Sermons

“What Should We Do Now?”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

December 28, 2025
Christmas 1A

Before I go any further today, I want to make sure I get the chance to thank everybody who made our Advent and Christmas observance is so wonderful. From those who made it possible for us to have our new Christmas trees, to our decorating crew, to our diaconate and council for both doing their administrative parts in organizing our observances, to all of the choir members who lent their beautiful voices to hanging of the greens and Christmas Eve, to Deb Manchester, to Sue Stelsel, to Alana Clark, to our media team, to our AV operators. To Becky Smith, the CE team, Steve Chene, Noma Ramsett, and others who helped the hanging of the greens be successful. To Janet Gehl and Laurie Vant Hoff for lending their musical gifts. To our many readers and liturgists. There are so many people who made this season as beautiful as it was and I give great thanks to all of them. It gives me a lot of satisfaction that this church continues to show up, continues to make meaningful worship experiences a year after year that help our community remember the amazing and revolutionary birth of Jesus. Each of us do our part two share that good news with a that is always in need of a reminder. As many of us grew up in a church, whether this one or elsewhere, many of us know the story in our heads and understand what it means from a religious perspective. But all of the people who make these services, what they are deeply in body with this story means with their hearts for service, their enthusiasm, and their long hours of hard work. So thank you all.

Of course, the Christmas season is not yet over. The 12 days of Christmas is more than just a novelty song that you hear on the radio! We still have a little bit of time to celebrate what that all means and reflect before we get into our next larger journey of Lent. But today things start to turn a little bit into how we will take this Christmas joy into the new year. we spent so much time anticipating the coming of Christ. Now that he has come once again, we are turning our thinking into what that means for us in the future.

The way I see it, my sermon title is two fold. “What do we do now” that the actual celebration of Christmas Day is over, and also the fear of “what do we do now” that Herod know’s he’s been duped. So today I'm going to take each of those in turn, starting with the biblical context.

There's a tricky theological question that we're probably wise to ask ourselves on the first Sunday after Christmas when reading the gospel of Matthew. If Jesus has come to totally shift the power structure, why does the so-called Herod the Great order and infanticide of all children under the age of two in his thirst to kill the newborn Jesus? The commentator Eugene Park wrestles with this. To paraphrase what Park is saying, in our faith, we often believe that God will stop evil people from succeeding and protect innocent people from suffering. But when we see evil people doing well and innocent people facing pain, it makes us wonder: Is God fair if God allows these things happen?

What’s more, why does Matthew portray Jesus as the sole recipient of God’s deliverance, while Herod, responsible for the massacre of innocent children, lived unpunished and prosperous? It's a pretty unsettling reality isn't it?

And yet, those kind of things happen in the world today just as they did back in those days. You know that 
I try not to get political, but you also know that there are startling comparisons between what happened in those days and things that are happening now. I'll let you draw some of those lines on your own. But suffice it to say that history sometimes repeats itself. And it's also important to remember that these acts of evil are the result of things that humans do to each other, not God doing these things to us.

Joseph would've been well aware of the Exodus story, which is brought to mind here in this citing from the prophet Jeremiah:

“A voice was heard in Ramah,
   wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
   she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

Here, innocent children are used as pawns—or worse—of a power-hungry monarch trying to eliminate any possible threat. And later, Herod’s son has come into power after Herod’s death, who would certainly have it out for Jesus also. As commentator Diane G. Chen points out, Joseph’s dreams have saved his family three separate times. The commentator Mark, Alan Powell notes that the days of adoring Jesus's presence here on earth don't last long, because they are already accompanied by threats and danger to Jesus's life.

That's kind of like us. Just because Jesus comes again as a new board, maybe, and there's lots of sentimentality and joy around that, doesn't mean that simply believing in Jesus solves all our problems or the problems of society.

But that's exactly where I wanted to go with this text for today. If we were to ask, “what do we do now that Jesus is born once again among us”—here in 2025 in Waupun, WI, I think it's wise for us to think about what Jesus has ministry means. Who he was most in favor of, whose causes he champion, and so on. In doing some research, I found that in Waupun specifically, relatively low median incomes, and dependence on a corrections‑based local economy together make it harder for low‑income residents to build assets, maintain good health, and move out of poverty. Because our church is doing well and lots of various, I think that these are the kinds of causes that Jesus might be calling us to address in our own ways. Continuing a partner with the Food Pantry, not just in financial donations, but also in other ways, would surely increase our visibility. Continuing to create an intentional space for those discriminated because of race, gender, identity, or socioeconomic status will also help. But it's not about just providing spaces for people to show up. I think that part of our goal for the months and years ahead should be about meeting people where they're at, not just expecting them to come to the church for help. Some of that work is difficult, to be sure, but it's also worth it. It's what Jesus would invite us to do. In our media service this morning, we used Susan Boyle's version of the hymn, “Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace”. One of the verses says:

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there's despair in life, let me bring hope
Where there is darkness, only light
And where there's sadness, ever joy.

May that centuries-old prayer continue to be a guiding light for all of us. May we continue to bring Jesus's message of peace, joy, hope, and love to a hurting world. And we can't do this by ourselves. So my friends, let us be intentional together. Amen.

“A Strange Dream” 

December 21, 2025
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

In some ways it seems ironic that we are lighting the candle of peace on this fourth Sunday of Advent. For so many of us, peace is the last thing that's on our minds. And I know I've been guilty of starting my Christmas shopping around this day of the month, thanking my lucky stars for Amazon Prime and living with a whole lot of unnecessary chaos! But this year, I have a fiancée who likes to plan ahead. And in fact, we have all our Christmas presents bought and wrapped. She actually said to me the other day, “doesn’t it help you take care of yourself more because all your Christmas shopping is done?” And I said to her, “yeah, I suppose you were right, dear. It’s good that we started our Christmas shopping in October, like you said.”

But the reality is that far beyond Christmas shopping, which causes stress, there are so many things in this world that are not peaceful. Some of us dread family gatherings because some people might get a little bit too political at the dinner table, or because of the reality of war around the world.

And in fact, both of today's scriptures deal in some way or the other with peace in spite of the chaos that we may experience in our society or in the world. Today I want to talk about the fact that peace comes when we take a breath, take a moment, and say yes.

As we prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ this week, the act of saying yes seems very appropriate. I'm going to focus mostly on the gospel text for today because a lot has been going through my head about dreams: what they mean, what they tell us, and what they might challenge us to do.

A year or so ago, I started a sermon by telling you about a dream that I had where God told me that I was going to have a baby sister and a new puppy. Only one of those two things turned out to be true, but God has a funny way sometimes of making you pay attention. I feel like if God had only said something about the baby sister, I would have thought the whole thing was hogwash.

I wonder about what Joseph might have been thinking as he lay his head on the bed. I wonder what Joseph might've been thinking about as he lay his head down to go to bed the night before God came to him in that dream. I wonder how worried he was. I wonder if other people around him were trying to convince him to leave Mary. If he had been such a righteous person, if he had been such a loyal partner, why did he find himself in this situation? It's truly a chaotic time and certainly not an easy time to be Joseph. Even in the midst of what might've been a very humiliating time for him, he still was, as the text says, unwilling to expose her to public disgrace and planned to divorce her quietly. The commentator Eugene park reminds his readers that common practice back then revolved around a very public shaming, and points out that despite believing his betrothed had been unfaithful, he grappled with his emotions and ultimately decided against imposing the severe legal punishments for adultery, choosing instead to act with compassion and mercy. Even in the midst of an unfathomable emotional rollercoaster for Joseph, he still didn't want Mary to be vilified by their community.

So it's pretty obvious he needs some assurance, and probably a darn good explanation. An angel appears in a dream and says, “Joseph, don't be afraid. This is all part of the plan.”

The young virgin becomes pregnant and bears a son who they're supposed to call Emmanuel, which means God with us. After Joseph wakes up, he does as the angel says, and he decides to get married to Mary anyway, even in the midst of all this. As Steve Garnaas-Holmes said in the poem that we just watched a little while ago, “Joseph was ready to say no, and he said yes.”

Sometimes we're called to rest in uncertainty, realizing that God may still be active through all of the things we're dealing with, through all of our anxieties and insecurities, through all of the ways that the world feels like it's falling apart. God is still at work in spite of, and maybe even because of these things. God came to be with us through human flesh to restore the world to better relationship with one another and with God.

Today, we have the opportunity to prepare our hearts to accept that gift. So maybe it's not so ironic after all that the fourth candle we're lighting is the peace candle, because maybe peace is what we need most of all. Whether that peace comes from being a part of God's strange and complicated plan to restore relationships in the world, to reconcile with others after disagreements, to let our guards down and let the Holy Spirit enter into a difficult situation in our lives.

In his book The Universal Christ, American Franciscan priest and writer on spirituality Richard Rohr says it this way: “God hides in the depths and is not seen as long as we stay on the surface of anything–even the depths of our sins”.

What have Joseph had “stayed on the surface?” What if Joseph had dismissed the angel’s message? I can’t say that I would’ve reacted like Joseph did if the stakes had been similarly high.

Marcia McFee goes on to say that, just as childbirth comes with pain, our spiritual rebirth with Christ may involve fear and struggle. However, like Joseph, we are encouraged to "not be afraid," as true blessings often come when we open ourselves to new solutions for our greatest challenges. Some of us may receive a visitation from an angel of God, helping us prepare for something, but it's not that easy for most of us. Instead, we have the opportunity to do what Joseph did: say yes to God in the midst of this strange time.

Because it’s not just about what Joseph did. Because Joseph did what he did, the incarnation of more love and compassion came to a world of need. And we have our own work to do in our time and place.

As I say this, I think of our first Advent together, three years ago. I have heard variations on the same story throughout the time I've been with you, that you as a congregation needed a leader who would love you and give you strong direction into your future.In a similar way, I needed a church who would accept the ways that I wasn't always polished and sometimes fairly green, and the different accommodations I needed to be successful. But it's because we said yes to each other that we've been able to do some incredible work together, and I can't wait for all of the incredible work that is to come. Because what I've learned in my life is that saying yes to God doesn't come when we are ready for it or when it's convenient.

But the opportunity to say yes to God can bring us out of our uncertainty and into better relationships and deeper growth. So as you prepare to welcome Christ into the world this week, I invite you to think about how God has come to you in the chaos. What might God be preparing your heart for this holiday season? What message might God be giving you to pay deeper attention to?

You are faithful and strong people. You are people who will offer a hand of reconciliation, offer a heart of hopefulness, and offer the gift of grace. So together, let's find peace within the messy parts of our lives as we prepare to welcome a child whose presence brings us into deeper love.Let’s ensure that the call God gives us means something—let’s allow it to guide us in being part of Jesus’ arrival into the world, serving as his hands and feet.
May it be so for me, and may it be so for you, and may it be so for us all.

Amen.
 

“What to Expect When You’re Expecting…Jesus”

December 14, 2025
Sermon for U-CC Waupun
Advent 3A

When my parents were expecting my sister, I remember seeing the book What to Expect When You're Expecting on my mom's bedside table. Every so often I would catch her reading it to talk about the symptoms that she was having and the various things that she was, wondering about and dealing with during that time, especially after a fairly traumatic birth experience having me. That book has been helpful to many expecting parents to give a glimpse into the entire pregnancy journey from conception to postpartum.

Of course, Jesus was no ordinary baby, because in addition to all of the regular pregnancy symptoms Mary might've had (which are never recounted in any of the biblical narrative) Mary understands deeply that she has been given a special mission and that her son will fulfill many of God's promises, which have been prophesied throughout the book of Isaiah and the book of Acts. And many other places. I actually really struggle with the lyrics of the song, “Mary, Did You Know” Because although it's a beautiful song in a musical sense, it's completely theologically inaccurate because the gospel of Luke reminds us that Mary actually did know what God was doing through her and through her son.

That's what you expect when you are expecting Jesus, the incarnation of the Holy in human flesh. That's part of why I wanted to share my friend Richard Bruxvoort Colligan’s song, “This World is Pregnant with God”, as we prepared for the sermon today. In the thematic materials for this week from our worship series, Marcia McFee is reminding us that, just like Mary was expecting the birth of her son in her famous Magnificat, which was just read for us, we are experiencing a new kind of justice and joy that is all part of who Jesus will be and what his birth symbolizes.

So today I want to talk about what we can expect as modern followers of the way of Jesus and what his birth actually means for us year after year. Expecting Jesus means expecting a radical reversal of the world’s systems—and participating in that reversal ourselves.

Both of these texts look at this through different angles. It’s important to note that even as the book of Isaiah was not necessarily written with Jesus himself in mind, it was written with the idea that somebody would come to utterly change the world and provide much needed liberation to those in the deepest need of it. This was a fearful time for so many, as is referenced in the first few verses of today's Isaiah reading.Verse 4 says,

“Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
   “Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God.”

There are lots of layers to the Isaiah passage that I won't get into today, and there are also some complicated disability references that I've written about on my blog if you're interested in that. The one-sentence version of that blog is that these images of ‘the blind seeing’ and ‘the lame leaping’ were never meant to imply that disabled bodies need fixing to be loved by God. Instead, they signal a world where every barrier to flourishing—political, social, environmental—is removed. The commentator Corrine Carvalho
reminds us that they arise from the real bodily violence and communal trauma Israel endured during war and exile. The prophet uses blindness, lameness, and silence as metaphors for a whole city that has been devastated and deformed, and for generations carrying the wounds of intergenerational trauma as they dream of returning home.

Our passage from Isaiah ends by saying:

“everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
   they shall obtain joy and gladness,
   and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

Everything is going to change in a positive way for people who are grieving and hopeless and burdened by the state of the world.

And that's exactly what Mary is saying in the gospel text. Mary talks about God bringing down the powerful from their thrones and lifting up the lowly, feeding the hungry and sending the rich away empty, according to the promise he made to Mary's ancestors, to Abraham and to all of the descendants before him.The commentator Rolf Jacobson begins his commentary by saying,

“The so-called “Magnificat” […] is a radical protest song. The kind of song that the enslaved Israelites might have sung in Egypt. The kind of song you might have heard on the lips of the exiled Judeans in Babylon. The kind of song that has been sung by countless people of faith through the ages in resistance, in defiance of empires, slavers, terrorists, invaders, and the like.”

Mary would have understood Isaiah's prophecy at a pretty strong level, because people in a poor, precarious social location would have been waiting for just this moment. And somehow, God looks at this woman and says, “yep, she’s the one.” And then of course there’s the piece that Mary would likely been accused of cheating on Joseph, but we’re going to gloss over that!

So what can we do with that information in today's times? Where is our pregnancy preparation manual that sits at our bedside?

I would say this: those of us who believe in Jesus, those of us who believe that the way of Jesus can actually make a difference in the world today, can be part of the justice and joy that Jesus represents. As people who have heard and read this story year after year, we have the benefit of understanding what happened after Mary gave birth, and Jesus did indeed change the world.

But sometimes, simply remembering the fact that Jesus changed the world isn't enough, because it's clear that the world needs to change again. There is war and conflict at every turn. In this one of the richest countries on earth, there are people who don't have enough food, don't have a safe place to lay their heads, and are discriminated against because of who they are or what they believe.

A couple of weeks ago, our confirmation students, their faith partners, and some of their parents toured the new campus of REACH Waupun at the community center. And Jane, that organization's president, talked about the really good work that this organization is doing for youth and children in this area who might otherwise fall through the cracks after the school bell rings. Heather and Don Vanderkin talked about their experience of mentoring two of those children and what that's represented for them.

Jane also talked about the other after-school programs that REACH offers. These are the kinds of ways that people in Waupun are a part of the justice and joy that Jesus promises through his coming. The crux of Jesus's ministry offers liberation to those who have been oppressed by systems of greed and inequity.

In all of his ministry, Jesus emphasized the need to give hungry people something to eat and help children grow into the lives that they were created to live. And we saw that at work in the important community advocacy that Ritual Pond offered. We were also very privileged to give them some financial support from the Trick or Treat campaign that our Sunday school students did a couple of months ago.

These are concrete ways that we can be part of the incarnation of justice and joy right here in our own community. When I say that this world is pregnant with God, it's not just some strange metaphor, but rather it is a reminder to all of us that Jesus does not simply come for his own sake. Jesus comes to turn the world upside down to help people experience joy even in spite of the difficulties this world continues to face.

So what I want you to think about this week as we near the final week of Advent and prepare to welcome Christ into the world is this. How can you be a part of bringing Jesus's promise of justice and joy into the world? How can you make the world a better place, a more equitable place, a more justice-seeking place through the gifts you already have inside of you? How can the joy that is inside of your heart heal the systemic sin of the world? Because after all, radical transformation is what to expect when we're expecting Jesus. Like bringing any child into the world, the work will be far from easy. This week, choose one act of justice-seeking joy—write a card, mentor a student, call a neighbor, give encouragement to someone that life really can be better than it seems. I imagine this is the encouragement my mother might’ve needed, as she read the book at her bedside after a scary past birth experience.

But sharing that incredible energy of resilient joy won’t be easy. not without its complications. People will try to prevent us from sharing the joy that's in our hearts because it doesn't fit well with the status quo or it's inconvenient, but that's exactly the point. Jesus comes to turn the world upside down and make it better, but he can't do it all by himself. That's why he needs people like you.

Amen.
 

“Something New, Even Now”

November 30, 2025
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

For the last couple of months, I've been seeing a spiritual director. If you've never heard of that, at its most basic level it’s kind of like a therapist except more focused on a spiritual realm, understanding where God is present in the midst of the ebbs and flows of life. Though I continue seeing my therapist, I believe that this additional practice helps me be a better pastor for you. If you're interested in learning more about the practice of spiritual direction, I'd be happy to talk to you about my experience. No, I'm still fairly new to the practice. I can say that it's helping me be more mindful of how spirituality can be a part of my daily life.

In one of my recent sessions, I brought up how sometimes it's hard to find the sacredness of this time when there's so much preparation. Like many of you, I have been disillusioned by how commercialized this season has gotten. All of the distractions from Black Friday sales, family expectations, and finding “that perfect gift” can become emotionally draining. I told my spiritual director that I wanted to intentionally choose wonder in the midst of this busy time.

“How do you think you might do that?”, she asked.

We brainstormed a bit and I won't go too far into the details, but the conversation really helped me find some grounding that I'm going to continue to use throughout the season.

But the reason I told you about this today is because it seems to go along well with what our worship series designer, Marcia McFee, is up to in the first Sunday of our Advent series called “Reflecting the Sacred”. Throughout these next four weeks, we're going to look at how we can find bits of sacred joy in a season, which so often feels cluttered with stress. So today I'm going to talk about how we can reflect the sacred through little moments of joy in our lives and in our community

Today we start with the theme of Hope, inspired by lighting the candle of Hope. The song that we just heard in our media clip is a song that's very close to my heart, which is why I told the media team I would prepare the presentation on it today. Amy Grant hits the nail on the head when she talks about how the traffic, the shopping, and the stress feels overwhelming and pushes us to our breaking point.

But in our Romans text for today, which was paraphrased by Eugene Peterson for his The Message translation, Paul begins the passage by saying “ But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God”.

As you read the rest of that text, it's pretty clear that it sounds like a command. Joel B. Green notes stark comparisons Paul makes between being asleep and awake to what God is doing, among others. Paul says, “We can’t afford to waste a minute. Get out of bed and get dressed!” Susan Eastman adds that Paul’s words remind us during Advent that the divisions and conflicts in our churches and our world are signs of darkness, and he calls us to recognize them for what they are and seek God’s light.

Matthew’s Gospel shares a similar message in this passage from chapter 24: we don't know when Jesus is coming, so we need to stay vigilant in every situation. He says, “the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Some commentators talk about this moment as a small apocalypse. Perhaps that wording is a little dramatic, but it reminds us that the season of Advent is inherently countercultural, turning the expectations of the world on their heads. Both Paul and Jesus are saying the same thing: stay awake to what God is doing—not out of fear, but out of hope.

But it's important that we don't understand either of these texts as instilling fear into its readers or listeners, like if we don't pay attention now, the consequences will be dire. That's not the point. In fact, when these texts are used manipulatively or fearfully, they can do real harm. And even worse, that kind of theology, restricts the activity of God. It ignores the understanding that God is doing something new even now, even in the chaos of our present day.

Keeping awake is instead an invitation: notice the ways God enriches our lives through the people and experiences around us—those moments that fill us with beauty and awe.

I was reminded that the warning given by Paul and, the book of Romans and Jesus in the book of Matthew is, in fact, pastoral, and I think that's what Marcia McFee is trying to remind us as well. If we are “Reflecting the Sacred”, or as I said to my spiritual director, intentionally choosing wonder, then we already know the answer: don't ignore the sacred experiences around you, even as the news, or as society, might tempt us to do.

Of course, choosing wonder doesn’t mean ignoring the real pain of the world. Two members of the West Virginia National Guard were shot this weekend, and violence seems to win yet again. Even in moments when other people treat us with contempt rather than compassion. We can still find experiences of the sacred in spite of all this. One small moment of sacredness I experienced this weekend was finishing putting up Christmas decorations in my house with my fiancé, Raphi.  I'm so excited to share another holiday season with her this time as an engaged couple, because I so deeply love her. She takes great pride in adding to my collection of Christmas decorations, which we will eventually bring to a home that we share. She told me, “you may not have known that you needed more glitter in your life, but doesn't it look pretty?” And yes, I believe it does.

So my question for you is this: where are you going to find the sacred as you begin this time of preparation for the birth of Christ? Where are you going to find it in the church, and where are you going to find it in your life?

Last week while I was on vacation, our confirmation students visited members of our community, who live at the Christian Home, and we've gotten so much wonderful feedback from both the residents of the Christian Home, and our confidence that this experience was beautiful and sacred. Across generational divides were people who just wanted to experience community together. Even though older folks might talk about “kids these days”, and kids might talk about “boomers” in a negative context, for a few moments, all of those suppositions about each other were traded for genuine connection around shared values and interests.

That's what this journey is about, friends. Being on the lookout for experiences of the sacred. Find ways to slow down and be present to the people around you.  Find ways to experience the joy of Christmas even in the midst of the rush. The commercialism, the capitalism, the constant nagging of society to do things you know are not authentic to your life—don't let that bog you down. Because it's in moments like those where we lose our connection with the sacred, which is the whole point of this season.

So may you find ways to actually rejoice this season, because Emmanuel, god with us, is coming again to a hurting world in need of hope. And through the many gifts that all of you have, may you have the courage to be that hope in the ways that you can. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Sermon for U-CC Waupun

November 23, 2025
Rev. RaeAnn Beebe
 

So this is the last Sunday in the liturgical year.

The church calendar is different from the calendar that we all have hanging on our walls. We have another month and a half before a new year starts. In the church, it starts next Sunday with the season of Advent.

We've come a full circle. From hearing Mary's song about what this child she is carrying will be to the world when He is born. To the time of Jesus on the cross, His earthly life ending.

Hearing that passage from Luke this morning must have been a little jolting. That doesn't belong here, right? That belongs on Good Friday when we hear the story of Jesus on the cross. Not on this last Sunday of the church year.

On this Sunday before, we're going to be gathering with our family and our friends to celebrate Thanksgiving. What is it doing here on this Sunday? Well, traditionally in the church, this Sunday was called Christ the King Sunday. And if you listened closely, I mean, I didn't count, but how many times the word King was used in that passage? Which maybe is why it was chosen by the lectionary people for today.

But Christ the King Sunday was what was celebrated at one time. Over the years, that has been changed to the reign of Christ Sunday. I think part of it comes from the idea that, you know, we didn't know a whole lot about kings really.

Or that wasn't a part of our experience overall, right? We don't have kings in our country. We hear about kings in books. Or maybe there's kings in other countries.

But, you know, we're not all up on that. Well, maybe you are. I have friends who follow the royal family in England like they were relatives of theirs.

But for the most part, you know, we hear about kings. And, you know, they're just ruling over these people. And they're taking their land.

And they're doing all kinds of things. And that just didn't fit into our idea of Christ until Christ the King became the reign of Christ Sunday. But I got to thinking about that a little bit this year.

Now that I don't preach every Sunday, I don't get to get in that rhythm of building from one Sunday to the next. And I have no idea. I suppose I could have watched your worship services to see what Pastor Jacob has put out there.

But I did not do that. But I got thinking about what does this mean, this reign of Christ. Maybe because of the situation we find ourselves in today where there's so much disagreement on what or what isn't Christian belief.

Or what is or isn't proper Christian behavior. Or what or how Christians should think and feel and how that relates to us as citizens of the United States. And there's just so much out there that's confusing.

We don't all agree. And maybe we don't have to agree. But we don't.

There's big arguments about what that means. So in the context of all that, I began to wonder, what would the reign of Christ look like? If we really believed what we pray every Sunday, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. What would that look like? Believe it or not, this passage of the end of Jesus' life on earth is a great place to start thinking about that.

Jesus himself never proclaimed he was king. That came from others. But there as he's on the cross is a sign.

That sign that was in Greek letters, I-N-R-I. Actually, I think it's on my robe here somewhere as well. Jesus, king of the Jews.

Now that sign wasn't put up there because people didn't know that or didn't think that. It was put up there by Pilate, who was an agent of the Roman government, those who were oppressing the people of Jesus' day. And he put it up there not to say, oh, this is really the king.

He put it up there as a way of mocking Jesus, of making fun of that whole idea of Jesus being the king of the Jews. He's not sitting on a throne. His throne is the cross.

He's not wearing a crown. His crown is one of thorns. And he's there in the midst, in this whole public realm of people.

Many have gathered around that day. It was actually in some ways a form of entertainment, if you can not be kind of disgusted by that whole thought, right? The whole idea of crucifixion was public humiliation. It was a way of showing to people, stay in line or this could happen to you.

As it was happening to those two criminals that were side by side with Jesus, they had been judged to have done something wrong. And there they were. The king of the Jews.

A king? Really? This is not what anyone would have thought a king would be like. Jesus wasn't the kind of king anybody thought he would be. Not his own people who some thought he would come in with armies and take over and pass out the Romans.

Certainly the Romans didn't think this was any kind of king they had ever heard of or understood either. He acted nothing like an earthly king. Here he looks nothing like an earthly king.

But he never did. Because Jesus didn't show his authority and power with conquering armies and strength. He didn't govern over people, making them do his bidding or even asking them to show homage to him.

Jesus didn't do any of these things. His kingship was countercultural, different than what they thought it should be. Different maybe than what we think it should be as well.

And that's really what God him put to death. So in this passage, we begin to see this theme of what the realm of Christ might look like. Nothing that most would imagine.

Because you see these two criminals that were there next to Jesus represented those who were often overlooked by those who were in power and by the rest of the people around them, the rest of society. The one criminal, he had been sentenced to die for his crimes. We don't know what those crimes were.

But often it wasn't anything we would consider serious in our day and time. But he talks to Jesus and he says, you know, I am guilty of what they said I did. So today, you know, when you get to your kingdom, just remember me.

In a way he's asking for forgiveness or he's asking not to be overlooked. And you know what? Jesus sees him. He doesn't look past him.

He doesn't say, well, too bad for you. No, he offers forgiveness in that moment. Today you will be with me in paradise.

Think about Jesus's life and maybe the stories you remember from hearing in the Bible. Stories that you were taught as children, are you here, here on Sunday mornings. Those people that Jesus encountered throughout his life because that was the ministry of Jesus moving around all over the place.

We can't help but think about those healing stories. There are so many of them. Maybe you have a favorite.

But those times when someone's physical body was healed. We think of the lepers who came. Lepers who were just so segregated and isolated from the rest of their community because people were so afraid of getting what they had, of it being passed on.

Jesus heals them and restores them to community simply because they were no longer lepers. And then there's blind Bartimaeus who sat every day at the side of the road begging, maybe not begging for people to notice, but begging for people to throw him just a few coins. Jesus restores his sight so he no longer has to sit by the side of the road.

And then those who were possessed by demons, of course nobody wanted to be around them and Jesus cast them out. And then there's my favorite. That woman who has been suffering from bleeding for years.

She has no one, no community taking care of her. Again, these are things that are foreign to us, but she just reaches out, touching Jesus' robes. And she's healed and restored.

And then there's those stories of spiritual healing. Again, that woman who comes to the well just to get water, but that encounter with Jesus changes her life forever. A few weeks ago, the story of Zacchaeus, the gospel lesson.

Zacchaeus who was shunned because he was a tax collector. Maybe that one we can understand a little bit, but nobody wanted anything to do with him. But Jesus says, I'm coming to your house, and his life is changed.

Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee, comes to Jesus in the darkness of night because he didn't want anyone to know his life too is changed and transformed. Jesus noticed. He didn't overlook.

And then, of course, the story of the feeding of 5,000, taking care of the needs of the people that had gathered. People who were overlooked by everyone else. People who were deemed unworthy of love and care, community and compassion.

These are the people that Jesus noticed. These are the people that Jesus helped. Throughout his life, throughout his ministry on earth, he ministered to those who were most vulnerable, to those who had been cast out by others.

And their lives were changed, not because he forced anything on them, not because he said, do this and then I'll heal you, or go here and then I'll feed you. No, he saw them and he cared about them where they were at. And then that transformed their lives.

Richard Rohr, who has written many things, he has podcasts, and he's very inspirational. He's a brother in some, I didn't look up the religious order, I am sorry. But he summarizes it this way.

Jesus tried to change people by loving and healing them. His harshest words were reserved for those who perpetrated systems of inequality and oppression, and who through religion itself thought they were sinless and untouchable. To change people by loving and healing them.

That's what the reign of Christ looks like. Jesus' kingdom, God's kingdom, is one of grace and mercy. On the cross, Jesus granted mercy, not just to that criminal next to him, but to all of those who were there.

Remember when he says, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Even those who were hurting him.

He offered this mercy and grace. As followers of this King Jesus, we are called to participate in the reign on a daily basis. And that means freedom to speak on behalf of those who are marginalized.

To call out injustices that we see. To advocate for those left behind by those who are in power. I saw a meme on Facebook, and it was posted by Brian Zand, and he summarizes the reign of Christ this way.

Enemies? Love them. Violence? Renounce it. Money? Share it.

Foreigners? Welcome them. Sinners? Forgive them. That's the reign of Christ.

And so this morning, as we have gathered as a congregation, as a part of the universal church, as participants in the reign of Christ, I ask us to covenant together that we shall not rest until God's reign of righteousness and peace is realized on earth as it is in heaven. That we shall not seek the illusionary comfort of easy answers, but will do the hard work of seeing God's will with each new decision. That we shall not succumb to the false gospel of individualism, but shall pursue shalom, the hope of justice for all God's people, the common good.

That we shall not be seduced by the appeal of nationalism, but shall consider ourselves citizens of an order ruled by Christ, to whom belongs all honor and glory, authority and power. This is the reign of Christ, and we are all participants in it. You, me, all the churches in the area.

So let us be welcome participants to this reign of love that Christ has called us to. Amen.
 

“What is Right and What Is Easy”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun
November 16, 2025

Focus: God invites us to discern “what is right” for us to do in times like these. How can we understand what is ours to do as the world is so difficult and complicated?

The biggest question I asked myself when I was writing the sermon is this: when have I struggled to do the right thing?

I try to do things that are informed by my particular set of beliefs, ideologies, or faith perspective, but in these anxious times, sometimes discerning what is ours to do in a certain situation is incredibly difficult. And honestly, sometimes we don't want to admit when we've known what the right thing to do is, and yet have refused to do it.

So I want to start by giving you just a few moments to think about that question: when have you struggled to do the right thing? You can think about it in whatever way you want. If you feel like it, you can turn to a neighbor and talk to them, but you also might prefer to have a bit of alone time to think about this because it's kind of a vulnerable question. When have you struggled to do the right thing?

(Pause)
I myself can think of many situations where I've struggled to do the right thing. Sometimes I've found it difficult to say what needs to be said in a difficult ideological climate like we find ourselves in right now. Sometimes I've struggled to apologize to a friend when I know I've done something wrong. Sometimes I've just taken the “easy way out” in life, instead of doing the things that would make a meaningful difference and someone else's life or in the society I live in. Maybe some of you notice that in yourselves too.

But that's the reason why I found it important to focus on this text from 2 Thessalonians. I admit that it's a really weird text to be talking about in this time. You've probably noticed that this text seems to call out lazy people. And if there's one thing I know about you, you're not lazy people. You're very hard-working and passionate people. So don't take it exactly as it seems that the writer of second Thessalonians might have talked about here, but I do think it's important to offer you a little bit of context into what the people in Thessalonica were dealing with.

When we look at 2 Thessalonians, it’s important to remember that this was not a church full of people who were simply unwilling to work or contribute. They were not people living comfortable, middle-class lives with a nice 401K. Instead, they were a young, vulnerable Christian community living in a world where following Jesus put them at odds with the dominant culture, politics, economics, and religious expectations around them.

I know you've heard me talk about this dynamic before and of course you're going to hear me talk about it more during Advent when we talk about the audacity of an unwed teenage woman carrying the son of God.

But the trick here is to realize that they weren’t “doing nothing” because they didn’t care — they were struggling to know how to live faithfully when life felt out of control and the future felt uncertain.

Sometimes I wonder if we feel that too, in the world we live in today.

In the past few months in this country, we've seen a lot. People worrying about whether they're going to get enough food when SNAP benefits were suspended, people wondering about how on earth they're going to be able to afford health insurance. One of my friends, a single mother, could keep exactly the same coverage for just her for over $4,000 more a year than what she’s already paying. And here in this community, Terri Respalje, director of our food pantry, regularly discusses the difficulties people in our area face.

So the phrase in today’s passage that’s been rattling around in my brain all week has been this: “do not be weary in doing what is right.”

