Sermon Manuscripts

“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. 
 

“Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing”
Sermon for UCC Waupun

December 29, 2024
Colossians 3:12-17

Focus: As you embark on this new year, God guides you to love one another above all, and be mindful of what’s most important.

The inspiration for my sermon title came from an experience I had in Clinical Pastoral Education, which is an internship experience that all authorized ministers in the Wisconsin Conference are required to undertake. It teaches a minister how to provide effective and informed pastoral care. I’m a naturally anxious person, and so I asked my supervisor how I could stay focused and not forget to do something important in my care visits.

Her response was fairly simple: “Keep the main thing the main thing.” In other words, there were always going to be many different variables in the context of a care conversation, but as long as I focused on what was most important, I would be able to do ministry that was spirit-led and natural.

I’ve tried my best to keep that in mind in my future ministry, because the truth is that, as the church, there are lots of things vying for our attention. How do we keep our giving strong? Do our actions match our mission as a church? Is the work of the church running smoothly, or do we need to look at things again so we don’t fall into the old patterns that led to some discord in the church’s leadership in years past?

This is kind of what Paul is asking us to do as well.  In Paul's letter to the Colossians, Paul is speaking to people who are trying to do their best to advance the teachings of Jesus Christ after his death. They have good intentions, but of course, people are people.

If we zoom out a little bit in our text, we recognize that Paul is calling out some behaviors that run counter to the will of Christ. A few verses before our text begins, Paul writes, “But now set aside these things, such as anger, rage, malice, slander, and obscene language. Don’t lie to each other.” Despite our best efforts, churches are communities of people. Sometimes we fight over things that don't actually matter that much. Sometimes we don't listen as well as we should to one another. Sometimes it's hard for us to see past the differences of another person, when, in reality, we should always be working to see each other first as beloved children of God, worthy of God's love and redeeming.

After all, we are all God’s chosen people, “holy and loved”, and God’s likeness lives inside of each of us. Often, we all need a reminder of what it means to live in genuine community. Our society is so divided by political, social, and ideological differences, and yet, churches like ours are a refuge for so many people from many different backgrounds. When communities like ours work at our best, we can be ourselves with one another, which is a feeling we may not always experience outside of this place. Paul reminds the Colossians of the importance of tolerating each other's differences, recognizing that God loves others, just as deeply as God loves us. We don't always have to agree with each other or understand the particulars of how we differ. That would simply be unrealistic. We recognize that people of all backgrounds and demographics deserve a place at the table. The disabled person longing for greater access, when they have long been told that elevators or ramps are too expensive. The person whose anxiety, depression, or other mental illness has outcast them from social circles. The teenager questioning their sexual orientation, when all they want is to be accepted for who God created them to be. The person who’s made a few mistakes in their lives and yearns for a space they can forgive themselves and rest in the fact that God hasn’t given up on them.

And the most important part of all this? Paul says, “over all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” Keep the main thing the main thing.

Now, it’s not all so simple. If you read further into this passage, you'll see that Paul encourages wives to submit to their husbands, and slaves to submit to their masters. These very words have been misused and abused to hurt women, to hurt people of color, and to hurt other marginalized communities everywhere. It was wrong then, and it’s wrong now. We need to be mindful of both the complicated and compassionate advice that Paul gives. I’m not saying we automatically need top give Paul a pass for sexist, racist comments, but this is a prime example of why we are not always going to get this right.

As I stand here before you today, I can tell you that I haven’t always gotten it right. I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my life and ministry, and I continue to learn from them.

There is grace enough for me, grace enough for you, and grace enough for all of us.

As you embark on this new year, God guides you to love one another above all, and be mindful of what’s most important.

Community is messy. It’s complicated. It can be a vessel to hurt or to ignore someone. It’s not always going to be easy. But if we put on love over all else, keeping the main thing the main thing, the ways we differ from others don’t have to divide us. As my friend Andra Moran wrote in a song of hers, “love first, love always. We’ll figure the rest out as we go.”

As we prepare to move forward from Christmas into Epiphany and the rest of the year, what if we carried the joy we’ve felt in this Christmas season and let it shape our actions moving forward?

So as you enter into this journey, may you know that you are beloved of God and that you are called by God to co-create justice and joy, compassion and peace. May you respond to God’s call as thankful people, and may you always remember to lead with love. Love first, love always. Keep the main thing the main thing. The ways we are different from each other will never be as powerful as the love we share, even when it isn’t easy. May that love be your guide as you do the work of Christ. Amen.

“Great Joy for ALL the People”
TRADITIONAL Christmas Eve Sermon 2024

Focus: No matter what you have been through this year, the good news of great joy that Christ offers applies to you, too.

I'm a sucker for watching A Charlie Brown Christmas. I live alone, and my yearly ritual consists of turning all the lights off in my house except for my Christmas tree and whatever other holiday-themed lights I have, and watching A Charlie Brown Christmas while I drink a glass of eggnog. Perhaps a bit of a cheesy tradition, but so are most of the traditions we engage in this time of year! I’ve gotten into watching Hallmark Christmas movies with my girlfriend and I’m still convinced the Hallmark acting is way worse!

But the reason why I watch this classic every year is not just because it's a classic, but because I take something different away from it every year, which informs the way that I think about the Christmas story. Of course, the climactic moment of the show is when Charlie Brown screams out in desperation, “Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” With compassion and quiet confidence, Linus Van Pelt says, “Sure, Charlie Brown. I can tell you what Christmas is all about.”

He then proceeds to recite the King James Version of the angel’s announcement to the shepherds. As I watched, I got stuck on this verse, which I’m quoting from the translation we just heard: “But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.”

That verse got me thinking, both about what it meant in biblical times, and what it means for us in the times we live in today.

When we think about the biblical moment, we have to remember that the coming of a Messiah is prophesied throughout both the Old and New Testaments. All of those who were oppressed by the Roman power structure were finally going to be liberated. After all, life was extremely difficult for them. The Roman government regularly treated the Jewish people very unfairly. Many of us have already heard about this, as it's well documented throughout the entire entirety of the Bible. Harsh taxation. Laws built for the success of the powerful and the downfall of the poor. Enslavement. All sorts of problems that the people in Biblical Israel were facing.

Indeed, the commentator and preaching professor 
Amanda Brobst-Renaud reminds us that the shepherds had every reason to be cynical. They had every reason to say they had been waiting for all their lives for the Messiah to come, and it wasn't going to come from a tiny baby or an unwed teenage virgin. But they didn't. Instead, they dropped everything, saying, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” No hesitation, no questioning, no cynicism. They just go. And in the rest of the biblical narrative, they're never heard from again. This is a story of earnest people who hear what they believe is the word of God and respond with haste.

As I was watching A Charlie Brown Christmas, part of me wondered if I could respond without cynicism. My own family, members of this congregation, and members of our greater community have all faced lots of struggles this year. We've faced difficult health struggles or felt depressed or anxious at the state of the world. We've lost people we love. Some people continue to struggle to make ends meet. Many people in this area face food insecurity, poverty, or homelessness. Others are afraid of how they will be treated, or if they will be discriminated, in the midst of our divided and apathetic society.

“Good news of great joy for all the people?” I wouldn't be surprised if some of us in this room might be thinking to ourselves, “God, I’ll have to believe it when I see it.”

But this is exactly why Jesus came. No matter what you have been through this year, the good news of great joy that Christ offers applies to you, too.

I'm not saying that everything that's been difficult for you. This year is just going to go away. There's lots of work to be done in our society so that everybody can experience joy in this world and everyone can live with dignity, peace, prosperity, and hope.

But tonight, just for a moment, what if we could use the joy that is inside our hearts tonight as a source of strength to get through the hard times? What if we could truly believe that the coming of Christ is for our benefit?

I don't know about you, but if an angel came to me while I was minding my own business and doing my job, I would be pretty scared too! But what if we could hear the angel speaking directly to us? “To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

To you. For you.

