Texts: Psalm 44:22-26; Mark 3:1-6

Speaker: Joel Miller

What do we do with our anger?

The theme of this worship series is “Rise Up! Take Courage!” It matches the current theme of Central District Conference.  When the writers of the worship guide sat down to choose the weekly subthemes, they decided to start where they imagined many folks are starting these days.  With anger.  Actually, rage.  Week 1:  “Voice your rage,” as it says on our bulletin cover.  Well, this is week three for us.  We’ve been cherry picking the resource for our own schedule.  This Sunday, we picked the angry cherry.

If you’re feeling angry, or enraged, about anything in the world these days, anything in your life, this Sunday is for you.

It’s not a very churchy thing, to emphasize anger.  Not many folks head out to worship on a Sunday morning, thinking, I hope I return home a little angrier than I am now.  But let’s risk it.  Consider, now, something about which you are angry.  Feel the temperature rise a bit within you.  Hold that thought as carefully or firmly as you need to. 

Are we there?  Everyone still OK?

What do we do with our well-founded anger?

Well, if you’re the Psalmist, you direct it at God.

When the poet in Psalm 44 says, “Because of you we are being killed all day long,” the “you” being addressed is God, the Lord, Yahweh, the Divine Spirit from which all reality flows – who/which/that supposedly cares about justice and mercy.

So why, the Psalmist cries out, all this suffering?  It’s because of You, capital Y – You.

In the two verses that follow, the Psalmist manages to accuse God of being  lazy, sleepy, dismissive, disinterested, and/or forgetful.

Psalm 44, verses 23-24, from us, to You, capital Y:

Rouse yourself! (lazy)  Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake (sleepy)  !…

Text: Haggai 2:1-5

Speaker: Joel Call

“Theology has failed us.” This is how theologian, Marika Rose, Senior Lecturer at Dublin City College, begins her book A Theology Q/ Failure. We occupy a time in history of perpetual crisis in which theology seems to work against the aims of peace and justice. As recently as yesterday, US bombs continue to fall on Iran despite negotiations for peace. U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, author of American Crusade, tattooed with Christian insignia including both a Jerusalem Cross and a Chi Rho, recently quoted the Bible at a Pentagon briefing. A couple months ago, Christian pastors gathered in the Oval Office to pray for Trump as he led the US into war. Billionaire Peter Thiel —friend of Jeffrey Epstein, fan of JRR Tolkien, and founder of Palantir — continues to tour his theology of the end times, according to which we are invited to view Greta Thunberg as the avatar of the antichrist. Theology is wielded today both by Christian Zionists and by the state of Israel, arguing that the mass killing and starvation of Palestinians is both necessary and morally justified. Gaza and the West Bank lay in ruins.

Theology has failed. Amidst our state of permanent crisis, we stand in the rubble of the destruction of the past. Far from keeping us from the worst of our human capacities, theology has actually been used to further justify and sustain the violence and devastation of our world.

The theme of this year’s Central District Conference annual gathering was Rise up! Take courage! We convened in Harrisonburg, Virginia to reflect on a year’s worth of experiences. Where might wisdom be calling our group of Anabaptists? Where might the Spirit lead? I wonder how can we hope to Rise up! and Take courage! when our very tool, the…

Text: Luke 4:14-30

Speaker: Joel Miller

Rock a bye baby, in the treetops

When the wind blows, the cradle will rock

When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall…..

And daddy will catch you, cradle and all

This was a favorite bedtime song for all three of our girls. 

We would start with me rocking them up high – Rock a bye baby in the treetops.  Just a couple years ago.

Then came the wind and the increased rocking – When the wind blows (blow in their face), the cradle will rock

Then the bottom drops out – When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall

Followed by the grand finale – And daddy will catch you, cradle and all

Followed by laughter and demands to do it again.  This was not a great strategy for winding down for sleep, although it did make me tired.    

It was a favorite of mine for reasons likely embedded in the deep recesses of the evolutionary development of the dad brain.  Exercising strength and protection.  World-building.  Calculated risk taking in which I am both the cause of and the deliverer from danger.  And, of course, making a joke that gets your kid to laugh hysterically.  This gets harder as they age, but we still try. 

Also, and this is what I was most conscious of every time we did it, it was a favorite of mine because I felt clever for having changed the ending of a shockingly dark and confusing nursery rhyme.  So peaceful, so violent.  And down will come baby, cradle and all. 

And sometimes I even felt prayerful.

Who doesn’t want their child growing up in a world where they are surrounded by caring adults who offer unconditional love and support when they fall.  It beats a world where the isolated individual is suspended by one branch holding them precariously in the air which…

Texts: Matthew 13:44-46; Revelation 22:1-3a

Speaker: Joel Miller

See below for the Faith Journey Reflection from Sarah Martin prior to her baptism

There’s part of me that’s a bit envious of those two anonymous folks in those two short parables about the kin-dom of heaven.  They both find something so valuable – a treasure, a pearl – they gladly trade in all they have so they can have it. 

Envious probably isn’t the right word.  Envy is number 2 on the traditional list of 7 deadly sins.  Hopefully I’m not approaching the realm of the deadly sinful.  A more positive spin might be that I’m admiringly intrigued with this idea: That there might be one thing that completely reorients one’s desires, goals, thoughts and actions into a singularly focused joyful existence.  Like it says in Matthew 13:44: “Then, in his joy, he went and sold all he had and bought the field (that contained the treasure.)”

Wouldn’t that be something: to know – deep in your soul – that only one thing matters, and the purpose of your life is to tend to that one thing as long you live?

If you hear these parables and set out searching for an actual treasure in a field, or an actual pearl of great value, let’s agree that you’ve missed the point.  It’s not a thing at all Jesus is pointing to.  It’s this non-thing, which he refers to as the kingdom of heaven, or as Mark and Luke call it, the kin-dom of God.  It’s a big enough idea Jesus needs not just these two parables, but many parables to illustrate what it might be.  Matthew alone contains 11 parables that include the phrase “The kingdom of heaven is like…”  Each of them point to a present reality – not some future existence – a present reality…

Texts: Genesis 1:31, Luke 9:28-36

Speaker: Bethany Davey

“God saw everything [God] had made: it was supremely good. There was evening and there was morning: the sixth day.” Genesis 1:31, Common English Bible (CEB)

“About eight days after Jesus said these things, he took Peter, John and James, and went up on a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes flashed white like lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, were talking with him. They were clothed with heavenly splendor and spoke about Jesus’ departure, which he would achieve in Jerusalem. Peter and those with him were almost overcome by sleep, but they managed to stay awake and saw his glory as well as the two men with him.

As the two men were about to leave Jesus, Peter said to him, ‘Master, it’s good that we’re here. We should construct three shrines: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’ –but he didn’t know what he was saying. Peter was still speaking when a cloud overshadowed them. As they entered the cloud, they were overcome with awe.

Then a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, my chosen one. Listen to him!’ Even as the voice spoke, Jesus was found alone. They were speechless and at the time told no one what they had seen.” Luke 9:28-36, CEB

Happy Pride Sunday! What an honor to preach today, and what joy it brings me that our CMC community honors June’s Pride season each year. Across Columbus, Pride flags wave in the breeze, businesses rainbow-fy their windows and community events abound. Many of us will join in the Pride Freedom March and celebrations this coming Saturday, June 20th.

This year, Stonewall Columbus chose the Pride theme, “Until We’re All Free,” which begs the question: who is…