God invites us—calls us, even—to wake up when we feel apathetic, or when we ignore the suffering of others. God invites us to discern “what is right” for us to do in times like these. In a similar way, the writer of 2 Thessalonians, who may or may not be the apostle Paul (we don't entirely know), is telling people to avoid being irresponsible. The way I think about that in today's context is that the irresponsible people of the world are the ones who ignore the suffering that's right in front of them. I believe that God calls us to make a difference in a world, whether there are too many people becoming more wealthy off the backs of the poor and disenfranchised.

“But Pastor Jacob,” you might counter. “We’re a small church in a small town. How can we truly make a difference?”

If you’re feeling this way, I’d say, “friends, you already are.”

I had a lovely little moment at the Confirmation Retreat last weekend, when the students were asked to name one thing in this world that gives them hope.

One of our students piped up and named that they were changed by the experience of serving with other members of our church at the St. Katherine Drexel Shelter. Our student talked about how sitting with these people who have been down on their luck as they ate together was a sacred experience. If I asked any of you that question that the confirmation students had to answer, I bet you would have answers of your own from the work that we do in this church. I was talking to my dad once, who some of you know, and he was reflecting on how even though this is a small church in a small town, you are a small church that does big things. You have good hearts and important perspectives on what it means to struggle in the world.

So friends, I ask you, don't stop now.

It may not always be easy to do what God asks of us. In fact, sometimes it might be very difficult. Sometimes we might have to be bolder in our beliefs and stand for something that might make others uncomfortable. But we do these things because we understand that that's what God is calling us to do in times like these, when people are struggling and need a sense of hope. When people are wondering if there's any good news left for them. I think that through your actions, through the ways that your witness benefits are our community, you can be their answer. You can say to others in our community that you go to the church that sits with those down on their luck at a lunch table and learns from them, or finds people other Christians may has to decide or want to change, and welcome to them as they are, not how other people want them to be.

And I think one of the most important things we can do is to keep discerning what is right for the future of our miniatures. A couple weeks ago at our budget meeting, we presented a current situation of things going well, and also some much needed work in the next year that we’ll undertake on our building. The work that we do to our building is directly related in its own way to our work for justice; if we keep the building in good shape, we can use the rest of our resources for meaningful justice oriented work outside the building. Maybe we think about things like solar panels to lessen our impact on our environment, or becoming a WISE congregation that more intentionally supports better mental health in your community. There are so many meaningful ministries we can engage in.

So friends, do not be weary in doing what is right. You're doing so many good things already, and I know that these things are pleasing to God. May you continue to shine your light, even when age world seems hopeless. Amen. 
 

“Let the Sea & Everything In It Roar!”

Sermon for U-CC Waupun

November 9, 2025

Do you find yourselves wallowing in worry and negativeness? After all - Unfavorable headlines, impossible seeming government shutdowns, prices going up, daylight savings reminding of the weather changes  - all these things are intense right now.  Please stick with me here.  We shouldn’t be hard on ourselves if we find ourselves feeling anything negative right now.  I have a couple of stories to tell you about peace and kindness that got me out of wallowing and on to feeling the real joy.  

Let the sea and everything in it roar.  That is part of the Psalm we are looking today.  We just took an amazing trip where the sea did roar.  God was clearly at work, the Spirit kept showing up not only in beautiful nature but also by showing me examples of kindness and patience. I found joy in things I might never have noticed if I hadn’t been looking to the Spirit for guidance and inspiration.

So our trip started with a 8 ½ hour overnight flight with 7 hours of time difference between where we took off and where we landed. We were very impressed with a family just across the aisle from us and how well organized they were.  They were traveling with children 15 months and 3 months old.  They were so diligent about trying to keep the children comfortable and occupied.  I always feel for children who can’t understand the discomfort of pressure change on flights and parents who are so concerned about how to make their children comfortable.  After we landed, we learned a small part of this family’s story as we were waiting for the hotel shuttle to pick us up.  They were staying at the same hotel.  We chatted a bit as we waited and learned they are from Isreal. They were in Chicago to be with family for the birth of their daughter. They made the trip for reliable health care and family support. There is no current option to fly direct to Isreal from the United States. So they had to fly to Barcelona, stay the night and catch another flight the next day.  They had amazing dedication to take on this trip for the good of their young family.   They had a massive amount of luggage, 2 car seats, a double stroller and everything they needed for their 3 month trip and return to Israel a now 4 member family.  The shuttle parked the furthest away from where we were standing as possible.  We were wheeling our bags to the shuttle when we noticed their struggle.  I took our bags to the shuttle and John helped them get all of their things to the shuttle bus.  The mom needed to help get the stroller folded up  and the dad was holding the 15 month old.  I got to hold that precious little 3 month old bundle safely in the cool shuttle, while mom helped get everything organized and settled.  The parents told us how grateful they were for our help over and over during the shuttle ride.  We visited some more about their adventure on the 20 minute ride. We helped them get everything out and onto the luggage cart at the hotel and said goodbye wishing them well on the next leg of their journey.

This simple encounter has really made me stop and take note.  Realizing the struggle of their journey and how grateful they were for a simple act of kindness made me realize just how ridiculous my feeling sorry for myself over lack of sleep and cramped quarters was.  Our whole reason for arriving a day early was purely for making sure we arrived on time and were well rested before we boarded a ship where we were going to spend 14 days relaxing.  Their trip was so much more daunting and important.  They expressed gratitude for a simple act of kindness which made a few minutes of their journey a little less hectic.  I am so glad we were able to meet this family.  I am joyful that this opportunity changed my whole outlook.  This small event, likely changed my whole outlook towards others who might have otherwise frustrated me.  Understanding others might be struggling with things we have no idea about and practicing simple acts of human kindness is really important to our Christian values.  

So let me tell you another story about the people at the table next to us at dinner during our trip. We all ate at the same time at the same assigned table every night. The couple were either very well off or wanted us to believe that they were.  They had been traveling on cruise ships for well over a month when we met them.  They were of the opinion that their needs were to be met immediately.  It was almost like they didn’t realize there were other people around who might also have needs.  They were frustrated with the junior waiter, Jamo, who wasn’t getting their glasses of ice quickly enough for them.  Normally, I would have either totally ignored this couple or challenged them with a less than friendly conversation.  Because I was thinking about kindness and feeling such joy about all of the great experiences we had.  I took a different approach.  I just listened to them.  I let them talk.  It turned out that the husband had a lot of issues with food but was overall pretty mellow about most things.  The wife on the other hand had clearly been traveling too long and wanted to be home when there were 14 days left of their trip.  She never really got past that feeling, but just letting her talk about it seemed to help her.  Honestly, it didn’t ruin our trip.  It might have made me more grateful for all of the joy I was experiencing with all of the new experiences I was having.

As for the junior waiter Jamo, John and I set out to try make his life just touch better.  Jamo was really new and was clearly intimidated by the couple at the other table.  Although he worked very hard to meet their wants, he had other responsibilities and he was clearly stressed over the situation.  We tried to make Jamo’s nights better each night.  We greeted him warmly, asked him questions about his home country, talked about how his day was going.  John even teased him about what he did off the ship when we were at sea all day.  Maybe most importantly we smiled when he came to the table and thanked him for taking good care of us.  We always got a smile in return.  I like to believe that there was a little joy behind that smile because he recognized we were trying to show kindness.  Jamo clearly appreciated the friendly respectful interactions he had with us. He was very busy but always stopped by us an extra minute to interact.  Over time the interactions actually seemed to help Jamo’s confidence which in turn made him seem to relax and be more effective at his job.  He hugged us on the last night and we all wished each other well as we parted ways.  

I heard that the shortest distance between two people is a smile. Not sure where I heard this but I am sure it was Spirit related. I have a tendency to let my initial discomfort or frustration show easily.  I would never be good at poker.  I would give what they call a “tell” without even realizing it and lose everytime.  I need to be careful that my face and voice do not give away feelings before I have a chance to process them. Are you familiar with the saying “Don’t sweat the small stuff”? Well it takes me a beat to stop and think and realize that much of what initially bugs me is really “small stuff”.  I don’t know if that is true for anyone else, but I mention it in case anyone else needs to hear that it is okay to take a beat, stop a second, before reacting and decide if what happened is worth getting bent out of shape over.  Many times I realize there are a lot of little things I encounter that it is just better to let go. Others we encounter can use a smile, a have a good day, or a little grace when they do something that irritates us.  These simple things can really show our Christian beliefs.

Listen to the Psalm 98 one more time in a little different way.

Living Psalm 98 for November 9, Sam Houser

Sing a new song, O my soul—
not because the old songs have faded,
but because the world has cracked beneath them.
The seas rise in protest, the forests whisper in grief,
the nations rage and unravel, and even the sky mourns its own dimming.

We have worshiped convenience and called it blessing.
We have extracted life from the earth and named it progress.
We have crowned cruelty with policy and called it order.
Yet still—the Holy One breathes somewhere in the rubble.
Still—there is melody left in our lungs.

So sing a new song, not of triumph, but of truth.
Sing in the language of repair, in the rhythm of mercy,
in the trembling key of “we are not done yet.”
Sing when you pass a neighbor’s garden and see something green still growing.
Sing when you pour clean water into a glass.
Sing when you watch the sun slide across your kitchen table.
Sing when a child’s laughter interrupts your despair.
Sing when the news burns your throat and yet—you choose to show up anyway.
Sing when you recycle,
when you write your senator,
when you hold the hand of someone who’s grieving,
when you rest your weary body without apology.

Let the new song rise from the cracks of what was—
from composted dreams and broken systems,
from kindness too small to trend but large enough to heal.

The rivers still clap their hands, though slower now.
The mountains hum their low lament.
And somewhere between the weeping and the waiting,
the Holy One hums along—
a melody of becoming,
a harmony for the not-yet-healed.

So sing, beloved community, sing.
Not because the pain is gone,
but because the song is what keeps us human.
Because every note of justice,
every chord of tenderness,
every verse of courage
is God—
still composing through us.

We can be the hands and feet of God in the world.  Doing simple little things for others or showing gratitude when others do things for us that make our lives a little easier or even just a little sweeter. It makes our lives so much fuller to Shout triumphantly, be happy, rejoice and sing praise.  We can share the joy we experience because God has done wonderful things for us. Jesus showed us how many times when he did things like comforting a grieving widow, having dinner with sinners, and preaching to the Gentiles. Even if we do it in our little introverted, quieter ways.  Like smiling at that toddler on the plane who is crying because he can’t understand why his ears feel funny.  Like holding the door for the person behind you and saying you are welcome when they say thanks. Like being nice to the cashier at the checkout even when they are overtly showing how overwhelming their day has been. Like by finding common ground with someone who is clearly not on the same side of an issue before you forget you are a Christian and mentally call them really bad names.

The Spirit has showed me peace and joy over and over as I worked on what I am talking to you about today.  Not everyone on vacation is there to find joy.  John can attest to a couple of people who were determined to make every minute of their vacations a litany of everything they didn’t find perfect.  Even they could not steal the joy, There were so many others who appreciated every smile and pleasant word.  I believe if you smile at someone your odds are good they will smile back.  Not 100% but pretty close. Try it and see.

The passage we looked at in Luke today gives us hope by reminding us of the promise of salvation and resurrection.  God is God of the living because to God we are all living.  I bring this up because I think God expects things of those of us who are still living here.  We are expected to be the hands and feet here on earth.  We have a responsibility to show our Christian values and act on what the Spirit nudges us to take on.  So think about what the Spirit is reminding you of in your daily life.  For me it was letting Pastor Jacob know that I could fill in so he could be serving at Daycholah with the youth this week.  

Life, like my 14 days at sea is often full of a lot of smooth sailing.  But the seas do get ruff and at times it seems like when the seas are bad they will never end. When seas are ruff we just need to ride them out. Not alone, as when we are with God we are never alone. Try to recognize the people and things around you.  They are probably sent by God. Embrace those who the Spirit has sent to make the ride easier.  As Mister Rodgers taught us or our children “Look for the Helpers”.  If you aren’t finding what you need, Call the church, ask for help.  At the very least we can pray for you and there is power in prayer. When you are in smooth seas, watch the world around you and see where a little smile or bigger gesture can show your Christian values.  When you get a chance spend sometime watching nature, leaves falling, sun rising or setting, or even wondering at the inevitable snowflakes.  Nature can be inspiring.  After watching nothing but ocean all around us for 7 straight days and nights, I thank the Lord for giving me so much beauty.  This gave me a feeling of joy and energy to share my joy with others.  My mantra is inspired by Pslam 98 - Let the Sea and Everything in it Roar! May the Spirit roar in your lives as you live your journey with Christ.
 

“ Faith of Our Grandmothers”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

November 2, 2025

So the reason I titled this sermon, Faith of Our Grandmothers, is because of sort of a play on words. Some of us know the old hymn, Faith of Our Fathers. And as I was looking at the text for that hymn, as I prepared for this week's message, I asked myself what was missing from that text in my own experience.

On this All Saints Day, when we think about the faith of those who have served as examples to us in the ways we should live our faith and our lives. One of the first people who came to mind was my Grandma Nault, my dad's mom. I've talked a lot about my mom's mom, the sassy Southern woman from North Carolina, but not quite as much about my Grandma Nault, whose name was Lorraine.

My Grandma Nault was a devout Catholic for pretty much all of her life. Every time the church had the lights on, she was there. And she was even there at times that the church didn't have the lights on. In the Catholic tradition, there is usually at least one person in the building at all times praying for the community of faith, for local and national leaders, and for the world. Every Thursday, my Grandma Nault would go and pray for an hour, sometimes in the middle of the night if that was needed, in order to ensure that the spirit of prayer was unceasing at St. Margaret Mary Parish.

But that didn’t mean her faith was always easy for her children to live with. If you asked my dad, he would tell you gleefully about how he attended mass as a high school student just enough to get a bulletin, and then he would sneak out the back, get in the car, and drive around for just long enough that he knew that mass was over. And then he would purposefully take the wrong way home so it would appear that he was coming back from the church. Because to my dad and to some other people in my family, the rituals of the Catholic mass did not ring true to them.

But for my grandma, the story was different.

My grandma was deeply moved by the rituals of the Catholic tradition, and she was also moved by the social justice principles of the Catholic church, specifically the Catholic church's understanding that Jesus had  what’s called “a preferential option for the poor.” That's basically theological jargon for this understanding that Jesus cared deeply and specifically about the situation of the poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed. I learned a lot from my grandma, and one of the things that I have learned about my own faith is to live it out with gusto, live it out with joy, live it out with an earnest desire to act in the ways that God might want me to act, continually discerning where I believe God is leading me in my life.

Though I didn't always believe what grandma believed, (my political ideology is very different, for example), I've always been able to understand her as a model for my own faith.

As devout a Catholic as my grandma was, I think that she would resonate deeply with the beatitudes, or as many people know them, the sermon on the mount. These teachings of Jesus are in all of the gospels, but Luke’s rendering of these teachings has a pretty significant feature that I want to bring forth today.

First, I will talk about the part most of us think of when we think about the beatitudes. We're pretty familiar with the part of the text where Jesus says, “blessed are you if you're poor, if you're hungry, if you’re weeping. Good things are coming your way.” these teachings are mostly carried over in other renderings of this popular sermon. And as I think about this particular part of the text, I'm drawn to contextualize it to today's moment. I wonder if Jesus might be saying to us today, “Blessed are you when your food assistance benefits might be taken away on account of the greed of capitalism, for you will be filled with hearts of justice for all people.” Or maybe, “blessed are you when you are discriminated against because of things about yourself that you can't control, for God calls you beloved just as you are.” (It's kind of fun writing your own beatitudes. You should try it!)

But then we start getting into less familiar territory, where Luke starts to flip the script.

In Luke's telling of these teachings, Jesus makes a notable rhetorical shift: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. […] “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.”

The gospel of Luke suggests that there's a pretty strong dichotomy between the poor and the rich, and that probably was true even more so in biblical times as it is today. But even if we don't have much in the way of material resources, I still think this shift can be convicting to us, because we can still find ourselves in places of privilege, whether we consciously realize it or not. Those of us who are men benefit from a patriarchal society. Those of us who are white don't have to worry about racial discrimination in this country. Those of us who are in heterosexual relationships don't have to worry about our marriage is being delegitimized by the Supreme Court. Those of us who are “temporarily abled” or neurotypical don't have to think in the same way about building accessibility, or whether our mental health will be stigmatized.

But to live out our faith with integrity, we must also be willing to be concerned about the things that God is concerned about. I think God is concerned about people whose lives and livelihoods are at stake, especially right now.

I don't think God cares too much about our assessments about who's going to heaven and who isn’t. That's for God to figure out, thank goodness. I don't think God cares too much about the nice things we have if they don't somehow bring glory to God. I don't think that God is interested in us having all the answers to questions of faith, because we know things will be revealed when we meet God in the next life.

But I think All Saints Day serves as a reminder of all of that. All Saints Day gives us both the blessing and the responsibility of giving thanks for those who have run the race before us, and what their faith has taught us.

I know that, in spite of our differences in beliefs, my Grandma Nault taught me how to live my faith authentically. And this week, I wonder: who has done that for you?

You are all faithful people. It's so clear to me. But surely none of us got there on our own. Everybody had somebody to teach them the ways of faith. So this week I invite you to think about who those people were for you and how you can be that person for somebody else. Some of us have already taken on the call to help the youth of this church by being Sunday school teachers, or faith partners to our confirmation students. Others share their presence in ways that may not be quite as visibly obvious, but is still important.

As we just heard, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young begin their song “Teach Your Children” with these words:

You, who are on the road
Must have a code
That you can live by

They continue by saying that we should feed our children (and our parents) on our dreams. “The one they pick’s the one you’ll know by.”

This All Saint’s Day, we have an opportunity to build a similar legacy.

When I think of the people in this faith community who have finished their earthly life within the last year, I think about how each of them left their own legacy on their families, on their children, on their friends, and on other people around them. Their faith helps us live our faith.

So may you go this week with the reminder that you are a beloved child of God, and that when you have finished running the race, your legacy will somehow help others live their own faith. May that sacred responsibility impact how you continue your faith journey. Thanks be to God. Amen. 
 

“Leaning On God’s Strength”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

October 26, 2025
Psalm 84: 1-7, 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

I love working with this year's confirmation class. We have six students who each have a faith partner, who serves as a mentor of sorts for the student on the journey. This week we finished our conversation on the Trinity and started a conversation about heaven, hell, and salvation. We told the students that there are a wide variety of beliefs about whether heaven and hell are literal places, and how (or if) we know who goes to heaven. We talked about how we rely on God for strength in difficult times, which parallels quite well to what will be discussing in our texts for today.

Now, I have to let you in on a little game that I'm playing with the confirmands. I heard this done by a colleague once and I knew I just had to try it. I asked each of the six confirmands to give me one random word that I had to try to integrate into the context of the sermon. They didn't know anything about what I'm preaching on today, and I hadn't started the sermon yet. There are six students, so you might hear some strange words that you wouldn't expect to hear in a sermon! (One pastor colleague on Disabilities Ministries said to me, “you’re gonna regret this.” And let me say that I won’t be doing this again for awhile, but it’s a fun little experiment!)

But I also want to tell you that the discussions that we have every two weeks when we meet assure me over and over that as long as these young people are running the world in the future, I think we're going to be just fine. 
Today, both of our texts center around God strength, and how God cares for us. In and of itself, that topic may not seem that interesting or revolutionary, but I learned a lot this week from our confirmation students about what it means to find our beliefs in God. I then thought about how relying on God strength in times such as these allow us to trust God, even when times are hard.

We’ll start with Psalm 84. I'm struck by what my study Bible reminds us about Psalm 84 saying that “there is a place in the temple of worship for every living being from small birds to royalty.” God offers all of us safety, comfort, and belonging in God's house. This flies in the face of a lot of Christian rhetoric today, asserting that we have to believe the right things or act the right way in order to please God, in order to be worthy of being in God's house. So often the institutional church has used legalistic practices to deny people access to something that was never theirs to decide. This psalm reminds us that our souls have this deep longing for inclusion in God's realm and God's embrace, as the soul must exclaim rather dramatically:

My soul longs, indeed it faints,
   for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh sing for joy
   to the living God.

Sometimes I wonder if we ourselves might speak with the same kind of passion when we have been hurt by others in the church who have told us for one reason or the other that we don't belong and that we aren't good enough to belong.

When we have talked about belonging in confirmation class, our students have been keen to compare this to their own middle school and high school experiences. Not having the right clothes to fit in with the popular crowd, for example, wearing Firks (fake Birkenstock shoes) instead of real ones. But we believe in God that doesn't care about the superfluous kinds of where we try to put each other in boxes in our society. And that kind of love is surely supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

But what about when we're having the hardest times in our lives and maybe even reaching the end? Our second passage helps us with that.

In the book of 2 Timothy, Paul writes to his beloved son while he's in prison for sharing God's word. Just like Jesus was punished for the countercultural ways that he shared God new covenant, Paul, as one of Jesus's first disciples after his death, is experiencing those kinds of consequences as well. But the commentator from my study bible reminds us that Paul’s testimony isn’t about avoiding hardship—it’s about courage and calling. This frames Christian perseverance not as stoicism, but as purpose-filled endurance sustained by faith.  Paul says in verses 6-7: “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.”

We may not be this close to death like Paul, but Paul reminds us of the importance of keeping the legacy of faith alive and leaning on the ways that God has given a strength. Later in the passage, Paul talks about ways that his fellow humans have failed to come to his aid in times of trouble, but God never let him go.

But that leads to the big question: why does relying on God's strength matter if we're still going to go through difficult times?

The truth is that God never promises us in easy life. God tells us over and over that we might be persecuted for what we believe. (for example we are one of the most open-minded churches in town and that sometimes gets us in trouble as you're probably well aware.)

But when we do these things, when we practice our own discipleship through the difficult times, we are living in the spirit of Paul's testimony. We are fighting the good fight. We are doing what we believe is right in spite of the criticism we might receive.

I think we have the opportunity to exemplify that through our trick-or-treating for REACH Waupun that our Sunday school is doing this week—to get off our “buns” (which one of our confirmands likes to spell with a z for some reason) and stop lazily eating sun chips and carving pumpkins, and actually do some good in our community. We can show our community that there is hope even when it doesn't always feel like it.

(I think I got all their words!)

There are a couple things I want us to think about as we enter into a new week. There are many ways that we have relied on God's strength as times have been difficult for us. That's the first thing I want you to think about. How have you relied on God for strength in tough times?

The second is like it: how will you share that story with someone in need of it?

There are so many people who are struggling in this world right now. As I said earlier, our church’s work for our local community this week is one such example. But there are all sorts of reasons why people are struggling. As the government shut down, continues to go on, federal workers aren't getting paid and essential functions of our government aren't getting done. This makes the work that our local Food Pantry does, and the work of other community organizations, that much more important. If people we know and love, lose their SNAP benefits, for example, lots of people might start to feel like Paul felt when other people didn't come to his aid. But somehow God has always provided, and God always will.

Those are the kinds of things that we keep trying to instill on our confirmation students. They have incredible mentors, each of whom have important stories to share about how their own faith has been tested. I hope they will find opportunities to share them and help our students continue to grow and persevere in their faith.

Because the reality is that faith is always a journey, and the journey is rarely easy. So together let's find ways to not only rely on God, strength for ourselves, but tell the story of how God strength has changed our lives, and maybe even saved our lives. May it be so. Amen.

Justice is Coming…Don't Lose Heart

Sermon for U-CC Waupun
October 19, 2025

A couple weeks ago, a church member passed on a newspaper article to me that was called “Gatekeepers and National Traumas” by Peggy Noonan, whom some may recognize as Ronald Reagan's speechwriter. This article was written in the immediate aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting and talked about the comparison between that moment and when we learned about the shooting of John F. Kennedy. She begins by talking about the Zapruder film and why nobody ever saw it.

I won't get too deeply into the substance of the article, but there's one section that is deeply relevant. She says, “we are all gatekeepers now.” In other words, we have to protect ourselves and our children from the horrors of what's going on in the world.

Further, she says, “hold the line. In spite of what we are seeing all over, how inundated we feel about bad actions and bad indexes, you have to maintain faith in yourself and your neighbors. Gratitude for them too: they're under the same cultural and societal pressure you are and hanging in.” But that's exactly what I want to talk about today because so many of us are feeling the weight.

No matter who you voted for in the last presidential election and no matter how you feel about what's going on in our country right now, I think we can agree that most everyone is hurting for one reason or the other.

A lot of people turn to the church in times like this, or turn to pastors and spiritual leaders for their wisdom.

Truth be told, I am just as flummoxed as anybody else. If I could wave a magic wand and bring God in and make everything okay, I'm sure I'd be a very rich man. But alas, I have no such power. So the only thing I can really do is offer the assurance of the presence of God in the midst of the mess.

You may well ask the question: do we have any theological resources to get us through this time? And to that I would answer, yes, we do. Two of those theological resources are in today's texts. One from the prophet Jeremiah who we studied a couple weeks ago and another from Jesus as described in the Gospel of Luke.

In order to truly understand what Jeremiah is doing here we have to set the scene a little. The commentator Wil Gafney reminds us that Jeremiah speaks into a moment of utter devastation — the people of Judah have been conquered, exiled, and their social, political, and religious life in ruins. She compares this kind of devastation to what some people might’ve experienced in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor or the 9/11 attacks. Everything that they once knew was utterly devastated.

But God has not abandoned them. The “new covenant” promised here is God’s offer to re-start their relationship: God will write God’s teaching on their hearts, not tablets, so people can finally live faithfully from within. Importantly, it also offers forgiveness: past sins will be “forgotten,” opening the way to new life and renewed belonging.

Jeremiah says that the days are surely coming for that kind of renewal. But my weary heart is saying, “God, could you just hurry it up?” I don’t know if you feel the same way, but I feel like we’re living in a world I don’t recognize. For the last 10 years or so, we’ve been so divided against each other and I can’t imagine a way out of it.

But Jeremiah reminds us not to lose hope. He shares the words that God has given him to share with God’s people:

“I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.”

The reality is that none of this happens on our timeline. This can only be accomplished when those in power are receptive to advancing the ways of love and justice which are part of God's teachings, as well as the teachings of many other faith or moral traditions that our leaders might profess. Christians don't have the monopoly on these kinds of teachings, and one could make the argument that simply “knowing the Lord” doesn't automatically make a person more just or more loving. But in my view, knowing the Lord means understanding the heart of God and what God is most concerned about. I think God worries about how Gaza will rebuild itself, and if this ceasefire between Israel and Gaza will truly be the end of war between those two countries. I think God worries about how we in the United States continue to treat each other, and how our culture of division has fundamentally changed how we interact with one another. That's why what Peggy Noonan says is so important, the reminder that we are all dealing with a lot and we're all just doing the best we can.

But in spite of all this, Jesus reminds us in the gospel text, not to lose heart. He tells his disciples kind of a strange parable, where an unjust judge is worn down by a widow who consistently asks for justice. The judge eventually grants the request of the widow, and Jesus uses this as proof that the disciples should continue to be ceaseless in their work for justice.

And so should we.

Like Jesus, the best, and maybe the only message of grace that I can provide is that it's not over yet. No matter the suffering of the world, no matter the ways that we feel that our leaders fall short, no matter how long the government is shut down, no matter the countless ways we may feel powerless—Jesus reminds us that it's not over yet.

It’s as if he echoes the comfort that Jeremiah gives in the Old Testament: “The days are surely coming.” He would probably also be sympathetic to the words of Peggy Noonan: “hold the line.” “Maintain faith in yourself and your neighbors”.

There is still work to be done and some of it cannot be done by us. Some of it has to be done by our leaders. But that doesn't mean we're powerless, in fact, just the opposite.

We have the power, if we actively choose to exercise it, to change the culture of our society. To understand each other as neighbors and friends. To resist when power is misused for personal gain. To protest the culture of doom with where our money goes, with how we express our beliefs and morals, and who we elect to local, state, or federal leadership. And in the midst of it all, we do have resources for our own emotional and spiritual self-care. I see both a therapist and a spiritual director. I pray often for the people that I love and for the world we live in. I discover ways to find joy.

During my vacation, for example, there were a few moments that rekindled my hope in humanity. One of them was cheering on a friend of ours last Sunday as she ran the Chicago Marathon. Thousands of people cheered, not only for the individuals they were supporting, but for the runners in general, that they would keep moving forward, doing their best to meet their goals.

Even in small moments like that, I was reminded not to lose heart. This week I invite you to consider how you can still maintain hope and not lose heart. If you need a conversation partner to do that, I welcome the opportunity to work through it with you.

When I discovered about you, friends, is that you are people of possibility and perseverance. You don't give up easily. So do not lose heart. Have courage. Care for your neighbors. I remember that in spite of lots of reasons to think otherwise, we're all just doing the best we can. Amen. 
 

Sermon for U-CC Waupun
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7; Luke 17: 11-19

Access Sunday

October 5, 2025

As I was putting the finishing touches on the lyric video that you just saw, and as I was writing that song with my friend Maggie, I thought about the networks of support that I have in my own life.I have my faith in God, a loving fiancée, a supportive family, and a church community that encourages me to grow. Today I want to talk about the networks of support that we all have, which I think is an important thing to think about as we consider Access Sunday this year.

These networks of support are not things I take for granted, because not everybody is privileged to have such a wide support system. And sometimes even the support systems that disabled people do have don't always get them what they need, and thus the inequities of the world continue to hurt them. In addition to celebrating Access Sunday today, this is also World Communion Sunday in many churches, where we recognize that one of the most vital celebrations we have as Christians is to remember that the church extends far beyond our individual communities of faith or the buildings they worship in.The Jesus Movement extends beyond geographical location. It extends beyond race or gender identity or sexual orientation or disability or socioeconomic status. I talk a lot about being the hands and feet of God in this world, and honestly, both World Communion Sunday and Access Sunday are recognitions of that reality.

Like the song says, God needs us to live, both in the metaphorical and the literal sense. God needs us to live so that God's hope can continue to touch the lives of others and that the Jesus Movement may continue. That theme is present in both of the texts that Deanne just read for us, and today I want to talk about how our sources of support offer us the opportunity to be the best of ourselves and how all of that contributes to God's realm of peace, love, and justice.

In order to understand the need for these support networks, understanding at least a bit of the historical moment of the Prophet Jeremiah is important. In this passage, the prophet Jeremiah is speaking to Judeans who were forcibly relocated to Babylon. They’ve lost a lot—livelihoods, homes, maybe family members, a sense of agency. They wanted comfort from Jeremiah.

But Jeremiah doesn't offer that.

Jeremiah tells these exiles to basically make the best out of a terrible situation—build houses, plant gardens, have children, have families, or as the commentator Melissa Ramos puts it: “stop waiting and live”. That's not necessarily the message you want to hear if you're trying to get out of the situation you've found yourself in, but yet that is so often the reality for disabled people. We are instructed to make the best of it when our society is not built for us and maybe even built for our exclusion. We're instructed to pray for the success of our government when our government has for so long passed legislation that works to our detriment. So many disabled folks probably have a lot in common with the Babylonian exiles.

But lest we think there is no good news, the commentator Bobby Morris reminds us that God is with God’s people no matter what. “Thank God this is the case,” he says, especially when what is needed may be a full engine overhaul rather than just an oil change!”

Indeed, the systems that society have put in place to put people into boxes will probably need to be completely overhauled in order for everybody to have what they need, and if the current state of our country is any indication, it might get worse before it gets better.

In his commentary for The Bible and Disability, J. Blake Couy reminds his readers that two chapters later in in chapter 31, God doesn’t focus on making the blind see or making people able to walk. God changes the road—the system—by which they live and thrive.Instead of changing people's bodies, the text describes changing the environment so that disabilities don't make it harder.

Those are the kinds of ways that our systems need to expand their thinking. And that kind of work can only be accomplished when we have people willing to be advocates, to notice that something needs to change and to actually put in the work of making it happen.

So that was probably a lot, but let me bring this all together. If you get nothing else from the message today, let it be this. The connections that we have with one another, and the ways that we employ creativity to make a world more accessible not only help us as individuals thrive, but also helps our community thrive.

This might not look like how we expect. We might not experience large amounts of gratitude for the work we do to make the world more accessible. Even Jesus had to wrestle with that in today’s Gospel text. But that's never been the point. We do this work because we understand the assignment of what God expects of us: to love God with everything we have and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

In the last year, we've done a lot of work on our building, on what some people call the “physical plant”. Some of that work has simply been to sustain the structural integrity of the building, but some of that work has also been in trying to create more accessible and open hearted spaces. One of the property committee’s future projects is intentionally accessible parking that expands on what’s already available. We also had a conversation about environmental sustainability, and how all of that leads to better life for all people who visit this church.

There are so many ways that you have been a network of support for me since I've arrived, and I appreciate that more than I could ever say. And yet, far beyond patting ourselves on the back or resting on our laurels, I think this congregation understands that there is always more work to be done to create the kind of world that God wills.

So on this Access Sunday, on this World Communion Sunday, and every Sunday, how will we do our part so that we create a community of faith which leads to everybody's thriving? How will we do our part so that accessibility extends beyond ramps and accessible parking but in how we live out our mission?

And in doing so, how will we work together so that our networks of support remain strong?

I experience so much hope and joy in who you are and what you do. I also experience so much hope and joy in who we can become together with God's help. Because God needs us to live. God needs us to be God's hands and feet so that we always get closer and closer to the world that God wills. May we work toward a better, more accessible world, not just because it’s a nice idea, and not just because it might bring more people to our church, but because we are a stronger community when we are a more diverse community. May it be so. Amen.
 