If you’re struggling right now, you might remember that Jesus came to be with you when life is messy or doesn’t make sense. To be with you when you are carrying anxiety at the state of the world. To be with you when you need God’s presence to touch your mind, body, or spirit.

On the other hand, maybe you're sitting here feeling like things are going well. Maybe life is really good for you right now. In the last weeks as we've joys and concerns, we’ve had many prayers of gratitude—for a new grandchild, for weddings and engagements and anniversaries and all sorts of beautiful things. The good news of great joy that Christ offers applies to you, too. To be with you as you have journeyed toward a new chapter in your life journey with anticipation. To be with you as you give thanks for the unexpected ways that God has provided for you or delighted you.  

That's why we don't have to be cynical when the angel says that the good news of great joy is for all the people. We can pack up and go with haste to see the baby. We can sing with the angels. We can go tell it on a mountain, over the hills and everywhere.

My friends, no matter who you are, what you face today,  or what has happened in your life up until now, Christ was born for you.

May you carry that joy and that assurance with you this season. May you be empowered by the hope Christ has offered in your life to give strength to others who are feeling afraid. Because good news of great joy for all people is a message worth sharing. Thanks be to God. Amen.

“Great Joy for ALL the People”
MEDIA Christmas Eve Sermon 2024

Focus: No matter what you have been through this year, the good news of great joy that Christ offers applies to you, too.

I'm a sucker for watching A Charlie Brown Christmas. I live alone, and my yearly ritual consists of turning all the lights off in my house except for my Christmas tree and whatever other holiday-themed lights I have, and watching A Charlie Brown Christmas while I drink a glass of eggnog. Perhaps a bit of a cheesy tradition, but so are most of the traditions we engage in this time of year! I’ve gotten into watching Hallmark Christmas movies with my girlfriend and I’m still convinced the Hallmark acting is way worse!

But the reason why I watch this classic every year is not just because it's a classic, but because I take something different away from it every year, which informs the way that I think about the Christmas story. Of course, the climactic moment of the show is when Charlie Brown screams out in desperation, “Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” With compassion and quiet confidence, Linus Van Pelt says, “Sure, Charlie Brown. I can tell you what Christmas is all about.”

He then proceeds to recite the King James Version of the angel’s announcement to the shepherds. As I watched, I got stuck on this verse, which I’m quoting from the translation we just heard: “But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.”

That verse got me thinking, both about what it meant in biblical times, and what it means for us in the times we live in today.

When we think about the biblical moment, we have to remember that the coming of a Messiah is prophesied throughout both the Old and New Testaments. All of those who were oppressed by the Roman power structure were finally going to be liberated. After all, life was extremely difficult for them. The Roman government regularly treated the Jewish people very unfairly. Many of us have already heard about this, as it's well documented throughout the entire entirety of the Bible. Harsh taxation. Laws built for the success of the powerful and the downfall of the poor. Enslavement. All sorts of problems that the people in Biblical Israel were facing.

Indeed, the commentator and preaching professor 
Amanda Brobst-Renaud reminds us that the shepherds had every reason to be cynical. They had every reason to say they had been waiting for all their lives for the Messiah to come, and it wasn't going to come from a tiny baby or an unwed teenage virgin. But they didn't. Instead, they dropped everything, saying, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” No hesitation, no questioning, no cynicism. They just go. And in the rest of the biblical narrative, they're never heard from again. This is a story of earnest people who hear what they believe is the word of God and respond with haste.

As I was watching A Charlie Brown Christmas, part of me wondered if I could respond without cynicism. My own family, members of this congregation, and members of our greater community have all faced lots of struggles this year. We've faced difficult health struggles or felt depressed or anxious at the state of the world. We've lost people we love. Some people continue to struggle to make ends meet. Many people in this area face food insecurity, poverty, or homelessness. Others are afraid of how they will be treated, or if they will be discriminated, in the midst of our divided and apathetic society.

“Good news of great joy for all the people?” I wouldn't be surprised if some of us in this room might be thinking to ourselves, “God, I’ll have to believe it when I see it.”

But this is exactly why Jesus came. No matter what you have been through this year, the good news of great joy that Christ offers applies to you, too.

I'm not saying that everything that's been difficult for you. This year is just going to go away. There's lots of work to be done in our society so that everybody can experience joy in this world and everyone can live with dignity, peace, prosperity, and hope.

But tonight, just for a moment, what if we could use the joy that is inside our hearts tonight as a source of strength to get through the hard times? What if we could truly believe that the coming of Christ is for our benefit?

I don't know about you, but if an angel came to me while I was minding my own business and doing my job, I would be pretty scared too! But what if we could hear the angel speaking directly to us? “To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

To you. For you.

If you’re struggling right now, you might remember that Jesus came to be with you when life is messy or doesn’t make sense. To be with you when you are carrying anxiety at the state of the world. To be with you when you need God’s presence to touch your mind, body, or spirit. In our media song, Gloria Estefan sings about the light that saves us, and coming out of dark places. Perhaps we feel like Jesus does that for us too.

On the other hand, maybe you're sitting here feeling like things are going well. Maybe life is really good for you right now. In the last weeks as we've joys and concerns, we’ve had many prayers of gratitude—for a new grandchild, for weddings and engagements and anniversaries and all sorts of beautiful things. The good news of great joy that Christ offers applies to you, too. To be with you as you have journeyed toward a new chapter in your life journey with anticipation. To be with you as you give thanks for the unexpected ways that God has provided for you or delighted you.  

That's why we don't have to be cynical when the angel says that the good news of great joy is for all the people. We can pack up and go with haste to see the baby. We can sing with the angels. We can go tell it on a mountain, over the hills and everywhere.

My friends, no matter who you are, what you face today,  or what has happened in your life up until now, Christ was born for you.

May you carry that joy and that assurance with you this season. May you be empowered by the hope Christ has offered in your life to give strength to others who are feeling afraid. Because good news of great joy for all people is a message worth sharing. Thanks be to God. Amen. 
 

“Mary’s Revolutionary Song”

Sermon for U-CC Waupun 

Advent 4C

December 22, 2024

Focus: “Like Mary, we must envision, must see, must prophesy and act on that vision for the world that God continues to call us to co-create.” (WDS)

Have you ever been given news that affected you, but also had a positive impact on people other than yourself?

One time this happened to me was when I got the call from my dear friend Lisa Hart that they were looking for a musician to lead the “Knock Knock” middle school fall youth event at Daycholah Center. My friend Bryan Sirchio, who had led that event for many years, had suddenly been unable to make it, and actually said to Lisa, “have you thought about asking Jacob?”

Now, at this point, I was midway through my college career, and thought that I was by far not the kind of musician that Bryan was, and also didn’t compare to any of the other people that the Wisconsin Conference UCC typically contracts with for this sort of work. the Wisconsin conference UCC has a very good reputation of finding quality, musicians, quality, speakers, and quality leaders for all sorts of events that they have, and I'll tell you what, the imposter complex was really setting in! But by that time, Lisa and I were already very good friends, and I trusted her that she was very excited to have me on board and would work with me as I learned the ropes.

I also thanked God for the kind of opportunity that this gave me to hone my musical skills, and hone my worship leadership skills. I've now done this event most every year since then, other than when COVID forced us to cancel the event. And I've gotten really positive feedback from both adult chaperones and youth participants so like about how I have connected with them, how my music has helped their faith, and that my story of living with a disability has been very helpful to them as they learned how to understand various levels of human difference. In return, I know that I have a sacred responsibility to remind today's youth and their chaperones just how much God loves them and that they have the capacity to change the world just by being who they are. So often, people in older generations think of today's youth in a negative way, calling them disrespectful, disengaged, and detached from anything outside of their own little world. But I love doing youth events like these because I really do believe with my whole heart that they have this incredible capacity, and I’m honored to be a person who can help them realize that potential. And in some ways, this would never have happened if this logistical error hadn’t occurred.

