deceased brother.  And by doing this the surviving brother would redeem his dead brother’s lineage, and keep his name alive in Israel.  That was the point of the law.

The sermon title, “All of them are alive,” is taken from the final phrase that Jesus says in a conversation he has with the Sadducees in which they reference this law.  This is the only time in Luke’s gospel when the Sadducees have an exchange with Jesus.  Just this once.  They want to talk about resurrection, which they don’t believe in, and in case that wasn’t heavy-duty enough, for good measure they mix in the politics of marriage and biblical interpretation.  Take a sip of that cocktail, and you’ve got to admire the Sadducees for making the most of this one opportunity to ask Jesus a question.  That this is an important exchange in the memory of the early church is reflected in the fact that it is recorded in almost the exact same form, in the same narrative location, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Despite its apparent importance, I admit I’ve never…

Text: Luke 19:1-10

Here’s a question:  Can a good person get caught up in a bad system and do bad things that the system expects them to do?  Is it possible for a decent human being to do indecent acts that are harmful to others simply by carrying out their duty and doing their job?

It’s not a very hard question to answer.  We don’t have to think very long before we can say that Yes, this has happened and continues to happen all the time.  It can happen to the soldier, it can happen to the business manager, it can happen to anyone within an institution where there is corruption.

For someone who finds themselves living more like a cog in a machine than a caring human being, what does salvation look like?  In an inhuman system, is it possible to live humanly and save your own soul, while also extending grace to others?

Abbie and I recently rewatched the film The Lives of Others, which works with some these kinds of questions.  The film takes place in East Germany in 1984, five years before the fall of the Berlin wall.  One of the main characters, Gerd Wiesler, works as an agent of the East German secret police and is firmly committed to the communist regime.  He is an expert in interrogation techniques for getting people to admit to acts they have done against the state.  He takes on an assignment of spying on a popular playwright named Dreyman whose support for the communists is in question.  Wiesler and his team bug Dreyman’s apartment and set up their equipment in the attic space of this building.

The film goes back and forth between the lives of this playwright and his actress girlfriend and other friends, and the life of this secret policeman…

Text: Galatians 3:23-29

Rather than give a traditional sermon this Sunday, I interviewed three women from our congregation about their experiences in the church, their relationship to the Bible and language we use for God, and their best hopes for the what the church can become.  Below are my brief opening words, but to get to the good stuff you’ll need to listen to the audio…

Some scholars argue that this statement by Paul in his letter to the Galatians represents a summary of all of his teachings: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”   This was and is a radical vision for a new humanity.

This Mennonite Heritage Sunday theme is The Gifts of Women.  From the very beginning, the scriptures witness to the equal yet unique giftedness of women and men.  Genesis chapter one talks about God creating both male and female in the Divine image.  The church, historically, has not done well in living out this equal partnership of women and men bearing God’s image.

I thought for this Sunday that it wouldn’t be quite right if I, with my Y chromosome, attempted to be the main one giving voice to this topic, so instead of a monologue, I’ll be having a conversation with three women of this congregation.  Joyce W, JoAnn K, and Becca L have each given this some thought over the last few weeks, and I invite them forward to have this conversation about how the church has and hasn’t lived up to its best self in their own experiences.

I guess if there is one disclaimer to give it’s that you are completely freed from having to speak on behalf of all women, representing your…

Text: 2 Kings 5:1-19

We regularly include a time for sharing joys and concerns during the worship service, but today, in addition, you are invited to hold all that you carry with you in a little different way.  After the sermon there will be an opportunity to come forward to receive anointing with oil and prayer for yourself, or on behalf of another person.  I consider this a congregation wonderfully conscious of and concerned about and engaged with the world.  So many of you are givers, spending your energy and time on behalf of others near and far.  Today you are invited to draw a smaller circle.  To pray for and speak to the Spirit on behalf of yourself, your family, friends, those dearest to you.  This could very well include an area of social justice or a situation far away, but will more likely involve tuning in to the spaces of your own heart, listening to what you are hearing there, and offering that up to the light.  You are hereby given full permission to think small, to think really really local, and to relax into whatever that needs to mean to you right now.

Today the lectionary gives us the story of the healing of Naaman.  The Bible contains many healing stories and from our 21st century perspective, it’s not always easy to know how to read them.  For those of us used to jumping on WebMD or Wikipedia to read up on physical or mental health conditions and illnesses, these biblical stories come across as remarkably unconcerned about the biological details of healing.  If we would tell a story about the healing of Ila, or the healing of a cancer, or a broken toe, or a depression, the story would be laced with references to anatomy and medicines…