“Be Encouraged”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

September 28, 2025

We've reached our final week in the Changemakers sermon series by Marsha McFee, which focuses on empowerment. She reminds us that “the world needs to change a lot” and that all of our various gifts can come together and empower community change, systemic change that no one person can do by themselves.

Of course we've seen that in the testimony Holly offered earlier about the work that ARYA Programs is doing in the greater Fond du Lac community and how we are empowering people in their sobriety journeys through that kind of work.

We also saw that earlier this summer when our three churches put together a mission project for our joint VBS programs to help the food pantry. From everything I observed in that experience, the kids were really excited to be able to help our local community through providing for some of their most basic needs. It's true that they would never know who received the boxes that they put together, but it was clear that they had a great deal of pride in the fact that all of that was done by them for the benefit of the community they lived in. These are the kinds of ways that a community can be empowered to make a positive change in a world so often siloed by ideological differences.

Today, I want to bring this worship series to a close by offering two main ideas. I’ll talk about the story of Bartimaeus and what it can teach us today, and then I’ll connect it to how we can be empowered to make change in our own ways.

It’s no secret how I feel about the healing narratives of the Bible because of the ways that they have been misused to hurt me and my disabled siblings in Christ. You’ve heard me talk a lot about this. Indeed, one of my favorite commentaries which specifically looks at the Bible from a disability perspective argues that the Gospel of Mark does a uniquely poor job of portraying disabled people. The Gospel of Mark is one of the places that makes a connection between disability and sin. The writer of the Gospel of Mark seems to assume that people with disabilities must have sinned somehow in their lives for this to happen to them. And their disabilities become a negative label on their identity.  He’s known in the heading of this story in most translations as “blind Bartimaeus”. Really? It would be like if someone were to call me “Fat Jacob!” (And all those delicious treats at coffee hour don’t do anything to slim me down…)

And Jesus appears to reinforce it by saying after healing Bartimaeus, “go, your faith has saved you.”

So the question becomes—why preach on the healing of Bartimaeus when talking about empowerment, or why preach on it at all?

But because so many people are deeply compelled by the image of Jesus as healer, avoiding preaching about these texts just because I find them problematic does you as a congregation no good. Sometimes preachers have to “wrestle a blessing” out of a text, and believe me I've wrestled this week. I almost gave in to my old habits of procrastinating writing my sermon until Saturday afternoon, but then I remembered that I wanted Saturday off so I decided to just deal with it.

So rather than dismissing it, I want to see if there’s still a word of encouragement here for us

The first thing that commentators are quick to point out is that Bartimaeus knows something about Jesus that is not necessarily apparent to everybody else. He greets Jesus by saying “Jesus, son of David, show me mercy.”

That greeting is very important because not everybody understands Jesus in that way. Bartimaeus isn’t just a man asking for help—he recognizes Jesus for who he is, calling him the Son of David, and he throws off his cloak to follow. That’s a powerful act of discipleship, showing that Bartimaeus understands Jesus even more clearly than many others.

There are lots of people who try to scold Bartimaeus but Jesus says, “no, call him forward.”Jesus says to him, “what do you want me to do for you?” Bartimaeus responds, “Master, I want to see.” The scripture says that Bartimaeus then regained his sight and “he began to follow Jesus on the way.”

It's tempting to look at this text simply as an object lesson—if your faith is strong enough, Jesus will do things for you and you'll find healing. whether that is physical or emotional or spiritual.

But there’s danger in that. I'm sure you and I both know plenty of people who long to be healed from their chronic pain or from the ways they’ve felt God didn't give them a fair shake. Even with the weight that these healing narratives hold for a lot of people, the problems of our modern day cannot be ignored.

So what does the story of Bartimaeus have to teach us today? This is what I’ve landed on: Jesus calls many people from the margins that many others would not want him to associate with and offers them the grace of forgiveness. It’s as if he says, “Be encouraged. The lies that people believe about you have no weight to me. The negativity people made you believe about yourself does not match what God thinks about you. And you know this, because your faith has been demonstrated through years of pain and prayer and perseverance.” 
Even though we have not received the healing of our physical ailments from Jesus, I'm quite sure that many of us in this room have received some evidence of God's grace, some way that Jesus lifted us up when we were in trouble or made a place for us when we were outcast.  That evidence of God's grace is what will empower us to follow in the way of Jesus, no matter the situations we find ourselves in. Jesus finds us, lifts us up, and empowers us to become makers of changeIt makes me remember the words of the old African-American spiritual: “I'm so glad Jesus lifted me. When I was in trouble, Jesus lifted me…glory, glory, hallelujah, Jesus lifted me.”

So the question I want you to think about this week is this: when in your life have you been found, encouraged, or empowered by Jesus? When has your spirit been liberated from the lies that others have said about you? What is the story you can tell others about how Jesus offered you grace that you could use to change the world and make it a better place?

The gospel of Mark and many other parts of the Bible do get it horribly wrong when it comes to disability, but that’s why I continue doing this work serving alongside my colleagues teaching congregations all over the country how to better understand not just the challenges of how disability is portrayed in biblical text, but also the gifts of grace that can come from that lived experience.

When I first met Holly, she spoke powerfully of the women and children she gets to work with, and help them be empowered on their journey toward new life.

And many of you have told me stories of how you felt Jesus bringing you through something difficult.

You have amazing gifts and many of you in this room have been through a lot, I know that all of you have stories you can use to change the world.

So as Marcia McFee reminds us, may we be empowered to make the world a better place through the changes we make, because Christ has met us where we are. Thanks be to God. Amen.
 

“Thinking Outside the Box”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

September 21, 2025

This week, Marcia McFee, our worship series writer, discusses Jesus’s creativity and how we can use it to be changemakers. At first glance, today’s scripture feels like a stretch of a connection, but I promise you that this works.

One of the best things about serving this congregation is knowing that the spirit of creativity is very much alive in who we are and how we do our ministries. We were the first to come up with the idea of a media service, for instance. One of my former pastors, Rev. Lynne Spencer-Smith actually came to this church during her call to a UCC church in in Iowa, when Mike Bausch was presenting his findings to other pastors and showing them what you all had figured out. She talked about how at that time churches hadn't truly embraced the use of any kind of media in worship and that this church was truly a trailblazer in that era. She was one of the first people I reached out to on the phone to share the news that I had accepted a call, the serve here, and immediately she asked me if this was the same church. The fact that this sort of innovative ministry was remembered by a pastor from Iowa over 20 years later is quite a story, and you can be proud of that.

When I was called to serve you and we were talking over my call agreement, there were lots of ways that the search committee and the church council were very helpful in being creative with me in terms of the kinds of disability accommodations I might need and the ways to make my office and other elements of the workplace accessible to me. Some of it was just basic human compassion, yes, but I genuinely felt seen and heard and respected as I prepared to come serve you.

These are just two little vignettes of how you have shown your creativity and to be honest I think we will need it going into the future. The ways we as Christians have done church for the last several decades are not always as relevant as the world has changed. Being able to reach people in different ways and in different places other than the church building will continue to be important. Embracing technology more broadly will continue to be important (and yet, I know that that idea is less than exciting for some people in this room). But today I'm going to highlight how Jesus reminds us to be creative, both in how we practice Christian faith and who we invite into that practice.

So how do we find that creativity rooted in the biblical story? I think that today’s gospel text gives us one example of how to do that out of many examples we could be using. So today I want to talk about how we can foster that creativity guided by the example of Jesus. I begin the sermon by showing you examples of how you already have it in you and that was very intentional because the need to think outside the box, to be creative, can be scary, but it's also necessary in order to change our perspective of what church can be into the future.

But first, let's set the scene. This story appears in various ways in all four of the gospels, but Luke's gospel is the only one that includes the detail of Jesus being invited to a Pharisees house for dinner. All of a sudden he has joined by an uninvited woman. We never find out her name or why she was there. She doesn't even get to speak. All of a sudden, here she is throwing herself into his presence, weeping, kissing his feet and wiping them with her hair. Um, ewww!

Naturally, Simon, the Pharisee, see what's happening. You can't un-see it. Even though she never speaks, and even though we never know her name, she commands attention because of the faith that she's so evidently has in Jesus. While it may seem gross to us, it’s a radical way of showing discipleship. The teachings and reality of Jesus are so compelling to her that she feels she must respond.

But clearly the Pharisee doesn’t understand that nuance. The commentator Michal Beth Dinkler reminds readers of her Working Preacher commentary that this is also the only gospel where the Pharisees objects “to himself” about what's going on. He doesn't say anything aloud, and he never rebukes the woman. He only says something to himself that feels to me like kind of a scoff: “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. He would know that she is a sinner.”

I’ll pause here and note what Gerald C. Liu says in his own commentary. I can’t summarize it any better, so I’ll just share it. He says, [quote]

“Fast-forwarding from Luke to thinking about worship inside churches today, how often are we also quick to judge what kinds of people belong in the house of God and how they should act? […] Whom do we picture as the ideal worshipper of Christ?”

To put it another way, I start every worship service here by saying, “no matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here.” That message could very easily be written off as a cool slogan of the United Church of Christ, but instead a deeper look at that might actually entail that we wrestle with the inescapable reality that God loves people we don't understand, or that God loves people who we think live an un-Christlike lifestyle.

It's like many of you have told me, when I talked with our confirmation candidates during this week's class about what stands out to them about what our church and our denomination believe, one of the first things that was said was that everyone's welcome. Let me say this loud and clear: our youth today want to be in a church where everyone belongs—regardless of race, socioeconomic status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other system by which the institutional church has excluded or demeaned people.
And I think Jesus knows this too. Before the Pharisee can even voice his own thoughts, Jesus says, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” Because somehow Jesus already knows what’s in Simon’s heart.

Jesus continues by telling a parable which I won't get into deeply, but the moral is all about forgiveness and mercy. He then brings it back together by saying (as the Message paraphrases it), “I came to your home; you provided no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair. You gave me no greeting, but from the time I arrived she hasn’t quit kissing my feet. You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume. Impressive, isn’t it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal.”

And here again, Jesus shows that he is the master of thinking outside the box, of being creative as to who he believes is welcome in the embrace of God's love. And that’s who he’s always been—he regularly ate with outcasts, challenged the powerful, and even prayed for God to forgive the people who tortured him. And he calls us to be creative thinkers in our own ways.

Just as this congregation has shown creativity with the creation of the media service, and the enthusiastic calling of your first visibly disabled pastor, we can also continue to show creativity in the ways that we think about what we do in the future. There are so many opportunities for amazing ministry around here. There are so many ways that you can help flip the script for others and teach them something. So may you go into this week looking for those opportunities. May you go into this week with hearts of creativity and hearts that work for justice. Amen.

 A Little Help Here, Please?
Sermon for Reunion Sunday 2025

September 14, 2025

To me, it seems like a “God thing” that we’re talking about collaboration on Reunion Sunday, the Sunday each year that we celebrate our church's identity and get ourselves excited about the new church year, after which we eat entirely too much food. One of the things that makes our church what it is, is the fact that people jump into help when we need it. When I ask several people to name what they believe the greatest strengths of our church are, that is absolutely one of them. When there's a need, people find ways to meet that need.

If any of this is sounding familiar so far, it's because I alluded to some of it last week in my sermon to start off the Changemakers series which we continue today. In my sermon last week, I ad-libbed a bit at the end and gave myself what I believe is the perfect segue for this week's message. I said, “each of us doing our own little things in our own little corners of the world can make a big impact.”

When I was putting the video together for our media song today, which is sung by one of my favorite artists, I was struck by the fact that many of the people Gabe Dixon listed in the song you just heard are people I didn't know. I didn't totally understand the accomplishments of someone like Wangarĩ Maathai, for example. I wasn't able to put all of this in her description of the video, but upon researching her, I learned that, before she died in 2011, she was a Kenyan environmentalist who made history as the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.

There are all sorts of others listed in that song who made lots of amazing contributions to the world. If you want to learn more, I would invite you to go home, look up the lyrics, and do a little bit of research on the litany of people Gabe Dixon includes in this song.

But in truth, we can identify with a lot of the people in this song in a sort of way. We have all played a part in making our church what it is today, and people from generations past or generations into the future may never know our names or what we contributed to this community of faith, but yet our legacy will be lasting. Each of us is doing our own little thing to make a difference in our church and in our community.

That's kind of how I feel about the text for this week as well. In this passage, we find Jesus sending 72 people out to proclaim the word of God in unfamiliar, and maybe unwelcoming, places. In verse two of the text, Jesus says, “The harvest is bigger than you can imagine, but there are few workers.” He continues by saying “I’m sending you out as lambs among wolves.”

Those are the two pieces that I feel drawn to speak to you about today. Surely you expected something more positive on its face, but I want to talk about how each of these verses align with our church’s mission.

By some people's definitions, we are a small church in a small town. We are often known for having different beliefs and theologies from our siblings in Christ in other churches in this town. We've made some decisions as a church family that would be considered by some to be controversial. In our own ways, we have acted on behalf of the marginalized and oppressed in our communities in ways other churches may not have been willing to do. But as Jesus reminded the 72 people he sent out, “the harvest is bigger than we can imagine”—meaning there's so much work to do to care for our community—“but there are a few workers”—meaning there are not always enough people to do the hard work, to get their hands dirty, to make the tough decisions.

But somehow, we as a church continue to do this. We help each other care for our community when we are confronted with justice issues. We do together what none of us could do by ourselves. Jesus even knew that we can't always do these things by ourselves; that's why he sent people out in pairs.

But that also means that we are sometimes “lambs among wolves”. I think many of us can identify at least one church we know of that wasn't as welcoming as we would want a church to be, whether around who they include or who they exclude. Many churches heavily restrict who is invited to the communion table, for example. Other people hold views that we vehemently disagree with, and use their platform to perpetuate, political, social, or religious violence. And honestly, sometimes it's exhausting to try to refute the kind of exclusionary rhetoric that we encounter from other churches and other people. Some people are going to do that by getting right out in front, doing protest marches in the lake. But most people probably aren't going to do that. If I know this church well enough, I know that most people in this community of faith are the more quiet kind of justice seekers and that's OK too. We need those just as often as we need the people with the bullhorns.

But what I want you to walk away with today is that no matter how we do it everybody has their own part to play. Everybody does their own little piece of the work. Like the ending lyric in “Bend the Curve”, “it's going to take more of us to do this work”. And because of who you are, friends, I am absolutely full of joy to be doing the work alongside you.

Our worship series, designer Marsha McFee was inspired in this particular part of the theme by an old proverb, which says, “if you want to go far, go together.” what if we used this Reunion Sunday as a kind of catalyst for the ways we want to grow the church and breathe new life into it for the next generation? The hard truth is that the institutional church as we know it will not survive by doing the same things we've always done. In fact, it may well die if we do the same things we've always done. But I don't believe this community of faith is content with sitting on its laurels. I believe that we know we were made to do more and that our impact on the community is going to be far deeper than that. But if we want that kind of impact it, it's going to take all of us doing our own little bits of the work. Of course, that will look different to different people, but there is always something more to be done.

So this week, may you be empowered and invigorated to do your own small task to make the world a better place, to make this church a better place for the next generation. On this Reunion Sunday, we give thanks for who we have been, who we are today, and who we might be with God's help. We ask God to guide us into the future, as Jesus guided his disciples and primed them for the work ahead. Friends, doing the work might require us to get our hands a little bit dirty. We might have to be a little bit bolder about how we share our beliefs out in the community (and that can't just come from a pastor). We might have to kick the dust off of our sandals every so often and go on our way because people don't agree with what we're doing or what we represent and that's OK. but we remember that we are called by God to do our part so that God's realm may come near among us. God's work requires everyone of us to do something. And we all have so much to offer the world. We can be people who bring hope and love where it's needed most. May we do this work together, and may we be changed people because we said yes. Amen.

“Cultivating Compassion When The World Doesn’t Change”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

September 7, 2025

Focus: In each of these Gospel readings, Jesus emphasizes compassion, not as a nice idea but as a way to offer practical care. God calls us to do the same.

I love working with our media team for a lot of reasons. We laugh and talk a lot about important issues and how to apply scripture to what's going on in the world. Sometimes we get off track and talk for a bit too long about hair colors or pets or kids or husbands. (This week I learned Deb’s hair dye is number five, whatever that means.)

But then I brought us to the text for this week and the wider theme for the next four weeks about what it means to be “changemakers”.

One of our media team members brought up a really important point. Some people are emotionally charged or even jaded by the word “change”. We always talk about how the church needs to change or how the world needs to change or how our perspectives need to change but yet a lot of the issues that still face us in the world today have been with us for years, decades even. Are we actually going to do something about it or are we resigned to waiting for “the other people who have done the wrong” to make the change, which doesn't always seem like it'll happen? There's still war going on around the world. There are still hungry children when lots of folks in this world have more money or resources than they'll ever need. There was another school shooting last week, this time in Minnesota, and it seems like every time something like that happens, we as a society don't learn anything. Laws stay the same. Mental health resources stay scarce. And so the cycle repeats.

Lest you think I'm a downer today, I actually do believe that today's scriptures have weight and can be instructive to us about how we live in this world today. These are two stories centering around people who were taught by society to be jaded because of what society taught them, but chose compassion instead. And even though we might ourselves be a bit jaded by the state of the world I think that we can use these two texts as a way to get ourselves out of the rut and think about things from a different perspective.

First, let's take the disciples, or as some cheeky biblical scholar once coined them, the “duh-sciples”. They’re called the “duh-sciples” because they so frequently miss the plot of what Jesus is trying to tell them to do. This is a prime example of them being rather cynical. Jesus gives them an instruction: give these people something to eat. Their immediate response is to say, “Should we go off and buy bread worth almost eight months’ pay and give it to them to eat?” Or in other words, “Are you telling us to go broke right now?”

But of course, Jesus doesn't give into that. He says to take a look and figure it out and sit people down. And that's what they did. They said people down—and I love this translation—“as if they were having a banquet”. I'm imagining that if this happened in this community, someone probably would've run to Kwik Trip or Dollar General for red Solo cups, cheap plastic silverware, off-brand sodas, maybe even some tartar sauce for the fish.

But no matter how ragtag this feast might look, somehow there was enough because Jesus made it enough.

The same is true with the story of the Good Samaritan. It's important to remember that Samaritan's did not have the best reputation in biblical times. According to my Westminster Study Bible, Samaritans didn’t interact much with Jews because they were written off as foreigners. Later in John’s gospel, “Samaritan” is even used almost like a slur, and the cold relationship between the Samaritans and other Jews is well documented. And yet, neither the priest nor the Levite, both Jews, would not stop to offer aid to a fellow Jew. It ends up being a Samaritan who renders the aid. Here Jesus is again flipping the script, challenging our assumptions about both what we can do for one another and what Jesus is most passionate about in his life and ministry. 
This is what I want you to walk away with today. In each of these Gospel readings, Jesus emphasizes compassion, not as a nice idea but as a way to offer practical care. God calls us to do the same.

When I was in my third year of seminary, I worked with a pastor who became a friend, the Rev. Wendy Bruner. She was an excellent preacher, a caring pastor, and an important conversation partner when I needed it most. Wendy always began her sermon with these words: “Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don't want it. What seems conceit, bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen. You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone.” That these words came from the poet Miller Williams.

But that's just it. We don't know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone. 5000 people were hungry and suddenly they were fed. A man was down on his luck and several people were too busy to help him, and it ended up being an unlikely angel who was willing to meet that need.

In both of these situations, people were able to overcome their jadedness and actually do something about the challenges that lay in front of them.

What would our world be like if we did the same? Would we be kinder people? Would there be as much injustice in the world? Would everyone finally be able to live and have enough?

The problem is that most of our society becomes apathetic. We say we can’t change the system alone, so nothing gets done. Meanwhile, children are still dying. People are still without homes. And we pretend, like in the song “Man in the Mirror”, that we don't see the needs right in front of us.

But this is what it means to be a changemaker. Because the rest of the world doesn't seem to want to resolve any of these problems, we—the church— are the ones people turn to because we're the ones who actually know how to cultivate hope and compassion and love. As the author of our worship series, Marcia McFee, reminds us: “As people of faith who want to make a difference, we must start with compassion: with connection, with seeing and “suffering with.”

You as a church do this so well. I can tell you that as a pastor who started my first call with you and has some different or unique challenges to bring to the table. I feel so incredibly grateful for all of the ways you've shown compassion to me in the sense of possibility you always cultivate. And you do this out in the community too with things like the summer bag lunch program and the other things our amazing Missions Committee does, to the Care Committee, which was something I was able to help reinvigorate with the help of some incredible folks, to the combined effort between three churches to help the Food Pantry during VBS. Yes, sometimes the world can be disappointing, but you are not jaded by the state of the world. You are not afraid to do hard work. I see so much heart in what you do and I am honored and privileged to tell people I serve among you as your pastor. Because these are not things I do. Most of it I have nothing to do with. This is how you work for love and justice.

So may you go forth this week thinking about how you can change the world with compassion. What are the glimmers of hope that you feel most called to give to the world? Yes, beloveds, there are many big problems, and no, we can't solve them on our own. But each of us doing our own little things to make the changes we want to see in the world can make a big impact. So do not be dismayed. Compassion truly can change the world. Amen.

“Lessons from a Fish Out of Water”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

August 31, 2025

During the first year of my education at Eden Theological Seminary, as part of my educational experience, I worked as an intern for a nonprofit organization in the area called the Institute for Peace and Justice. Their work mostly revolved around responding to various social justice issues in and around the St. Louis area and beyond. One of the most important things that I was tasked with was being part of weekly programs with women who had recently been incarcerated and were preparing to reenter society. These programs specifically centered around nonviolent conflict resolution and relationship skills, so they could reenter society with better emotional resources.

Before that time, I hadn't interacted much with people who were just coming out of prison. I was quite naive and even sheltered from those kinds of situations. When I told this story to my preaching colleague Chris in Beaver Dam, I compared the experience to being a “fish out of water.” But it was part of my educational experience to widen my perspective to the needs of those folks. The women I was sitting across the table with had committed all manner of crimes, and at first, I really didn't know how to interact with them in ways that both maintained their dignity and good boundaries. I was pretty nervous in my first interactions with them. But I learned very quickly that, in many ways, they wanted what all of us want: reconciliation with their families when there's been some distance. Another chance at making our way in the world when we've done wrong. The opportunity to offer forgiveness and also be forgiven. As part of this year-long internship, I was privileged to work with multiple groups of women preparing to reenter society through these programs.

Though it's been long enough that I don't remember their names, many of their stories will be forever inscribed in my heart. And I learned so much about our common humanity and caring for one another through those experiences.

Because the criminal justice system is such an important part of our city's economy, I would imagine several of you have stories which may be very similar to mine. Maybe you might have felt naive at some point or maybe not known how to be in relationship with someone in a situation like that. But I think our text from today offers some guidance on how we can love each other in this complicated world and how our own fish-out-of-water stories can be instructive for our faith journeys. One of the first things I love about this text is that it commands humility right away. The editors of the Westminster Study Bible remind its readers that the author of Hebrews (who is unknown) writes to encourage disheartened followers of Jesus who faced opposition, loss of possessions, and societal shame due to their faith. Because they know what it was like to suffer, this author tells them to use that experience to offer hospitality—tangible, practical care—to the last and the least.”  In verse 2, the text says, don't neglect to open up your homes to guests, because by doing this, some have been hosts to angels without knowing it. Not all of us are going to have the opportunity to open up our literal homes to strangers. But perhaps we, like me, might have the opportunity to open up the home of our hearts, because there's something we can learn from the beautiful, messed-up strangers that we encounter.

Because if we're honest with ourselves, none of our hands are clean either. That's why the text also says, “remember prisoners as if you were in prison with them and people who are mistreated as if you were in their place.” I reflected often with my internship supervisor about the judgments that I so often had to unlearn when working with these women. We talked often about the inhumane treatment of the prisoners in St. Louis, something that the commentator Madison N. Pierce echoes. In Biblical times, she says, prisoners endured extreme conditions like near-total darkness causing blindness, and restraints so severe they lost the ability to walk. The author of Hebrews urged the people to show deep empathy and hospitality to those incarcerated and mistreated, recognizing that their survival often depends on support from others.
Several of you who have told me stories of your work in the criminal justice system have reflected back to me how your own assumptions had to change. In a similar way to the criminal justice system, however, I’m sure many of you who are teachers or other public servants have had to “check your assumptions at the door”, remembering to show empathy and compassion.

After all, maybe some of you have experienced it yourself, being judged and mistreated because of things that you couldn't control or because of decisions you made in your life that some people thought were wrong. But this passage from the book of Hebrews reminds us that we must always love as we have been loved, because God loves all of us so deeply, even as so many of us have done things we regret in this life. And God doesn't write us off because of those things.

Indeed, the same God who loves you and me so deeply also loves people who have committed crimes or let somebody down in a real way that fractured relationships eroded trust and jaded someone's perspective of the world. So when I think about today's text from Hebrews, I remember what God calls us to do with our very lives. Verse 16 says, “don't forget to do good and to share what you have, because God is pleased with these kinds of sacrifices.” Remember that spiritual sacrifices probably would have been a revolutionary idea to many of the original audience of this book because sacrifices more often involved sacrificing an animal as a burnt offering. But we remember that, because of the life and way of Jesus, the old sacrifices and burnt offerings were no longer needed — as Hebrews says, ‘where there is forgiveness… there is no longer any offering for sin.’ Instead, we are called to live in goodness, to share what we have, and to resist judgment, because that is what our God desires.

The sacrifice of praise that Jesus desires is the fruit of our lips that confess his name. Said another way, a sacrifice of praise to Jesus is caring for the oppressed, speaking for the marginalized, and instead of a love of money, “living simply so others may simply live”, in the words of my Eden Seminary professor, Clint McCann. God doesn't care how much money we make or how righteous we are.

God cares only about what's in our hearts and the care that we have for one another. And yet it seems that so many people in this world forget that in our capitalistic society, we're told that we're successful only if we have a pile of money. But Jesus shows us another way — that our worth isn’t in what we earn, but in how we love.

This is the good news, my friends. There are so many opportunities to experience the grace of God through another person.There are so many ways we can learn from each other. We can turn our own fish-out-of-water experiences, the times we’ve been ignorant to the world’s suffering, into a renewed perspective that will not only help our faith grow, but help the realm of God become near among us.

As our media song says, we’re called to “do the right thing”—not just because it makes us feel good, but because there’s a higher calling. We are surrounded by others who suffer every day. The song reminds us not to become bitter by the state of the world, but to shine our light so the world becomes better through our words and actions. And I imagine the first followers of Jesus, the original audience of this text, may have remembered teachings of Jesus that we know well: “I was in prison and you visited me.” “I was hungry and you fed me.” “I come that you may have life to the fullest.”

And you already know how to embody these teachings. You are a creative, compassionate people with hearts of love for one another and grace aplenty for those who have fallen short of what they might expect of themselves.Because you have hearts like these, you can embody this call from the book of Hebrews so beautifully.

So together, let's continue to offer our lives as a sacrifice of praise to our God who will never let us go. Let’s continue to offer hope where there is hopelessness, and justice where there is injustice. And let’s do this not because it’s the right thing to do, but because we’ve been there ourselves. May being a “fish out of water” mobilize us to more fully embody our calling, and live in this world with hearts full of love. The next time you feel like a fish out of water might be the Spirit’s call to love more deeply and understand another person’s experience more fully. Thanks be to God. Amen.
 

 “Holy Work on a Day of Rest”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

August 24, 2025

Focus: Jesus reminds us that we all work on the Sabbath, and that it’s always a good time to share love and justice.

One of the funniest things I learned about this community when I first arrived is that almost nothing used to be open on Sunday; it was strange even to have a grocery store that you could go to on Sunday. There was practically a city moratorium on doing any meaningful work on Sunday. Maybe it's just a byproduct of small town America. Maybe people really just want to be with their families and have a day of rest whether they want to church or not. And I heard that when things finally did open up on Sundays, people had a lot to say about it! But while some businesses still close today, we all know the truth: even on the Sabbath, life keeps moving.

I'm not entirely sure why that struck me as so odd when I arrived. I guess it was because we could at least mow our lawns. But I guess what strikes me is that this kind of behavior was a by-product of a time when it was considered sacrilegious to so much as mow your lawn. But as it turns out, this kind of thought process is not unique to this area either. It's well understood that honoring the Sabbath during Biblical times meant that you didn't do a whole lot. 
That's why we have this situation here in our Gospel text for today. The leader of the synagogue says that there are rules as to when acts of ministry can be performed: “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured and not on the Sabbath day.” To relate to our present community, don’t go grocery shopping. Don't mow your lawn. Just rest.

But of course Jesus understands things differently. The Gospel of Luke does a really good job at pointing out all of the different ways that Jesus wants to turn over the social order and force people to understand things in a different way. The commentator Ira Brent Driggers reminds readers of his commentary that there is hardly an episode in Luke that does not point back to Jesus’ first articulation of his mission—also in a synagogue—in Luke 4: 18-19:

    “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
   because he has anointed me
       to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
   and recovery of sight to the blind,
       to set free those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Now, most of you have heard my preaching for long enough to know how I feel about the so-called healing narratives of Jesus presented in the Gospels. You know that the healing narratives can be tricky and even harmful to disabled people, because they point to Suppositions about disabled people that just aren't helpful. For example, that the disabled person or someone in their life must have sinned in order to have whatever disease they're being healed from. In today's text, Jesus even calls this woman's spinal disorder "bondage of Satan.” That language, to me, at least implicitly suggests some kind of moral failing, that this woman had allowed Satan to rule her life and thus God punished her with a spinal disorder. But the fact is that we know nothing about this woman. She wasn't given a voice in the text by Luke, the writer of the text. She didn't ask Jesus to rid her of this spinal disorder. Just like many other disabled people I know don't ask Jesus to rid them of their disabilities. He simply calls her over and essentially says, "Poof, your disease is gone." This is just another example of how the Bible does not treat people with disabilities very well.

I certainly can't ignore these kinds of belief systems, and I know that as a disabled pastor, I will be preaching on these kinds of things until the day I die. But that's not why I wanted to preach on this today. In fact, until I read the rest of the passage, I almost decided I didn't have the energy to preach yet again on another healing narrative. (I don't want to become a broken record about such things.)

But this is the larger point that I want to get across today: Jesus reminds us that everyone works on the Sabbath in some way, shape, or form, and that the time is always right to share love and justice.

My own concerns with today's text notwithstanding, the grace in today's text is that Jesus does not stop the work of liberation just because others ask him to or because the rules tell him to. Because for Jesus, the point is that the oppressed are still the oppressed on the Sabbath, and maybe even especially on the Sabbath. Jesus believes that those who preach about “the rules” are hypocrites because they don't want to acknowledge the suffering and difficulties that are right there in their own backyard. In fact, many of the forms of suffering that were highlighted in the Bible still exist today: food insecurity, poverty, discrimination of “the other”. Add to that the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, anti-immigration actions, racism, and intersecting oppressions which harm our world today. Many of us watch our country’s current situation with dread or even horror, regardless of who we voted for in the last presidential election, because by whatever definition, we still have many people who are oppressed.

Friends, Jesus set the example of doing holy work on the Sabbath. What if we did the same?

What if we did what we could do free others in the bondage of systems that were designed to lock them up, because of their socioeconomic status, for example? What if putting our faith into action meant that we might actually get our hands dirty?

In Rat Race, a group of strangers is chosen to compete in a wild cross-country race to claim a hidden stash of money. When the race begins, they’re told that “there are no rules,” meaning they can get to the prize however they choose. This sets the stage for the outrageous and chaotic journey that follows.

Maybe that analogy in itself is a bit of a stretch. Of course, our race isn’t for money or selfish gain—it’s for liberation and love. But the words “there are no rules” are what the media team and I were most drawn to. Because there shouldn't be “rules” to our ultimate goal as Christians, which should be liberation for all, and that no one is left out, and everyone has enough.

What might we do to make it so?

Terri from the Waupun Food Pantry told our group of ministers gathered on Wednesday that some folks in this area don’t even have access to clean underwear, and some of the other most basic necessities many of us take for granted. Instead of pitying people around us, our calling is to offer practical care. And it’s only right that we’re talking about needs like this on a Sunday—our holy day set apart—because we do our best to act with the mind and the spirit of Jesus. It is holy work. This is the justice we can do in the here and now.

So may you go forward this week, mindful of the ways you can help provide liberation to those in need. On the Sabbath, we rest by doing holy work. Not despite the fact that it’s Sunday, but because it’s Sunday. Thanks be to God. Amen.  

“Fire Can Be Good Sometimes”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

August 17, 2025

Focus statement: Even though the message of Jesus was divisive (we can’t deny that), the message of love that Jesus proclaimed was countercultural, revolutionary, and deeply needed. I believe the same is true with us.

Let me start by recognizing that this text is gnarly. It's not the kind of text that you would expect coming from Jesus, because so many of us know Jesus as someone who preaches a gospel of love, grace, understanding, and all of that. Jesus has always made it very clear what his message is and who it's for.

And yet here we are, with a passage where Jesus almost sounds unlike himself.

We're reading and studying about a Jesus who does not come to bring peace but division. In a way, it seems like division is the last thing we need in our country and in our world right now, because division is all over the news. We're divided along political lines, ideological viewpoints, religious convictions, and all sorts of other ways. So I can imagine why you might approach this text as I did, with some level of trepidation. You might say, “Is this just another example of Jacob getting a little too political? Did that conference fry his brain or make him come back with an axe to grind?”

My answer to that question would be, I hope not. I would like to think my brain is still mostly intact and I probably couldn’t even lift an axe, let alone grind one.

But I would also say that the message of Jesus is inherently political, as we think of what it meant for the day and time that it was preached, and also the day and time we live in now. I promise this sermon will get to a positive end. If you'll trust me, we'll drudge through this passage together to try to understand what Jesus was saying here.