Now, I know I could never compare to Mary and her revolutionary song that was just read for us, which we often call the Magnificat. I would certainly not be so bold and self-centered to call my ministry prophetic. But in some small way, I can imagine Mary's awe and wonder as she is being tasked with the enormous and sacred responsibility of carrying the body of Jesus before he is born. I also love the way that Marcia McFee, the author of this worship series, puts it. She reminds us that Mary was a prophet, “her womb gestating love for the world.”

When I think about what it means to be a prophet, I'm struck by the fact that prophets see the world for how it is, and how it can be with God's help. A good prophet also has a healthy dose of humility in carrying out the message of God. Keeping these things in mind can help us understand the enormous consequences of Mary's powerful message, and why we consider it every year around this time of year.

Mary certainly has this humility thing covered. She begins this amazing song by saying, “He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant. Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored because the mighty one has done great things for me.”

It certainly wouldn't have been the norm back in those days that a teenage woman would be the bearer of such an important and special child. But she knows that God has chosen her for an important job, and that she should consider herself blessed to be empowered with this kind of task. What's more, the political, social, and economic landscape of the time meant that the Romans were exploiting the Jewish people to the point that the Jewish people could just barely make it through the day. The pastor and commentator Niveen Sarras reminds us that “Carrying the Savior in her womb and trusting in God’s salvation gave [Mary] a chance to play an essential part in resisting Roman imperialism.

No doubt that Mary could understand how this would change the world so significantly. There are examples all throughout this revolutionary song about how Mary understood that this would upend the current power structure. She knew that God was working in incredible ways through the birth of her son, and that she had a great deal to be grateful for to be chosen to bring this love into the world. She knew that the world would be so much better because of what God had done, was doing, and would do through her.

It's amazing to me how deeply Mary understood what this meant. Not only would her own personal reputation be a lot better, but she would be able to help enact God's will in a world that was deeply hurting the oppressed and the marginalized.

So how can we be like Mary as we celebrate the birth of Christ in just a couple of short days, and consider what it might mean for us in this world?
McFee puts it this way: “Like Mary, we must envision, must see, must prophesy and act on that vision for the world that God continues to call us to co-create.”

Like Mary, and perhaps like the story I shared from earlier, we must discern what our part is in creating the world that God will. A world where the lowly are lifted up. A world where the economically disadvantaged have what they need. A world where no one is discriminated for attributes about themselves that they cannot control.

So as we enter into this Christmas season together, how will you be like Mary to enact the hope, peace, love and joy that God will for the world. Perhaps you'll do so by empowering the youth of our church or community. Perhaps you'll do so by working on restorative justice practices for those of you who work in this town correctional facilities. Perhaps you will do your part to treat people with dignity who are often treated with dismissal or even disgust. no matter how you do it, may you go into this week? Mindful of the example of Mary, and what her revolutionary song teaches the world. May it be so. Amen.

“Joy and Having Enough”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun,
December 15, 2024

Advent 3C, Luke 3: 7-18

Focus: The teachings of Jesus call for a world where everyone knows dignity and sufficiency. Only then can we truly live in joy.

I had a lot of good friends growing up, some of whom I have preached about in other sermons. Today I want to tell you about one of my first friends, and what I and people around me learned from her.

As a kid growing up with a disability, it wasn't always easy for me to fit in or to make friends, because there were ways I was different from other kids. I walked differently. I needed adaptations that other kids didn't need. All of these things and more were things that I struggled with from time to time. But my friend Anne was one of my first friends in school, and someone who taught other people around me how to become my friend too.

First of all, she immediately jumped into help with things when she noticed that it was a difficulty for me. Those tiny little milk cartons were difficult for me to open in my early elementary school years, and Anne knew this. So when I came time for all of us as students to have lunch together, and immediately sat down next to me and opened my milk carton before touching her own lunch. My dad saw this in action one day when he had lunch with me and the rest of my class and he was astounded! This was still at a time when even my parents didn't know how I would develop socially or make friends. When he saw this happen, he knew that I was going to be just fine. Without a word spoken between the two of us, Anne knew what I needed and was willing to help me.

Of course, Anne also saw when injustice was brewing, and when I became the perhaps inevitable target of playground, taunting. Years later, she told me a story about how she punched a kid after she heard him taunting and bullying me!

Anne’s love and care for me was infectious, and soon other kids realized that I wasn't really that different after all, and that it was OK to be my friend. I’ve thought for a long time that everyone needs an Anne—someone who is always by your side, helping you with things, and models for others that it's important to do the same.

I’m convinced that the fact that I had Anne in those early days, as well as many other friends who treated me with the same kind of dignity, played a part in the joyful childhood that I had. I had a really good growing up life in lots of ways, and for that, I'm very grateful.

I titled today's sermon “Joy and Having Enough” because I believe having joy and having enough are intimately interconnected, and I'm going to talk about how Luke shows this in today's Gospel reading.

First, let me set the scene a little bit. Lots of people are coming to John the Baptist to be baptized by him. Some people might even think that he's the Messiah, that he's Jesus, because they have been told for a long time about someone who will come to liberate them from their oppression. Of course, John makes it very clear that this is not him, but somebody else. But before he makes that clear, before he answers their question, he isn't afraid to call the crowds out on their crap. So much so that he goes so far as to call them all “children of snakes!” (Some of you might have grown up hearing the words “brood of vipers” spoken by John the Baptist. This is that same text, but the language is simplified for a modern audience.) He calls them this because some people in the crowd are convinced that, because they are descendants of Abraham, that automatically means that they are aligned with God's will, and God's desires for humanity. John the Baptist reminds them that this isn't true. In fact, they have to live with changed hearts and lives. In other words, they have to live in such a way that demonstrates that they are changed people, and that God's message means something to them.

When asked how to do that, John the Baptist gives practical directives to several different groups of people. Give food to the hungry and clothe the needy. Don't cheat people out of money that you are not owed, don't harass anybody or treat somebody in a way that compromises their dignity. Jesus is coming, and Jesus is going to judge us for our actions in ways that other people don't have the power to do.

To all of this, Dr. Marcia McFee, who authored our Advent worship series, reminds us earlier in our liturgy that “A full life of joy…is the birthright of all children of God.” Everybody has the right to live into the fullness of their humanity, knowing that they will not be cheated, that they will not be treated poorly, and that they will have what they need.

My friend Anne would probably balk at this comparison, thinking that she couldn't possibly be as important as John the Baptist, but in a way it sort of feels like she was the exemplar for our friends about how to treat not only me, but others who society might push aside or ostracize in someway. She knew that I and all of our friends had the right to be loved for who we are, and that we had an opportunity to create the world that we want to see.

We have one more Sunday of Advent before we celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ into our lives once again. How will we live into what John the Baptist said to the crowd, and therefore says to us?

This is the good news: The teachings of Jesus call for a world where everyone knows dignity and sufficiency. Only then can we truly live in joy.

This congregation understands how to treat one another with dignity, and ensure that everybody has what they need. We are very good at helping each other when times are hard and when we know that I need arises. We also understand that this is not something that we only do at Christmas time, when the rest of society suddenly decides that they care about filling the food pantries and donating to the local clothes closet. We understand that John the Baptist, and therefore Jesus, calls us to do that year round. It isn't just about writing checks. It isn't just about putting in a couple hours to volunteer to feel good about ourselves. But instead, it's about spreading the joy that is found when we love one another as Jesus has loved us. So this week, may you go into a world of need, sharing the love, dignity, and compassion that you have experienced in your own life. You are kind, generous, loving, caring people. I know that all of these qualities are so evident in the way you live in community with one another. May you do all of these things not because Jesus is going to come and judge the world, but because it is the Christian way of being compassionate to one another, giving people what they need. Thanks be to God. Amen.

“Room at the Table” 

Sermon for U-CC Waupun
December 8, 2024

Baruch 5:1-5; Philippians 1:9-11

• The story about my parents hosting holidays in their little house. 
   
