Sermons

Pastor Ken follows the call and lessons of Scripture, the Apostles, and people of faith from our past in speaking out about the increasing oppression and injustice happening right now. This message stems from yet another arrest of the Apostles and their response to the "High Priest." from Acts 5:27-32. It also takes its cues from Jesus' quote from the prophet Isaiah found in the Gospel of Luke 4:18. We sing the words of that Prophet with the Hymn "Carrier." Pastor Ken introduces us to the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh and his civil rights companion John Lewis. Both men equated fighting for equality as a core element of following Jesus’ teaching. We learn a little about Margaret sanger, an early feminist and women's rights activist. Additionally, Ken shares the story of the Stonewall Uprising and its impact on the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement. He then gets personal as he shares his own thoughts, saying, "I, for one, cannot keep silent any longer as I see my brothers’ and sisters’ rights being subverted." He speaks about why he thinks it's important for faith leaders to speak out against oppression and tackle even these most controversial topics. Listen as we make some noise and stir up some "good trouble. necessary trouble."

At least one part of this passage is straightforward, although disturbing: Jesus explains where evil comes from. ... ... In the Gospels, it seems that Jesus saves his sharpest words, his most pointed criticism, for the most religious. ... ... We have been taught to view the Pharisees and scribes as self-righteous hypocrites and to distance ourselves from them, and passages like this one tend to reinforce that perception. ... ... It seems that the scribes and Pharisees had legitimate concerns. Why, then, do they receive such a harsh response from Jesus? ... ... We have been taught to distance ourselves from the Pharisees and scribes, yet perhaps we have more in common with them than we thought. ... ... Whatever Satan is in Mark’s Gospel, it is not the cause of wrongdoing. ... ... Placing blame on a diabolical entity lurking in the shadows, risks diverting attention from our own propensity to rebel and destroy. “The devil made me do it” is a copout. ... ... “The human heart,” or the human will, remains a complex thing. ... ... This text shows us that Jesus sees clearly the ugliness of human hearts, yet he does not turn away. He sees right through our highly edited versions of ourselves, knows what lurks in our hearts, yet loves us still. ... ...

Last week, we ended the previous section of John chapter six with these two lessons: 1. Trust that God is doing something new, which human circumstances cannot undermine or negate. 2. Submit everything, even our highest-stake issues and our most pressing concerns, to Jesus. Be less concerned about what we do, and more open to what God is doing. It sounds so good. But how does it really sit with us? ... Perhaps this is what happened to the crowd with Jesus; they knew too much for Jesus’ words to ring true. Jesus said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:41). The Judeans object. They murmur among themselves. These are the insiders, the ones who know the history — they know how God does things and how things should be done. ... What does this have to do with the Bread from Heaven? The Judeans Jesus was trying to teach, could only relate to God the way their ancestors did. The old family recipe. But God was doing a new thing. Giving them a new recipe to relate to God and each other. ... A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and it can lead us to the wrong conclusions. When it comes to God, and even to the Church, we know only a little. Like all living things, the Church — and our understanding of God — continues to grow and to change. And so, to know only a little, and to think the little that we know, is all that there is to know, can be fatal. ... Jesus is not calling us to abandon our knowledge and traditions, as if they still cannot teach, help, and guide us. Jesus cautions us that our knowledge will not give us absolute answers or a foolproof plan to make things right. God’s answer is rarely to reassure us that our knowledge and understanding are correct. ... References: • Satterlee, C. (2015). Commentary of John 6:35, 41-51. Online article accessed on WorkingPreacher.com