The tone of this text is unavoidable. Jesus begins our passage today by saying, “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!” The Westminster Study Bible, which I now use, reminds its readers several times in its commentary on the Gospel of Luke that Jesus shared this message that was so strongly worded that it might have even been considered hyperbole. But it's also important to remember that much of this had been predicted. Remember Simeon, the man who was very old and died around the same time that Jesus was born, after holding Jesus for the first time? Simeon says in Luke 2: “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and [speaking to Mary] a sword will pierce your own soul, too. Metaphorically, Simeon might have been saying to Mary that her own son's ministry could break her heart, or her family's hearts. When the writers of the Bible talk about people leaving their own families for the sake of responding to the call of God, scholarly research tells us that they are being quite literal. Jared E. Alcántra, a preaching professor at Baylor University, notes that Jesus did not claim to have come to destroy families, but rather believed that division in families was inevitable because what he said was deeply unpopular.This division happens when people have different beliefs about Jesus being the Messiah, causing strong disagreements in families and sometimes leading to painful separations.

And all of us know all too well that our families sometimes disagree when it comes to matters of faith. Let's try a show of hands here. How many of you have at least one family member with whom you strongly disagree with on religious issues? (wait for hands to raise)

That question leads me to my next point. I can't tell you how many times I've been criticized for being a member of the United Church of Christ, whether as a pastor or before that. I can't tell you how many times I've been questioned for my more progressive belief system. When I was a seminary student and told my Uber driver I went to Eden Theological Seminary, he told me, "Oh boy, there's a whole lot of false teachings over there. You'd better be careful.” Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and I really didn't know how to respond at that moment! And to put it bluntly, I've heard similar criticisms from folks in this community who aren't connected to this church that they wouldn't come to our church because they don't believe in some of the things that we do, and that's okay. There are churches for those folks in this area.  I believe one of our greatest strengths as a church is how warmly we welcome people and our belief that the barriers which might prevent others from being included in faith communities are not so important to us. And let’s be honest—sometimes that welcome will set us apart. It might even cause friction with other churches in town. But that’s exactly the kind of division Jesus is talking about—not division for its own sake, but the sacred refining that comes when love refuses to be silenced.

When Jesus talks about casting fire on the earth, what if we thought about this fire not as a scary thing, but as a good thing?

Think about how a controlled burn clears away what is dead so new life can grow. Fire clears away dead plants and underbrush, letting sunlight in and helping trees get more nutrients to grow stronger and healthier. Maybe the fire Jesus brings burns away our prejudice, our fear, our tired ways of being church—so that something stronger, healthier, more Spirit-filled can rise up.

When Jesus is talking about casting fire on the earth, what if that fire comes from a desire to refine and reform the earth into what Jesus believes God wants it to be?

Even though the message of Jesus was divisive (we can’t deny that), the message of love that Jesus proclaimed was countercultural, revolutionary, and deeply needed. I believe the same is true with us.

I believe that Jesus is calling us to be bold with sharing our message of love and inclusion through scriptures like this. Even though it might be easy to read the tone of Jesus as angry or bitter—and I think there might be some truth to that—Jesus calls us instead to refine and reform the church into what God desires it to be for the future. We know that the ways of doing church that many of us have grown up with are changing drastically. But I think churches like ours have an opportunity to share a deep love with a community in need of it.

In this divided world, I think we have a job to do as more progressively minded Christians. I think part of our job is to show a different kind of church. A church where people are truly welcome as they are, not who others want them to be. And doing that kind of welcome takes risks. If we decided to be more bold in sharing our convictions, not everybody would like it. Our families and other people in the community might question us. But I also believe that there are so many gifts to be gained from deeper advocacy in the community, from a wider community presence, and each of us sharing our gifts in our own particular ways.

Today's media song starts off with these stirring lyrics: 
This is a song for those
Who lost their hope
A long, a long time ago
I know someday that you will find it somehow
The song talks about how when we have the courage to grow and when we confront the ways we've lost hope, we can embody the change in the world that we so desperately need.

Each of you has felt a sense of belonging here, and many of you have told me powerful and incredible stories about how that sense of belonging has been extended to you.

As you go forward this week, may you go forward with courage, thinking about the ways that you might refine your faith so that we can reform the church together. It's not going to be easy. In fact, it's going to be messy and it might challenge the relationships we have with others. But if we do everything we do in a spirit of love, with a heart for hopefulness, with a spirit of gratitude for what God has given us, there are so many ways that God can use us to create the change in the world that we want to experience. When we begin to live into the world God longs for, our spirits won’t just feel relief—they’ll be set ablaze with joy. That is the holy fire Jesus brings.

So yes—fire can be dangerous. It can be divisive. It can even be political. But in God’s hands, fire becomes creative, renewing, and life-giving. And that’s the fire Jesus sets in our hearts—a fire that refines, restores, and gives us courage to help a hurting world experience more love and hopefulness.

Let's get to work so that this may be so. Thanks be to God. Amen.

“Looking at the Bigger Picture”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

August 10, 2025

Focus: In both of these scriptures, we notice that while we only notice the reality that’s right in front of us, God invites us to “look at the bigger picture” to understand what God is already doing. Therefore, we must be ready for what God will do in and through us.

When my fiancé Raphi and I started dating, we knew each other very well. We’d known each other in some form or fashion for over 14 years. So, effectively we were able to bypass the “small talk” that typically accompanies dating.

But one thing I always knew would be true, no matter who I would spend my life with, was that I’m a lot. I worry constantly. I’m set in my ways at times, and I sometimes require extra assistance with things.

For instance, one issue I’ve always struggled with is that I can’t cut my nails. “Well,” she said, “I used to be a CNA so I have no problem cutting your nails.”

Also, most of you know I can’t drive. “Well,” she said, “I went into this relationship, knowing you can't drive. When we have kids or pets, we'll figure it out.”

What I’ve learned is this: I tend to see only the realities in front of me — like not being able to drive or cut my nails — while Raphi sees the bigger picture of who I am and what I bring to the relationship. She reminds me that we’re a team, and our mantra from the beginning has been “we’ll figure it out.” And we always have.

Sometimes, though, being part of a team means stepping up. She’ll say, “I’ve had a long week—can you make dinner?” I don’t consider myself a great cook, but I’m learning, and she’s gracious.

Perhaps this is a little bit of an odd sermon illustration but the way I think about it is this: Raphi helps me see more than just the realities in front of me, and she also asks me to be ready to do my part in the relationship also. I believe there are two parts to today's message, so I'll give you the two sentence summary right now and then trace it throughout the rest of the message.

The message is this: In both of these scriptures, we notice that while we only notice the reality that’s right in front of us, God invites us to “look at the bigger picture” to understand what God is already doing. Therefore, we must be ready for what God will do in and through us.

First, in the story of Abram in Genesis, Abram laments that he does not have any offspring to carry on his legacy after his death. He only has a male slave who would be his heir.   But God brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And that’s what happened.

The commentator John E. Anderson talks about how Abraham's questioning is a natural human response. Some people might consider it criticism of God, but Anderson considers it in a different way. He says instead that  this marks Abram as an example of faithfulness. “He is honest about things that do not make sense to him. Instead of silently stewing or letting concerns gnaw at his faith, he brings his complaint before God. … You don’t bring a problem to God if you don’t believe—trust—that God can do something about it.”

In a way that's almost how I feel with my relationship. Vulnerability and trust is extremely important in a relationship, and me being able to tell Raphi what I think are stumbling blocks in my own life allows her to give me encouragement, and I do the same for her. When I only see these nagging issues, Raphi understands the full scope of what our relationship means and what I bring to the table as her partner. I’m reminded that I’m appreciated and that I have a lot to offer.

But being in a long-term relationship also means that I’m going to be ready to support her and work with her as we make major life decisions. Planning a wedding, buying houses, raising kids—all of the things that come with sharing a life together. And we don't know when those things are going to come up. We just had to do some repairs on her car that we weren’t expecting, and even though we are doing the repairs, we know we’ll have to buy a car pretty soon.

Just as Raphi helps me see the fullness of my worth and personhood beyond my limitations, God helped Abram see beyond his present reality. Abram was surely not expecting God to have that response. Other commentators rightly pointed out that when Abram and Sarai are married, they laugh at the thought of having children of their old age. But because of their faith in God, they know to be ready for what God is already doing and will do in their lives if they only trust that God will be with them.

That's kind of what I think Jesus is talking about in today's gospel text. Jesus reminds us that we must always be ready to follow where God leads us.

Of course, Jesus begins with this sort of pastoral sensitivity, by saying, “don't be afraid, little flock,” and God does this as well with Abraham saying that he will have innumerable offspring, as much as the stars. That's a beautiful thought and surely filled him with awe. Jesus carries this same invitation forward — to look beyond what’s right in front of us and live ready for what God is doing.”

But it's not always so simple either. Sometimes, following the way of Jesus asks a lot of us. When Jesus says, “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit”, that's not always an easy proposition. Being ready to follow the will of Jesus at any time is tough work, and it surprises us at times.

I was talking to a couple of our committees about the ministry that they do. I talked to missions at a meeting about their experience last year at the Saint Catherine Drexel Shelter, and we had a meeting with our incoming confirmation class, their parents, and their faith partners. In each of those meetings, there was discussion about ways that our ministry among one another, and in our community were very rewarding, and it also taught us something we didn't expect to learn about the state of the world. Our assumptions about our own lives and the lives of others are challenged. Our assumption that we need to bring the heart of God to others is replaced by the notion that God is already there, and maybe we’re the ones that need to learn something. The faith journey of a younger person often challenges us to wrestle with questions of our own faith, and on and on.  

Like God did with Abram, God challenges our assumptions. And like Jesus, the people and experiences of our lives remind us to always be ready to see what God is doing, and how we can be part of it.

Raphi has helped me challenge my own assumptions of my capabilities, and has reassured me of the unconditional love she has for me. God is showing up in these ways through my relationship with my fiancé.

My question for you is this: how do you resonate with these two ideas, God challenging your assumptions about yourself, and Jesus asking you to be ready for service that will change your life?

If you're having trouble answering that question for yourself right now, think about it this way. We've just baptized a baby into this congregation. Her faith will be full of these moments, as will the faith of her parents. Ada will be challenged in the future to look at the bigger picture of what God is doing. Her assumptions about her own life, about society, or about the world she lives in will be challenged. She'll wonder if God can get her out of a predicament she's in. But that's why we as a congregation have a job to do to support her and her family. That's what Jesus is talking about when he says “be ready.” And doing this work can truly be a joy.

So my friends, may you see the bigger picture of how God is working in your life. May you be open to the ways God invites you to challenge your assumptions and notice what God is doing in you and through you. The bigger picture is God’s picture. Let’s be ready. And together with God, we’ll figure it out. Amen.

“That Feeling When…God Picks You Up”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

August 3, 2025
 

Like any other younger person I often find myself looking at funny memes on the internet, and I actually wanted to start by looking at some of those right now with you. This first one says, “that feeling you get when you win the argument”, and you see a picture of a cat looking pretty proud of itself.

And then you have this one that says, “that feeling you get when you fix something with one simple part that that could be potentially hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to repair.” And this cat looks pretty proud of itself. And then, finally, “that feeling when your exams are over”, and this cat is jumping around in dandelions.

I find it really funny that all of these memes include cats, because I really am not a cat person whatsoever. Anyone who’s had me over to your house who has cats can attest to that!

But the point is, these kinds of memes are designed to  be feelings that pretty much everybody can relate to, because we've all had experiences like this. We all have times in our lives when the’ve been worried about that final exam or that repair or that argument with someone you think is wrong. And I think that's also kind of true with what's going on in today's text in Psalm 107.

I didn't use all of it, because it's 40 verses, and I didn't want to make Jane read all of that. But at the same time, one of the reasons I love the Psalms so much is because the Psalms speak to the whole realm of the human experience in a way that some of the rest of the Bible doesn't always do. I think most people read the Psalms and can find themselves in them to some degree.

And when I look at Psalm 107, I find that to be true. The first verses of Psalm 107 say, “O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good, for God's steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”

So, the psalmist is appealing to the fact that everybody who knows God can say something about who God is and what God has done in their life. That's why I titled this sermon, “That Feeling When God Picks You Up”. The psalmist goes on to talk about people wandering in the desert, in these difficult places, whether literal or metaphorical. We're not entirely sure because some of the Bible is poetic, but it could very well be literal in this circumstance; a lot of the known world was desert, and these people are wandering without food and without the things needed for human life, and God rescues them. And then we have people who sit in darkness, whether physical or spiritual, we're not sure, but it certainly could be literal.Even the people who deny the will of God in some way, God brings them out of their darkness and despair and gloom, God breaks their bonds apart.

In each of these refrains in this psalm, the psalmist talks about a specific group of people or maybe a feeling that people have had, and the psalmist would have believed that pretty much everybody could relate to those feelings, kind of like those memes I showed you earlier, but everybody is able to praise God for what God has done in their lives.

Part of me wonders: if we could add to this psalm, if you could add to this psalm in your own life, what would you write? I might be tempted to talk about times where I have felt othered because of my disability and God has opened doors of community and connection and belonging for me.My mom might talk about how by the grace of God, she has beat cancer twice. Maybe for some of you, it was a person who came into your life at just the right moment or a job that you badly needed or a difficult life circumstance that you went through and God picked you up and found you in the situation that you were in and brought you out of it.

And remember, the Psalms were written to be sung. Isn't that the kind of love and the kind of deliverance that you would want to sing about? It's incredible stuff, really.

We are loved so deeply by a God who knows us so well and who knows the experiences of our lives so intensely that God wants to bring us out of those situations and give us peace and wholeness.

That's why I think this psalm, as long as it is and as much as it sometimes feels like it repeats itself, this is why I felt it was so important to talk about today. Because I think for as much as our faith can sometimes challenge us, for as much as our faith can lead us into wilderness times where we don't know where to turn that God finds us even in those moments and brings us out of despair and into life, into the amazing reality of community and connection, belonging and grace.

And lest we think that this is just something that makes us feel good, God reminds us that we have an opportunity to share that with others. Because Christianity as an institution has gotten a bad rap recently because of a lot of the divisive rhetoric that many Christian churches seem to peddle. That if you don't believe in a certain way, you're going to hell. Or if you don't vote for this certain political candidate, you're going to hell. Or you're not doing what God wants for you. Or if you believe you can be gay and Christian, you're not a true Christian. (I know I talk about this a lot, but there are people in Waupun who have said that out loud, and that really bruises people.)

But I don't really believe that God cares about any of that. What I believe God cares about is that we know that we are loved by God and that we praise God with everything we have after God has given so freely to us. And that I think is what Psalm 107 is trying to remind us.

The psalmist is trying to appeal to the reader’s or listener’s memory. Remember that bad situation you were in? And remember how God picked you up? And remember how God brought you out and brought you through? Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. He satisfies the thirsty and the hungry.

God fills with good things. And God's wonderful works to humankind are well known. Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, in the song earlier today, translated that as ever-present love. And the Hebrew word for that, as he reminded us, is chesed. And we have this beautiful opportunity to share it with others.

In his commentary for Working Preacher, one of my seminary professors, Clint McCann reminds us that while Psalm 107 is a thanksgiving psalm, it’s also a reflection on God's fundamental character, summarized by the word 'chesed,' which frames the psalm and features prominently within it. It calls for a response of wisdom, shown through dependence on God and gratitude for God’s chesed.

So as you go into this week, the question I want you to think about is, what kinds of things has God brought you out of? And how can you share that chesed—the story of that ever-present love—with somebody who might need to hear that message? The world is so deeply broken. We are bitterly divided. So many of us have observed our neighbors turning each other into enemies. There are things that we used to be able to talk about easily and now we can't anymore. There are relationships that have forever changed because of the climate we're now living in. And as much as we don't like to talk about politics in this church, I would say that those kinds of divisions have a lot to do with the reason why we are where we are.

But this week, I invite you to take a look at the ways that you can testify to the wonderful works that God has done for you and the ways that you have been brought out of your distress. Because you just might be the light that this world needs today.

May we do this with boldness. May we do this with courage. May we do this with the feeling that the world around us, the people around us depend on it. Because I think it does. So let's get to work. Amen.
 

What’s the Point of Prayer?

Sermon for U-CC Waupun
July 27, 2025

Focus: Jesus invites us to pray for those around us, for the world, and that God's hope will come to fruition.
Behavioral:

Prayer is a mysterious thing.

I’ve had lots of moments in my own life where it seemed that God was with me, and my prayers have been answered. A lot of people prayed for me when I was first born twelve weeks early at two pounds and eleven ounces, that I would survive and have a happy and meaningful life. And now you wouldn’t even know how much I struggled.

But a lot of folks I know have a tricky relationship with prayer.

I love what Steve Garnaas-Holmes says about God not being a vending machine, because that’s so often how people picture prayer. You ask God for what you want, profess your love for God, and voila.

But, of course, that’s not how God really operates. We’ve talked about lot about how being close to the heart of God means caring about things God cares about, and how prayer necessarily invites us into that discernment. 
One final example of this was when I was in a Pastoral Relations Committee meeting as sabbatical minister at First Congregational Church in Oshkosh. I asked, “would anyone like to pray for the group?” And this group of adults gave me the “deer in the headlights” look! I wonder sometimes if people think they don’t know how to pray.

Of course there is a teaching component in learning how to pray. We’ll talk today about how Jesus modeled prayer, and I did take a class in seminary which modeled writing and speaking different types of prayer. One of the lessons we’ve developed for confirmation this year focuses on how to pray. But as we look at today's scripture, which depicts the first time Jesus spoke this famous prayer, I’ve wondered why this prayer in particular is the prayer we pray every week. What makes this prayer so important and instructive for us that it stands the test of time after over 2000 years?

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, they were doing so to gain insight into what was most important to Jesus. Jesus responded with the typical ingredients for a prayer: an address to a God we know intimately, words of thanks, words of hope, and words of need. We acknowledge that God is holy, that God has important hopes for the world, and that God responds to our needs.

Jesus also models some realistic needs to bring to God: giving us the sustenance we need to get through the day, intervening for us so that we may not be unfairly put to the test, and the ability to forgive others as God has forgiven us.

The commentator Jennifer S. Wyant reminds us that Jesus offers this prayer not as a magical formula or the only acceptable prayer, but as a simple, accessible, theologically rich framework rooted in trust and dependence on God—a guide for both prayer and living before God.

In the song that we just heard, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan highlights the importance of being mindful of the world around us when we learn to pray, and this is another important piece of the prayer.

Having summarized the prayer, it seems important to zoom in on a couple pieces in particular.

This prayer follows an ancient Jewish prayer structure, and one of the most important pieces of this prayer for Jesus is to establish the intimacy we have with God. Some may describe that intimacy by using the word “Father,” others, “Creator”. The adaptation of the Lord’s prayer in the New Zealand Book of Prayer addresses God in this way:
“Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven.”

By whatever names and descriptions, the commentator Niveen Sarras describes that intimacy with God as the most important part of this prayer.

There's another important piece to this prayer as well, which Jesus illustrates by telling a parable. An important ingredient to a prayer is the time where we ask for what we need. Jesus talks about the importance of asking God to help fulfill our needs. He compares this to children asking their parents for food. He uses the rather gruesome and frightening image of a snake; we wouldn't give children something that would harm or frighten them when they’re hungry!

Jesus ends by reminding his disciples that it’s important to ask for what they need, while also being mindful of the other people and creation with whom we share the world.

So why is it this prayer that we repeat every week? How do we redeem it so that it doesn't just become this moment in worship where we all speak in monotone?

Jesus invites us to pray for those around us, for the world, and that God's hope will come to fruition.

When we pray that God's realm will come to this world, we are praying for peace, justice, and comprehensive well-being of all creation (in the words of my professor Clint McCann), that all will be well.

When we pray to receive the food we need for today, we remember not to take more than we need, as Moses instructed his people. We remember to be mindful of what other people need as well.

When we pray that our debts and the debts of others may be forgiven, we don't mean this in just a financial way. We mean that we are dedicated to repairing relationships, and learning to live in community with each other.

Finally, when we pray not to be lead to temptation, and to be delivered from evil, we are praying that God will protect us from the people and situations that will harm us, and make us forget whose we are. 
Here at UCC, when you pray that all of these things may be so, you are empowered to be God’s hands and feet in the world. God’s realm will appear and God's will will be done when we share our resources with our community, when we care for those who are oppressed by unjust systems, and when we care for one another as a community of Christ.

So my friends, let this prayer be the prayer you use to model your living. Sometimes we may not always know how to pray in our life situation. Sometimes we can't find the words, and sometimes situations happen in our lives that are beyond our imagining. But when we pray the prayer that Jesus taught us, and live according to his teachings, we will be doing our part so that God’s hope for the world may be realized, on earth as it is in heaven.

May your whole life be a prayer, and may God’s hope for the world be realized in you. Amen. 
 

“What Story?”

Sermon for U-CC Waupun

July 20, 2025

(Rev. John O'Donovan filled the pulpit)
 

So, interesting reading today. Normally, I follow what's called the lectionary calendar, but our regular pastor decided to use today’s worship text last week. We were supposed to talk about Mary and Martha. Since Jacob took care of that, I decided to come up with something else — something I’ve been wanting to do since about the second week I was here, after I had a chance to talk to Mike Bausch in private.
 

Let me use that as a preface for what I’m about to say. Do you all know what a parable is? The verse kind of told us, and I kind of said something with our little person earlier. Parables are stories or metaphors that Jesus used to explain his ministry, to help humankind understand what he wanted from them.
 

Any good educator will tell you that people understand better when things are presented in a way that’s familiar to them. If I were to speak now in either German or Gaelic, very few of you would understand — even if I were telling a familiar worship story. So you might be wondering, and I can tell by the looks on your faces, “Where is he going with this?” Good question. I’m glad you asked.
Here’s the answer: this whole building that we’re in — and most of the churches you’ve attended — are filled with parables. They are filled with learning tools and reminders of our faith. The entire building itself helps us learn about God, about who we are, and about what we believe.
And like I said, I’ve wanted to do this for some Sundays, and congratulations — you all get the Sunday! This one is going to be inclusive. You’re going to have to work at this a little. So, if you have a flexible enough neck, just look up at the ceiling. What do you see there? Doesn’t it kind of look like we’re in an upside-down ship?
 

The nave — the main part of a church — resembles an upside-down boat. It’s a symbolic feature rooted in early Christian beliefs and architecture. The word “nave” itself comes from the Latin navus, meaning “ship.” This design symbolizes the church as a vessel of salvation, like Noah’s Ark, protecting the faithful from the storms of the world.
 

A little side note I learned — I don’t remember if it was in church history or just general history — is that some of our ancestors thought churches were so important that they actually flipped over the ships that brought them to their new homes and used them as cathedrals or chapels. And if you’re a bit of a nerd and get on Google Maps, take a look from satellite view. Some churches, seen from above, have wings that make them look like a cross.
 

Now, look to the front of the church. What do you see there? Okay, nobody’s yelling out answers — that’s fine. It’s a cross. And it is just that — a cross. But notice it’s not a crucifix. There’s nobody attached to it. Why? Because this church believes in a resurrected Christ. Jesus isn’t on the cross — he’s with us. He rose again, and he’s still here.
 

The wooden bench at the front, what we often call an altar, is really more like a magnificent table. If we didn’t have all the other beautiful things we do, we could probably use it for communion itself. That table reminds us of gathering, of welcome, of Christ’s invitation to all.
And if you look closely, you’ll see inscriptions. On the left: Alpha. On the right: Omega. The beginning and the end. Titles given to Christ throughout the generations.
Even the newer additions — the ramp, the railings, the hearing-assisted radios — all show that this church wants to be accessible to everyone. No matter who you are, how you move, whether you are young or old — that says something about us as a people.
 

There are little details, too. Look at the window frames and dividers up here. Do you see the crosses? All different varieties. I don’t think that was an accident. They’re reminders of Christianity, of our risen Savior. Even the colors on the cloths — the paraments — change with the seasons. Green is for “ordinary time,” when nothing major is happening in the church year. At Advent and Christmas, we see white. At Pentecost, we see red. Each season and holiday has its own colors and meanings.
 

One of the most interesting details is in the windows. If you look closely, you’ll see what look like little defects. But they’re not defects — they’re etchings. Etchings of Bible stories. The snake and fire, farther down the Nativity scene — Bible verses and stories embedded right into the glass. Not the big stained-glass pictures you see in other churches, but verses etched into color. They’ll be here forever.
 

There was another reason for stained glass, too. Many early churchgoers couldn’t read or write. They couldn’t understand the Scriptures in written form. So stained glass — with its colors, symbols, and pictures — helped tell the story in a way they could grasp. In a sense, it was the predecessor to your iPhone or computer screen: pictures used to teach.
 

I know there are other symbols and meanings I’ve probably missed. Maybe Mike could come back someday to point them all out. But what I love about this church is that it tells a story all by itself. You don’t have to talk to anyone or read anything. You just look around.
The bells attached to the cross? There are three — a symbol of the Trinity. The name of our church, Union-Congregational? That little dash matters. It tells us that we were once a collection of different churches that came together to form one body of faith. We honor our past while embracing our unity today.
 

All these things — the architecture, the symbols, the name itself — remind us what kind of church this is. A church where the living God dwells. A church made up of many people, of many backgrounds. A church that welcomes you, no matter who you are.
Think about the other churches you’ve visited. How many of them could you walk into, without hearing a single word, and know what they stood for? Here, you can. Even the fellowship hall is the first place you walk into — a place to gather, to share stories.
 

What a gift we have here. This building itself tugs at our hearts and teaches us about faith.
I hope this little reflection gives you the chance to look differently at the spaces in your life. Maybe there are things you’ve overlooked that hold meaning — things that can shape how you live and what you believe. Who knows what new knowledge you may gain? It’s up to you.
 

But isn’t it always?
 

“Rest and Being Present”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

July 13, 2025

My college band director, Dr. Christopher Werner, arrived to Lakeland University the same year I started. He endeared himself to his students by his wit, his sarcasm, his love of a good cup of coffee, and even his searing conversations with you when you needed an attitude adjustment. I wasn’t ever in the band, but he taught several other courses that I took as a music major, and Lakeland had a small enough music department that everyone knew everyone.

One of his most important teachings was to always stay focused on improving, and never stop practicing. He actually had a sign on his office door that had a numbered list, photocopied from somewhere on the internet.

1.    I’m sorry I’m a mean band director.
2.    I’ll try to be nicer. 
3.    #1 and #2 are lies. 
4.    Go practice.

His energy was electric, and there was such hope for the future of the music department because of him.

But then he got esophageal cancer, and after a few medical leaves of absence, it came back with a vengeance and turned out to be terminal. While he was on his last medical leave before his death, Lakeland held a fundraiser for him to help with his mounting medical bills and celebrate his massive effect on our community.

I went to that fundraiser for a couple hours, but I knew I also had a huge music history paper that I needed to write for the next day. I waited awhile in the long line to talk with him personally, but all I could think about was finishing that paper. I told myself, “he’d be telling you, ‘Oh go on and finish it.’” Because that’s the kind of person he was. So I left, sure that I would get the chance to talk with him again. I didn’t truly believe that he would die that quickly.

But then, two months later, when he died, I had immense regret that I hadn’t stayed longer to thank him personally for the ways he impacted my life. If I knew then what I know now, I’d have pulled an all-nighter if I had to. That paper was very important, but so was the opportunity to say thank you to someone I at that point considered a friend. I chose one at the expense of the other, when in reality, that paper still would’ve gotten done, even if I had stayed longer at the fundraiser. But I was too focused on the task in front of me to reason with myself, to tell myself the paper could wait just a little longer, and to be fully present with the wonderful person in front of me.
I tell this story not as a cautionary tale, and not because I need reassurance or validation for the decision I made. I tell this story because of what it taught me about being present to the people around me, even when there is other important work to be done.

There is an interesting, and troubling, trend of interpreting today’s passage from Luke. The easy way to interpret this story would be to say that Jesus responds to Martha’s outburst by saying Martha has made a morally wrong decision. It’s as if Jesus said, “You shouldn’t be busying yourself right now, Martha. Quit whining about doing all the work yourself. Don’t you know you have a pretty important guest here? Mary is doing the right thing, and you’re doing the wrong thing.”

This kind of interpretation makes it feel like Jesus is scolding Martha, or that Martha isn’t willing to listen to Jesus’ teachings. Neither of these appear to be the intended message, especially when we look at the cultural and historical contexts surrounding this moment.

The cultural expectations of women in biblical times revolved a great deal around hospitality. Martha was carrying out the expectation that society had of her, to make sure that the guest in her home had something to eat, and to make sure the table was prepared just so. By the standards of that society, she would hardly be a good host if there wasn't enough good food on the table. For those of us who have hosted family members in our homes, we understand that preparing a good meal for our guests demands a great deal of effort, and investment of time and money. What's more, making a special meal for more people than you normally cook for can be tiring! So it makes perfect sense that Martha was a bit indignant that Mary wasn't helping her. Martha probably felt rushed, and she felt the social expectation of preparing a beautiful meal for someone who she considered very important. It was part of the way she showed hospitality. Her job as she saw it in that moment was to give this weary traveler something good to eat.

And there was Mary, her own sister, not lifting a finger while she toiled away, doing all the work herself. As someone whose family has hosted many extended family gatherings at our house, I have compassion for Martha's frustration.

And then to be told by her guest that Mary has chosen the better part? The more important thing? I'd be angry too.

There's an even more unfortunate interpretation, which can also not be ignored. This interpretation calls Martha away from active service to Jesus, and instead praises the passive act of listening to him; Mary is doing the right thing by sitting at Jesus's feet and hanging on his every word, while Martha is doing whatever she thinks is most important. This kind of theological pitfall has been used to justify calling women away from serving in church leadership, or ordained ministry, and putting them in their place. The commentator Jennifer A. Glancy writes in the new Westminster Study Bible that I just bought at Annual Meeting (thank you for that resource, church) that Luke’s Gospel is an “uneven resource” when it comes to featuring positive female role models of ministry, and in some ways this comparison can be brought to the fore in this story: Martha is doing the ministry of service, and Mary is doing the ministry of quiet discipleship, but I think many of us can already understand how complicated the role of women is in today’s Christianity, and I find it troubling that more of my more conservative male pastor colleagues refuse to call this out.

Now that we've identified all the problems with this text, how do we read it in a way that is liberating and helpful?

What if Jesus was not rebuking Martha, but instead, he was being compassionate? What if, when he said, “One thing is necessary”, he actually meant: “What you’re doing is important, and I appreciate it, but it can wait. I want to spend time with you.”

Because the entire life of Jesus is a ministry of service, I don't believe Jesus actually thinks poorly of Martha's decision, but I also believe that he wanted her to be present with him. Instead of fussing around in the kitchen, Jesus wanted Martha to focus on him instead. The dishes could be done later. It would be okay to have a latte without latte art. (Even if it’s adorable).

I also think this says something very particular about the way we live.

As a society, not only do we value productivity, but we are in a constant state of pressure to get things done, and sometimes we miss opportunities to experience the people around us.

We have good staff, and I’m blessed to work with them. One of the things I’ve noticed as I minister among you all, for example, is that the three of us who I’d consider office staff—me, Becky, and Alana—often have to help each other understand “the bigger picture” when we find ourselves hyper-focused in one area or the other. And I’ll say that Becky and Alana do that as much for me as I do for them. And I feel confident they’d feel the same way, that we all help each other stay focused on the most important tasks. I imagine that you, too, have had people in your life who have done that for you.

In some ways, the story that I shared at the beginning of the message has a sad ending. I didn't have a chance to share well wishes with someone I cared about. But it's also given me new perspective. Because of that experience, I have learned how important it is to be present to those around me, and that has paid dividends in my life and in my career. I'm sure many of us have had experiences like this, maybe with our kids, with our family members, with our friends, or with others around us. Our media song reminds us of the danger of missed opportunities also.

And it's not like the work we do is unimportant. All of the daily tasks of our lives are very important. But this is the good news today, friends.

We are often tasked with many important things, but Jesus gives us an invitation to take time to rest in his love and teachings.

We have the opportunity to be in community together, and share our praise with God. We have the opportunity to set our worries and our fears aside, and rest in the love we have found through Jesus Christ.

So my friends, may you receive the gift this week of setting aside the scrambling through everyday activities. May you set something important aside, in favor of being present with your Creator, and with someone else in front of you. May you receive the gift of someone telling you, “It can wait.” You might be surprised with the gifts your rest will give you. Thanks be to God. Amen. 
 

“The Tough Choices and God’s Grace” 
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

July 6, 2025

Focus: When we make tough decisions which alter the course of our lives, choosing to trust God and lean on each other is not only a courageous act, but one that often gives us gifts we don’t expect.

We've come to the end of the sermon series that A Sanctified Art has put together. We've learned the importance of asking difficult questions. Where are you from, where does it hurt, and what do you need. We've learned that asking questions like these give us the opportunity to know each other more deeply, and to know how to be in community with each other with more intentionality.

This week, we close out our sermon series by asking the question, “where do we go from here?”, in juxtaposition to the story of Ruth and Naomi. There are lots of ways to ask this question, several other ways we could rephrase it. What do we do now? How do we find courage in this situation? What is God calling us to do next?

As we enter into this time of looking together at the story of Ruth and Naomi, I invite you to consider this question: I'd like you to think about a decision that changed your life for the better. The kind of decision that, without it, you wouldn't be the person you are today. I'm going to give you a minute to ponder that question. If you feel led to talk to others next to you, you can, but you can also ponder that question in silence. Again the question is, think about a decision that changed your life for the better.