• The true definition of a “crowded table!”
   
• Everyone belongs
   
• Always enough to go around
   
• Not perfect, but always special for all of us; not everyone at this table will be around in the future
   
• It’s the same way with God
   
• There are lots of people in our society who we may not want around our tables (for good reasons). 
   
• The Baruch text reminds us that all God’s children gather from every place, and God has not forgotten them.
   
• To be fair, it’s a bit odd talking about Jerusalem/Israel in an oppressed context considering what’s going on in the world today, but we have to remember that the bible is a product of its time.
• “Green Book” clip
   
• This is also a product of its time.
   
• Based on a true story where race relations are such that Don might not have received a war, welcome from Tony’s family
   
• The point: To be able to welcome Jesus into our hearts, we are also called to welcome those whom Christ would welcome
   
• Philippians “This is my prayer: that your love might become even more and more rich with knowledge and all kinds of insight”
   
• I’m ending my message by singing “At This Table” by Idina Menzel. May these words be true for you and for how you experience God’s love.

At this Table Lyrics

At this table, everyone is welcome
At this table, everyone is seen
At this table, everybody matters
No one falls between
At this table, you can say whatever
At this table, you can speak your mind
At this table, everything's forgiven
There's enough for everyone

So come as you are
Remember that the door is always open
Yes, come as you are
The perfect gift that you can bring is your heart
So, come, come as you are

At this table, there will be no judgment
At this table, Mercy has a seat
At this table, we're all sons and daughters
There's no place I'd rather be

So come as you are
Remember that the door is always open
Come as you are
The perfect gift that you can bring is your heart
Come
Come as you are
Come as you are, oh

At this table, everyone is welcome
At this table, everybody cares
At this table, everybody matters
So, come, pull up a chair
 

“The Waiting Is The Hardest Part”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

December 1, 2024

Luke 21: 25-36

Focus: Sometimes the anxieties of our lives feel like they might overtake us, but Jesus came to liberate the people of biblical times from the difficulties of their times. Jesus will do the same for us, if we wait with patience.

When I first moved to St. Louis to start seminary, I was unemployed for six months. Because I didn't have a sense of the seminary lifestyle, and how my class schedule would impact my availability for employment, I decided that I had enough savings to get me through for a little while, while I figured that out. I knew I would find a job, eventually, and in the process I would make the connections I needed to make with the community there, but it proved to be quite difficult. Before moving to St. Louis, I had started to be called upon in several different situations for freelancing in my music ministry. I didn't make much, but it was just enough to say that I was making some money. Of course, these things are all about who you know, and I didn't know anybody when I went to St. Louis, so as soon as I relocated, these opportunities dried up. And yet, I still needed to buy groceries, and books, and apartment furnishings, and all sorts of other things. It wasn't like the responsibilities of my adult life stopped because I didn't have money coming in. And they charge you like crazy for sales tax in St. Louis!

I did end up getting a part-time job several months later that paid me quite well, and gave me experience I could use in the future, but in all of this, I had to trust that God and Jesus were going to make a way for me to follow my calling.

I titled my sermon “The Waiting Is The Hardest Part” mostly because I wanted to make a Tom Petty reference, but also because it's true. Just like I had to wait for income, while my savings rapidly declined, and just like lots of you have probably had to wait for lots of things in your own lives, the people in biblical times had to wait too. This week as we open up our sermon series for Advent, we are talking about making room. The reality is that sometimes our own anxieties get in the way of making room for God to do something new. I know that, as somebody who has generalized anxiety disorder, people with anxiety and depression don't do particularly well when we don't know what the future holds.

When I think about the challenges that people in biblical times were experiencing, it strikes me that some of these challenges might've been similar to what I experienced during that time in my life, and what some of you might experience. These kinds of challenges are well documented, and I've spoken often about the economic disparities that so many people were experiencing in these times. The rulers at the top were making sure that they got the vast majority of the resources, leaving people like you and me with hardly anything to live on. In our country’s current economy, healthcare, childcare costs, rising food costs, and other barriers often disadvantage those who are already in difficult situations, so in some ways the situations we experience are not that different.

For generations, the stories passed down in what we now know as the Hebrew Bible have told these people that somebody, sometime, is going to come and turn the whole thing around. The Psalmist says,  “O my God, in you I trust;
   do not let me be put to shame;
   do not let my enemies exult over me.
Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame.”

But the grace of this moment asks us to remember what Jesus says to us. When Jesus comes, he says “there will be dismay among nations in their confusion over the roaring of the sea and surging waves. The planets and other heavenly bodies will be shaken, causing people to faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world.”

Lots of us are afraid for many different reasons about what our country is becoming, and what our world is becoming. Some of us are dealing with difficult personal circumstances that we never imagine we'd find ourselves in. The last thing we want to do, naturally, is wait for Jesus to come to us in situations like these. We just want Jesus to come and make everything better. That's why the waiting truly is the hardest part.

But Jesus also says, “When these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads, because your redemption is near.”

In other words, don't be afraid, and don't let the anxieties of your life, prevent you from knowing that Jesus is coming for you. Jesus comes for your benefit, to make the world more aligned to what God is already doing.

Sometimes the anxieties of our lives feel like they might overtake us, but Jesus came to liberate the people of biblical times from the difficulties of their times. Jesus will do the same for us, if we wait with patience.

So my friends, I leave you with this question. How might you make room for Jesus to liberate you from the difficulties you are experiencing in your life? How might you live with hope in situations where it may seem easier to be hopeless?

I'm not being naïve here. Those six months when I didn't have a job in a new place were very scary. I had to trust that God would provide for me, and that Jesus could create something new in me. The same might be true for you right now.

In today’s media song, I wonder if God is speaking to us, if Jesus is speaking to us, saying,

“be still my love
Open up your heart, let the light shine
Don't you understand
I already have a plan”

Trusting in God, and making room for a newborn baby to change the world forever, can give us hope in a hurting world. So as you go into this week, may you be ready to find the way that you can continue living into that hope. As you go into this week, may you become that hope for somebody else. A newborn baby is coming to change the world forever, and the hope of his birth can empower us to share that hope in times of fear. Thanks be to God. Amen.

The Reign of Christ vs. Christian Nationalism
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

November 24, 2024
John 18:33-37

Focus: Jesus rejects the theology that makes him king in the ways that we might expect, calling us instead to carry out his mission of love and justice.

You might be wondering why I’m preaching on a Lenten text when we’re about to celebrate the season of Advent. Did I leave my brain back in Indiana on vacation? Do you need to send me on vacation less often? No, there’s actually a point to this!

Today is Reign of Christ Sunday, and most people don't really know what that means, so I did a little research. As it turns out, I learned from the commentator, Matt Skinner, that this annual celebration was developed in opposition to the tendency that western culture had after World War I to trust in worldly leaders, rather than trusting in Jesus to lead them and guide them. There are a multitude of religious and ideological perspectives that society follows. While it's true that Christianity is still the dominant religious tradition in this country at just over 70% of those surveyed in the most recent Pew Research Center statistics, it's far from the only tradition that exists. Just over 22% of Americans surveyed identify as religious “nones”—atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular.

That brings me to the topic of today’s discussion: Christian nationalism. John and I represent this congregation at monthly meetings of the Waupun Christian Ministerial Association, and we coordinate with other area pastors to do worship services around Advent for Lessons and Carols, the Celebrate Waupun festival, and the National Day of Prayer which happens in May of every year. I believe very strongly in ecumenical partnerships, with other churches, and many of those ecumenical partnerships I've been a part of in the past have been very successful.

But one thing I've learned about ecumenical partnerships is that we don't always agree on everything. There was one prayer in particular said at last year's National Day of Prayer service that gave me pause, and I want to talk to you about that today.

To be clear, this prayer was not written by any of the pastors in the city. It was given to us by the National Day of Prayer organizers, and we decided to use it.

