“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.

…

There is no video recording this Sunday due to technical difficulties. 

The Comfort and The Cry 
Text: Isaiah 40:1-11
Speaker: Joel Miller
 

The second coming of the Messiah took place one dull Monday morning as he arrived anonymously at the gates of a great city.  There was much for him to do.  While many years had passed since his last visit, the same suffering was present all around.  Still there were the poor, the sick, and the oppressed.  Still there were the outcasts, and still there were the righteous who pitied them, and the authorities who exploited them.

For a long time no one took any notice of this desert wanderer with his weather-beaten face and ragged, dusty clothes – this quiet man who spent his time living among the sick and unwanted.  The great city labored on, ignorant of the one who dwelled within its streets. 

The Messiah eventually decided to reveal his identity to a chosen few who had remained faithful to his teachings.  These people met together in a small, unknown church on the outskirts of the city to pray and to serve the poor.

As the Messiah entered the modest sanctuary one Sunday morning, his eyes fell upon the tiny group huddled in the corner, each one praying and weeping for the day of the Lord.  As they prayed, those who had gathered in the church slowly began to feel the gaze of Christ penetrate their souls.  Silence began to descend within the circle as they realized who had entered their sacred home.  For a time no one dared to speak. 

Then the leader of the group gathered her courage, approached Christ, fell at his feet, and cried, “We have waited so long for your return.  For so many years we have waited patiently for you to come.  Today, as with every other day,…

CMC Service 11_26_23 from Gwen Reiser on Vimeo.

Re-Reform 
Text: 2 Kings 22:1–23:4
Speaker: Joel Miller

A number of years ago, church scholar Phyllis Tickle wrote a book called The Great Emergence, Subtitle: How Christianity is Changing, and Why.  Her big theory, as she describes it, is this: “Every five hundred years, the Church cleans out its attic and has a giant rummage sale.”  What she means is that in its 2000 years of existence, the church has undergone four massive historical transitions, roughly 500 years apart. 

The first, straddling the year 500, saw the fall of the Roman Empire, the ecumenical councils, and the rise of monasteries.  The second, just a bit into the thousands, was the great schism between East and West.  The Eastern Orthodox Patriarch and the Roman Catholic Pope excommunicated one another for theological differences that mirrored the politics and economics of the day.  The third was the Protestant Reformation which began in the early 1500s.  Mennonites and other Anabaptists were considered the radical wing of that reformation and, sure enough, we’re just a little over a year away from celebrating our 500 year anniversary.   

Tracing this pattern, Phyllis Tickle proposes that the church is now in the midst of another massive transition.  Or, to go back to her original metaphor, the attic is once again cluttered, and it’s time to have a rummage sale.  She apparently doesn’t know that around here we accumulate things fast enough to have a rummage sale every year. For new folks we actually do have a church rummage sale every year. 

I thought of Phyllis Tickle and The Great Emergence while reading this story from 2 Kings. 

There are a number of details here that might stir our curiosity.  Like the fact that Josiah was…