(wait for about a minute)

Thanks for humoring me on this. This has happened a couple times in my own life, and one of the most recent times has been coming here to serve you as your pastor. Waupun is not too far away from my own roots (many of you know my immediate family). But as I was embarking on the first real position in my career, becoming a fully fledged adult, I hardly knew anybody in this area and I had to trust that God was going to be with me on the journey. And as I've shared with you, I've experienced so many amazing gifts by being a part of this congregation's story, and I'm excited for all of the gifts yet to come. But accepting this call was a decision that impacted the course of my life. I left the home I had known for basically my whole life. I didn't know how God would use the gifts God had given me, and I didn't know what would happen if I metaphorically fell flat on my face.

I wonder if that was the kind of thought process that was playing out in Ruth's head. I've never preached on Ruth before and so doing this gave me an interesting opportunity to dive deeper into the story of a faithful woman in the biblical narrative, something that we don't always get the chance to explore because of the cultural narrative surrounding women in those times.

For anyone else who doesn't know the story of Ruth, I'll give you a brief summary of where we're at at this point. The story begins with a struggling family in Bethlehem, who is in the midst of a famine. In order to find food, they migrate from Bethlehem to a community called Moab. In the midst of all of this, Naomi's husband dies, and both of Naomi's sons who have married Ruth and Orpah have also died. Naomi, whose name actually means pleasant, is now in the throes of immense grief, and realizes that in order to go on with her life, she needs to go off on her own to try to find some semblance of a secure lifestyle. She sees herself as too old to marry, which according to the commentaries I've read, might be true. Typically in biblical times, women would marry in their mid teen years, and since Naomi has two daughters in law, by sons, who have both married, Naomi is probably in her 40s. Being in your 40s with no husband, and no living sons, your goose is cooked. So Naomi gives a farewell, blessing to her new daughters in law, and tells them to go back to where they came from in hopes of finding men and going on with their own lives. Of course, Naomi and her daughter-in-law are all devastated. In fact, Naomi says that, instead of being called Naomi, which means pleasant, she would rather be called Mara, a name that means bitter, because she believes that God has dealt bitterly with her and punished her for something.

But Ruth doesn't listen to what Naomi wants her to do. Instead, Ruth makes a rather shocking promise. “Don’t urge me to abandon you, to turn back from following after you. Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.”

If you don’t know the story of Ruth, Ruth goes to gather narley in the fields to provide for herself and Naomi, where she unexpectedly meets Boaz, a kind and generous relative of Naomi’s late husband. Boaz notices Ruth’s loyalty and hard work, offering her protection and provision, which sparks a series of events grounded in mutual respect and trust. Naomi then encourages Ruth to take another courageous step—asking Boaz to act as a kinsman-redeemer, a risky move that places Ruth’s future in his hands. Boaz responds with integrity and honor, securing Ruth’s and Naomi’s well-being through marriage and redeeming their family’s legacy. What begins as an act of survival becomes a story of grace, love, and redemption—reminding us that faithful, vulnerable decisions often open the door to blessings we never imagined.
So what does Ruth's story have to do with us?

If you take one thing away from today's message, I want it to be this: When we make tough decisions which alter the course of our lives, choosing to trust God and lean on each other is not only a courageous act, but one that often gives us gifts we don’t expect.

Lots of people have told me that one of the big reasons that they come to this church is because of the amazing community that they found here. Lots of people have come to this church from lots of places, and through getting to know each other we have had the amazing gift of being known and understood. That's the kind of thing that I've been trying to have us do with this sermon series, to ask deeper questions that invite us into more intentional and meaningful relationship. There are certain people in this church, who know each other really well, and they are able to talk to me about the amazing stories of life and faith that their friends have experienced in what they themselves have learned from what their friend has told them.

But what if we did a better job of getting to know more people in this congregation in that kind of way? Not everybody knows each other at the same level and of course, if everybody knew everything about everybody that would feel a little weird. But what I'm getting at here is that when we take a risk to go into a new stage of our lives or a new place, we can find ways that God is at work that we would never have gotten otherwise. This has been such an amazing first call so far and I feel like I have a lot of work to do here yet and I'm really excited about all of that. Through meeting Boaz Ruth was able to secure a future for she and Naomi that may not have happened otherwise.

So this week I invite you to think about what God may be doing in your life when you’re not cognizant of the possibilities. If you're asking yourself, the question that A Sanctified Art proposes to us—“where do I go from here?”, “What am I supposed to do now?”, you might learn something from somebody else in this congregation who has at some point in their own life asked themselves the same question. There are so many amazing and powerful stories in this congregation, and I'm so grateful to bear witness to people's faith and how God has worked in and through each of you.

It feels like this media song from today is so perfect to what I've just shared, and to be honest, I didn't totally know where the sermon was going to go because I was less familiar with the story of Ruth than some of the rest of the Bible. But it’s just wonderful, and I want to share part of the chorus lyrics again to further drive the point home:

In this scene set in shadows
Like the night is here to stay
There is evil cast around us
But it's love that wrote the play...
For in this darkness love can show the way

So out of impactful decisions—even tough decision decisions—comes God's grace when you least expect it. May you be open to the possibilities, and may you be ready to notice the people and situations who will help you live the amazing story that God accompanies you in. May you feel love showing the way. Amen.

“Fancy Dinners, Deep Connections, and What We Really Need”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

June 29, 2025

Mark this on the calendar: this is the first time I'm using my fiancé as a sermon illustration. (I did ask her permission!)
So today we're talking about the next question in our Sanctified Art sermon series, “I've Been Meaning to Ask… “And the question we're dealing with today is: What do you need?

A couple of weeks ago, Raphi and I  were at a jewelry store picking out wedding bands. As you know, our wedding is in June of 2027, but we're trying to plan ahead.

As we’re picking out wedding bands, our consultant said to me, "You know, Jacob, with this special necklace that you're about to buy for Raphi—this add-a-pearl necklace that symbolizes special people in her life who are now deceased—you’re going to want to be taking Raphi out to fancy dinners so she can wear it places.”

Both of us sort of looked at each other and chuckled a little bit, because from the beginning of our relationship, she told me when we started dating, “You know, I'm not really a fancy person. I don't need you to do anything super fancy to win my love.” She said, “I'm already impressed by you as a person. We've known each other for a long time. You're already impressive. You don't have to do all that.”

And so we walked out of that jewelry store, and she said, “Now just remember, I don't need you to take me out to fancy dinners.” And I said, “I know. She just doesn't know us. Whatever.”

But that experience got me thinking.

So often, when people are dealing with a difficult time, we have assumptions of what they might need, based on our own experiences of dealing with grief and difficult times in our lives. For example, sometimes when people die, we throw casseroles at the grieving family.

Now, that’s a nice gesture. But maybe a casserole is not what the people actually need in this moment. In a time of difficulty, people just need somebody to say, “I’m thinking about you. I'm here for you. I care about you.” Not smothering them with lots of performative things that don’t actually last.

And that's sort of what is going on in both of today's texts. There’s a very short excerpt from the Book of Job, and there's a longer passage from the Book of Second Timothy, both talking about presence. And so that's what I'm going to be talking about today.
Some people know the story of Job well. I actually want to get to know the story of Job better myself, so I always enjoy the opportunity to preach on Job, because it forces me to think a little bit more about what is going on. I hope to do a Bible study on Job sometime, because I think that it might offer us a picture of what human suffering means and how we deal with all of that. So if you're willing to dive in with me, let me know— I’ll make it happen.

It's established in the first phrases of the book of Job that Job is somebody who loved God, somebody who did what God told him to do in every situation. Our translation says Job was an “blameless and upright” man. And yet the entity that we would describe as the devil makes a bet with God and says, “You know, God, I don't think that Job's actually going to do what you say he's going to do if you throw all this suffering at him.”

And God basically goes, “Wanna bet?” Do whatever you want—just don’t kill him.” And so, all of a sudden, Job pretty much loses everything—his house, his family, everything.And each time, Job still says that his faith will not be shaken.

When Job’s friends hear of his plight, they tear off their clothes and they wail, and they come to him immediately, and they sit with him for seven days and don’t say a word.
Now, this tearing of clothes and wailing is typical cultural grieving practice of the day. This is what people would do when somebody died that they knew and loved.

After their wailing, they go to see Job, and they don’t even recognize him. He’s a different man because of all these things that have happened to him.

But then they go and simply sit with him. Nobody says a word for seven whole days. Just imagine that for a minute—if some of your friends did that with you when someone you loved died.

In a way, it’s a little creepy, right? But ironically, that’s kind of what this whole presence thing is about. Because sometimes, when people are dealing with difficult moments, words just aren't enough.

And so often, when people are going through a difficult time, people end up tripping over themselves because they don't know what to say. All we can think of is the old platitudes of, “he's in a better place now,” or “At least she's not suffering anymore,” or “God had a plan”—you fit in the blank. They don’t help.

So our lesson from Job today focuses on what we call “the ministry of presence.” In today’s media song, we’re invited to think of the people who, like Job, have ended up with situations they didn’t deserve—the salt of the earth—and how we can spare a thought, and be there for them them.

Similarly, in Second Timothy, Paul writes from prison to his friend and says, “Come quickly—and also bring Mark—because he was helpful to me in my ministry. Come quickly. I need you to be here for me. I don't need you to do anything. I don’t need you to bring me food. I just want you.”

Part of me wonders what grief care would look like if we focused on that kind of presence. Sure, casseroles are nice. but what I’m saying is—don’t stop there.
And in these moments of grief, we so often get uncomfortable because we don't know what to say.

But I think what we can learn from these passages today is that we don't necessarily have to know what to say. Because really, what somebody needs is not platitudes—but presence.
And so, after you've asked the question, “Where does it hurt?”—a callback from last week—genuinely asking the question, “What do you need?” can be a really powerful experience.

I brought up that wedding band story because it reminded me of what is most important in my relationship with my fiancé. She doesn't need all of these performative ways to show my love. They’re nice—and I’ll continue to take her out to dinner and buy her flowers or do little things for her on a hard day. 
But what she needs is my heart. What she needs is the reminder that, in times of great difficulty in our shared life together, I'm going to be intentional about how I show up.

So as you move into this week, I invite you to think about how you can offer the ministry of presence to somebody else. One of the great gifts of this congregation that I know is that when there is a need in this community, this congregation really steps up. You really do a great job of caring for other people in times of distress.

And so maybe you already know this—but when we have the sacred opportunity to be with someone in their time of need, don’t cheapen it with surface-level care. Because what people need in the most difficult times of their lives is not always what we think they may need.

What they need is people to just love them. People to be there for them and offer them a kind and caring presence that isn't so easily solved by words.

The actions that people will most appreciate—I promise you—are the times where you offered a hand or a shoulder to cry on, long after that casserole has already been eaten.

So may you go into this week with a spirit of empathy, remembering how others have cared for you—and how you can care for others. Because when we do that, when we’re willing to dive deep into that hard work, that’s when transformative love and care can happen.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
 

“The Rain Falls On All Of Us”

Sermon for U-CC Waupun

June 22, 2025

Every year around Christmas time, since I've been here, this church has offered what we call a Blue Christmas service. This was not a familiar concept to folks when I first arrived, but it’s becoming more familiar as time goes on. A Blue Christmas service, which is also known as the Longest Night service because it often takes place on the winter solstice, is an opportunity for people to be sad and grieve the loss of family, friends, employment, stability in their lives, or even the ways that relationships are not what they would desire them to be. This is a service for anybody who experiences the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season with a sense of dread rather than a sense of joyful anticipation. In our marketing for the service, we often say that this is a service for those for whom this isn't the most wonderful time of the year.

Now, due to the somber nature of this service, this service isn't really for everyone. It's by far our most sparsely attended service of the year, but for me, it's worth the effort that it takes to both produce it and offer it in the midst of an already busy season, because it offers an important pastoral need of being together in community when we're struggling, even as seemingly everyone else in society is feeling a very different emotion. In the last couple of years, we've had anywhere between 10 to 15 people show up in person and several others show up on Zoom. If we were totally concerned about worship numbers, I don't know that we would continue to offer such a service, but I think that we offer an important opportunity to remind those who are grieving that they're not alone, even as the rest of society is often feeling joyful during this time of year.

I bring this up because today's question in our sermon series is, where does it hurt? We've just heard a couple of scripture passages that demonstrate people who are hurting.

For example, in our Old Testament reading, Hannah is in deep distress because she cannot bear a son.

It's bad enough that she cannot have a child that she so desires, but to make matters worse, she is being bullied by her husband's other wife because of her inability to conceive. The commentator Ericka Shawndricka Dunbar reminds us that Hannah lives in a male-dominated society where her well-being depends on being married and having a male child, which she does not have. Because of this bullying, Hannah weeps constantly and refuses to eat. This isn't necessarily far off from what today from what some women experience when they are not able to conceive their own children. Though society thankfully looks different now than what it did back in biblical times, the inability to have our own biological children is something many women are still belittled for in this day and age.

Even if we haven't experienced the painful reality of infertility ourselves, many of us can probably name at least one person, or one couple, who might have struggled with that at some point in their lives. It seems as pastorally important to remind folks who have experienced infertility and are listening to this that you are not alone, and you're in good company with people like Hannah and Sarai and all sorts of other folks throughout the biblical narrative. It also reminds the rest of us that we are called to be tender, loving, and understanding with people who experience infertility and the incredible grief that I brings, instead of resorting to saying this is part of God's plan or trying to soften their pain in some way. Those of us who have had the incredible blessing of being able to have our own children biologically could never understand the pain and grief that comes with infertility.

There is also hurt in our New Testament reading, where Jesus is speaking to a woman who has been hemorrhaging for a significant portion of her life.I think you've heard me preach enough times to know that I feel a little icky at times with the healing narratives of Jesus. And indeed, the idea that Jesus simply cures a person of their physical disabilities, illnesses, or other maladies is often a harmful biblical interpretation for those of us who experience life with various forms of disability, and how people with disabilities are often outcast by society, or even worse, outcast by people who use these very narratives as proof that disabled folks have sinned, or some other people in their lives have sinned. Yet at the same time, we can't deny that there is power in the life and the ministry and the presence of Jesus, so often we speak very openly about the miraculous signs that Jesus was different, that Jesus offered a kind of hope and presence that other humans simply cannot do. I'm not denying that either.

But what I want to zoom in on today is not necessarily the end result of Hannah speaking to a messenger of God who then prays by her request for a son, or the end result of Jesus offering healing, whether emotionally or physically, to this woman. But instead, I'd like to talk about how offering our vulnerability in community can help us know each other better, and help us offer deeper care and connection to each other when we need it the most.

We see in the Old Testament story that Hannah weeps day in and day out because this desire of her heart has not been satisfied. And a messenger of God is able to offer her some comfort.

So often it seems that we ourselves don't always know how to comfort each other. We don't know what to say, or we feel our words are not enough, or that they're going to bring hurt instead of hope. Sometimes we don't always get it right, and instead, we end up saying things that we regret. I know I've put my foot in my mouth more than my fair share, being judgmental instead of kind. That's true in both of our stories from the Bible today. In both stories, a common theme is that someone has been suffering for a long time in the midst of social othering and unkindness, and they get a chance to start again, while in the process teaching those around them how to better care for one another.

When we think about the question that A Sanctified Art poses to us today—where does it hurt?—and when we think about what we can learn from folks like Hannah sharing her story and her pain, sometimes it might feel like too much to bear. There's so much pain and so much difficulty in the world, and we don't always know what to do with it.

We're about to watch a clip from the popular film The Green Mile, which gives voice to how a lot of people experience that very sentiment.

The ability to understand each other by what we have experienced in our lives, allows us to know one another with deeper compassion and with greater humanity.

That transition happened with Eli, and he was able to help Hannah pray to God for what she desired.

That transition happened when a community witnessed something they thought could never be possible, and hopefully learned a lesson that mocking people in the midst of their pain is never a good idea.

And in our Blue Christmas services, we have the opportunity to pray and weep together in community, holding each other in love as we experience, grief and other difficulty emotions that the holiday season can bring.

Because my friends, the rain falls on all of us. We all know what it's like to feel pain in some way. We all have skeletons in our closet that we wish other people didn't know. We've felt shame in various times in our lives, and I can guarantee that none of us would want to be treated the way that Hannah or the hemorrhaging woman was treated. And yet sometimes we broadcast our shame onto others, as if somehow being unkind to someone else will make us feel bigger. But of course, we know that never works. That's not how community grows. That's not how Christ teaches us to live.

So as we seek to know each other better in this community of faith, as we seek to understand better the difficult times that people have been through and how we can share Christ like compassion, may we approach each other with tenderness and love, rather than judgment and social expectations.

This week I invite you to look inward a little bit, thinking of ways you can offer care and compassion to those who are hurting rather than upholding those same tired social expectations. Understanding more deeply where people are hurting, and how we can help them can offer us a window into the soul of a friend, and can give us the ability to offer the compassion that Christ himself would offer.

In just a moment, we're going to read an affirmation of faith, one that I think gives us a glimpse of what that might look like, to hold one another up and to remember how God has held us in our own grief. May we go through this week together recognize the way as we can support each other through pain. As we taught our children in vacation Bible school this week, God is with us wherever we go. God is with us when times are hard. God is with us when times are joyful. God is with us when we feel shame or grief for pain. And for all that, I say thanks be to God. Amen.

“The Homes That Form Us”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun
June 15, 2025

This week we're starting a new sermon series called. “I've Been Meaning To Ask” by a company called A Sanctified Art. I really enjoy working with sermon series because sometimes many of us tire of the lectionary—the same three years of Bible stories repeated over and over. I think this is especially true in the season of Pentecost when we deal a lot with stories about gardens and parables and such. Not that there isn't deep value in a lot of that. I also appreciate the arc that a sermon series creates, and how it gives us a way to dig into various layers of a deeper question. In this situation, the writers of A Sanctified Art invite us to ask the kinds of questions that invite us into deeper reflection with one another, that we might learn how to know each other on a deeper level instead of the surface level interaction we typically have in our churches. So each Sunday, we will be looking at various layers of the question “I've been meaning to ask…”.

Today's question, today's layer that we are considering is asking the question, “where are you from?”. Of course, the most natural way of looking at this question is through a geographical lens, recognizing that we are from specific locations, but sometimes answering the question of where we're from invites us to think more deeply about what we've learned from the places and experiences we've had, not simply where our origins lie on a geographical map. To get a start of thinking about this, I've made a little video talking about several locations that have been important to me in my life, and of course I can't talk about all of them because otherwise we would be here for a very long time. But I'll start us off by playing that little video.

I hope you'll see that in this video not only did I talk about several of the various locations that I have lived in throughout my life and were important to me, but I hope you'll also notice that I talked about what I learned from those experiences and how they've shaped me into the person I am. All of the places that I talked about in this little video have different cultures or expectations associated with them that led me to have certain assumptions about how the world worked. Sometimes those assumptions helped me grow, and sometimes they limited me. For example, growing up in a smaller, mostly ethnically homogenous city like Neenah made me somewhat ignorant of the kinds of diversity in culture and context that might exist in larger metropolitan areas. Smaller towns can sometimes seem a bit closed-off from the rest of the world, and so our concept of the world can become quite small. 
But the commentator Dr. Raj Nadella reminds us that “Adam comes from the land and is sustained by it, but also serves the land.” In other words, add benefits from God's provision, but then Adam also has a job to do to continually care for the world he has been entrusted to.

In order to care for that world, sometimes we need to ask the right questions and be curious. That's what the gospel is trying to tell us today. The question is asked if anything good can come out of Nazareth. In a similar way, some of the news headlines that we heard about St. Louis for example before I went to seminary were not always positive. My dad went to St. Louis a couple times when I was a kid for continuing education trips, and talked about the racism that he saw there. So before I went to seminary, it might not have been totally out of line for me to ask the question, can anything good come out of St. Louis?

When other people ask us where we're from, sometimes that question comes with a lot of baggage. Was your high school one of the better ones in the area or did it consistently produce people who did worse than average on standardized testing? Are you “one of us” and do you understand our culture?

But instead, both the gospel and the Genesis text our challenging us to look at things from a different perspective. Genesis teaches us that we are connected to the places we from, and we have a job to take care of them, whereas the gospel teaches us that harboring certain assumptions based on someone's place of origin is often a dangerous venture.

So as we begin this worship series, what does this mean for us here in Waupun?

In my view, the good news is this: we can learn a lot about ourselves and our neighbors from the places we have lived (and the things we’ve lived through), and we have a responsibility to take care of ourselves and others. This sermon series invites us in the deeper reflection with one another, and hopefully a deeper knowledge of what we've all been through. Some of us have lived here our whole lives, and others of us have landed here because of a job or some other reason. But being together in the place we are right now, Waupun, Wisconsin, can teach us a lot about what it's like to live in community. For example, I’ve thought a lot about the criminal justice system, and how it impacts our economy here. So many of us have witnessed powerful stories of restorative justice in this city. Others of us have witnessed the desperation, others feel when they are socioeconomically disadvantaged, and how that impacts them.

But no matter what we learn about each other through this sermon series, may we learn to ask each other the deeper questions of life with more intentionality, empathy, and warmth. May all of us remember that God is at work in the midst of the places we grow, the communities we inhabit, and the space we share with others. May we all continue to be hopeful and stay curious. May we all possess the courage that John Mellencamp talks about in today's media song, to be the best we can as we look towards the future. Thanks be to God. Amen. 
 

“Why This Church?”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

June 8, 2025
Pentecost

I’m starting this sermon a little differently today. I want to ask you a question. Turn to someone near you and talk for a minute or two. If you’re online, feel free to type in the chat. Here's the question:
Why do you come to this church?

You won’t have to share your answer with the whole congregation—just the person next to you.

Thanks for humoring me. I imagine you just heard some meaningful stories. One thing I love about our church is how different we all are. We come from all sorts of beliefs, backgrounds, and life experiences. And yet something brings us together here.
Now, I didn’t ask this just because I had a long weekend at Annual Meeting and wanted to shorten today’s sermon prep time. (I actually wrote this Thursday so I wouldn’t procrastinate! I’m looking at you, Chris Van Buren!)

I asked this because today is Pentecost. Pentecost often gets called the birthday of the Church. Some progressive pastors find that characterization a little kitschy, but it’s not entirely wrong. It's the moment when the followers of Jesus began speaking out—not simply parroting Jesus’ teachings, but constructing their own theology and their own praise because of what God has done for them. The Spirit filled them, and they started proclaiming God's mighty works in their own languages, in ways that were meaningful to them and to others.

That’s why I think it’s important to ask: What’s the message of this church?

When you just shared with your neighbor, I’m sure the stories varied. I’ve had the privilege of hearing many of them, and they’re as diverse as you are. Some found shelter and grace here during difficult times; others sought a church reflecting their social beliefs. The list goes on.

But too often, when people talk about their experiences with church, the stories are painful. Many have endured spiritual abuse—especially LGBTQ+ folks, which is a situation close to my own heart as you know, and especially appropriate as we’re in Pride Month. And much of that stems from distorted theology and mistranslations that have nothing to do with the heart of God.

But here, there’s joy. There’s passion. There’s a spark in this congregation that’s hard to put into words—but you can feel it.

Everyone here has a different reason for calling this church home. Whatever your reason, I invite you to connect it with the Pentecost story. How might our church evolve and grow—not just in numbers, but in mission?

One way to ask that is:If our church disappeared tomorrow, what would our community lose?
What are we offering Waupun, Beaver Dam, and the surrounding areas that no one else is?

I’ve seen so many of you live out your faith in powerful ways. Some of you are deeply involved in social justice—working on the margins to make others feel welcome, seen, and valued. Others offer quiet, steady love—bringing meals, writing cards, checking in on someone who's sick or grieving.
That love makes an impact. When I’ve introduced myself out in the community as the pastor of this church,  I’ve heard from people outside our congregation who sometimes say, “I may not agree with everything your church believes, but I can tell you care for each other.” That’s no small thing. That’s the work of the Spirit. The same Spirit who lit fires in the hearts of the earliest Christians.

So on this Pentecost Sunday, as we remember how early followers of Jesus shared God’s work in ways that were authentic to them, I wonder: What might the Spirit be calling us to do now?

In the spoken word piece you just saw—written by my friend Tim, with music I added—he describes Pentecost not as a historical artifact or theological concept, but an invitation.

The wind at your back screaming, “Go!”
Go—to the lonely, the hurting, the grieving. Go—to the broken places in the world and in ourselves. Go—because that’s what love looks like when it catches fire.

When Peter addresses the crowd, he proclaimed that God will pour out the Holy Spirit on all people. Young and old. Slave and free. Men and women. All sorts of people are given the ability to share what God has done in their own lives, guided by what the spirit is doing in them and through them, and even in spite of them. This is no small thing, because it means that when they tell their stories, the love of God will continue to grow through that testimony.

And the love of God will continue to grow through your testimony as well. This congregation has been given so many gifts. So many opportunities. So many chances to speak the liberating and transforming love of God—not just with our mouths, but with the ways we live our lives.

When I asked you why you’re here—why this church matters to you—I asked you so it might empower you into something deeper. As you think about how you might answer that question, let it be what moves you forward. Let it shape how we grow, how we serve, how we share.
Because that’s what Pentecost is: a celebration of what God has already done—and an invitation into what God is still doing. As Tim reminds us, celebrating Pentecost

Today also marks the end of our sermon series on resurrection stories. This week Dr. Marcia McFee is playing with this idea of transformation. To review we've talked about themes of belonging, trusting in God, and new chances to start again. We've heard stories of addiction, anxiety, homelessness, and many other ways that we might've felt locked up inside by our life circumstances.  So the final question is this: Now that we’ve considered the resurrection stories in our lives, what are we going to do with them? This is a moment where we take stock and think about how hearing these resurrection stories can usher in transformation in our own lives.

You know my preaching well enough that I always try to give you something to take with you. This week, I invite you to reflect on three questions that are interrelated:
Why this church? Where have you seen resurrection in your life? What has God done within you and around you and in spite of you that might help you share the story of God's love with someone else?

Let Pentecost be more than just the “redheaded stepchild” of the liturgical calendar. Let it be what moves you to offer God your praise. Let it be what moves you and empowers you to heal a broken and hurting world in ways which you can. Let it be what gives you the strength and the courage to have hard conversations and do both the joyful and the difficult work of discipleship. May this be our call. May this be what empowers us to live like Christ in our own time.

My friends, you have so much to offer this world. So much love and light in your spirits. Be bold bearers of that light wherever you go. Thanks be to God.
Amen.
 

“Remember—God Is With You”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

Seventh Sunday of Easter
June 1, 2025

I had training wheels on my bike until I was about 8 years old. For a long time, I was too scared to let my dad take the training wheels off. My balance wasn’t very good in general at that point in my life, and I didn’t need another reason to fall. I liked going on bike rides, so I didn’t want to have a bad experience.

But by that age, I had grown too big for bikes with training wheels, and my parents were confident enough that I would be able to find enough balance to ride a bike without the extra assistance.

So one day, my dad said to me, “I think it’s time to take the training wheels off.”

“But what if I fall?” I protested.

“You might fall a couple times at first,” he said. “But if you fall, I’ll be running alongside, ready to catch you.”

So, I decided to let him take the training wheels off. Not because I wanted him to, or because I thought I could do it on my own, but because I trusted him. And he was right. I did fall a few times. I probably got scratched or cut or bruised a few times too. But my dad was always there to catch me, and help me get back up again.

Most of us can probably conjure up at least one memory of encountering the fear of the unknown. Maybe it’s encountering the natural order of things as life changes. Maybe it’s moving forward without the physical presence of a loved one. Maybe it’s reexamining our values or what we believe to be true about ourselves.

We’re in good company this week with the disciples. At first read, today's Scripture text might seem like a strange one to read on the seventh Sunday of the Easter season. The fanfare of Easter day has long since gone, and the beautiful Easter lilies have long since left our sanctuary.

But in fact, we're reading this today because of the promise Jesus makes to his disciples at the end of the text: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Some of you may recognize this text from other times it's been preached on, and a lot of times we focus on what we call the great commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And that's not unimportant. It's important for us to tell the stories of how God has been present in our lives and how we might be able to share that with others. But honestly, sometimes the way people do that feels a little icky. When someone says to us, totally unprompted, “have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?” or “I want to talk to you about Jesus”, sometimes our initial reaction even if we believe in Jesus too, might be to recoil or say, yeah I'm good thanks.” The more important piece for me today seems to be the kind of anxiety that often accompanies us when we do the work of God in the world. Like I was worried of falling off my bike, sometimes we worry ourselves about our own frailty and shortcomings getting in the way of telling the amazing and incredible story of God's love. Kind of like in today's media clip where Riley, the young woman who is the protagonist of Inside Out 2, we worry if we’re good enough to do God’s work in the world.

I can only imagine the anxiety that the disciples must feel in these days. Jesus has shown them the way throughout his entire ministry. He has invited them into new ways of thinking, doing, and co-creating the kind of world that God desires, on earth as it is in heaven, and now he was going to leave them.

And today's scripture tells us that the disciples have some doubts after he rises again. How on earth are they going to be able to meet the task at hand for them?

The teachings of Jesus, in many ways, have been the theological training wheels for the work the disciples are about to do. Jesus understands that he cannot be with them forever. He must prepare them to live in a world without him, in order for the church to grow and be sustainable in the future.

Because Jesus understands that this is the natural order of things, he needs to help his disciples understand that his departure is also pleasing to God. But Jesus also understands that it's not entirely that simple. He understands that the disciples have a lot at stake.

What if their work, their testimony, is discarded and dismissed?

What if something happens that they're not prepared for?

What if their very lives are threatened by opponents of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

This is why Jesus says something very important: remember, I am with you always.

Jesus reminds them elsewhere in his teachings that he does not give the same things to them that the world would give to them. Jesus does not offer them a stable living situation. Jesus does not assure them that they will have status in society, or social capital that keeps them out of harm’s way.

Jesus instead gives them the kind of peace and support that the world cannot provide.

Jesus instead gives them guidance, protection, and strength for the journey. The Holy Spirit is given to the disciples as an advocate, which will remind them of everything Jesus taught them. God will send the Holy Spirit to the disciples in the name of Jesus, so that they will know that the triune God guides them on the way.

What follows after this word of comfort from Jesus is another two whole chapters of various words of comfort. But instead of being comforted, the disciples are confused. What does this mean, that Jesus will be leaving them soon?

So I think it is for us.

Receiving words of comfort is not always easy. I understood, for example, that my dad loved me and would do anything to keep me safe. I knew that he would be running alongside me as I rode my bike. But I had to trust that he would actually catch me if I fell, and I had to be brave in order to try the new thing that my dad was inviting me into. He knew that this was important for my continued childhood development. It was also an important life skill, to take off the training wheels and venture bravely into life’s challenges. Because at some point, I would ride my bike by myself, and I would have to remember everything he taught me.

This is the good news, friends. Like he was for the disciples, Jesus will continue to be with us and inspire our work for a better world, even as we can’t feel his physical presence.

Even as we enter into uncharted territory, even as we don't know what tomorrow brings, even as we step out and take risks, Jesus gives us the word of grace that we don't have to be afraid.

Even as one country continues to wage war on one another…

Even as our divisions on political, social, and ideological issues pull us further away from seeing each other as beloved community, rather than understanding each other as interconnected…

Even through all of that…

Jesus offers us peace, protection, and guidance, and gives the invitation to work with God to co-create the world that God wills.

It's not going to be easy. In fact, some days it will probably be very difficult. You might fall down a few times. You might get scratched, cut, and bruised more than your fair share. You may be threatened because of who you are, or what you believe.

But it's precisely because you share the love and teachings of Jesus Christ, that Jesus will continue to be with you.

So my friends, it's time to take off the training wheels. It's time to venture boldly into the work of Jesus Christ. In our own ways, we have the opportunity to help make the world further aligned with what God wants it to be.

Throughout this week, I invite you to ask the question: how can I join God’s work in the world today?

May you feel God's richest blessings as you enter into the work to which you are called. Amen.

“The Bible I Believe In”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 25, 2025

As many of you know, this week I attended a meeting at the Waupun Public Library to speak out against proposed policies that would ban or heavily restrict LGBTQ+ literature. More specifically, they were discussing a display policy—whether such literature could be featured for Pride Month, which is coming up.

First, I want to say how grateful I am for the library board and for the members of our congregation who have served on that board, past and present. But it was something that happened after the meeting that really got me thinking for this week’s sermon.

Public comment at that meeting went on for about an hour and a half. Rick Vant Hoff and I were just about to leave to meet Laurie at Culver’s for dinner when a man approached me and said, “So you don’t believe in the Bible, do you?”

Now, I had spoken out against the proposed ban and any negative changes to the display policy, and apparently, to him, that meant I didn’t believe in the Bible.

I had begun my remarks at the meeting by saying that Forsell Gappa wasn’t the only pastor in the room, and his wasn’t the only theological interpretation present. And that, it seems, was enough to earn the accusation.
I didn’t know this man—I’d never seen him before—and I honestly didn’t know what to say at first. I just asked, “Oh, you don’t think I believe in the Bible?” And he responded, “Well, that’s what you said.”

Before I could engage any further, Rick rebuked my heckler, and said some things I probably shouldn’t repeat in worship, and we left.

I titled this sermon “The Bible I Believe In” as a kind of tongue-in-cheek response to that man. But it’s also true. That moment got me thinking: how did we get to a place where the Bible is so twisted that people use it to justify marginalizing entire groups of people? Especially when those very people are often the same ones Jesus would have been most drawn to? That man actually called us a “leftie church”—and he meant it as an insult—because somehow loving others as we have been loved is a leftist ideal in his mind.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” And Peter says, “Yes, I do.” Jesus replies, “Feed my lambs.”
Then he asks again, “Do you love me?” Peter says, “You know I do.” And Jesus says, “Feed my sheep.”
And a third time—“Do you love me?” By now, Peter is probably hurt or offended and says, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.” And Jesus replies again: “Feed my lambs.”
Of course, Jesus isn’t just talking about material food. He’s calling Peter—and all of us—to care for the vulnerable, to align ourselves with those who most need God's love and protection.