The prayer says in part, “With hopeful hearts we pray that all would choose to receive Your love and follow You. We pray that America would confess, “Jesus is Lord” and reflect Your righteousness in every sphere of influence, and every aspect of our lives.”

There are a few problems I have with this prayer. For one, it prioritizes Christianity over other religions, and in particular prioritizes, a certain brand of Christianity that believes that the 10 Commandments should be posted in schools, children, who identify in the queer community are sinful, and that being a true Christian means that one must align with certain political and ideological perspectives. These are examples of what is commonly known as Christian nationalism. As Christianity Today describes the phenomenon, “Christian nationalism is the belief that the American nation is defined by Christianity, and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way. Popularly, Christian nationalists assert that America is and must remain a “Christian nation”—not merely as an observation about American history, but as a prescriptive program for what America must continue to be in the future.” if you're looking for a thought-provoking documentary on this topic, I would recommend the movie, Bad Faith. I will say it takes a fairly partisan stance on how Christian nationalism originated, but it does a good job of tracing the history of this phenomenon.

I think that Jesus would take great issue with this trend as well, given the conversation he has with Pilate in today's text. When Pilate is trying to speak to Jesus, Jesus dodges his questions by saying: “My kingdom doesn’t originate from this world. If it did, my guards would fight so that I wouldn’t have been arrested by the Jewish leaders. My kingdom isn’t from here.”

Jesus makes it very clear that he speaks of a kingdom that is far beyond our concept of the monarchy, or other rulers. His is a realm where faithfulness, love, peace and justice reign supreme above the ambitions of the leaders of our world. He says, “I was born and came into the world for this reason: to testify to the truth. Whoever accepts the truth listens to my voice.”

This is my main point for today, friends. Jesus rejects the theology that makes him king in the ways that we might expect, calling us instead to carry out his mission of love and justice.

So what does that mean for us here at this church?

As we prepare for the beginning of a new presidential administration in the coming months, I'm feeling drawn to remind us of the fact that we have to remember what’s most important. (I would be saying this, no matter who won.) . In my last sermon here before I left the pulpit for two weeks, I reminded you that we can't trust politicians to create the kind of world we want to see, but sometimes we forget that in a society where not everybody believes the same thing all the time. Our call remains the same as it always has==to love God with everything we have and love our neighbors as ourselves. In this case, I think that we need to be mindful of what Jesus taught us. If what Jesus taught us runs counter to what we see in the world, I think we need to be discerning. I'm not suggesting that everybody needs to believe the same thing, or pray the same way, or profess the same ideologies. I'm suggesting that we need to follow the guidelines of our faith, and our moral compass, to the best of our ability as we move toward the future of our country. I don't believe that we need the 10 Commandments hung in our schools, or to prioritize Kristen holidays over non-Christian holidays, or to act like we are the only way to the truth. Because the reality is, none of that matters if we don't act like followers of Christ. Caring for the poor and the needy. Speaking out for the marginalized and oppressed. Recognizing that all people are fearfully and wonderfully made. That is how the realm of God will truly live on earth. Amen.

Who Are You Going to Follow?

Sermon for U-CC Waupun

November 17, 2024

So let me give you fair warning, you are going to have to use your brain throughout this sermon. I’m going to need you to think, to reflect, and to continue thinking about some of the things we talk about today. I’d like to imagine you’ll be thinking about this for awhile
 

God created us; and allowed us to have free will. The Creator decided he was not going to be a dictator and completely control our lives. This allowed us to have a lot of opinions and beliefs, it has also allowed others the opportunity to affect those beliefs.
 

In this day and age there are experts coming out of the woodwork, individuals that want to lead us, to guide our lives according to their plan. There are, as the Don Henley song says, a lot of tin gods showing up. So, what do you worship, who do you follow?
 

Our society has never had so much information available to it as we do now. 
With a flip of a switch, you know what is going on in countries on the other side of the world, countries whose names we have never heard of before.
 

And most of the time this information comes to us raw and unfiltered, leaving us to sort through it, looking for the real, the truth, the understanding. Along with all this information there is a never-ending list of individuals who are willing to “help you,” to “show you the way.”
The writer of Mark shows us that these things have been going on forever. The verses we read say that Jesus said many people will come in my name, saying, ‘I’m the one!’ They will deceive many people. When you hear of wars and reports of wars, don’t be alarmed. These things must happen, but this isn’t the end yet. Nations and kingdoms will fight against each other, and there will be earthquakes and famines in all sorts of places. The writer continues with the warning we need to watch out for ourselves.
 

Many will come to deceive us using Jesus’ name to do so. We’ve seen this many a time, and I imagine you all have instances of things like this that come to your mind. The “so called religious zealots” who promised a better life if you gave them all your money to spend, if you came to live in their sealed community, if you allowed your family to be completely controlled, 
if things didn’t work out you are to end your existence. People who claimed that they themselves were God. Some examples of false gods, that’s god with a little “g”, that people bow to are fame, fortune, substances, and chemicals.
 

Most of these gods are things that people feel will make them happy, but that happiness won’t last, in fact it will be replaced with a craving of wanting more and more.
Does this sound like what God is asking of us or what Jesus taught?
 

Preying on emotions is what usually is used to easily manipulate an individual. These false teachers quite often use fear and sadness to convince others that their way is the true way. When many are stressed, they go looking for help or a cure all, to make them better - what better time for the deceivers to take advantage.
 

So how do we figure out if what we are putting our faith in is real or a scam. To start with, use the old saying “if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t.”  No human can promise you a perfect life and to solve all your problems. Look to the bible and see if what the person is saying is supported there.
 

Ask questions. A faith to believe in should not be scared to be questioned.  Look at all the instances when Jesus walked the Earth. He never shied away from a question, in fact most of his teachings came out because of a question.
 

Do some investigating. Don’t just take what the group is advertising at face value. Look to see what they are about, what their plan is, where their offerings are truly going. Listen to your head, heart, and soul. I think the majority of humankind have since creation, something inside themselves that helps them recognize true faith and God.
 

When you look into someone claiming they are the one, ask - is the leader claiming they are a god? Are the contributions just going to benefit one instead of helping others and spreading the word of God? Are the followers being separated from others? Is part of the belief system teaching hate, fear, and not to trust?
 

None of the things I have just listed are from a true faith in God yet there are people signing up to be part of these groups. Just a little side note, the disciples had asked when the end was coming and when will it happen, Jesus didn’t not really answer this, and we know there are other verses that tell us no one knows the specific time that He will come again, so, you need to question yourself if the one you are following can answer this question,
 

Another way to judge is according to the Ligonier (leg-o-near) Teaching Fellowship. 
The first thing to do is answer this question: Do you have faith in Jesus Christ? Those who have faith in Christ are given many assurances in Scripture. So, the first thing to ask is whether you have faith in Jesus Christ. 
 

The second stage—and this needs to be kept in order—is to answer this: Is your life beginning to exhibit a heart that has been turned and led by the Holy Spirit? Are you beginning to see evidence of the Spirit at work in you? By the Spirit, you’re calling Jesus “Lord,” and by the Spirit, you are beginning to be transformed into Christ-likeness. Those two must not be flipped around. The second level protects us from that to make sure the faith we have in Christ is real and evidence of a transformed heart.
 

Please don’t infer that I am speaking against other faiths or traditions, saying they are false or trying to deceive. Just because a group uses a different method or direction doesn’t make them wrong.  If they are teaching from the Gospels and that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that we are saved through grace, then they are on the right trail. 
 

So, you need to decide - what do you want to believe in - who do you want to follow - where do you put your faith? I can’t force you to answer these questions in any way. Your answer is in your heart. Nobody said following God and being a Christian would be easy and without difficulties. 
In fact, our reading today states that Jesus told the disciples present with him that they may be taken, held in front of groups. You will be brought there because you believe in God; and Jesus continues telling them first the Good News needs to be proclaimed to all nations. We do not need to worry about what we will say for the Holy Spirit will give us the words. I believe what Jesus is telling us is that when we are questioned about our faith, we are to tell others of the hope, love, and peace that our God gives, and not to be worried for the words will come to us.
 

