Sermons

(Pro)Creative Intimacy | October 13, 2019

Texts: Readers theater excerpts from Genesis 2, Ruth, John 11

Welcome friends.  Welcome family.  Welcome neighbors and guests.  Welcome sisters, brothers, cousins, aunties, tios, and omas.  Welcome lovers.  Welcome husbands, wives, partners, significant others.  Welcome people who are straight.  Welcome people who are L-G-B-T-Queer.  Welcome people for whom “it’s complicated” best describes their relationships.

Welcome all, to this, our second week of a four-part worship series on healthy sexuality.

I want to thank Joel for naming in his sermon last week the reality that too often these sorts of conversations in the Church have been dominated by straight people talking about the sexualities of queer people, dissecting every detail and treating the lives of real people as if they were nothing more than an “issue” to be resolved.

But we are all sexual people.  None of us can distance ourselves from the “issue” any more than we can separate our mind from our heart from our body.  We are all in need of good, theological discourse about our bodies, relationships, sex, and desire, because sexuality is about a lot more than just what we do with our genitals.  It’s about how we relate to the world around us, how...

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Our bodies – God’s Image | 6 October 2019

https://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/20191006sermon.mp3

The audio recording includes a follow up reflection from Jenny Campagna, beginning around minute 18.

Genesis 1:26-31, John 1:14

One of the more daunting aspects of speaking about sex and sexuality in a congregation, is just how many differences we bring into the room.  In the few conversations I’ve had anticipating this Healthy Sexuality series, a wide range of life experience has already showed up.  For one person, growing up in the free love sexual revolution of the 60’s resulted in a need to form more disciplined habits and attitudes toward sex later in life.  For another person, growing up in the evangelical purity culture of the 90’s included a shame based view of the body and sex that still lingers.

Sexuality, by its very nature, is intensely personal.  It speaks to our deep needs and most raw vulnerabilities.  Sexuality is expressed differently at different stages of life, whether we are single or partnered.  Sexual violence is pervasive, and the resulting trauma can be a life’s work to heal.  Sexual intimacy can be profoundly meaningful, pleasurable, and restorative.  All this is true.

And, oh yeah, sex is still the main way people make babies.  Infertility, miscarriage, birthing and...

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Our bodies – God’s Image | October 6

https://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/20191006sermon.mp3

The audio recording includes a follow up reflection from Jenny Campagna, beginning around minute 18.

Genesis 1:26-31, John 1:14

Speaker: Joel Miller

One of the more daunting aspects of speaking about sex and sexuality in a congregation, is just how many differences we bring into the room.  In the few conversations I’ve had anticipating this Healthy Sexuality series, a wide range of life experience has already showed up.  For one person, growing up in the free love sexual revolution of the 60’s resulted in a need to form more disciplined habits and attitudes toward sex later in life.  For another person, growing up in the evangelical purity culture of the 90’s included a shame based view of the body and sex that still lingers.

Sexuality, by its very nature, is intensely personal.  It speaks to our deep needs and most raw vulnerabilities.  Sexuality is expressed differently at different stages of life, whether we are single or partnered.  Sexual violence is pervasive, and the resulting trauma can be a life’s work to heal.  Sexual intimacy can be profoundly meaningful, pleasurable, and restorative.  All this is true.

And, oh yeah, sex is still the main way people make babies.  Infertility,...

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Groaning with geese and God | September 22

https://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/20190922sermon.mp3

Texts: Genesis 3:16-21; Romans 8:19-27

Speaker: Joel Miller

She fell like a maple seed, pirouetting on an autumn breeze.  A column of light streamed from a hole in the Skyworld, marking her path where only darkness had been before.  It took her a long time to fall.  In fear, or maybe hope, she clutched a bundle tightly in her hand.

Hurtling downward, she saw only dark water below.  But in that emptiness there were many eyes gazing up at the sudden shaft of light.  They saw there a small object, a mere dust mote in the beam.  As it grew closer, they could see that it was a woman, arms outstretched, long black hair billowing behind as she spiraled toward them.

The geese nodded to one another and rose together from the water in a wave of goose music.  She felt the beat of their wings as they flew beneath to break her fall.  Far from the only home she’d ever known, she caught her breath at the warm embrace of soft feathers as they gently carried her downward.  And so it began.

The geese could not hold the woman above the water for much longer, so they...

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The Toughest Commitment: Love your Enemies | September 15

Texts: Scripture: Matthew 5:43-48; Romans 12:14 &17-20

Speaker: Julie Hart

I realized I was in serious trouble one summer working with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Israel and the West Bank when I began to look at every Israeli Settler I saw as an irrational, fanatic, out to get me.  Certainly, there was some basis to my fear.  Day after day patrolling the streets of Hebron I would greet each person I passed with acknowledgment and a hello in the appropriate language.  And each time I passed an Israeli settler, I got a similar response.  The most common response was a cold stare cutting right through me as if I were either a non-person or an evil one.  The bolder youth and men responded with such phrases as, “Go home Nazi” or “Christian Bitch save your own people.”  The young men, when walking in groups would often monopolize the entire street and refuse to move despite my presence.  It was a scary situation for me.  I never knew how they might respond by what appeared to be such hatred. 

But even more frightening than their behavior was my mental response.  I was building the blocks of enemy formation.   Not that this...

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