And honestly, I think this church does that really well. You are good people. You care for those others might cast aside. I’ve told you this many times because I truly believe it: you know what it means to follow God’s will—and you actually do it.

I believe you're close to the heart of God in very real ways. After God heard the cries of the oppressed in Exodus, and they reached the Promised Land, I think many of you would’ve been there waiting with a hot dish or a hug. That’s who you are. You carry within you countless ways to be someone else’s “promised land”—a place where they feel welcomed, loved, and supported, just as TobyMac sings about in today’s media song.

We’re about to watch a short clip of an interview with Nelson Mandela, after his imprisonment, talking about non-violence.

(clip)

Mandela said, "You are dealing with human beings, and you want to live in peace with these people. You want them also to go and spread the same message to their own people as we want to spread to our own people. And in that situation, it's very difficult to find room for hate."

It’s one thing to hold personal beliefs about LGBTQ+ people. Many of us are still "on the way" with these issues—not everyone is ready to wave a rainbow flag in front of the church. But what’s absolutely not okay is to participate in any form of hatred. We can’t stoop to declaring who is or isn’t a Christian based on their beliefs. That’s not our role, nor is it reflective of the love we’re called to embody.

Our church isn’t uniformly progressive. Sure, we’re more progressive than Forsell Gappa’s church, but within our community, we have a wide spectrum of views: Republican, Democrat, Independent; progressive and conservative; modernist and traditionalist. And that diversity is beautiful. It’s part of our strength.

Because when it truly matters, we come together in powerful ways to live out what it means to follow God.

So—what would you do if Jesus asked, “Do you love me?” How would you respond if He told you, “Feed my sheep”? What kind of discipleship might that call you into?
My heckler at the library called us a “lefty” church. Obviously, he doesn’t know us at all. We are much more than a political label. But if loving our neighbor is “lefty,” then I sure don’t want to be right. If caring for the poor, the oppressed, and the vulnerable is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.

And here’s the kicker: somehow, the same Bible I believe in is probably the same Bible he believes in, too. He’s likely a practicing Christian. And by the grace of God, God loves him just as much as God loves me. Just as much as God loves all of us.

So here we are, in a time of deep division, asking: how do we live differently than those who preach exclusion and hate? How do we show that we are Christians by our love, not by our legalism?

Not everyone is going to speak at a library board meeting. Some of you would probably rather die than do something like that. And that’s okay—because you already know what God asks of you. And you show it in so many ways. You make meals for people. You volunteer at food pantries. You help with Vacation Bible School when it happens in a couple of weeks—Becky, see what I did there? You remember times when you journeyed from hardship to healing, and you testify to how God showed up in those moments.

Not all of us show the way of God in the same way. Some of us will be the social justice warriors. Others will be the quiet saints cleaning the kitchen after everyone has left. But all of it is sacred.

So this week, I invite you to consider: what would you do after Jesus told you, “Feed my lambs”? What does the Bible you believe in tell you to do next? How will you make room for others to experience how the Spirit moves through them?

These are difficult times, filled with hardship both at home and abroad. This isn’t a political statement—it’s a reality we’re all living through. And this world needs your light, your love, and your labor—now more than ever. Even if that labor feels like birth pangs. You have so much to offer. When I look out at this congregation, I think of all the ways you’ve blessed me, blessed each other, blessed your communities, and blessed the world.

And for all you have done, all you are doing, and all you will do—I say: thanks be to God.
Amen.
 

“Lessons from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and God’s Presence”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

Fifth Sunday of Easter

May 18, 2025
 

Focus: God can use the most difficult situations in our lives to bless us.

You may wonder why today’s sermon is titled, 'Lessons from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and God’s Presence”, especially after hearing today’s Scripture readings. Our current series, 'Resurrection Stories,' invites us to explore how deep struggles—whether of body, mind, or spirit—can reveal new life. I’ve spoken recently about homelessness and addiction. Today, I want to share about my journey with generalized anxiety disorder—something I’ve mentioned briefly before, but feel called to speak more deeply about today.. As coincidence would have it, today is also Mental Health Sunday in the United Church of Christ, so it's likely that there are many churches across our denomination talking about anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions that affect people's lives. Necessarily, it feels important to offer a trigger warning to anyone who might be distressed by this.

Before I begin, a quick note: today’s message involves mental health and may be difficult for some to hear. I’ll be sharing parts of my own story—without going into graphic detail—with the hope that it may help someone else. I want you to know there's no need for concern about me, or to avoid sharing the struggles of your own life with me. I have strong support—I see a therapist regularly, take anti-anxiety medication, and rely on prayer and meditation. I’m blessed with a wonderful fiancé, a loving family, and friends I can be honest with. I share this because I know many people in and beyond our congregation face their own journeys, and some people need to hear another person’s story to start piecing together their own resurrection story. At the end of this sermon, I'll offer resources that may be helpful if you find yourself in a similar situation. I won’t share every detail of my story, as some are difficult or not professionally appropriate, but my hope is that what I do share encourages you to talk about your own journey with someone you trust.

My journey with generalized anxiety disorder officially started about a year ago when I was diagnosed, but it really began several months before that when I realized something was wrong. I would constantly wake up with a pit in my chest. My thoughts would spiral—like a song stuck on repeat—and it became hard to focus, to relax, or to enjoy life. Even simple things felt heavy.  Sometimes I didn’t know how I could be so sure God was with me, and yet I felt this way.

But I knew I needed to take action. I tried a couple different medications, and I tried a few other therapeutic interventions. Finally I feel like I'm at a place where, even though I still have difficult days, I generally feel much more stable than I felt at that time.

In some ways, at some times, I felt like the Jacob of our story from the book of Genesis, who wrestles with a man. The commentator Safwat Mazouk believes this person embodies God, though Jacob’s struggle with him is intertwined with his conflict with Esau, who he is about to make amends with after years of discord. But that isn’t necessarily the only interpretation. Interpretations of the man who wrestled Jacob fall into three categories: some believe he embodies God, others think he is Esau, and a third view combines both, suggesting the mystery is intentional.

But amazingly, after fighting God or whoever we might believe the mysterious person to be, Jacob asks him for a blessing. After deceiving his father and cheating his older brother out of his inheritance, Jacob asks God for a blessing that he can take with him as he lives a better life.

The blessing bestowed upon him is a new name, which signifies a new identity—from Jacob to Isreal.

I don't believe that God gives us anything that makes our lives more difficult on purpose. I don't believe that God wants us to experience pain. But what I do believe is that the situations we are handed, either by fate or by God or however you say it, can give us a new perspective. Jacob received a new name and a new opportunity to make amends with his brother. When I was beginning my generalized anxiety disorder journey, I experienced in a whole new way the kind of support that was there for me. As soon as I told people I was struggling, people were so good at reaching out and seeing how I was doing and how they could help. I discovered that I meant more to people than I could ever imagine. (Sometimes we don't always know what we mean to somebody.) This feels really important to share with you all, not because I need to lean on you in an unhealthy way, but because I want you to know that you are not alone if you feel this way.

To that end, if you or someone you know is in need of help dealing with anxiety, depression, PTSD, or another mental health condition, there are so many resources available to you. For confidential assistance, you can call or text 988 24 hours a day, every day of the year for the national mental health crisis line. A new in-person therapy clinic just opened up here in Waupun within the last year or so, which is staffed by licensed therapists. It's called Kairos Constructive Counseling, and they take most insurances. They are also happy to take LGBTQ+ clients, which is so important in this divided climate. If you meet certain income requirements and are uninsured or underinsured, you can contact Church Health Services. You can contact Rick Vant Hoff for more information on what they offer if you’re unsure. Finally, though I’m not a trained mental health professional, I’m happy to walk with you in the ways I can, and give you a referral for deeper assistance.

Friends today’s good news is simply this: God can use the most difficult situations in our lives to bless us. So may you go into this week with new prospectives, newfound hope, and renewed courage for this journey of life. We live in difficult times, my friends, and we need each other. May you know how loved you are and may you know that if God wrestles with you, God might give you a new name and a new identity too. May all of these experiences help you write your own resurrection story. Thanks be to God. Amen.

“Home and Belonging”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Mother's Day

May 11, 2025

I was in seminary for three years, and two of those years were years where I had some sort of church responsibilities on Sunday mornings. The second year, I was the children's minister at Kirkwood United Methodist Church in Kirkwood, Missouri, and I was doing things like coordinating Sunday school programs, Vacation Bible School, and a lot of other things that are similar to what Becky does for us. But for most of the first year, I didn't have a church to go to regularly. We didn’t have Sunday services at the seminary because most of the students and staff had other commitments.

I knew that at some point, I would find a church job, and of course, I would go to church on Sundays and do whatever they needed me to do during seminary. But for most of the first year of my seminary experience, I was allowed to do some of what I called “church hopping”.

So most every Sunday, I would go to a different church, usually with a friend. Sometimes I would find a church I could walk to and go by myself. And I had lots of different experiences doing this church hopping.

One such experience was less enjoyable. I entered into the beautiful sanctuary at this church about five minutes early for worship. I would have been happy to tell anybody that I was an Eden student because this particular congregation was very familiar with the seminary, given the fact that it was less than a mile away. But to my surprise, not a single congregant came up to talk to me and ask me whether I was new to the church or whether I had found everything okay or whether I needed anything.

The pastor was very nice as I went through the greeting line and even invited me to stay for the luncheon that they were holding afterwards. But I didn't bother because nobody else had made the effort, and I felt very unwelcome. So I simply walked back to my dorm at Eden Seminary.

Conversely, another church that I went to was just down the street called Peace United Church of Christ. The first time I walked in those doors, three different people came to welcome me and told me how glad they were that I had chosen to worship with them that day. One person commented how much they enjoyed hearing my singing during the hymns. It was also the home church of my friend and professor at the time, Christopher Grundy, who made sure I was introduced to some of his friends and also to the pastor.

I came to Peace UCC several more times after that because I felt like they wanted me there. The kind of worship that they embodied was the closest I had found yet to what I had experienced for many years at my home church and I felt not only welcome there, but I felt like I was at home. That's why when I had the opportunity to do my third year internship as their student pastor, I jumped at the opportunity because of how welcomed I was and that year I was shown the kind of enthusiasm and grace and belonging that I would hope everybody finds when they first enter into these church doors for the first time. My gifts, and my story, and my needs—both physical and spiritual—were deeply and lovingly attended to, and I was assured that the community of Peace United Church of Christ was better because I was there. I was even presented with a custom-made quilt which now hangs up in my recording studio on my final day as their student pastor as a graduation gift.

Now, I have given you two starkly different experiences from my own life, both of which happened at churches just down the street from one another. I think that it's pretty clear the kind of church that we want to be and which of the two experiences we want people to have when they come join us. I don't have anything against the other church because they're a good church. Their liturgy was top-notch. Their music was wonderful. The sermon, as I remember it, was meaningful. But that can only do so much if the people who are in that space are truly welcomed as they are and appreciated for having being there.

Today in our sermon series, we're also talking about a sense of belonging. Marcia McFee is playing with the image of being home, both literally having a place to lay our heads at night and also emotionally, a feeling of belonging. I've talked a decent amount about the homeless situation here in Waupun and so I'm going to focus less on that for today's message. But I really want to zoom in on the spiritual and emotional senses of belonging and finding a home in the worship of God and in the community that God invites us into.

The Psalms is one of my favorite books in the Bible because of the ways that it speak so deeply to the variety of human experiences. Today's Psalm, for example, finds the psalmist longing to be in the courts of God because in God, the psalmist finds strength and hope and joy. That's why I had us start off this morning's worship with Richard Bruxvoort Colligan's song, “My Heart is a Highway”. Plus it's just so darn catchy. But the larger point that the Psalm reminds us of is that people find home and a sense of deep belonging in God's community. The commentator Karl Jacobson reminds us that in the first several verses of Psalm 84, we read about God’s dwelling place, God’s courts, and a home which is found at the altar of the Lord. All of this is summarized in the resounding praise of verse 4: “Happy are those who live in your house.”

So many of you have told me amazing and beautiful and powerful stories about how you have found community here in this church and the kind of community that you want to create for other people who join us. When you are at home in a place, you feel safe there, and you find people with common ground there. There are people who will take care of you when you need something and people who will hold you up when you are at your lowest. I have seen this in action several times throughout the course of my ministry here so far. People coming through with monetary donations, with food, with meaningful visitation ministry—all sorts of wonderful things.

Later in the gospel, Jesus is about to leave the disciples after having risen again and revealed himself to them. And he assures them, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.”

But the disciples, of course, ask him, how are we going to know when we see it? And Jesus assures them, “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.”

As I think about these two scripture passages, I wonder what it would mean for us to create that kind of advocacy for others.

I don't have to tell you that the world many people are facing in these difficult days in our country. It’s a scary time for some people. People's rights are in danger. And some people are wondering if leaving this country might be a safer option for them than staying.

I'm not going to get political here because that doesn't do anybody any good. But I do think that the current situation in our country and in our world might give us clarity as to what our mission is if we're paying attention. The beautiful, amazing experiences that you all have had in this church can and should be the experiences that everybody has when they join us.

What are we going to do to make it so?

As you go into this week, I invite you to think about how God has given your faith a home through this church, and what we might do to give that to others. Your witness is powerful, and remember that a pastor's invitation to people to join our church only goes so far. It is much more powerful if you invite somebody to join us. Talk to people in the community who may not have a spiritual home right now, and who might feel lost, and talk to them about how this church has been helpful to you on your journey. Testimonies like that are how we grow the church and bring it into the future. Tending to the needs of the people we serve right now, along with the people we will serve in the future, is how we grow the church. May we all work together so that everybody has a spiritual home, especially those who are most vulnerable. Thanks to God. Amen.
 

“Not Punishment, Just Love”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

3rd Sunday of Easter
May 4, 2025

Focus: God cares for us and helps us in the ways we should go, and through God, we can be set free from all that holds us back.

This week I asked Winnie Smith to come into my office and give me some help with my sermon. As unassuming as Winnie is, I can only imagine that she might've been a little confused as to why I would need her help with a sermon. But one of the things I love about Winnie is that she's very wise and has some particular knowledge about the topic that Dr. Marcia McFee, the writer of our sermon series, suggests that we talk about in relation to the scripture passages she's prescribed.

As we spend this series talking about “resurrection stories” that real people experience, and how we can experience the resurrection in our own lives, one of the ways McFee connects this is by talking about addiction. In her supporting documents for preachers to prepare for this series, she offers a story of a man named Ron Williams, who, after years of addiction and multiple failed rehabilitation attempts, found lasting recovery at the “Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge” program. He became a recovery coach, using his personal experiences to help others, and has been sober for over 18 years.
Initially, I was going to talk more in depth about Ron's story (it’s a really good one) until I remembered that Winnie does really important work with the Al-Anon chapter which is held at our church on a weekly basis.

It struck me that while most people probably know that an Al-Anon chapter exists within the ministries of our church, due to the strictly confidential nature of the program, we don’t often get to understand the impact that this valuable ministry has on our community. So I asked Winnie if she could speak in generalities about the ministry of solidarity that Al-Anon provides, without breaking any confidences, and if I could share pieces of our conversation with the rest of you. As I start the sermon today, I’m going to share some of the “big ideas” that I learned, and how these ideas can help the rest of us grow and thrive in our faith.

I don't have to tell you that there is significant stigma around drug and alcohol addiction, both for the addict and for their families. One of the things that Winnie wanted me to make sure you understood was that Al-Anon is a ministry specifically to the families and loved ones of addict, not the addict themselves. That kind of work is done through the other organization with a similar name, Alcoholics Anonymous. One of the first things that Winnie said was, “Remember, Pastor Jacob, alcoholism is a disease, not a character flaw.”

She went on to talk about how people misuse Christian doctrine to shame addicts and their families, and that her work with Al-Anon was a place where she and the rest of the group endeavor to support one another and share the kind of faith that wasn't based on God punishing people for their wrongdoing, but just the fact that they are held by God’s grace in this difficult experience. One of the most beautiful things she talked about was the depth of spirituality that she experienced in hearing the stories, offering supportive resources, and learning from each other. God was with her in those meetings in a very tangible way that even as a lifelong churchgoer was something she hadn't experienced before. So, thank you, Winnie, for letting me tell your story.

When I think about our scripture passages for today, I see themes of this kind of faith weaving throughout. Many of us love this psalm because of the way it gives comfort to those in difficult times. This is a song that is used often in at funerals to talk about somebody who had a strong faith throughout their life, for example. In the context of addiction and other life struggles, this might be a recognition that sometimes we face things throughout our lives that we feel we can't control. The commentator James Mays reminds his readers that begins. The theme of relying on the Lord in a hostile world is a recurring theme in the Songs of Ascents, which encompass Psalms 120-134. Indeed, the realities of addiction and other things that hold us back are often results of living in a difficult world, unhealthy coping mechanisms that we rely on when we can't seem to find a way through our bigger issues. But God continually shows us the way through these difficult situations and we can have faith that God will continue to keep us on the path that leads to well-being, even in spite of ourselves, and help us release ourselves from what holds us back.

The prophet Nehemiah capitalizes on this as well, remembering how God has taken care of his ancestors in the past: “And you saw the distress of our ancestors in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea. 10 You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted insolently against our ancestors. You made a name for yourself that remains to this day. “

Often times, when we talk about addiction in the church or even in other public spaces, sometimes the way we talk about it can seem condescending or unhelpful in some other way, especially if we ourselves have not been touched by it. But I think it's important to talk about because these are real issues that people who are loved by God experience every day, whether directly or indirectly. One of the gifts of the resurrection I think is recognize that, because Jesus lived and died and rose again for us, there are greater possibilities for our life of faith than we could ever imagine. God's love and grace allows us to release ourselves from the difficulties that hold us back. God cares for us and helps us in the ways we should go, and through God, we can be set free from all of that. 
So as you think of your own resurrection story in the midst of this Easter season, I wonder what you yourself might need to be set free from. How might you find sources of support to help you through difficult days? How might be release yourself from stigma, and instead of believing in a God who is waiting to punish you, instead find refuge in a God who will carry you every step of the way? And then once you found that, how might you be a source of support for somebody else?

There are so many ways that this church already does this work; Our Al-Anon chapter was just one example that fit particularly well with today's message. I think that because many of us have felt stigmatized ourselves for decisions we've made or ways we've lived our lives, I don’t think we as a congregation believe in a God who punishes us or leaves us to ourselves. And because we believe this, I think we can be sources of hope for one another, what if that's a support group, a prayer circle, or even just a comforting embrace in a time of difficulty. For all of the ways that God continues to work through you and through all of us, for all of the ways that God carries us, I say thanks be to God. Amen. 
           
 

“Freed in Love”

Sermon for U-CC Waupun

2nd Sunday of Easter

April 27, 2025

Guest Preacher: Rev. Jeffrey Dodson

In Love with This World
I sat on the porch steps this week, watching my kids play in the warming
air of late spring. “Dad, Dad! Look what I can do!” my oldest daughter
called, flying past on her scooter, wheels clattering over the concrete in
front of the garage. Ellie, my youngest, sat wrapped in a blanket in my
arms, rocking back and forth with me as she repeated her sister’s cry:
“Look at Ainslie go!” She laughed and cheered, clapping her tiny hands.
And over on the sidewalk, Frankie scribbled spirals and stars and dreams
in bright chalk—art that had no particular form, but carried every bit of
wonder and intention that life itself does.
And I thought: I am so in love with this world.
 

Yes, this world—with all its bruises and burdens, with the ache of
headlines and hospital rooms, with grief and injustice still too present—I
am still in love with it. Because in these fleeting sidewalk sketches and
scooter races, I see what God sees: a world worth redeeming.
This is resurrection.
 

To be alive and feel that love in your bones—even after the storms, the
wounds, the long nights of silence and suffering—that is resurrection. Not
in a grand, distant way, but right here. In my backyard. In my body. In
this life. Because resurrection isn’t only about what happened at a tomb
two thousand years ago. Resurrection is what happens when love refuses
to give up.
 

That’s what the superhero Vision said to Wanda in a moment of beautiful
cinematic wisdom in the TV show WandaVision from 2021. “What is grief,
if not love persevering?” And that line—that truth—has stuck with me.
Grief is not weakness. Grief is not surrender. Grief is what happens when
love insists on still being here, even when everything else has been taken
away.
 

Grief is what led Mary Magdalene and the other women to the tomb that
first Easter morning. They were afraid. They were heartbroken. But they
 

2 showed up. Love led them there. Love always leads us toward the places
of deepest pain—because love believes something still might grow there.
We see that same kind of love—resurrecting love—in today’s scripture
from Acts.
 

Paul and Silas are in the middle of doing what they believe is right. They
free a young enslaved girl from a spirit that had bound her and made her
a spectacle for profit. But her liberation enraged her captors, and so Paul
and Silas are seized, beaten, and thrown into the darkest part of the
prison. Shackled. Wounded. Bloodied.
And what do they do?
They sing.
 

In the midnight hour—at their lowest point—they worship. Not because
they are naïve. Not because they are untouched by pain. But because
they know something deeper: love doesn’t stay silent in the dark. It
rises up. It resists. It sings.
 

And then—just like at the tomb—God moves.
The ground quakes. The doors fly open. The chains fall off. But the
miracle isn't just in the earthquake. The real resurrection moment is
when Paul calls out to the jailer: “Do not harm yourself. We are all
here.”
 

Think about that.
They could have run. They could have escaped. But love stayed. Love
stayed for the one man ready to end his life. Love stayed because grief
met grace in that prison cell, and something new was being born. A man
who thought his life was over was about to begin again.
And how does the story end? The jailer washes the wounds of his
prisoners. They share a meal. And the man who once locked others in
chains now opens his home and heart to God. That’s resurrection. That’s
 

3 love persevering. That’s being in love with this world—enough to stay,
enough to sing, enough to feed and forgive.
Friends, we are not optimists. We are Christians. We don’t deny the
grief—we carry it with us. But we also carry hope. We carry the kind of
love that breaks chains, quiets swords, opens homes, and writes hope in
chalk across sidewalks.
This is the work of love:
 

To hold your child and marvel at how fast they’re growing,
To watch dreams take shape in swirls of pink and yellow on the concrete,
To zoom across driveways and find delight in simply being alive.
This is the work of resurrection:
 

To show up to the tomb even when you’re afraid,
To sing at midnight with broken skin and unshakable faith,
To stay when you could run,
To feed others even when you are hungry yourself.
 

This is the Gospel.
This is the resurrection.
This is love.
 

So yes—I am in love with this Christ, this world, this life.
A life where I am made free because of love.
 

And you are too.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.

“Believing the Unbelievable”

Sermon for U-CC Waupun

Easter Sunday

 April 20, 2025

Focus statement: God is showing us that unbelievable things can happen today. 
Behavioral purpose: I invite you to think about how that resurrection hope was shared with you, and how you can embody that hope for someone else.

When I was a kid, there were certain things about Easter that were hard for me to understand.

I knew that we would wake up and see what the Easter Bunny had left in our baskets. My sister and I would always bemoan the fact that we never got as big of a chocolate bunny as my dad did. Then we would get dressed in clothes that were far fancier than anything we normally wore to church, sing what we thought were boring hymns and eat lots of food later on.

I’ve been a member of the same church since the day I was born, and my parents always did an admirable job of doing their best to tell me the Easter story. 

But as I think about it, there might be a deeper reason why I didn't understand the Easter story.
By the time I started asking serious questions about Easter, I had experienced death enough times to know what that was like. Death was a sad thing because I knew I would not see these people again, at least not until it was time for me to die and we saw each other in heaven. Death was final, and we had to go on living without the people we loved.

So the idea that God had done something different and literally raised Jesus from the dead? Unbelievable.

I mean, I knew God could do things that humans couldn't, but given my experience with death, I could not even fathom what I was reading and hearing.

This is why it's so important to begin the retelling of the Easter story by focusing on the female disciples carrying out their burial rituals. They had been some of the most devoted followers of Jesus as long as he had been alive. But, he had died. It was so important to them to honor him well. They did so in the only way they knew how. They had no reason to expect a different result.

Their pain must have been unbearable. It seemed the corrupt government had won. Power-hungry leaders had eradicated the biggest rabble-rouser standing in their way. Government censorship was complete. And they, the living ones left behind, would have to suffer the consequences of whatever retaliation their government would cook up for them.

Throughout the last several days, there is no doubt that this fear would have been at the front of their minds.

This is why the angel must be so clear with the grieving women: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He isn’t here, but has been raised. Remember what he told you while he was still in Galilee, that the Human One must be handed over to sinners, be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”

It was only then that this became more clear to them. They remembered that Jesus had said these things, and they had paid attention. They also understood that they had a sacred responsibility to tell the world now, starting with the disciples.

Luke's gospel makes it clear that the women have a certain kind of revelation that is not shared with the male disciples. The eleven men who are associated most closely to Jesus aren’t the ones who are greeted by the angels and given the news.

Because they haven’t seen it with their own eyes, Luke makes a point of telling his readers that the women’s testimony is discarded and dismissed. The women's words were disregarded as “nonsense.”
One explanation for this cannot be ignored: the blatant sexism of the day. There are harmful cultural norms of the day that still very much exist in modern society. These stereotypes, this patriarchal leadership structure, was wrong then, and it’s wrong now.

But Luke’s writing guides us to the conclusion that we wouldn’t have the good news of the resurrection without the women who are willing to speak the truth, even when they knew those men would probably dismiss their testimony.

We would not have the story of the resurrection of these women didn’t muster the courage to say, “I have seen something I can’t explain. But I know what I saw, and I will never be the same.”

The theologian Joel B. Green points out that there is, at the very least, one man who is willing to at least investigate. Luke also makes this point as a literary transition, using two simple words: “But Peter.”

Peter is set apart from the rest of the disciples, maybe due to his guilt of denying that he knew Jesus. He had been perhaps the closest disciple of Jesus, and he probably couldn’t forgive himself for what he had done under the pressure a few days ago.

Peter actually does go run to the tomb to see for himself. For Green, the fact that Peter even gives credence to the women’s testimony, and retraces their steps, is worth noting. But it’s no use. He comes home with nothing new to share.

If we were honest with ourselves, I wonder how many of us would stay behind with the other ten disciples while Peter went on a fool’s errand. Conversely, how many of us would run like Peter, desperately trying to retrace the steps of the messengers?

Why didn’t they all go with Peter? Would their response have been different if other men had come back to tell them the news initially?

I think many of us might balk at the idea that we would knowingly miss a chance to see our resurrected Christ. We might be like the twelve: “I’m not going to abandon you, am I, Rabbi?”

But maybe there’s another way of thinking about this.

If we heard this kind of news now, how could we believe it?

There are so many situations in our world that seem utterly hopeless. We have seen too many situations where death, destruction, dishonesty, and deceit have the last word. We’ve been too devastated by the wars across the country or the discrimination of our neighbors to even conceive of a possibility that God might reveal something incredible. That’s part of why our worship series writer, Dr. Marcia McFee, included the story of the resurrection of Lazarus in today’s text. Mary, his sister, bemoans that Jesus could have prevented Lazarus’ death if he had been there just a few days sooner, and even Jesus himself wept.

But we’ve been shown time and time again that we can believe what Jesus does in the world around him. It’s no accident that Easter and Christmas, the two most important moments of the Christian journey, see God revealing something new and revolutionary through Jesus Christ.

This is the good news: In Christ’s resurrection, God is showing us that unbelievable things can happen today.

God with us, Emmanuel, is with us again, doing something new. Like our media song says, Jesus caught his “second wind” while we thought all was lost.

We can take comfort and rejoice because we are a resurrection people. We can believe the unbelievable, precisely because God continues working in the world through us, regardless of our ability to perceive it.

God can take situations we thought produced only despair, and make them instead an opportunity to experience the life-giving hope that sprouts up in the least expected places. No matter how disillusion we may feel by the state of the world, no matter how dead we feel inside—God reminds us that, through Jesus Christ, there are possibilities for new life and new hope.

And lest we think Easter hope is merely an intellectual exercise, Christ has a new call for us.

Because we are a resurrection people, we can share the hope that we’ve found through that which is unbelievable.

We can be part of the work of Christ, which turns obstacles into opportunities, starvation into sufficiency, and apathy into action.

As we move into this first week of the Easter season, I invite you to think about how that resurrection hope was shared with you, and how you can embody that hope for someone else.

God’s ways are not our ways. God does unbelievable, wonderful, amazing things because God is still at work within us, among us, around us, and through us.

May we recognize the ways God is at work, and may we do our part to further God’s will and God’s hope for the world. Alleluia and Amen! 
 

“Why We Wave Palms”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

Palm Sunday

April 13, 2025

Focus statement: Jesus came into Jerusalem to challenge power and domination, and demonstrate a way of love for all.

If you've been watching the news as much as I have, you've likely seen the enormity of nationwide protests that have been going on in the last week or so as our current presidential administration is talking about making cuts to Social Security and Medicare. I don't want to get political in terms of saying what I think about our current administration or any of the views that they espouse. But I do believe that the vast majority of us would see strong adverse effects if Social Security or Medicaid were to be cut or compromised in any way. I believe that government programs like these offer tangible benefits to people regardless of political affiliation or ideological beliefs. So this is a very important topic to be aware of and to monitor.

As I'm thinking about Holy Week and the different pieces of that story, I'm struck by the fact that it also begins with moments of protest and then ends with a crowd calling for the execution of an innocent man.

Today's topic of Christian nationalism, the final topic that we're going to be talking about in this series is domination. Much of the Christian nationalist agenda has to do with exactly what Jesus himself would not desire to be treated as king in the same sense that a human ruler would be treated. This particular brand of Christianity calls for a forceful, comprehensive and often violent takeover of everything from the government to school systems to other public entities, which often makes the world much more dangerous for anybody who doesn't believe in the kind of Christianity that the people espousing these kinds of beliefs would like you to have.

So today I'm going to talk about Palm Sunday as it relates to this theme of domination and what Jesus calls us to do instead.

Jesus is very aware that the week will end with him being arrested, mocked, and crucified because that was the plan all along. He's even tried to tell the disciples this, but they wouldn't understand and probably couldn't understand. That’s part of why some people have jokingly called the disciples the “duh-sciples.” But whether the disciples were going to be on board with this or not, Jesus knew that he needed to do what he had to do in order to carry out God's will and advance the good news of God's love for all people. So he begins the week by deliberately turning power upside down and bucking all the common assumptions of what power and domination should look like.

Typically, when rulers would ride into town, as Jesus is doing in this passage, they would do so on big war horses. And after they parade into town, they would inflict terrible violence upon all of the people in that region, exacting their will of retribution and blood and discrimination. But Jesus, as is common with his ministry, does things much differently.

He rides into town not on a war horse, but on what one commentary called an untested colt. I've often wondered if the cult strained and found it difficult to walk under the weight of Jesus on his back. And of course, you can't deny how silly it looked for Jesus to come into town in this way.

But the most striking thing, perhaps, about this part of the Holy Week story is that the crowd was waiting with cloaks on the ground and lots and lots of palms. I titled this sermon, Why We Wave Palms, not so much as an educational title, but to remind us that waving palms was a form of protest, just like we saw across the country earlier this week. The crowd is sick and tired of the abuse, the gross abuse of power by Roman leaders and others.

And they cry out to Jesus for hope and liberation, saying, “Hosanna”, save us, as it's translated. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of our God.” Blessed is he, in other words, who comes in the name of true hope and liberation.
This is the crowd saying, “this is who we want to attribute power to, and this is who we will say that we worship. Not Herod, not Pilate, and not anybody who came before, but Jesus.”

Of course, we all know how this story ends. It's ironic that many Bibles use the heading, “Jesus's triumphal entry”, because in just four short days, the very same people who cried out, Hosanna, are going to cry out, crucify him, kill him, give us Barrabbas, give us a murderer.

But that's sometimes how protests work.We are so preoccupied with the difficulties we're facing that we can't understand the liberation that's right in front of us. And that's really the tragedy of what happens to Jesus.

Jesus came into Jerusalem to challenge power and domination, and demonstrate a way of love for all. 
I think we need to ask ourselves this week, what kinds of powers have domination over us? When we wave our palms, and when we ask Jesus to save us, when we shout, Hosanna, what kinds of powers are we trying to refute? I think the Wisconsin Council of Churches, in their series for this season, has encouraged us to think about power structures as it relates to white supremacy and self-reliance and one right way, for example.

But even if we zoom in a little further to things we can actively relate to here in this community, here in Waupun, what kinds of powers might we have to refute to truly follow the ways of Jesus, even to his death? I certainly don't think that it's the will of God, for example, that the youth mental health crisis is worse now than it ever has been, or that homelessness and food insecurity and poverty have all gone way up. In order for us to truly live as Jesus calls us to live, we probably are going to have to cede some of the comforts of our lives as the situation worsens for marginalized people around the world, for example. And in our communities today, I think our church has the potential to offer a sense of hopefulness, a sense of good news, a sense of real genuine welcome that may not be experienced everywhere.

I think that the kinds of work that we do show that we are willing to put our boots on the ground from ecumenical work on vacation Bible school that's ongoing and helping families across the whole community of Waupon experience the love of Jesus to the ways we help with food pantry and community table work. There are so many different ways that this church already dedicates itself to these kinds of values. But if we want our work to actually mean something, and if we want it to be something more than just platitudes that we say we believe in, all of us in some way have to carry our cross, or at the very least, recognize what Jesus has done not only for us, but for others.