But with a little work, just think what rewards we’ll be able to receive by following the true God and not letting ourselves be deceived. You see with a true faith and a real Savior you are to love God with your all, love your neighbor as yourself, help those who are not as well off as you instead of judging them and are to live your life Christ like. These are the signs of a follower of the true Savior and Creator.  Don’t be scared to let the world know what real and true faith is.  Thanks be to God.

Judging/Giving
Sermon for U-CC Waupun
November 10, 2024

 

So, in talking with others about our reading in Mark, the message of the chapter is simple: it's about giving, and I can’t disagree with that. However, I think there are other meanings too.
 

One that I see is judgmental people. The first part of the text speaks of people who love to walk around in long robes and be greeted in the market. They like the front seats in the synagogues and the best seats at banquets. They pray long prayers just to show off, they feel that they are above the rest—these people I see as judgmental individuals. You know, though, - in reflection maybe they’re not judgmental, but show offs.
 

They need the world to see how good they are, how rich they are, how important they are. I know we all know people like this. Look at me - - - see how good I am, see what I can afford - - - do you know who my friends are? 
 

And most often they compare themselves to others, and usually find that others are not up to their standards. A real Christian way, isn’t it?
 

I think humans are hardwired to be judgmental in a way. We need to make decisions all the time, make a judgment, we go over pros and cons and come up with a decision. But somewhere we got into the idea that we don’t need any information, we make snap judgments.  We have even become scared of differences. If a group is not like us, then they are wrong or something about them is wrong. The decision made just by looks, by not knowing the individual.
 

Last Sunday we talked about love. Loving God and loving our neighbor. How can you love someone when you are looking down on them, judging them to be inferior in some way?
 

In the second half of the reading; Jesus and the disciples were at a temple watching the offering being given and Jesus spoke to them about the differences in the worshipers giving. Please keep in mind I’m not going to go into a spiel about how much we should be giving. 
 

Instead, I want to go further into what Jesus said. He noted that many were giving what they didn’t need, what was just laying around, their “extras.”
And then this woman comes up, - a person Jesus describes as a widower, who is not well off, - who is on a fixed income, and yet she gives what could be her life savings as an offering.
 

I also get the impression that this woman was looked down upon because she gave what others thought, and judged, was so little. Now I really don’t think Jesus was talking about money here. What I believe the message was: don't have your interactions with God be with whatever time or effort you have left over, but instead give God your all; and what your “all” is, - - - that’s between your heart and God, not for those in “the elegant robes sitting in the best seats” to decide.
So, as we go from this place today let’s think about some things.

If you don’t need to make an immediate decision or judgment, don’t. It's beneficial to get information and to check that information out before you judge or make a decision. It’s also helpful to get other opinions. Make good decisions.
 

Examine yourself. Take a look inside and see if your interactions with your faith are just when you have some free time or nothing else to do, or are your interactions with God and your faith in the forefront of your life.
 

Ask yourself which is more important; the way the world sees me or the way God sees me?
The only thing we should be judging is whether that person has a good heart, a person that is filled with grace and love.
 

We were given guidelines on how to live. Those that come to mind today are: Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Do not covet your neighbors’ property. God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son.
 

We are saved by Grace. What you hold important here on Earth will rust and wither away, 
Instead, collect what you truly hold valuable for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust don’t eat them and where thieves don’t break in and steal them.
 

In simple words don’t try to show humankind your worldly riches and instead show the world how rich your life is with God in it.  Keep God first in your life, not leaving your faith sitting in a cupboard waiting for an emergency. Give God your all and interact with the world with love, peace, and understanding.

“The Greatest Commandment and the Future”

November 3, 2024
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

Mark 12:28-34

So this is one of those weeks that it's not very easy to preach, because there's a topic of great consequence on everybody's mind, but nobody wants me to talk about it.

Of course, I'm talking about the fact that there's the election on Tuesday, and I'm mindful that I asked a very important question to your search committee when we were interviewing. I said, “what's the biggest preaching topic that will get me in trouble?” And everybody said, almost at the same time, “politics.” So I know I'm walking a very thin line here, but my goal is to be very apolitical.

I'm not going to talk about the two candidates for president, or what I think about either of them, or especially who I think you should vote for, because I would like to keep my job, and because it's none of my business. You don't need me to tell you who to vote for. You've seen the campaign ads, right? You've seen too many campaign ads, am I right?

But I do know that there is something that is true for any pastor, and for many pastors around this country. It's very difficult to preach the Sunday before an election. It's very difficult to preach the Sunday after an election.

And I also want you to know that I have a preaching colleague, I have a pastor colleague in Beaver Dam that I talk to every week, and we compare notes about what each other's preaching on, and my sermons have gotten better because of him in many ways. And I told him that I would not be preaching the next two weeks, and he said, “you suck.” But I do think that today's gospel text has something important to tell us, both those of us who've already voted, I've already voted, and those of us who haven't voted yet.

This is especially true because this particular election is so polarizing. Lots of us have ended up getting in uncomfortable conversations because of other people's views on one candidate or the other, and some people have been very hurt at times for what they feel are personal attacks, like, “oh, you're voting for them? I'm not sure we can be friends anymore.” But if we read today's gospel text, we remember that Jesus invites us to consider a different way forward.Love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself. So I'm going to talk about both of those things in turn, and how they can be instructive to us as we live in this strange and divided world. And I am going to focus on the gospel text, I promise. I'm not going to beat the election to death. Just trust me on this one. S

o as the lectionary often does, we come to today's text in the middle of the story. There are many different situations in the previous verses of the 11th and 12th chapter of the gospel of Mark, where legal experts are trying really hard to back Jesus into a corner and say, gotcha. He's told the parable about farmers in a vineyard that painted the legal experts in a negative light. He's answered the famous question about taxes, give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is God's.

And then answered this really dense and really weird question about the resurrection. You couldn't possibly be interested in that. Even I looked at it and I was like, what the heck? Why are people asking Jesus this sort of thing? So Jesus is always one step ahead of them.

But this time is different. One legal expert asks Jesus, what is the most important commandment? The commentator Sung Soo Hong reminds us that the very tone of this conversation is different. The scribe does not intend to test Jesus like the others have, but holds what Hong describes as a positive conversation with Jesus.

And Jesus says he answers correctly. So of course, when asked what the most important commandment is, Jesus speaks about two commandments that are similar. Is that cheating? I don't know what the most important commandment is.

And then he says there are two. I don't know. The most important one is our God is the one Lord.

And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your being and with all your mind and with all your strength, he says. And for me, when we love God, we have to remember the people and things that are most important to God. For example, it is not the will of God that people here in Wapan and many other smaller communities in this country struggle to meet our basic needs while others of us have more than what we need.

Some people in this country have more money than they will ever know what to do with, and yet others don't have nearly enough. It's not the will of God that children continue to die from school shootings, that people are discriminated against for things about themselves that they cannot control, or that Israel and Palestine and Ukraine and Russia are at war. If we defend the oppressors in these situations, then our beliefs are running counter to what God asks us to do.

Instead, we are called to do what Jesus asks us to do instead. Love our neighbors as ourselves. Treat others with dignity, compassion, and understanding, just as we might expect people to treat us.

There's one attribute about this congregation which I am thankful for, particularly right now. We know full well that we don't always agree on everything in this church. We have church members from the full spectrum of political and ideological stances, but I'm thankful that we can sit next to each other at coffee hour talking about the goings-on of our lives that are most important to us.Families and grandkids and prayer requests when times are hard. You know how to love your neighbors well in this congregation.

So how do we vote like that? How do we vote like that? How do we live like that?

