CMC Service 1-7-24 from Gwen Reiser on Vimeo.

Starting with Solitude
Text: Mark 1:12-2:4
Speaker: Joel Miller

Today’s readings from Mark begin with Jesus alone in the wilderness, and end with Jesus surrounded by so many people a group of friends has to remove part of a roof just to get to him.  There’s enough that goes on in between it’s hard to keep pace. 

Jesus emerges from the wilderness with a message so short it can almost fit on a bumper sticker: “The time is fulfilled, the kin-dom of God has come near.”  Mark, and Jesus, call this, simply, good news, or gospel.  Jesus proceeds to recruit two sets of brothers, all fishermen; teach in a synagogue and cast out a harmful spirit; restore one of those brother’s mother-in-law back to health; go on a campaign across his home region of Galilee proclaiming his message and driving out more harmful spirits; restore a man with a dreaded skin condition back to full fellowship in the community; and land in a house where people are so eager to be in his presence they’re willing to dismantle whatever barriers there may be between them and him – in this case a thatched roof.  All that and we’re just barely out of Mark chapter 1.  Very soon the crowds will get so dense Jesus will need to get into a boat and push out into the Sea of Galilee in order to teach those on the shore– as if there isn’t room left for him on land to even stand.     

Of the four New Testament gospels, Mark is the fastest paced, the shortest and, very likely, the first written.  When the generation that’s been telling these stories for decades is close to dying off, you…

Worship Service 12/31/23 from Gwen Reiser on Vimeo.

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“Do Not Be Afraid” 
Texts: Readings from Luke 1 and 2
Speaker: Joel Miller

“Do not be afraid.” 

This, we learn early in Sunday school, is what angels say when they greet people.  In Luke’s gospel, we hear it when the angel greets the elderly Zechariah, father of John the Baptizer, and again to the young Mary.   We’ll hear it again in the next reading when the angel greets the shepherds in the field, announcing that Mary’s child, Jesus, has been born in Bethlehem.

“Do not be afraid.”

In our mind’s eye we might imagine angels as imposing figures, appearing out of nowhere, startling, the cause of the very fear they seek to relieve through this greeting.  This may very well be the case.

But I have another theory, another proposal for the relationship between angels and fear.  And this is it: When we, people, are found by an angel – or to use a more literal translation, a messenger – When we are most in need of being found, and given a message, is when we are living in a state of fear.  The role of the messenger is not to scare us, then assure us they’re on our side, then bring whatever message they have for us.  The primary role of the angel, the message itself, is to call us out of our fearful orientation to the world, into another, more spacious way of being.

Our fear precedes the angel’s appearance.  And that’s where they start.  By naming our fear we may not even have been aware of.  

I can’t prove this theory, but I can reflect a bit on the prevalence of fear and how it shows up in our lives.

Fear is, perhaps counterintuitively, a gift.  When we experience fear it is our body’s way of alerting us to danger. …

Recording is unavailable.

Speaker: Mark Rupp

Text: Ezra 1:1-4; 3:1-4, 10-13

Sermon Title: It All Belongs

The third Sunday of Advent is sometimes known as Gaudete Sunday. It comes from the first line of the introit of the traditional Mass setting: Gaudete in Domino semper, iterum dico, gaudete, which translates to “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.” The observance of Advent was once more similar to Lent, with a highly contemplative or somber tone, and Gaudete Sunday was seen as a kind of break in the middle for a bit of unbridled joy. It’s why we light the pink candle.

I don’t think this is the first time I’ve been slated to preach on the third Sunday in Advent, and I’m starting to wonder whether making the gay pastor preach on pink Sunday constitutes workplace harassment…

Just kidding! I probably insisted on preaching this week partly because it gives me a chance to don my gayest apparel and partly because it finally gives me the long overdue opportunity to talk to you all about the most important social and cultural event of 2023. Yes, I do mean the release of the Barbie movie. Now, I’m going to do my best not to spoil this crowning achievement of cinematic excellence, but if you haven’t seen it yet, I urge you: run, don’t walk to go see it. 

At the beginning of the movie, the audience is introduced to Barbieland, a pink plastic utopia where all the various version of Barbie live out their perfectly pastel dream house lives and take on the various roles they embody such as President Barbie, Physicist Barbie, Doctor Barbie, Diplomat Barbie, and even Mermaid Barbie. During this introduction, the narrator quips cheekily, “Thanks to Barbie, all problems of feminism have been solved.”

It’s not long into this introduction that we begin…

Due to copyright laws, only the final song was recorded. Enjoy!

12_10_23 Hallelujah Chorus from Gwen Reiser on Vimeo.

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