So as we go forth into this holy week, may you know that Jesus came into Jerusalem and came towards his death not only for your benefit, but for the benefit of so many others. May we all continue to truly follow Jesus with the hope that someday the love and liberation that he came for will truly be available to all people. Thanks be to God.

Amen. 
 

“Look at the Bigger Picture!”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun
April 6, 2025

Focus: In today's scripture, Jesus reminds us that there doesn't have to be just one right way to follow him, but our call to follow him remains just as important now as it has ever been.

Most of you know I'm a musician, and a lot of my ministry revolves around music, ministry, disability advocacy, and sharing my lived experience with cerebral palsy and how it affects my faith. It's a topic I'm really passionate about and it's work that I deeply love doing. For any of you who have been musicians yourselves, or for any of you who are engaged in any other kind of creative work, you know the struggle that I'm about to share with you. When we share our art with people, we practice really hard, and we focus on performing to the best of our ability. When we perform, most of the time we do so with good accuracy. We create beautiful music (or whatever art we practice), but it's not usually flawless. Typically there will be at least one mistake that we make in the process, and for as many times as people tell us how good of a job we've done, sometimes all we can think about and all we can focus on is that one mistake. We wish we could have practiced more so that we couldn't get it wrong. We wished we could have gotten more sleep the night before the big day.
 

It's a similar thing, I think, with our text for today. For anybody who hasn't been here the last several weeks, we've been spending our Lenten journey talking about Christian nationalism, a disturbing trend in the Christian religious practice that intertwine a life of faith with certain ideologies of our country’s politics and social structures, which can be dangerous. Today's topic of Christian nationalism involves repenting from “one right way”, meaning that there are many ways to live out our Christian faith, and not necessarily one rigid set of doctrines which we must follow in order to be considered “real Christians”.

In order to fully understand the context of this passage, we have to go back a few verses in the 11th chapter of John, before today's text begins. Basically, Jesus has just caused Lazarus to rise again from the dead, and because he does these amazing things, he becomes an even greater threat to the Jewish leaders than he already is, and they want to find a reason to arrest and kill him. Disciples and other allies of Jesus have caught wind of this, and they tell Jesus that the powers that be want to kill him, so he leaves Jerusalem and stays with his disciples in a nearby city in the wilderness called Ephraim. Word had gotten around that Jesus had done this incredible thing for Lazarus, and now Lazarus has a target on his own back as well.

This leads us to the current point in the story. Mary and Martha and Lazarus have a dinner for Jesus in Lazarus’ hometown of Bethany, and his disciples are also there. Notably, Judas is slowly beginning to show his hand as a contrarian who is going to betray Jesus in just a couple of weeks. This is six days before the Jewish passover, which is one of the most prominent religious festivals in Jesus’ day. Mary, a friend of Jesus and sister to Lazarus, does something pretty incredible. She brings this expensive perfume to anoint Jesus's feet and head. What makes this act so revolutionary is that the cost of this perfume would've mounted to a year’s worth of wages for the average person. So on one hand, we might share the incredulousness of Judas, wondering why on earth you would use this expensive perfume to annoy someone's feet. There are so many things that could've been done with that money. Judas asks, for example, why the money isn't used to care for the poor. He doesn't care about the poor, but since he has walked with Jesus closer than other people, Judas has heard him talk about the poor, and wonders why Jesus isn't putting his money where his mouth is.

But Jesus responds with something surprising. He says, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

In essence, Jesus is saying that Judas has missed the bigger picture.

Indeed, next week is Palm Sunday, and we're going to be remembering Jesus’ arrival into Jerusalem, that will begin the chain of events that lead to his death. Mary understand the stakes here. She understands that Jesus is going to die as a result of the actions of the Jewish leaders, and she has such respect for him that she feels called to perform the cultural expectation of preparing a body for a burial. Because if he is not prepared for his burial, the culture will not remember him in the same way, and the mission and ministry of Jesus may not be remembered with the same magnitude. So Jesus has not being self important here. Far from it. Instead, Jesus is allowing Mary to honor him and, in her own way, testify to the importance of Jesus's life and ministry.

So what does this have to do with Christian nationalism? Well, there are lots of ways to spend money as we have talked about. There are lots of ways to use our energy. There are lots of ways to relate to one another. But those who are spouse, Christian nationalist beliefs as a certain kind of Christianity that tends to be exclusionary to people of different races, sexes, gender, identities, ability levels, and other marginalized, social groups. Indeed, if we are not following their understanding of Christianity, we must not be Christians at all.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Like in the story, Jesus reminds us that we don't have to focus on one right way to spend money or to follow our faith. When I think about this, I think about Quinn and her family as she is being baptized into the faith today. In her faith journey, she will be told by some that her faith is not correct if she believes certain things, or stands up for the rights of certain people. But in today's scripture, Jesus reminds us that there doesn't have to be just one right way to follow him, but our call to follow him remains just as important now as it has ever been.

So as we go into this week, the final week of Lent before Palm Sunday, I invite you to reflect about the multitude of ways that you can remember Jesus in your own life. Maybe it's giving to the poor or the needy, because Jesus would have surely wanted us to do that. But maybe it is preparing your heart for his burial, and for his death, because it's in those kinds of moments as well that the ministry of Jesus is remembered. So may we all continue to grow in our faith, and may we all continue to remember what Jesus has done for us, and what he calls us to do in response. Love our neighbors as ourselves, and love one another as he so deeply loves us. Thanks be to God. Amen.
 

“The Work of Repentance”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun
 March 30, 2025

Lent 4C

Focus: Like both sons in Jesus’ parable needed forgiveness and grace, we ourselves also need to remember there is forgiveness and grace for us when we repent.

Today's parable is perhaps one of the most popular Bible stories. It's a story we've heard before, but maybe we haven't heard it in juxtaposition to white supremacy, the principle of Christian nationalism we’re talking about today. I titled this sermon “The Work of Repentance”, because it is work to repent from unjust systems that benefit us, but I promise I'm not going to beat you over the head with this; after all, the beauty of this parable that we all know is that there is grace at the end.

But in order to bring the point home, let me start with a story from my own life where white supremacy played a role. Growing up in a relatively small, pretty white city in Wisconsin, I didn't experience much in terms of racial or ethnic diversity until I started my seminary studies at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis. It wasn't until this time in my life when I experienced for the first time what it meant to be the racial minority in the room. There were several situations where this actually happened to me, and I very much wasn't used to that. Being in situations like this required me to think about my implicit biases around race and other minority groups.

I don't think of myself as somebody who is inherently judgmental, although I'm certainly not a perfect person. I will admit I, a staunch Apple user, have a supremacy complex over people who use Windows and Android though!

But in all seriousness, the disturbing reality that I've come to understand over the last few years is that white supremacy and the other forms of marginalization that go along with it have been baked into my life experience, whether I intended it to be or not. I haven't had to worry about taking a walk alone by myself in the same way a black man my age might have to worry. I won't be denied opportunities in our society because of the color of my skin. The list goes on. But one of the phrases that has given me, comfort in my ongoing journey of understanding my role in all of this was originally coined by Mya Angelou—“when we know better, we do better.”

I think that spirit is part of what this text is inviting us into. Not just the need to face what we've done, beat ourselves up about it, and feel ashamed. But also, the incredible reality of God's grace that can empower us to change how we think about being in community with one another. So that's what I'm going to talk about today as it relates to the story.
Anyone who is familiar with the story would agree that both sons have messed up in various ways. But the common thread, I see here, and the ways that both of their experiences relate to the need for collective reconciliation and deeper community, which is something I think we're all trying to achieve.

The first son squanders his wealth, turning his back on his father, who has loved him and cared for him, and also on his brother, who has worked his tail off, but gets no reward other than to pick up his younger brother’s slack. The simple lifestyle he has known is no longer good enough for him, but he later finds out the hard way that the grass isn't greener on the other side. Trying to live his own way has cost him dearly. His biggest problem now is that he has to face the music and humble himself before his family, recognizing what he has done. It's not the same thing, but I wonder if he had the kind of realization that caused him to look back on his life and think about what led up to this moment, as I felt in St. Louis. It's the kind of realization that fundamentally changes how you live the rest of your life, whether you realize it or not. You can't “un-see it,” and you don't know how you will be received when you speak it into being. The younger son probably had every expectation that his father had totally written him off, as that would've been the custom back then. Culturally, the younger son was now dead to his father, and he shouldn't be expecting any sort of warm welcome. But we know how that story ended, and a warm welcome was exactly what he got. In this situation, it's apparent that when we approach a situation with humility, apologizing, and making amends where we can, we can find a new way forward.

But what about the other son, the one who toed the line for his father and did everything he was told? Where was he supposed to find the amazing grace that the younger son felt?

Indeed, his part of the story relates to the disturbing trend in white supremacy where we “other” people—thinking we are better than they are. In his expressions to his father, he feels self-righteous. But he too experiences Grace, just not in the ways that he might expect. He's never rebuked. He's never scolded in anyway. His father lovingly but firmly explains that, no matter what his younger brother has done up to this point, progress is progress and reconciliation is reconciliation.

So I think it is with us. Today we aren't focusing on this abstract idea that doesn't mean anything to us here in Waupun. What I'm calling us into today is the recognition that we belong to one another, and that we are made for a community where we can admit where we were wrong and come home to a God who gives us a second chance, and a third chance, and more chances. Like both sons in Jesus’ parable needed forgiveness and grace, we ourselves also need to remember there is forgiveness and grace for us when we repent.

Today I'm thinking about the Huenink family, from little Levi being baptized to Alissa, who will be affirming her membership in this community of faith later on in the service. Looking at today's text from this point of view is equally relevant as we think about their families promises that they will make together today. They are promising to be part of a community that is messy. They are promising to be part of a community that will sometimes fall short. They are promising to be part of the community who, while intentions may be good, actions don't always match up. But when we know better, we do better.

So this week, I invite you to think about how your journey has been shaped by what you've learned about society. How is your continuing life of faith shaped by reconciliation, and by the incredible grace of God? May you go into this week, not beating yourself over the head, but may you live with changed hearts and minds, remembering those who are on the margins and finding ways to seek and offer reconciliation when you can. May it be so. Amen.
 

“Dig In!”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun
March 23, 2025

Lent 3C

Focus: Jesus’ call invites us to dig in, to be more intentional about creating community together.

While I was in elementary school, I had an aide, a paraprofessional who would help me with craft projects and other assignments. Her name was Mrs. Polakowski. Everyone called her Mrs. P because Polakowski is hard to say, especially for elementary students. Up until third grade, she was my full-time aide, with me mostly every minute of every day. Sometimes she would help other students too, but her primary responsibility was making sure that I had everything I needed. My unique journey of learning how to perfect my fine motor skills, how to solve math problems, and how to do other things most kids could do easily wasn't always easy. To be honest, I wasn't always the most respectful kid. I wanted to do things my own way, and I wanted to avoid doing things that were difficult for me. When working with my school, physical and occupational therapists, or my speech therapist, for example, felt like a chore. The truth was I didn't like being different from the other kids. I was jealous at times that the things that I struggled with, others had no problem doing.

But to be honest, Mrs. P was exactly the type of person I needed. She could redirect me and hold her ground with me when she needed to, but she was exceedingly patient, loving, and helpful. My parents and I all really loved her, and she was a big reason that I was successful in future education. I wish that every kid who struggled at all in school would've had somebody like Mrs. P, because I firmly believe that if there were more Mrs. P’s in the world, everyone who thought they weren't good enough, and everyone who had their own difficulties on the journey, could feel empowered. She and I have kept in touch ever since then, and she has been there supporting me in various situations. She attended my high school graduation party, and when she couldn't be at my ordination, she sent me a really nice message. In one of our conversations, she said to me, “I believe we were meant to be in each other's lives. I have learned from you as much as you have learned from me. You know Jacob, we all just want to make a difference in someone's life. Thank you for giving me that opportunity.”

I may be telling you today about one person who really had a strong impact on helping me get through, but the truth is that there were lots of people I could be talking about in this context. Obviously, those of you who know my parents know how much they have helped me grow, and how many struggles they have had to deal with in their own ways to help me get where I am, and there were other folks in the schools who were helpful to me as well. But I often wonder what my life would've been like if I hadn't had those supports, or if I hadn't been given the room to try, and fail, and later succeed. Because the unfortunate truth is that disabled people, people in the LGBTQ community, non-white people, poor people, women, and so many other groups don't always get a fair shake. Perhaps some of you listening to this can identify people in your life who were like Mrs. P to me, or maybe some of you who have been teachers tried to be like Mrs. P to somebody else.

This is a long story, but I think it's worth it because it gives you an example of what I mean when I say that today's texts each have something to say about being in community with one another. Today, in our sermon series, we are talking about repenting from avoidance. When the leadership of the Wisconsin Council of Churches put this sermon series together, they talk about the prophet Isaiah's reminder that we should not spend money on what isn't food, or spend our earnings on what doesn't satisfy. Further, they remind us that Jesus extends grace to those who might not have been seen as productive or worthy by our society. I'll take each of those things in turn.

In biblical times, where and how you spent your money was an indicator of what was important to you. In some ways this is still true today, but I think there are more justice movements that are happening today that don't require spending money than what there might've been in those times. Today, we might generalize the statement a bit, saying that we should be putting our energy towards the things that advance the needs of our community, and not toward systems that oppress or dismiss or domain others. Here in Waupun, for example, we have lots of community organizations doing really important things, (like REACH, Church Health Services, and others). I believe many of those organizations would tell you that they rely heavily on their volunteers’ contributions of time and talent just as much as they rely on financial contributions, if not more.

This is similar to the parable that Jesus tells. A fig tree has not produced in the amount of time that the vineyard owner would've expected, and so asks his gardener to cut it down. But instead, the gardener pleads with his boss to let him tend to it a little bit longer. Of course we don't know how that story ends, whether the fig tree actually produced within a year, but it was the intend of the gardener that allowed it to stay alive.

Today, I remind you that Jesus’ call invites us to dig in, to be more intentional about creating community together.

So often, we could avoid the people and situations that require more of us, the hard work of community together, where we can learn from each other and contribute towards a better world. Instead of doing that, one principle of Christian nationalism is an isolationist mentality, the ability to only think about ourselves and not realizing how we need one another, and how we can help others grow.

Like Mrs. P in my story tended to my success, and in some small way, likely contributed to the reason I'm standing up in front of you today. Like the gardener in the parable committed to attending the fig tree so that it might flourish with more care.

In this spirit, we might think of how we could build community together even in situations when doing so requires believing in peoples’ ability to flourish, when other people might've given up on them.

If organizations like REACH and Church Health Services and the Food Pantry and so many other worthy organizations didn't exist in our communities—if we avoided volunteering for them and giving them our financial donations—we lose the opportunity to build each other up as community, starting with the most vulnerable people.

So this week I invite you to think about how you might repent from avoiding Christ call to care for one another, how you might instead “dig in” with others, to help our community flourish. Everybody in this congregation has so much to give to the wider community, and none of us received those gifts without other people believing us. So instead of spending our energy, or our money, or our resources, on things that seem like easy things, I invite you to think this week about how you might dig in deeper and help the world flourish through your kindness, and through your hopefulness. Because you never know who will benefit from your care. Amen.

“Systemic Violence and the Work of Christ”

Sermon for U-CC Waupun

Lent 2C

March 16, 2025

This sermon was transcribed from audio with AI. An audio version of this sermon can be found on our website.

So I'm going to do something a little bit different today.

Actually, I did not write my sermon out word for word, because I wrote my sermon in the car on the way back yesterday, and I just outlined it. So I outlined and I'm going to riff, so if I go too long, Alana can play that music like they play in award shows, you know, might be copyrighted, she says, yeah, you're probably right about that. But just kind of giving you a little bit of an idea of what I was up to.

So I was invited to be a keynote speaker, a worship leader, and a workshop presenter at the Illinois South Conference UCC Day of Discipleship, which was a half-day event that was hosted at Tim's church. And I flew in late on Thursday night, got to St. Louis about 11.30 p.m. on Thursday, and then after the event, there were no flights that would allow me to get back here in time this morning. So Tim drove me the five and a half hours to get back here.

So you have a very sleepy pastor today. And I am relying on the Holy Spirit a little bit more than usual to get through these worship services so I can go home and take a nap. So we'll do what we can.

And the Reverend Shanna Johnson, who is the conference minister of the Illinois South Conference, so Franz Rehgert's counterpart in the Illinois South region, sends her greetings and she says, thank you for sharing your pastor with us. So Shanna is a dear friend and really grateful that we got to be there together. And the fact that Tim and I got to spend some time together, he and his husband Shay have two cats that don't have a concept of personal space and a dog that really doesn't have a concept of personal space.

And we had quite an adventure. There were tornadoes that went through the area on Friday night. Chronology is weird.

And from 10 o'clock p.m. on Friday until now, I think, you're still without power. And so Tim and Shay and I got ready for the day yesterday in cell phone light because we had to leave the house at 6.15 in the morning, which as you know, since I'm not a morning person, you know I must really love Tim because otherwise I wouldn't do that. So yep, yep.

Have any of you seen the Big Bang Theory? So Tim might have gone, Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, like Sheldon, you know, Penny. And so yeah, it was a thing. But it was just a lovely, lovely weekend.

I promise this actually does work with the sermon today. So I'm not just yammering. So basically what I was brought there to talk about was disability issues and disability justice, stuff that I talk with you all about all the time.

And the theme of their event was Becoming Bold People of God's Welcome. Isn't that a great title? Becoming Bold People of God's Welcome. And we talked about various issues, especially around disability and what the church can do better and differently.

And that kind of brings us into some systemic violence conversations, and that is the theme of today, repenting from systemic violence. Now, what is systemic violence? That's a term that not everybody knows right at the tip of their tongue. So one definition that I found is this.

Systemic violence refers to the organized and pervasive forms of violence that are embedded in societal structures and institutions, often perpetuated by state actors and systemic inequalities. This type of violence is not just physical, but it can also manifest through social, economic, and political mechanisms that disadvantage specific groups, leading to widespread suffering and human rights abuses. So for our media song this morning, we used a song by a young black woman saying, if I have a son, he's never really safe.

If I have a girl, I'll teach her to be strong. She had some comment on sexism as well. And in the bridge of that song, she said, I saw a man lose his life all because his skin looked like mine.

And of course, all of the brutality that is so often perpetrated on black folks in this country and all sorts of other places. And so there are all sorts of ways that systems have benefited us, perhaps. Benefited some of our straight, white, able-bodied, neurotypical people.

But those people who do not fit that description are a little less privileged. It sounds like when you met with John on Wednesday, you talked about ways that you in the community in Waupon have been persecuted for your beliefs and the ways that you are different from perhaps other churches because of the ways that you believe that are different from other churches in this area. And there are all sorts of other things that it sounds like you and John talked about, which I'm so, so happy to hear that it was such a wonderful and fruitful conversation.

And I'm looking forward to continuing it on Wednesday. So it sounds like you can find yourself in this too. I think that it's easy sometimes to talk about things in an abstract way when sometimes it doesn't feel like we can find ourselves when we talk about justice issues.

Can we find ourselves in the things we're talking about? And it sounds like we can. And this is also present in our Scripture for today. So, Psalm 27 is a psalm of lots of trust.

It opens up by saying, The Lord is my light and my salvation, who shall I fear? Right? And there is some really deep, beautiful love and trust language in the entire psalm. But the commentator Carol Bechtel reminds us that you can't have a psalm of deep trust without recognizing and knowing deep pain. The way that she says it is, this psalm arises out of a context of profound pain.

She says, Prayers like this don't spring out of nowhere after all. And, you know, there are examples peppered all over. When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and foes, they shall stumble and fall.

Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war rise up against me, yet, yet, I will be confident. And, you know, I wonder sometimes where we can find ourselves in those moments.

Are there people that want to persecute us? Are there people that want to think of us as different and want to humiliate us? And all sorts of things. And maybe the answer is, you know, I don't know if I can identify with that. You know, maybe that feels a little far away for some of us.

And if that's true, the commentator continues, Even if we are not personally beset by slanderous enemies, the deep trust that this psalm teaches is relevant to a culture beset with so much disinformation, propaganda, and lies. And said another way, even if we don't ourselves don't have enemies at our doorstep, we probably know somebody who does, right? Um, you know, we talk about racism, we talk about homophobia, we talk about ableism, we talk about all sorts of other things. We talk about different ideologies, political ideologies.

We're very divided people at the moment. And we can make enemies out of one another in all sorts of ways. And Jesus was also being pursued in this way by Herod.

He had an enemy at his doorstep. His disciples said to him, You know, Jesus, we've got to get away from here because Herod wants to kill you. We've got to cover your tracks and we've got to get out of Dodge.

I'm mindful that I'm saying that in Dodge County. That's kind of funny. Am I in Dodge or Fond du Lac County right now? I don't even know.

Dodge. Okay, good. Um, um, because we're literally right in the middle.

Um, so, um, so, um, so Jesus, um, Jesus says to his disciples, You go tell that fox that I'm gonna do some stuff. I've got some work to do. And then on the third day, my work will be completed, right? He uses that term fox very deliberately.

Fox, he uses fox as a metaphor because what does a fox do? A fox hunts its prey and devours it, right? You know, so a fox is a cunning predator. And, you know, this is not new to you because I've told you over and over again that Herod considers Jesus to be an existential threat to the way of his rule in the world. And, you know, then Jesus at the end of that text weeps for Jerusalem, which is a city that he loves.

And a city that he loves dearly. And he says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how much I have wanted to gather you up like a hen gathers her chicks. But you didn't want that, right? And he says that Jerusalem will not understand his message until after he dies.

So, you know, Jesus is working to promote healing and love and liberation. And people don't know what he's doing because the people have been duped by people like Herod. And so what does this have to do with Christian nationalism? What does this have to do with what we're talking about throughout Lent? Well, as Jesus endeavored to overturn systems of oppression, we must do the same in order to follow Jesus.

You know, Jesus understood the assignment. Jesus understood what his job was. His job was to heal people.

His job was to show a better way toward love and liberation. His job was to confront the sources of evil in the world. And then his job was to invite people to follow him in that way so that his message of love and hope could continue.

So what do we do with that? How do we respond to that? You know, I think this church has a particular call in this area. And that's why I think I really am drawn to the work that we're all doing here together because we have a particular call in this area. And our call is this.

We might need to show the world, show the wider community that we don't argue over theological stuff. We don't argue over who's welcome and who's not. We just assume everybody is.

And instead, we follow the ways of Jesus into the future so that everybody in this community has what they need. You know, it's not the will of God that systems perpetuate fear and violence and the haves and the have-nots. That's not God's will.

So as we go into this week, I think our question becomes, how should we do that? I think, and the answer to that question is, I think we do our part in the ways in which we can to disrupt the violence that we see in the world. If someone is being racist, if someone is being discriminatory or homophobic or ableist or whatever, you know, sexist, you know, there are all sorts of ways that we can continue to disrupt that narrative. And in doing so, we share the love of God with each other.

We protect the marginalized. We protect those who need protection the most. And we share love for one another.

And in doing so, we remember that God is with us. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Who shall I fear? And so, as you go into this week, may you love and love and love and love and love without fear, knowing that your call is to care for those in need.

Because that's what Jesus wanted us to do. And that's what Jesus himself did all the way to the cross. May it be so.

Amen.
 

“Relying on Others, and Being a Blessing”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

Lent 1C

March 9, 2025

Focus: Our Scriptures remind us to repent from self-reliance and to instead focus on understanding ourselves as part of God’s beloved community.

As a more rural congregation, it's easy for us to forget our connection to the rest of the denomination, and even to other churches. That's why I am excited about the fact that the first week of our sermon series on repenting from Christian nationalism deals with self-reliance. I'll get to all of that in a second, but I would be remiss if I didn't take some time to properly define Christian nationalism, and why it's so dangerous for the kind of Christian faith that we practice in our church.

One of the first things people say when they talk about Christian nationalism is that it is a form of Christianity that believes that our Christian faith should influence our country’s politics, and the ways that we express them, wishing that Christianity would inform every sphere of influence, from schools to government and everywhere in between. The goal is simply to privilege Christianity out in public, at the expense of other religions and creeds. On first glance, some of us that doesn't sound like a negative thing. We want our values to be represented and we want to ensure our faith continues to grow. Not bad things at all. But one prime example is this: when was the last time the children in our school district got time off for Ramadan or Eid Passover, some of the most popular holidays of other religions? They get time off for Christmas and Easter every year. And the reason why prayer in schools is so exclusionary is because often times people who practice Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, or other prominent religions, or even no religion at all, aren't able to practice their own beliefs because the dominant prayer tradition is that of Christianity.

To make matters more complicated, the worst of Christian nationalism also goes hand-in-hand with systemic violence, fear of minority groups, and other alarming social trends. If the United States were truly a Christian nation, as some people who profess Christian nationalism would like it to be, other religions would find it more difficult to practice their faith, and other social minority groups would be even more oppressed than they are now.

Today’s aspect of Christian nationalism is talking about self-reliance, this idea that we pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps instead of remembering that we are part of God's beloved community, which includes everybody. We can learn from the experiences of oppressed people in our communities, and we can learn about our own faith by the way that other people from other religions experience theirs.

Both of today's texts have something to say to us about self-reliance. I'll zoom in on the gospel first.

Our gospel text for today is the famous story where Jesus attempted in the wilderness. The devil attempted to manipulate Jesus into relying only on himself for his power, but Jesus demonstrated at each temptation that relying on God is always a better option. He says that people don't live by bread alone, but they have fullness of life when they are accompanied by the Holy Spirit. He says that we should serve only God, and not ourselves and our selfishness. He says that followers of God rely on God's protection and love to surround them in difficult moments, and that God should not be tested. In each of these moments, Jesus could have amassed incredible power. Instead, he understood the importance of relying on God, as relying on himself was never what he was there to do.

In a similar way, the text from Deuteronomy reminds us that when we trust in God's care and God's love for us, God will protect and provide for us. The writer of Deuteronomy recount a time where the people who were brought out of Egyptian slavery, and oppression were instructed to share just how they got out of their plight. “So we cried out for help to the Lord, our ancestors’ God. The Lord heard our call. God saw our misery, our trouble, and our oppression. 8 The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, with awesome power, and with signs and wonders.” Finally, the instructions are to “then celebrate all the good things the Lord your God has done for you and your family—each one of you along with the Levites and the immigrants who are among you.”

The produce that was given the refugees from Egypt was given to them as a sign and a symbol that God had taken care of them and that they would have what they needed in this new land of milk and honey. So, both of these scriptures talk about how relying on God, instead of relying on our own best efforts, instead of relying on the ways of the world, can help us grow in our faith and testified to the ways that God has been present for us.

Now, on one hand this all seems like a nice idea. Since we can't necessarily see God in person, we at times struggle to discern God's activity in our daily lives. But our faith reminds us that we don't have to do this thing alone. Our Scriptures remind us to repent from self-reliance and to instead focus on understanding ourselves as part of God’s beloved community.

What does this have to do with Christian nationalism? Well, if we take a look at the gospel first, we could be tempted as Jesus was tempted to take all of the power in our own hands, and rely on the strength of our own power for world domination. But Jesus reminds us that relying on God and God's activity in our own lives is much more fruitful and meaningful. In our text from Deuteronomy, on the other hand, we recognize that we are part of God's beloved community. When we enter into a new place, we don't simply try to dominate it or advance our own interests, but instead we recognize ourselves as part of a beloved community that God protects and loves equally. As that text concludes, Celebrate all the good things the Lord your God has done for you and your family—each one of you along with the Levites and the immigrants who are among you.”

As the Levites were considered outcasts to the refugees in today's biblical story, when we think about God's blessings, who might be the outcast in our own lives? Perhaps people who do not look like us, people whose lifestyles are different from ours, people who are of a different race, a different gender identity or sexual orientation, or a different ability level. God does so many wonderful things for all of us, and we can continue to be blessings in our own particular ways.

So this week, I invite you to think about how you might move from self-reliance into relying on God and being a blessing to others who need it. How might you repent from the ways you have insulated yourself from being in full community with others? As I said, in the beginning of my sermon, maybe that means fostering deeper connections with other bodies within our denomination, or even outside of it. Maybe it's outside of the church altogether, and thinking about people of different political persuasions or ideologies. No matter what it is, may you know that God created all of us for connection, and that God gives us the grace and the courage to continue those connections, even when times are difficult. May you go into this week recognizing that we belong to one another, and that when you bless others with your words and actions, you in turn bless yourself. Thanks be to God. Amen.

“Transfiguration and Frustration”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

March 2, 2025

Focus: As we prepare for this Lenten journey, Jesus is asking us to refocus ourselves toward the bigger picture of what’s most important.

I don't know about you, but I know that I often have trouble focusing. I don't have a formal diagnosis of ADHD or anything like that, and I don't think it's severe enough that I need to be walking into the doctor’s office tomorrow to find out, but I do know that if I was able to quiet my mind more often, I would probably get a lot more done more quickly. I think this is also often the case with us “creative types”. We have so many things on our minds and so many things we want to accomplish that sitting down, setting our intentions, and actually finishing something often eludes us. If any of you took a deep dive through my computer’s hard drive, you'd find a lot of unfinished music project, little bits of ideas for a new project, even things I started years ago that I never got back to.

The analogy is a bit of of a stretch, but I think that's kind of like what Jesus feels about the disciples in today's text. The transfiguration is a text that we return to every year, and yet this idea is something that we don't always understand that well. But I am approaching it in a different way this year, because if you look at the text through the lens of the entire lectionary passage, not just the story of the transfiguration itself, I think it's easier to understand, and also more instructive about what Jesus is asking us to do as we start this Lenten journey together. First, I'm going to talk about what the moment of the transfiguration can teach us, and then I'm going to move onto the second half, where Jesus gets indignant with people. Part of this message is going to consist of me retelling the story and talking about what it means for us today. There's a lot to digest in the passage that Deanne just read and I want to make sure we get all of it.

Let's set the scene here. Jesus, Peter, James and John are going up to a mountain. Peter, James and John are tired, in a similar way as they are when Jesus arrives at the garden of Gethsemane at the time of his arrest. Commentators say that their chronic tiredness is due to their grief. After all, it's hard to follow Jesus, and it's hard to live among people who consider Jesus to be an existential threat to their way of living. I can only imagine the weight that they carry as followers of this new movement, and sometimes I wonder if I would be able to carry that same weight, or if any of us would. But for one reason or the other, these disciples still feel compelled to follow him, even if they don't understand the costs of the endeavor.

Suddenly, they saw Jesus along with Moses and Elijah, each of whom had had their own mountaintop experiences in the times of the Old Testament. And then Jesus turns bright white! The disciples almost fell asleep, but eventually, they see Jesus, and then they hear a voice from God, saying, ““This is my Son, my chosen one. Listen to him!”

Meanwhile, the first distraction comes when Peter is all bent up about building shrines, to memorialize the occasion where Jesus, Moses, and Elijah are all together. but this is the first time. I'm going to tell you that somebody misses the point in this story. Peter is too distracted by doing this sacred art project that he doesn't fully understand that God is trying to send him and the other is a message. “This is Jesus, the one who comes to make the world like I will it be. Listen to him.”

Often times we end our scripture reading there when we remember the story. But instead, today we are looking at the second half of that story as well. Now, Jesus, Peter, James and John are coming down from the mountaintop. As there usually is when Jesus and some of the disciples are around, there's a crowd. All of a sudden, a man comes up to Jesus and says, “Teacher, I beg you to take a look at my son, my only child. Look, a spirit seizes him and, without any warning, he screams. It shakes him and causes him to foam at the mouth. It tortures him and rarely leaves him alone. I begged your disciples to throw it out, but they couldn’t.”

By now are you probably can guess how I feel about this exchange. The healing narratives of Jesus are tricky at best for people who live with disabilities or mental illnesses, and often the people who are being healed, never speak themselves, and this is one of those times. But I'm not going to focus so much on that today. Instead, this moment illustrates what Jesus considers to be another distraction. Jesus quickly becomes very indignant, saying, “You faithless and crooked generation, how long will I be with you and put up with you?”

In my view, Jesus became indignant because word had gotten around that Jesus was almost like a magician: he said “abracadabra” and magically people were healed. I don't say this to diminish the power of the ways that God's grace showed up through those moments, but I say this, because Jesus believes that all those who follow him have forgotten the larger point. He later explains this to the disciples. Scripture says, “While everyone was marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, 44 “Take these words to heart: the Human One is about to be delivered into human hands.”

Of course, people didn’t understand when Jesus speaks like this, but we have the benefit of understanding what all this means. As we prepare for this Lenten journey, Jesus is asking us to refocus ourselves toward the bigger picture of what’s most important. There's a reason we look at this story right before Ash Wednesday. Texts like these remind us that we need to remain focused on Jesus's journey to the cross, and what his ministry has been all about up to this point. In some ways it seems like we just celebrated Christmas. But the yearly reminder that the ministry of Jesus was indeed short and fraught with difficulty, and how he was the example for what God wills for the world is so important.

In today's media song, originally written by Bob Dylan, Tracy Chapman talks about how the times are changing. People are going to begin to understand eventually how God is at work through Jesus Christ in these moments. And as we start our sermon series on Christian nationalism next week, it's important to remember the societal backdrop of what's going on. in our country and around the world, there is war and division everywhere. People don't know how to talk to each other about what's going on in the world because it often devolves into personal attacks. but this is part of the story that Jesus is telling through us in times like these.

