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Ruth, Faithfulness and Stewardship

As I mentioned regarding the sermon on Job posted earlier, I look forward to this particular section of year B of the lectionary. The last couple of weeks, we have had selections from the book of Ruth - the only time it shows up in the lectionary cycle. As with Job, we read several selections from Ruth during worship today in order to walk through the story as a whole. It was also our annual stewardship Sunday, in which we invited congregation members to come forward and make commitments of the time, talent and treasure for the coming year in our ministry. “Faithful or Successful?” Selections from the Book of Ruth November 8, 2009 As we work our way through the three year lectionary cycle, which offers us a game plan for reading scripture in worship which results in hearing at least selected portions from the entire Bible over the course of the cycle, we come across moments that can’t be passed up. Last month we had readings from Job, and since Job shows up but one time in the thre...
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Considering Job

As we move through the 3-year lectionary cycle, there are parts of it that I look forward to more than others. The readings this fall are among those. In October, we had the good fortune of reading through the book of Job sequentially. I chose to focus on other lectionary readings until October 25, when we read representative portions of the whole book and I spent the sermon walking through the story. I've edited what you see below to shorten it a bit (though it's still on the long side) and to remove a couple of stories that deal with a couple of friends' personal events. There is also an audio version similar to this text from three years ago on the Church of the Good Shepherd website - http://www.goodshepherdum.org/ . “The Impatience of Job” Job 1:1, 2:1-13; Job 23:1-9, 16-17; Job 38: 1-7, 24-42; Job 42:1-17 October 25, 2009 Yes, you saw the title right. Yes, I know that’s not what we usually say about Job. Usually it’s something like, “that Linda Wallick must have the p...
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An Octogenarian Wedding

On October 31, I had the high honor of officiating the wedding ceremony of two 84-year old members of Church of the Good Shepherd. That's unusual enough, but there's more: I had also officiated the funerals for the couples' first spouses. I had walked with each of them as they cared for ill spouses, as they grieved the loss of their marital relationships as their spouses declined, as they grieved the actual loss when their spouses died, as they mourned and rebuilt life, as they met one another and began to keep company and finally when their relationship turned to romance. I had wrestled for weeks with what to say to these two - they've been through so much, they have so much to share. Finally, I decided to play my indecision into a rhetorical device and the wedding homily was born: “When there is Nothing Left to Say” Wedding Homily for Ruth Woodward and Bernie McDonald October 31, 2009 (ref. Colossians 3:12-17) I put on my Facebook status earlier this week that I w...
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November 2009 Newsletter Article

Below is the article appearing in the Good Shepherd newsletter from me this month. “What Part of NO Don’t They Understand?” We are just days away from the 2009 elections. In an off-year such as this, turnout is expected to light. But I hope all of you will get out and vote this year. There are some local officials to elect and there are several issues to vote on – none more important than Issue 3, which proposes an amendment to the state constitution that would allow casino gambling. I generally refrain from advocating one particular side on an issue, though I am certainly free to do so (unlike the issue of endorsing particular candidates, which U.S. law prohibits clergy and churches from doing if they want to maintain their tax-free status). On issues, members of the clergy as individuals and congregations and denominations as a whole are allowed to advocate for or against whatever they like. Normally, I try to help people think through the possibilities and I ask questions desig...
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On Getting Stuck in an Old Script

Some thoughts on race relations have been percolating for some time. Here is the August newsletter article I wrote for Church of the Good Shepherd, UM: In the last week one of those national stories that gets blown out of proportion by the relentless 24-hour news cycle caught my eye. You’ve certainly seen or heard it by now – Professor Henry Louis Gates of Harvard University was briefly arrested and charged at his home after exchanging heated words with an officer in the Cambridge, Massachusetts police department. Professor Gates had just returned from a long trip to China and was exhausted, coming down with a bad cold, and generally grumpy, when he arrived at his home to find that his door was jammed. He and the driver who was helping him with his bags worked to dislodge the door. A concerned citizen noticed the activity and thought there might be a break in occurring. The police responded to investigate. What’s the big deal? Professor Gates is one of the foremost b...
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A Few Thoughts about Swine Flu

This is the text of an e-mail I sent to the congregation today. We’ve been inundated the last few days with constant media reports about a new strain of influenza – the H1N1 strain, which has been dubbed the “Swine Flu” because the original virus was one that infected pigs. I know that many of you are concerned; I’ve certainly been paying attention, too. I want to say several things: 1. Keep in mind that the lifeblood of modern media is the continuous update and the usual mode of operation of modern media is to be as flashy and attention-getting as possible. This can turn what may be an important event into a cause for hysteria. You should check in with the world on your news channel of preference each day to see what the latest is – but then turn the channel to something different or turn the TV off. The constant flash and glitter only feeds the panic. The move toward this way of doing business is one of the reasons I left broadcast journalism 20 years ago. It does no one any good. Ev...
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A Blog Entry to Ponder

Friends, I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. I have two what I guess one would call "essays" running around in my head that I'll transmit into the keyboard soon. In the meantime, I ran across this interesting Blog entry regarding multicultural ministry - enjoy: http://blog.sojo.net/2009/04/20/three-encouragements-toward-making-your-churches-more-multicultural/ Don
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