I ask you, I beg you, please don't stop now.

No matter who wins this election, there will be difficult consequences and difficult days ahead. No matter who wins this election, there will be people who believe that their voices were not heard and that their difficulties were not acknowledged by the winning candidate. No matter who wins this election, there will be reasons to fear for the safety of our country and our democracy, especially so over the next few months.

But here's the point that I want to drive home today. No matter who wins this election and whose vision for the future of our country prevails, our call from Jesus remains the same. Love God with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself.

As Tim McGraw says to us in our media song, if we're willing, we can be building a tomorrow we can trust, but it's up to people like us. So as you move into this week, a week that will be difficult no matter what happens and no matter who wins, may you be ready to vote with love. Vote with love for God and love for your neighbors and love for all.

No matter what happens after your ballot is cast, may you be ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work. May you be part of the healing this country needs and not the hurt that this world continues to experience. May you use the good gifts that God has given you joyfully for the betterment of all creation and all people everywhere.

Because if we want things to change for the better, we can't rely on politicians to do that. We can't rely on other people to do that. It really is up to us.

So let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. Thanks be to God. Amen.
 

“Death Is Not A Failure”

October 27, 2024
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

Wisdom 3:1-9; Revelation 21:1-6a

Focus: So often we experience death as sadness and destruction. But God reminds us that the communion of saints are at perfect peace with their creator, and we can learn from their faithful example.

A year or so ago, in a previous sermon, I told you a story of my grandpa's second wife, who I called Nana, who had a near-death experience after a traumatic car accident. I thought that sermon was kind of a clunker. But I was amazed at the response from several church members who shared that either they themselves or someone else they know had a near-death experience, and I’m very grateful for the feedback.

One of the difficult pieces of Nana’s life after the car accident was that she sustained what most people in the medical community would now call a traumatic brain injury. Her speech, her ability to communicate, and her ability to physically care for herself were drastically and tragically impacted by her Miata convertible flipping over five times when she hit a culvert on her way home from work. The doctor told us that, at some level, her mental capacity was still there, which meant that she understood what was going on, but she couldn't communicate what she was thinking or feeling in ways that made sense to us.  Over the 12 years that her body stayed alive after the car accident, we could tell that this became increasingly distressing to her. We began praying for God to end her suffering, knowing that the only way for her suffering to truly end was for her to die. She went into hospice for about a week while I was in seminary, and I explained the situation to my professors so that they would know what was going on in case I was emotionally distressed. One of my professors sent me an email back that I will never forget.

She said this:

“Dear Jacob, Waiting and praying for an end to suffering is a compassionate act.  Because we live in a time and place where death is seen as a failure, praying for an end is both revolutionary and a sign of the strength of your relationship with your [Nana].  Thanks for letting us know. Rev. Dr. Kristen Leslie”

My Nana died a couple of days later. Kristen's message guided me through that time, and helped me reframe what it meant to love her as she was dying a difficult death. Today I'm going to talk about how we sometimes view death as a failure, and how sacred text offers us an alternative to that viewpoint.

Kristen’s message reminds me of today's lectionary text from the Book of Wisdom. The Book of Wisdom (sometimes called Wisdom of Solomon) is a book outside of the biblical canon but included in the Greek Old Testament. As such, we don’t typically study it or preach from it, but I view it in the same vein as if we were reading poetry about God or reflecting on theological themes from movie clips and radio hits as we do in our Media service.

Several verses stick out to me for this day.

“To those who don’t know any better, it seems as if [our beloveds] have died. Their departure from this life was considered their misfortune… 4 It may look to others as if they have been punished, but they have the hope of living forever.”

As I think about All Saints Day, I think about how true that sentiment really is. When someone we love dies, we are rightfully very sad that we don't feel their presence in the literal sense anymore, being able to call them up and talk to them for instance. The only thing that we can truly conceptualize is our existence here on earth, and we may fear that, when someone dies, their soul is not at peace in heaven. But this text reminds us that, just because their physical bodies have left this earthly realm doesn't mean that they have gone to a place where they are separated from joy and feelings of love. It’s, in fact, just the opposite. We can take comfort in the reality that those who have gone before us are with God, and set the path before us to be with God ourselves. The book of Revelation also reminds us that “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. There will be no mourning, crying, or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

This text from Revelation is one that many families request to be read at funerals. The reminder that God dwells with us, the reminder that God is with us in our pain, our grief, and our uncertainty as we readjust to a life without our loved ones by our side often gives people a lot of comfort. Because so often, we think that, when someone we love dies, we are separated from them, and maybe even separated from God. But the commentator Katherine A. Shaner reminds us that we don't need to think about it this way. Instead, she reminds us that it's important to remember how strongly God continues to be with us in these moments—in life, in death, in life beyond death.

So friends, as you think about what this All Saint’s Sunday means to you, remember this: So often we experience death as sadness and destruction. But God reminds us that the communion of saints are at perfect peace with their creator, and we can learn from their faithful example.

From my Nana, I learned to live life with joy, admire birds when I see them, and always smile when her favorite song (ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”) comes on the radio. I invite you to think this week about what you can learn from the saints in your lives. Many of you have told me, for example, things you will remember from the life and ministry of Rev. Cathy Carlson. For many of you, she taught you how to look at things from a different perspective, and was a trailblazer in this community for justice issues. I wish I could've met her, as I'm sure we would've been kindred spirits.

As you think about the saints in your lives, may you always remember that their spirits are with you. May you also remember that God is with you as you remember them. For it is by their faithful example that the legacy of this church continues. It is by their faithful example that our faith deepens.. May it be so. Amen. 
 

“Be Careful What You Wish For”

October 20, 2024
Sermon for U-CC Waupun
Mark 10: 35-45

Focus: Instead of focusing on our self-importance, Jesus asks us to serve others and be part of the work of love and liberation.

I cringe watching old home videos from my childhood. For one thing, I don't like to hear my little kid voice. For another thing, I really don't like the way I acted.

You see, until my sister Emily was about 3 years old, I would sometimes exhibit symptoms of what I'm going to coin as “Only Child Syndrome”. I don’t know if that term is a real thing, but I’m talking about the phenomenon of always wanting to be the center of attention, all the time, turning the attention away from my sister, as often as I could. Often that meant that I was using the camcorder to record every Monday and thing that we did in our household. I would act like I was hosting a reality TV show, because I grew up seeing my mom, watching various shows on TLC, like Jon and Kate Plus 8 or Trading Spaces, both of which were pretty cutting edge at the time. Mom and dad would always…ahem… remind me it was important to show the camera what Emily was doing also, and I feel bad for Emily, because if she ever wants to watch videos of her growing up life, she'll have to suffer through the announcer like child voice of her annoying older brother! She loves me now I think, because we just took a road trip together to St. Louis a couple weeks ago and there wasn't a wooden barrier in between us like the old days, and we actually talked to each other without fighting, but around that time I'm not so sure!
I can imagine I'm probably not the only older sibling, who tried to take all the attention away from their younger sibling. When a new sibling gets introduced into the family, everything it's all out of whack, and the older child who was previously used to having their parents’ undivided attention has to adjust to a new reality all of a sudden. Luckily for my sister, my parents were a whole lot less partial, and made sure that she had all the attention and love she needed, even if I was resistant to that! (For any of you who know her, if you ask her about this, she will absolutely say, “that’s right!”). I’m not afraid to admit my shortcomings!

Now, James and John weren't “only children” in the family of Jesus's disciples, but here they sure are acting like it in today's reading. This is one of several texts in the gospels, where the disciples argue about who is most important. We even see that in the Passion narrative, right before Jesus presents his friends with the Last Supper. Because, of course, the disciples are fully human. Because they are Jesus’ closest followers, they think they're pretty hot stuff!

But, as he often does, Jesus challenges James, John, and the rest of the disciples to consider things from a different perspective. He reminds them that their own importance is not the point. I’m going to spend a bit highlighting the new perspectives Jesus challenges the disciples to appreciate, and then end by talking about what he wants them (and us) to do instead.