So how will you pay attention this week to the story of Jesus is transfiguration, of his ministry, and of his death? How will you continually remember what Jesus did for you and for all of us? As we prepare to take this Lenten journey with Jesus, may we do so with hearts wide open. Mary do so with faces set firmly towards the path to liberation. Amen.
 

“Book Bans, the Beatitudes, and the Way of Jesus”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun 

February 16, 2025

Focus: The way of Jesus demands that entire groups of people are not rejected by society, and admonishes their attackers for bearing false witness to his way of love and liberation.

This is another one of those weeks where the biblical text commands me to say some risky things. if any of the gospel text sounds familiar, that's because it is. This is one of two versions of what we call the Beatitudes, or the sermon on the mount. The more complete version of that sermon is kept for us in Matthew's gospel, but the lectionary for this week comes out of Luke. In this text, Jesus talks about an absolutely countercultural way of living, where the last or first and the first are last. I'll get into that more in a minute, but first, I am going to talk about a way that this is playing out in our very own community, in Waupun.

Earlier this week, I was made aware of a local pastor who plans to appeal to the board of the Waupun Public Library next week that all books pertaining to LGBTQ+ people should essentially be removed. He wrote a three page letter to the board, which he titles, “A Statement to the Library Board to Seek the Good of the Community by Obeying God”. I have a full copy of the letter which I’m happy to share with you. I won't read any part of the letter verbatim except for one small quote, but I want to give you a summary of what he's saying in this letter.

In short, this pastor is calling into question the library’s policies around the inclusion of LGBTQ+ literature, and its display of such literature during a recent LGBTQ Pride Month exhibit. He asserts that, by encouraging people to read this literature, that the staff at the library are leading children into sin, and that he wants to protect the children of Waupun from harm by asking that this policy be reevaluated. he says all this with a number of Bible verses taken out of context and footnoted below the letter.

One of the most striking things that I read in this letter is that he believes that love should be his motivation by which he is doing these things. At the same time, he says that God defines the word “love” in 1 Corinthians 13:6. This is part of the love chapter often read at weddings, which reads: “it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.” He also says of the word “love” that we cannot (quote) “make it mean whatever we want.”

The last thing I typically want to do is to make a public stance on town politics from the pulpit, or speak ill about another pastor. But for me, this is one of those moments where our community life and our religious beliefs, intersect, and as a pastor, I have the responsibility to share when I believe Christianity is being misused to hurt people. I've been really troubled by these characterizations, as have many people in our church who have heard about it. I've gotten multiple questions about the issue this week.

Before I say anything else, I will recognize that we are a diverse congregation. We don’t always agree on everything in this church, and that’s okay, but I want to make one point crystal clear: I am in strong opposition to such a ban, and I will personally do everything in my power to make sure that this church will be a safe place for LGBTQ+ people, and all vulnerable people, as long as I am your pastor.

As you might imagine, I've been reaching out to colleagues for advice on how to support this congregation through such a situation. I was reminded that there is power in the office of Pastor. Some pastors choose to use that power as a mechanism to exclude people, when in fact, Jesus was remembered, and even ridiculed, for who he included. When I think about Jesus, I think about a man who led with fierce love, and who was always on the side of the marginalized and oppressed.

Nowhere is this more evident than either of the two versions of Jesus is famous sermon on the mount. When you look at today's gospel text, Jesus says that there are blessings for you if you are poor, if you are hungry, and if you are in a moment of grief. indeed, many of the people who would feel most liberated by the message of Jesus fit into those categories. I’ve shared with you in multiple sermons about how the Roman Empire was constructed in such a way that those who were rich controlled the vast majority of the communities resources, where people like you and I were relegated to the margins. but Jesus aims to turn that world upside down. Jesus begins his public ministry by declaring in Luke 4: 18-19 that his foremost cause was to care for the oppressed, the marginalized, and the poor. We read that text a couple weeks ago, but just to refresh your memory, it says,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
   because he has anointed me
       to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
   and recovery of sight to the blind,
       to set free those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Weeks like this lead me to question: who are the oppressed people in this situation with the LGBTQ+ people and the Christians? In my estimation, it certainly isn’t the Christians. I would sooner identify LGBTQ+ people and other vulnerable populations with this verse from today’s text: “Happy are you when people hate you, reject you, insult you, and condemn your name as evil because of [Jesus].”

Because of one man's interpretation of scripture, the library, a public resource that is available freely to all people in this community, may soon be censored in favor of one particular religious perspective. If this change to the policy prevails, it's a slippery slope; by that logic, anybody can call the library into question if a particular book, or category of books, conflicts with their own personal belief system.

Here's the point I want to drive home today: The way of Jesus demands that entire groups of people are not rejected by society, and admonishes their attackers for bearing false witness to his way of love and liberation.

In today's media song, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan reminds us to always pay attention to the people and situations that need our care. In many ways, Jesus is asking us to do the same. He reminds us that those who are poor, oppressed, and marginalized are closest to the realm of God, and those who oppress them are not doing God's will.

So as we go into this week, I invite you to think about how Jesus is blessings have applied to you. There are many times when we have been oppressed, poor, marginalized, hungry, and grieving. May we all consider together how we can continue to pay attention when others are stuck in difficult positions in society. May we always remember that our call is to love those who are in need, and advocate for love and justice. May it be so. Amen.

“Equipping the Called”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

February 9, 2025

Focus: God equips the called; we don’t need to know how to follow Jesus, we just need to be willing.

In today’s Call to Worship, we remember these words by Rev. Steve Garnaas-Holmes:

“You do not call those who are prepared;
you prepare those who are called.”

I remember the feeling of nervousness and even hesitation as I moved into the pastor’s office at this church. My family and I stopped in on Sunday, November 20, when no one was in the building. We arranged all my books on shelves, put my diplomas on the wall, and set up my computer speakers so I could listen to music while I work. I remember being excited, of course, and honored that I would be entrusted with loving you and leading you into your future. But as much as I was excited and honored and ready to begin my work with you, I do remember feeling nervous. How many mistakes was I going to make? Would you like my preaching? Would I be a good and effective leader? Would I do a good job for you? Was I worthy of the call I believed God had offered to me?

Of course, you all have been so gracious to me, and you’ve been patient with me as I’ve learned how things work around here. I figured you would be, and I had faith that God would give me the tools to do well. But I also felt what a lot of people likely feel when they begin a new job or respond to a call from God. Did I have what it took? I imagine lots of you have probably felt that way in your own lives. (And having an anxiety disorder makes those feelings extra “fun”…).

I suspect that the same feelings were shared by the people in today's text. Today I want to talk about what it means to follow the call of Jesus when we feel unequipped, and how we can do that in the difficult times we're living in right now. But before I do that, I wanna start by saying that this is a difficult time for many of us in this country. The last couple of sermons that I have preached here have been rather bold and direct. I'm going to tell you ahead of time that of course, I believe the problems in this country are still there, but today is calling me to take a gentler and more pastoral approach.

One thing I noticed right off the bat about both of these text is that the two people who are called by God, both find themselves in difficult circumstances. When I think about the writer of the book of Isaiah, for example, the prophet says, “Mourn for me; I’m ruined! I’m a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips.” Isaiah has seen the evolution of King Uzziah, first as a king that does God's will, then, later as a king that lets his pride and selfishness, get the better oven. And because of the kings example, the people of fall soon. Even Isaiah himself seems to be doubtful of his own faithfulness to God's will. But then, when God is looking for a ruler that will establish God's justice, saying, “Whom should I send, and who will go for us?”, Isaiah responds by saying, “I’m here; send me.”

Later on in our gospel text, Jesus encounters fisherman who have failed in their efforts. They've been at this for hours, and a long night has left them demoralized. But Jesus says, “Row out farther, into the deep water, and drop your nets for a catch.”

Somehow, the fisherman are able to find enough faith to do, as Jesus says, and their patience and persistence is rewarded. They get so many fish that their nets are overflowing, and they have to call in reinforcements to help them. After seeing what's transpired, Simon says to Jesus that he is a sinful man and that Jesus should go away from him. But Jesus has another idea. He says, “Don’t be afraid. From now on, you will be fishing for people.” And they drop everything to follow him.

In both of these situations, these men are living in difficult circumstances, and our doubtful of their own abilities to follow God's will. But God and Christ don't make mistakes with who they call. God does not call the equipped, God equips the called. We don’t need to know how to follow Jesus, we just need to be willing.

As I reflect on my own imposter syndrome before I became your pastor, I recognize that the only way I could be successful was because I believed that God would be with me and give me what I needed. Together, we have done so many wonderful things and I know we will continue to do so many more. As we think about the year ahead, and have this church's annual meeting, after our later service today, I wonder what God might be calling us to do in these times. we've had a great year in the life of the church, and have done lots of good work together. Our finances are in a good place, our engagement and participation have grown significantly from pandemic levels. There is a lot to celebrate.

The biggest question I have this week for all of us is to think about how we might row out into deeper water together. Both of the men in today's texts had to take great risks so that they could follow the way of God, and the way of Christ. Last week, I talked to us a lot about the risks that we take in doing just that. I'm not going to repeat myself too much, but I would just say now that sometimes taking risks to follow Jesus is the best way to get the greatest reward.

So as we go into this week, and as we enter into our annual meeting later today, may we keep that in mind. May we think about the times in our lives when rowing out into the deeper water with Jesus Christ has given us the reward of a better life guided by God. After thinking about that, may we be prepared to tell others and share the good news. Amen. 
 

“The Risks of Jesus’ Message”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun 
February 2, 2025

Focus: Jesus had to take lots of risks in sharing his message with others, and if we truly want to follow Jesus, we have to be willing to do the same.

There's an old adage that seminarians are often taught. “Preach what your congregation needs to hear, not just what they want to hear.” There are some times where pastors have to use their position of trust and, yes, even power, to say some things but not everybody is going to agree with. But that also doesn't give a pastor carte blanche to totally alienate people or get on a personal soapbox that doesn't move the congregation forward in some way or give them something useful to think about as they go through their lives. Whenever a pastor shares difficult truths with a congregation, it always has to be done with the best intent possible, so that the sacred trust of pastor and people is not hurt too badly.

But at the same time, sometimes, when a pastor speaks truth to a congregation, it's not always received very well. Sometimes eyebrows will raise in the pews. Sometimes the pastor will get a letter. Sometimes someone might even leave the church. But there are certain times when a pastor has to say what needs to be said, in order for the congregation to move forward, and become the best version of what God is calling them to become.

I certainly don't want you to throw me off a cliff like they wanted to do to Jesus! I have pretty good health insurance, but not that good.

But I'm sharing this with you today because that's kind of what Jesus does in today's text, and also because I think that’s what Jesus calls us to do. I’ll talk about what he said, how it was received, and bring it back to what it means for us.

Let's set the scene here. Jesus is coming back to his hometown after performing glorious signs in Capernaum. The hometown boy is making his long-awaited return. The commentator Ruth Ann Reese points out that now, word has gotten around about what Jesus has done in Capernaum, and now the people of Nazareth want him to show off. It's almost as if they're saying, “Look at little Jesus, all grown up! Show us what you've got, kid!” They are amazed and want to see the same things in Nazareth that Jesus did in Capernaum. After all, if they got to see what he had done for themselves, they would feel pretty important. They would feel like they were pretty hot stuff.

But unfortunately, for the people of Nazareth, who are expectantly waiting for Jesus to do something extraordinary, Jesus tells them that it doesn't work that way. Jesus tells them instead that they're not special. Jesus accuses them of not truly being able to accept him and his ministerial leadership, because all they're ever going to see him as is “little Jesus all grown up.”

It's kind of like when my home church in Neenah was going through its own search process to find their current Pastor. One person actually said to my mom, “why can't Jacob be our pastor? He speaks so well and he's such a nice person.” When relaying that story to me, I told my mom, “yeah, that would never work because as the church secretary, I would be your boss, and there's no way you're going to let me tell you what to do!”

Instead, Jesus tells them who he's actually there for, and who his ministry actually benefits.

He says in verses 18-19,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 
   because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor, 
   to proclaim release to the prisoners 
   and recovery of sight to the blind, 
   to liberate the oppressed, 
   and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

He then goes on to give them examples of times when people before him had tried and failed to do ministry in their own hometown, because the people of their hometown never understood them as people who were anointed by God to do God's work. And so he wasn't even going to try with them, as long as they couldn't get over this “little Jesus” image.

This is a prime example of not telling people what they want to hear, but telling people what they need to hear. And oh, were those people livid. Jesus was not there to show them cool party tricks after all. Jesus was there to tell people what was actually important, and what the people failed to understand. Jesus has ministry was not just for them, but it was for everybody. Our story ends with, the people uniting, rising up against Jesus and attempting to kill him by throwing him off a cliff, but Jesus finds away through them and goes on his way.

But I've been thinking a lot this week, because there are lots of disturbing things going on in the news. During a press briefing, our country’s president blamed a horrible, catastrophic and deadly plane crash on diversity efforts, saying that if the Federal Aviation Administration hadn't hired disabled people, none of this would've happened, despite the fact that disabled workers have to meet the same standards as anyone else, and in fact may need to prove themselves even more. Many people are now lobbying and working against the rights of LGBTQ+ people, especially children, which is already instilling fear in the hearts and minds of those most vulnerable. These are who the oppressed people are in our country and in our world today, and I believe these are who Jesus came for.

“God has sent me to preach good news to the poor,…
   to liberate the oppressed, 
   and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The question becomes, are we ready to follow that Jesus, knowing the risks?

There are lots of churches in this town, many who hold different beliefs than we do. But so many of us have come to this church because we believe that this is a place where those who are unwelcome at other churches find a place here. it's a place where those of us who have been oppressed, discriminated against, and marginalized, can truly belong. This is a place where we find true and non-judgmental community. That’s part of why we picked today's media song. For some of us, there have been times in our lives “when holding [our] breath is safer than breathing, when letting go is braver than keeping”. There are some of us who had to let go of the faith that they knew in order to come to this church, hoping that someone would offer a safe place to land. And that's what we do for a lot of people.

Jesus had to take lots of risks in sharing his message with others, and if we truly want to follow Jesus, we have to be willing to do the same. We need to be willing to tell people not just what they want to hear, but what they need to hear. What I believe some people in this community outside of our church might need to hear is that discrimination and judgment have no home in this community of faith. We aren’t going to turn you away if you’ve made mistakes in your life, or if you live a lifestyle that some people don’t agree with. You can come here if you have questions, if you’re not sure what you believe, or if other churches in your life have hurt you. We will hold all of that with you and accompany you on your journey.

What I'm saying isn't new to many of the people sitting here. We know this. That's why we're here. But if we want to grow our church, if we want other people to know about us and what we believe, I sometimes think that we might have to take more risks.

So as you go into this week, I invite you to think about how you might more intentionally share the message of our church with other people in this community. How might you share what we're about, and what matters to us? How might you share who we believe Jesus calls us to be?

If we are to co-create a better world with Jesus Christ, sometimes we have to face some hard truths, and say some hard things. But I have so much faith in the work of this church, and what we can do together. All of us have so many gifts to offer the world. We know what it means to turn our faith into action. So let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. Amen.

“We Need Each Other”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun
January 26, 2025

Focus: No matter what happens in these next four years or beyond, we are one body of Christ and we belong to one another.

No matter what end of the political spectrum you find yourself, or what ideology you hold, I think we can all agree on one thing: it's been a week. You can add your own adjective about whether that’s good or bad, but that much is true. When I think about all of the current events in our country, there are so many things I could say. And yet, there are so many things that I can't say, or that I shouldn't say, or that I won't say. This is another one of those weeks where it's difficult to preach, or to find a good word in the midst of all this that’s true to the biblical text and at the same time, not strong enough to utterly offend people. But if you’ll trust me and stay with me, I will humbly offer the most faithful message I can.

I just joined the new social media platform called BlueSky. If you haven't heard of it, it's kind of like the platform formally known as Twitter, but without some of the algorithms that try to dictate what you see in order to make money off of you. Some people are leaving more popular sites, such as Facebook and Instagram, in favor of sites like BlueSky, because of some views that the Facebook and Twitter CEOs espouse. I don't know if it sticks, or if it's just another digital fad, but because I believe in community and connection, I thought I would give it a try. One of my friends described BlueSky as more hopeful and more factual compared to some of the other platforms. It's too soon to tell if that's true.

But I also made the decision that I'm not leaving Facebook or Instagram, at least not at this point, unless things get weirder or more divisive than they are right now. I have lots of friends across many different ideologies and many different walks of life, and if I disagree with somebody, I can just unfollow them or keep scrolling. I've come to the conclusion that I don't need to censor my community so tightly that I'm only in community with people I agree with. I can have good boundaries over how or if I engage with those folks on political or ideological topics, but at least for me, totally disengaging is not what I want to do.

I’ll admit that this is an odd entry point into today's text, especially since some of us are more tech savvy than others. (My girlfriend lovingly tells me I'm a nerd when it comes to technology, and I suppose I can resonate with that title.) But my point is exactly what it says up on the screen in my sermon title: we need each other, especially in times like these.

There are a lot of really important things that Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians, but for now I'll focus on about two and a half verses. Beginning in verse 24, Paul says,

“But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the part with less honor 25 so that there won’t be division in the body and so the parts might have mutual concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part gets the glory, all the parts celebrate with it. 27 You are the body of Christ and parts of each other.”

When I look at those three verses, in someways, I feel like my sermon writes itself for this week. And yet, the idea of having mutual concern for one another isn't something that always comes second nature to us. Because no matter what ideologies we believe, these are not just political talking points that one side or the other might use to win arguments. We're talking about real people. Real futures, real families, real consequences, and the more that we take the humanity out of our political discussions and our social discourse—the more we forget that these issues impact real people—the farther away we're going to be from coming together as a country again. Because Paul reminds us that if one part of the body suffers, everybody suffers. If you have watched the news at all this week, you've seen the backlash that Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde received when she spoke directly to President Trump at a prayer service on inauguration day at the Washington National Cathedral. Truth be told, as much as that sermon has been sensationalized, and as angry as some people have gotten about it, it really isn't that different from what I've been preaching all this time, and what a lot of my more progressively minded colleagues have been preaching all this time. To be honest, it's not even that different from a guy named Jesus. Next week, we're going to hear Jesus speak to people in his hometown, and say the now-famous first words of his public ministry:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
   because he has anointed me
       to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
   and recovery of sight to the blind,
       to set free those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Having mercy on and protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ folks, and on illegal immigrants, and on disabled people, on women, and on people of different races and creeds and nationalities—none of this is a radical idea, but the fact that this caused so much uproar means that we need to keep talking about it. We need to keep speaking truth to power, and making sure that everybody has what they need. Because those people are part of the body of Christ just as much as you and I are, and we have a duty of care to one another to make sure that they are afforded the same rights as we are.

The truth is this, friends: No matter what happens in these next four years, or beyond, we are one body of Christ and we belong to one another.

But here’s the hard part: we can say all that with our lips, and maybe even believe it with our hearts, but the question is: is that enough? What does it take in this church, in this community, in this country, for our actions to match our words and our intentions? What kind of things can we actually do for the marginalized people in Waupun who need a safe, welcoming, affirming church home? If we say in our mission statement that we do what we do through “acceptance of all, love, and commitment to Christ”, how might we embody that?

There are so many ways that you care for one another. There are so many ways that you provide welcome and hope where it's needed. We need that energy and that spirit now more than ever before. We simply can't disengage with one another, because the problems we face as a country are too important. But we can only do this if we work together, and if we are guided by the love that Christ showed us. So may we all go together into this week knowing that we belong to one another, and knowing that Christ calls us to do more than just pray or speak, but that Christ calls us instead, take care for each other and to love each other as he first loved us. May it be so. Amen.

“Gifts for the Common Good” 
Sermon for U-CC Waupun
January 19, 2025

Focus: Sometimes the gifts we have aren’t revealed until we trust that God gives us what we need to do God’s work.

I'm going to do something a bit different today. I'm going to tell you what the point of the therm is first and then I'm going to give you the message behind it.

The point is this: Sometimes the gifts we have aren’t revealed until we trust that God gives us what we need to do God’s work.

That happened to me somewhat recently. During Thanksgiving break, an email came into my church inbox from my colleague Rev. Breanna Illene, a representative at the Wisconsin Council of Churches. During this Linton season, the Wisconsin Council of churches is inviting local churches into a sermon series around repenting from white Christian nationalism, which has become a deeply divided topic and has lots of ramifications given our current political climate. I was told that my name came up because I am not only a musician and songwriter that many leaders in this area trust, but also because I’m a pastor people trust to talk about complicated justice issues in a way they can grab onto. Of course, I was honored to get this invitation because I really believe in this organization’s work and I was excited for the creative challenge, but at the same time, I didn't truly believe at the outset that I was the right fit for the job. Shirley, there were better, more experienced songwriters they could've asked. I felt like Charlie Brown, being the director of the Christmas play, or the many people in biblical times who said that they believed God must be mistaken to ask them to do a certain job. But when I finished my musical assignment last week, I was reminded of what happens when God gives you a task, you respond with willingness, and then let God do the rest. I've gotten lots of really good feedback on the song, and I'm going to be very interested to see what happens when other people use it. I'm thinking of engaging this Lenten series in our church in some way, and so we’ll get to use the song as well.

I'm sure many of you have had experiences like mine, where you might've been asked to “strut your stuff” before you thought you were ready. All of us are in good company with Jesus, as he performs his first miraculous sign of his ministry at a wedding.

To set the scene here, we have to remember just how big of a deal weddings were in biblical times. Anyone who has gotten married in our modern culture knows how much work it is to plan a wedding and executed the day of. There are all sorts of details that need to be worked out. There's all sorts of money that changes hands. There are all sorts of decisions to make. But weddings in biblical times were a multi-day affair, and if you were invited to one of these weddings, you know that you were pretty important. Also, symbolically, the commentator Brian Peterson reminds us that “the wedding is a rich image in Jewish tradition, pointing to the time of God’s deliverance and blessing for Israel”. so there was deep symbolism to the event, far greater than just two people marrying each other.

And I think Jesus is very well aware of this. His mother, Mary, asked him to do some thing about the fact that the wine has run out, and Jesus responds in such a way that I think many of us can resonate with. He says, “Woman, what does that have to do with me? My time hasn’t come yet.”

He, of course, was pointing towards the crucifixion, which we will honor in just a couple of months. That was what he meant. But to me it feels like Jesus is making the larger point of saying, “I'm not prepared for this!” But then somehow his mother convinces him, as mothers do, and then she says to those gathered around, “Do whatever he tells you.” And then he does something extraordinary. He does something that makes everybody around him, believe that he is something special.

Of course, none of us are going to compare ourselves to Jesus, but because Jesus is human, Jesus understands and resonates with the human experience of feeling like he might not be enough, that he might not be cut out for the task ahead. And then somehow there's magically enough wine for the people to drink. Somehow, his glory is revealed in an unexpected way. To a certain degree, I can resonate with that, from the story I told you earlier. Maybe you can too, in your own life. Maybe there has been a way that you've been invited to share your gifts, and to share what you've been given with the world, even when you yourself might not, feel like you're cut out for it.

But that's exactly what the gifts of God are all about. In the text from 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about the various gifts that are given to each person, but the gifts are given from the same spirit of God, which enables each of us to do what we can for the common good. Indeed, all of the gifts that were given have a ripple effect on others. Maybe my song will help widen peoples’ perspectives. maybe the lessons we teach in our classrooms, or in our Sunday school classes, will prepare those who hear them for the realities of a complicated world. Maybe those of us with experience supporting people with mental illness might be able to help others reduce the stigma and make a better world possible for those who are just trying to get through the day.

I said it before and I’ll say it again. Sometimes the gifts we have aren’t revealed until we trust that God gives us what we need to do God’s work.
So as you go into this week, I invite you to think about how you might trust in the gift God gives you. Everybody in this congregation has gifts that we can share. Our community is richer because of what everybody brings to it. So how will you let your light shine in, this community, both in our church and wider? There are so many needs in this world, and so many people hurting for various reasons. On this day before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I think about him and his gifts and the way that he made this country better, with something closer to equal rights for all people, even though there's plenty more work for us to do to that end. and the ways that we experience, it might not be as sweeping as Martin Luther King's dream, but I am confident that, because of who you are as people, that there is a gift you can share with a world of need.

So may you go with confidence into this world, sharing the gifts that God has given you. may you have people in your life that give you that nudge to share it. May you have people in your life who say to others, “Do whatever they tell you and watch what happens.” because it is in sharing those gifts that God's broad our community will be made better. Thanks be to God. Amen.

“I Will Be With You”

Sermon for U-CC Waupun

January 12, 2025

Focus: When we go through difficult or important moments in our lives, God will be with us.

Many of you were at my ordination almost 2 years ago in Neenah, either in person or virtually, when I officially received that Reverend title and made lots of promises and commitments to those present and to the wider church. The entire day was something I had been awaiting for 5 1/2 years and it was an incredibly exciting and important day. Lots of people said entirely too many nice things about me, and I felt like a beautiful affirmation of my ministry journey.

One of the most important things that happened during the service was something that happens whenever people are ordained, commissioned, or set apart for ministry and some other way. That process is called the “laying on of hands”. During that process, the candidate for ordination kneels on a kneeler, and all of the clergy, along with other important people in the candidate’s life, lay their hands on the candidate as a prayer is said over them. You'll see a picture of that part of the ritual on the screen.

I'm not sure I can quite describe the feeling that this moment elicited for me. Of course, I was very excited, but the sheer weight of so many peoples hands’ on my body, praying for my ministry, is a feeling I had never had before and probably won't have again that many more times in my life, if ever. Not only did I feel the affirmation of my calling, and the support of so many people, but I also felt the weight, the importance, of what I was saying yes to.

While most of the people in this room haven't had 30 people laying hands on them as a prayer was said for their ministry, I'm sure lots of folks in this room have had experiences that I felt like a “laying on of hands” for them. Naturally, as you hear my story, I’m sure that most of you might already be thinking about what that moment was in your life. If you're a teacher, perhaps that feeling was the first job offer you received, or the first time you stepped foot in the classroom that you would be teaching all on your own. If you’re law enforcement official, maybe that moment was your first day of training. If you're a student, maybe it was your first day stepping into a new school environment. But whatever that moment was for you, someone affirmed you as you stepped into a new chapter of your life's journey. Maybe, if you remember your baptism, you might remember the day you decided to say yes to God and yes to Jesus Christ, and their influence on your life.

I would be lying if I said that I didn't have a healthy dose of fear as I took my ordination vows. What if I wasn't actually cut out for the work that I was doing? What if I crashed and burned here at my first church what if I got too tired of the work and needed to change my career path?

My biggest question as I approached this week’s texts was this one: was Jesus afraid?

By all biblical accounts, it seems like we find a confident Jesus, and that John the Baptist has some kind of imposter complex.

Scripture says: “John replied to them all, “I baptize you with water, but the one who is more powerful than me is coming. I’m not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”.

But part of me wonders if Jesus ever questioned his own worthiness. He is human after all, and we do see a very particular moment of vulnerability in Jesus’ ministry in the garden of Gethsemane, in that prayer where he says to God, “if it's possible, please take this cup from me.” Are we to believe that Jesus, even privately, didn't question his worthiness from time to time? After all, the steaks are high for him. The commentator Karoline Lewis says, “Hearing Jesus’ first sermon, the hometown folks want to throw him off a cliff. Jesus will be rejected by his friends, his family, his community before he even does anything.” Responding to that kind of call is a tall order, and not something that anybody would take lightly.

But just as much as the weight of the call is real, so is grace. In our texts for today, God says two important things. In the Isaiah text, God says,

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
   when through the rivers, they won’t sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you won’t be scorched
   and flame won’t burn you.”

And in the new testament text, God says to Jesus, “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”

So this is what I want you to take away from the message today: When we go through difficult or important moments in our lives, God calls us beloved and will be with us on the journey.

This is why celebrating the baptism of Christ is so important. In today's readings, we recognize that even Jesus needed John, a lowly, marginalized person, to initiate him into the ministry upon which he was about to enter. John was able to help Jesus complete an important ritual which allowed him to do important work in the world.

So friends, today I ask you this question to think about it as you go into your week. What kinds of moments have you had in your life that felt like affirmation moments, or initiation moments, for you? Who were the people who helped you do the important work of preparing for a big change in your life journey? How was your journey or your career shaped by those moments and those people?

One of the things I will always be grateful for at this church is that you will always be the first church that I served as Pastor. You put your trust in me when it was perhaps a risky proposition, and you continue to put your trust in me every day to lead you with, love, with levelheadedness, and with good decision-making. I will always be grateful for that. I promise to continue to grow with you as I think about all the ways that my call will continue to evolve. I also promised to help you think about how you might follow the call of God into something new. This church has so much potential, and if I may be so bold, I don't know that all of you see what I see in terms of the potential we have when we work together, one more willing to have the hard conversations, when we're willing to do the hard things. because any form of ministry—ordained ministry, public ministry in biblical times, being a more liberal church in a more conservative community—all of that is really important, really challenging, and can get really messy. But I believe so strongly in your potential to do the work God has called you to.

So may you go into this week, knowing first that you were beloved, and then that you are called. Even as difficult as the work of God will be, you know that God will be with you on the journey, and that God will guide you along the way. Amen.

“A Light Shines In The Darkness”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun
January 5, 2025

Focus: No matter what kind of darkness we might feel in the world, the light of Christ continues to be with us and guide our way.

My main Christmas tree is in my living room in my townhome, a 7 foot tall artificial tree which stays up probably midway through January. But in my bedroom, I have a 3 foot tall tree which sits on top of a file cabinet, and stays up all throughout the winter. I affectionately call my winter tree. It has colored lights on it, and it's a bit Charlie Brown-ish, but it has served an important purpose for me for a number of years

Ever since high school, I have shown the signs and symptoms of seasonal affective disorder, which I now know were probably more likely symptoms of the moderate anxiety and mild depression which I was diagnosed with early last year.  Winters have been the hardest. Living with a disability, I am more likely to slip and fall than some people, and I've never particularly cared for cold weather. So as a way to cope with the difficulties of this time of year, I've always kept the winter tree up until spring comes, reminding me that light will continue to be with me in this season. The winter tree reminds me that joy and celebration can still be present in times of struggle, even in the form of a little Charlie Brown tree.

I don't tell you this in order for you to feel sorry for me, or to worry about the state of my health, but instead, I tell you this because millions of Americans, live with anxiety or depression and learn over time to develop coping mechanisms. If you don't personally experience this, anyone who has lived with anxiety or depression (and the many other disorders that stem from them) will tell you that their mood can fluctuate. Sometimes you feel great, whether that's because of something particularly good going on in your life, responding well to medication, exercise, prayer, or meditative practices. At other times it's harder to be resilient and get through the day. This is made even worse by the fact that society, and frankly, the church, often stigmatizes those who live with mental health conditions, saying that they need to pray more or lean on Jesus more, or in essence, “suck it up, buttercup”. All this while depression, anxiety, and suicide rates are going way up in this country and around the world.

Of course, the people in biblical times didn't have the terminology that we now do to discuss mental health conditions, but as I reflect on today's scripture passages, it's pretty clear that the people in biblical times were certainly dealing with anxiety or depression over the state of the world. Today's text from the book of Isaiah situates us in the book’s third section. The third section of the book of Isaiah has what the commentator Julia M. O'Brien describes as a “pessimistic and frustrated tone”. The anonymous writer of this book accuses God of being silent and unfaithful, and plead for God to intervene against the injustice that the people are experiencing. Indeed, one chapter earlier, the writer of this book laments,

“Because of all this, justice is far from us,
   and righteousness beyond our reach.
We expect light, and there is darkness;
   we await a gleam of light, but walk about in gloom.”

The people of biblical times are looking for something, anything, that will give them relief from their plight, and so far they're not finding it.

Elsewhere, in the New Testament, King Herod in Jerusalem is afraid of a threat to his power. that's why today’s text in Matthew’s gospel begins by saying, “When King Herod heard this, he was troubled, and everyone in Jerusalem was troubled with him.” Everyone in Jerusalem is now troubled over what will happen if a competing ruler comes to challenge Herod. As the commentator Media Stamper puts it, “A troubled Herod is a dangerous Herod.”

So both of today's Scriptures describe the precarious position of God's people in their own way. What are they to do? Who is going to be their liberator in a time of distress or discrimination?

Of course, we already know what the answer is! Jesus is going to come and make the world better. The entirety of his ministry was for the poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed.

This is why celebrating Epiphany is so important. Celebrating that our light has come through Jesus Christ seems in a way like an abstract theological concept that doesn't have the same fanfare as the jubilant celebrations of Christmas, but that doesn't make it any less important. To the people of biblical times, waiting for the light to come in Jesus Christ was utterly life-changing, and maybe even life-saving.

Celebrating epiphany can also remind us that the light is still present, even when things look bleak on the outside. No matter what kind of darkness we might feel in the world, the light of Christ continues to be with us and guide our way.

When I think about this congregation, sharing the light seems like such a natural idea. The light that is in your heart is so bright. This is a congregation who loves Jesus and wants to communicate how his love can cover the marginalized and the oppressed. when other churches in our lives lives might turn people away, we believe in an extravagant welcome and I believe we are trying to do our best to it in the ways that we can.

So the question is this: how will you celebrate the light coming into your own life? Will you be like me, putting up a Charlie Brown tree every year, in a comforting act of resistance to the culture of pessimism that so often causes us to lose our perspective? Will you do good work in the community so that others will experience the light of love you have found in Jesus?

No matter what you do, may you do so in gratitude for the way is that the light has been shown for you. May you remember the way that you took comfort in Christ love and a time where things were difficult for you. When you share this love with others, I believe that, as the book of Isaiah says, your light will shine forth. Thanks be to God. Amen.