https://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/20190630sermon.mp3

Text: Galatians 5:1,13-26

This week our nation celebrates its birthday.  There’s fireworks, there’s food, there’s commentary on where we’re at as a country, now 243 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  Freedom is a big word for us, from a big idea.  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

That’s worked out pretty well for white, male, property owners.  The struggle for equal freedoms and opportunities is a major part of the history of our country.

Also this week is the biennial national convention of Mennonite Church USA – in Kansas City this year – in which we exercise our collective freedom-to-be-frugal by having the event during one of the cheapest convention weeks of the year.  But it’s still not cheap.  This year we’ll send 13 people to convention, with strong financial support from the congregation.  Thank you.

Many, many years ago – almost 2000 – the Apostle Paul had freedom on his mind.  It’s a central theme in his epistle, which is a fancy name for a letter, to the Galatians.

The letter is actually addressed to the “churches of Galatia,” plural.  Nobody’s quite sure how many churches this included or even where they were located.

The most common understanding of what’s going on behind this letter goes something like this:  In his missionary travels, the Apostle Paul helped found a group of small congregations of the Galatians.  They were primarily Gentiles, meaning they weren’t Jews, meaning they had never followed Jewish practices like male circumcision and Sabbath keeping and dietary guidelines.  They’d been pagans who had joined with everybody else in honoring the Roman imperial gods.

But now they’re Christians.

Although the early Christians weren’t…

https://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/20190616sermon.mp3

Texts: Psalm 118:19-24; 1 Peter 2:1-10

It was a little over thirteen years ago that this congregation began a discernment process regarding membership.  Some of you remember this well.  Many of you weren’t here 13 years ago. The question at hand was whether the congregation could openly affirm persons for membership regardless of sexual orientation.  It was a thorough process, lasting about 10 months.  It involved study of scripture and church documents and the science of sexuality, listening to faith stories, especially those of gay folks, meeting in small groups.  It was not a new discussion here, but it did result in a first time official vote to be a publicly welcoming congregation.  That was February 2007 – a coming out moment of sorts for the congregation.

Five years ago, without need for much further processing, the congregation voted to clarify that sexual orientation was a non-factor in the hiring of church staff, and that pastors were affirmed to officiate at weddings of opposite and same sex couples.

Yesterday a number of us rode a hay wagon through downtown Columbus anywhere between zero and five miles per hour, with a whole lot of zero at the beginning.  We passed out 4000 packets of seeds to people lining the streets for annual Pride march. The packets included the words: “sowing seeds of love.”

In the spirit of Pride weekend, I want to invite us to reflect on this journey we are still on as God continues to sow seeds of love among us that grow in surprising ways.  If we have an annual Pride Sunday it would be good to do enough advanced planning to hear more from the voices of queer folks.

For today, you’re stuck with this straight guy.  And so I come to this the only genuine way I can.  As a…

Speaker: Renee Kanagy

Texts: 2nd Timothy 1:3-7; 1 Corinthians 4:1

Preached during the ordination service of Pastor Mark Rupp by his mentoring pastor.  Audio only.

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https://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/20190526sermon.mp3

Texts:  Zechariah 3:1-5; John 14:15-26

One day, not so long ago, a woman walked into a grocery store.  While there, she slipped one of the items under her jacket and tried to walk out with it.  It was a frozen chicken, so it was hard to hide.  A security guard spotted her, detained her, and called a police officer.  The officer searched her and found the frozen chicken.  He ordered her to accompany him to the police station.

Lots of people saw this happening.  One reacted differently than the others.  Standing in line to check out, he told the cashier he wanted to buy that very chicken the woman was holding.  He then brought the receipt to the officer, who reluctantly agreed to let the woman go.

If this story sounds familiar, you must be a regular reader of the CMC Lamplighter, our monthly newsletter.  Or at least you read the May edition.  This story was told to Phil Hart, who wrote the article, by Yasir Makki.  Yasir lived and studied in Columbus in the late 90’s and early 2000’s before returning to his home in Sudan.  He now leads a school and church network.  We help support this work financially through our church mission budget.  Some others of you give individually.  Yasir was the guy at the check out counter who saw all this unfolding, bought the chicken, and enabled the woman to go free of charges.

It’s an advocate story.  Through his actions, Yasir became an advocate for this woman he’d never met.

The presence of an Advocate shows up in John chapter 14.  This is a continuation of the passage from last week, the new/old commandment – that the friends of Jesus are to love one another.  It’s part of the larger farewell discourse of John 13-17, addressed to this small…