CMC Scripture and Sermon 04-02-2023.mp4 from Gwen Reiser on Vimeo.

Sermon: Pilgrimage: From Garden to Garden 
Text: Matthew 26:36-46
Speaker: Joel Miller

If you ever visit Jerusalem, one of the places you may see is the Church of All Nations.  It’s one of many structures built on a site of religious significance.  In this case, the Garden of Gethsemane.  It’s right there at the bottom of the Mount of Olives, right outside the walls of the old city, beside those 1000 year old olive trees, believed to be the location where Jesus prayed with his disciples the night he was arrested. 

And if you were to enter that church you may notice a sign – as I have the couple times I’ve been there.  It reads: “Please no explanations inside the church.” 

It’s a well-meaning sign that I think is more profound than intended.  What I’m almost certain it’s supposed to mean is that this is a sacred site, and when you’re inside this building, please be reverent, or at least be respectful of others and don’t talk loud.  Especially, ahem, you tour guides or seminary grads who know or think you know a lot about this place and wish to explain it to those in your group.  For all those who fit this description, please do your explaining, your commentary, your knowledge sharing, outside the church, on the lovely grounds of the garden perhaps, or elsewhere.

All this, concisely summarized in that one sign: “Please no explanations inside the church.” 

What I love about this sign is its potential secondary meaning, the plea it could be making to those who spend a lot of time in churches.  Especially to those who do a lot of talking inside churches.  In short – churches aren’t places that…

CMC Service 03-26-23 from Gwen Reiser on Vimeo.

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Sermon 

Pilgrimage: Sheep, Mud, and Non-Toxic Masculinity
Texts: 1 Samuel 16:1-13; John 9:1-7
Speaker: Joel Miller

When the prophet Samuel goes to Bethlehem, he has one purpose – to anoint a new king of Israel.  It was a risk.  Israel already had a king – Saul – the first king of this tribal confederation – anointed by none other than Samuel himself.  But Saul had fallen out of favor with the Lord and with Samuel.  So it was time to anoint a new king.

The institution of kingship was already something of a divine compromise, according to the book of 1 Samuel.  Up to that point the people had been led by regional chieftains or judges.  People like Gideon and Deborah and Samson – and Samuel.  Toward the end of Samuel’s life the people started asking for a king, a centralized leader to govern them and fight their battles.  Samuel reports this to the Lord, and the Lord, through Samuel, issues a warning.  If they do indeed get a king, the king will enlist their sons in his military, he will take their daughters into his court, he will claim the best fields and vineyards and orchards for himself.  He will tax their grain and flocks, and, “you shall be his slaves.”  1 Samuel chapter 8.  

Despite all this, the people still demand a king.  And the Lord concedes.  And so Samuel and the Lord find the most kingly of the Israelites – Saul, son of Kish.  1 Sam. 9:2: “There was not a man among the people or Israel more handsome than he; he stood head and shoulders above everyone else.”

Now, Samuel is on a quest to find Saul’s replacement.  In Bethlehem there is a man named Jesse.  Samuel will anoint one of his sons as the new king.  Kingship, take 2. 

Samuel invites Jesse and…

CMC Worship 03-12-23 from Gwen Reiser on Vimeo.

Living Water Pulses Through Us

Sermon—12 March 2023 | Sarah Werner

John 4:1-42

I want to share some stories this morning about water, holy places, and how living water helps us find a home in the world. Water makes up over half of the substance of your body, and three-quarters of your brain is water. Water literally is life, as the saying goes. When Jesus arrives at the well in the middle of the day, he is likely just as thirsty as the next human, parched from the brilliance of the desert sun. But what he eventually offers the Samaritan woman is something quite different, the living water of the kin-dom of God.

This passage from John is a powerful one, getting to the heart of what it means to follow Jesus and to be nourished by living water. It is the longest theological conversation Jesus has with anyone in the gospels, and it is with an unwed Samaritan woman, the ultimate outsider. But I have to start by saying, this story makes me feel uneasy. Part of it is the way Jesus comes off, at least in English. “Give me a drink” does not sound very polite. And he shouldn’t even be talking to a woman in this time and place. Then there’s the bit about the husbands. Five of them, yikes, and living with a man who is not her husband. It makes her sound like an unscrupulous woman. The reality, though, is likely more complicated. There are a lot of reasons why she could have had five husbands. She could have been a widower, since men were more likely to die than women, in battle or from old age if she…

CMC Scripture and Sermon 03-05-2023.mp4 from Gwen Reiser on Vimeo.

Pilgrimage: Womb and wind
Text: John 3:1-10
Speaker: Joel Miller

John chapter 3 contains one of the most common phrases in American Christianity: “Born again.”  “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kin-dom of God unless they are born again.”  Other English translations say “born anew,” or “born from above,” but “born again” seems to be the one that stuck in the culture.  As in, “I’m a born again Christian.  Are you?”

I know a significant portion of this congregation considers themselves recovering evangelicals, and another portion actively resists being identified with that version of Christianity.  So I’m curious, if you’re comfortable outing yourself a bit – I’m pretty sure you won’t be alone – I’m wondering if we could get a show of hands for anyone who has some baggage with this verse about being born again.

I may be in the minority of folks here even interested in giving this a go, but I’d like to attempt to reimagine this phrase.  Maybe even – GASP – reclaim it as an integral part of our faith. 

We’ve actually got some decent material to work with here.  Because the call to be born again, born anew, or born from above is a clear feminine image of God.  It’s short.  If you blink you can miss it.  But it’s definitely without a doubt referring to a womb.  You can’t be born, or born again, without a womb.  In this case, it’s the womb of God.  Jesus says, in effect, no one can even see this thing I’m referring to as the kin-dom of God unless they are formed and re-formed within the womb of God, and born anew, like a baby, seeing…