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…

Texts: Psalm 137:1-6, Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4, Luke 17:5-10, 2 Timothy 1:1-7

I bring greetings from sisters and brothers of Central District Conference.  Twice a year the committees and board of the conference meet up at Camp Friedenswald in southern Michigan and Gwen R, Phil H, and I were a part of that Friday and yesterday.

One of the reasons these gatherings are so intensely good is that we are a geographically far flung conference and we get to see each other so rarely that when we are together, we have to pack a lot of humor and catching up and business into a very short amount of time.  I roomed with James R from Atlanta and Matt M from Milwaukee.  Plot the three of us on a map and you start to get the picture.

Today is World Communion Sunday, which makes that gathering up at Friedenswald look local.  Today Christians around the world gather around the table, and partake in this ritualized meal that carries with it such significance and spiritual depth.  Communion is always primarily about Christ – it wouldn’t be much of a meal without the food – but it’s also about this far flung global community, coming from such different life experiences, that gathers together for the bread and cup.

The four lectionary scriptures give us a way of exploring who all it is who gathers around this table.  Each scripture speaks to a different aspect of the faith journey.  And since there just so happen to be four sides on our communion table, we can imagine each of the four scriptures, and the people they speak for, representing the way we gather around this table as a diverse family.  Who are we eating with?  Who is making their way to this table today?

We’ll look at each of these…

Texts: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; Isaiah 40:31

This morning we are celebrating baptism.  Tennison G and Andrew N will soon be baptized, and it is a chance for each of us to remember the meaning of our own baptism and how that continues to shape our lives.  It was meaningful to Tennison and Andrew to be baptized in this natural setting at retreat; and for Tennison this place, Camp Luz, has been an especially important part of his life.  And we’ve ordered the weather to be warm enough that we can all enjoy being outside to witness the baptisms, and cool enough that these guys are really going to have to want to get baptized to get in that lake.

So here’s how we plan to proceed.  I’m going to give a brief meditation based on these scriptures that have been chosen.  Then there will be a chance for Andrew and Tennison to share a little bit about their faith journeys and for their sponsors, Andy KK for Andrew and Austin K for Tennison to give affirmation and blessings.  After this part of the service is done we will reconvene by the lake and have a couple baptisms.

The scripture that Tennison has chosen for today comes from Ecclesiastes 3.  There is a season and a time for everything.  It begins by saying, “a time to be born and a time to die,” and proceeds to name some of the many things which happen in between that span of birth and death.   A time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time for war and a time for peace.  On that last one, let’s agree that the time for war is over, and the time for peace is here.

Each of these couplets is paired…