Over the years, some commentators have called the disciples the “duh-sciples”, because Jesus tells them over and over again what his mission is, what the point of his ministry is, and they’re too dense to understand it. This is one such instance, where Jesus says, “You don’t know what you’re asking! Can you drink the cup I drink or receive the baptism I receive?”

Jesus is fully aware that truly following the countercultural way of God is punishable only by death, whereas the disciples don’t truly believe it can be that serious. But in today’s reading, Jesus in essence answers, “be careful what you wish for.” In Jesus’ world, you can only go into the work of following God’s will if you’re willing to set aside everything you have in this world: your status, your wealth, your accolades, your need to be right, even your own family and loved ones if necessary. If we’re honest with ourselves, I doubt any of us would sign up for that, and yet his closest followers have the guts to say they could handle the pressure!

Jesus then goes on to say that this was never even about his greatness. He says, “The Human One [or the Son of Man, depending on the translation you follow] didn’t come to be served but rather to serve and to give his life to liberate many people.” True greatness, Jesus says, means we have to be willing to be servants to many, to humble ourselves, because those who climb their way up the social ladder end up losing everything anyway.

In his popular biblical paraphrase called The Message, Eugene Peterson paraphrases the end of our reading in this way. “Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not to be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for many who are held hostage.”

Okay, so we need to humble ourselves and be servants. What is our job then? Who are we serving?

We have to remember that Jesus was most sympathetic to the causes of those who we wouldn’t even consider: the people we walk past on the street corner, the people we say need to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps”. The poor, the needy, the single parent, the woman who’s made the gut-wrenching decision to abort a pregnancy, and definitely the children in this city who have a place to rest their head only because of people like Randy Bentley and their organization we’re supporting. Those are the people Jesus champions.

Today’s song by The Many capitalizes on that point. Instead of giving into the “hard grip of hate”, what would it look like if we truly did the work that Jesus called us to?

Instead of focusing on our self-importance, Jesus asks us to serve others and be part of the work of love and liberation.

If I could talk to my younger self, I’d probably tell him there might be a better venue for an imaginary reality TV show, and challenge him to love the person in front of him.

That’s what Jesus invites you to do, too. This week I invite you to think about how God might ask you to set aside your own agenda and love the people in front of you. For it is truly in this work that all of God’s people will be free. Amen. 
 

“Job’s Frustration, Disability Justice, and Trusting in God”

October 13, 2024
TRAD sermon for U-CC Waupun
Access Sunday 2024, Job 23:1-9, 16-17 (CEB, adapt.)

Focus: As we work to love our neighbors, God calls us to be honest with our emotions, empathetic to the struggles of others, and trust in God.

As my grandma’s body got older, she had more health issues that made life difficult in one way or the other. She lived with things like diabetes, restless leg syndrome, high blood pressure, and probably developed some depression later in life. As she aged, she began to take more and more medications. By the end she must’ve had 10 or 12 different pills that she took multiple times a day. It's become a family joke that every time she was visiting us and went to go take a pill, she would come into the kitchen in our house and say, “anybody want a pill?” Because you knew she was taking  a bunch at a time and had plenty to share if you needed one! Most of the time, we’d say, “no thanks, I’m good…”. But sometimes we’d play along: what are you taking there, grandma? “Well, I’ve got my restless leg pill, my tinkle pill, my blood pressure pill…” and on and on.

She’d make jokes about it, because she made jokes about everything, but she told me one time how frustrating and exhausting it all was. To think about all the pills she’d need to bring for her 4-6 week visits to Wisconsin, all the doctors’ appointments she had to manage, all the differences that made her life more complicated. I'm not sure that she would have put herself in the disabled category specifically, but I bring up her story because many of the kings we acquire as we age often have a monumental impact on our daily living. Living with a disability can be complicated and frustrating, and society does not always take kindly to folks who live a different sort of life than what we consider to be normal.

Before I dive in, I'm going to speak for a moment to those of us who don't currently live with a disability, and who may be wondering (quite naturally) how they can find themselves in today’s message. I would invite you to approach the spirit of empathy, and perhaps think about the people in your life who live with a disability. For some, the disability is physical, for others, emotional or mental, for others, sensory, for others intellectual. What are they able to do, and what do they find difficult? What social norms are they able to access, and how are they perceived in society? I'm going to speak on today's text from a disability perspective, and then I'm going to speak about how the rest of us can be good neighbors as we do our best to care for one another.

Eventually I want to do a Bible study on the book of Job, because I myself have been really fascinated by it, and would really like to dive in with people. It's deeply emotional, and even painful, and there's no possible way for me to tell you everything that happens in the story of Job in a short paragraph, but I will at least tell you this much. We're told right in the beginning the book that Job is an utterly blameless person. He trusts God and has done no wrong in God's opinion. Meanwhile, up in the cloud somewhere,God is talking to a figure called “The Satan”, which translates to the accuser. It’s simplistic to think of The Satan as the devil, but let's go with that for now. The Satan basically says to God, “the only reason Job is such a good person is because you reward him. I'll bet you that he's not nearly as good as you think he is.” Then God says, “All right, I'll bite. Do what you will with him and we'll see what happens. Just don't kill him.”

So, the Satan inflicts terrible suffering on Job. He loses literally everything. His family, his home. Everything. I he never loses faith in God, per se, but he definitely accuses God, and asks a lot of really difficult questions, which is part of why the book is so interesting as a whole. In today’s text, we find Job wondering if God is absent in the midst of his suffering. In verse 16, he says, “God has weakened my mind;  the Almighty has frightened me.”

The book of Job is commonly cited example of what we theologians call theodicy—asking theological questions about why bad things happen to good people. What did someone who God has already said is blameless and trustworthy do to deserve such pain?

And this is often how many people with disabilities feel. In the song we've just heard, you heard many concrete examples of how society has failed people with disabilities by inflicting social humiliation, financial hardship, limited employment opportunities and so on. We didn't do anything to deserve that treatment. But instead, the legal system, along with social norms in general, have created a society which is deliberately built for the exclusion of one in four people. There's a lot to be frustrated about, and I am many of my disability ministry colleagues resonate very deeply with Job’s frustration.

But the beautiful thing for me about this text, the glimmer of hope, is that Job says: “Still—Still—I’m not annihilated by darkness; God has hidden deep darkness from me.” There is a reminder that, even when Job can't experience God, he believes that God must see out there somewhere and remains active somehow in his life. Finding grace in this text requires believing that God can handle our pain, our anger, and our big feelings. It is holy work to lament in times of suffering, and this is what Job teaches us to do. Trust God, trust in God's activity, and trust that God does not hide from our pain.

So what are most to take from this, as people of Union-Congregational Church? What do I want to leave with today? This is the point. As we work to love our neighbors, God calls us to be honest with our emotions, empathetic to the struggles of others, and trust in God. 
In times of suffering, in situations of both lifelong newly acquired disabilities or other challenges, God remains with us. God's activity is apparent whether we perceive it or not.

You have proven that to be true as a congregation. The usable portion of our building is very accessible, but beyond that, you have embraced me in so many ways as your pastor, and made being a pastor accessible to me by providing necessary accommodations. (one per living with a disability, if you can call it that, is that I have seen multiple examples of people caring for one another that other people in society might ignore.) The congregational care committee offers transportation to medical appointments. Many of us readily care for members in our congregation for whom it's difficult to leave their home. These are ways that we continually love our neighbors.

But far from just patting yourselves on the back, may you order that loving our neighbor means continued dedication and commitment to the work of caring for one another. How can use with somebody's frustration over societal barriers, and then help them navigate them? How continually practice your empathy and compassion, so that everybody has what they need?

Thanks be to God for this congregation, and for the way work together to show love to your neighbors. And thanks be to God for all the ways that I know you will continue to do so, supporting each other even when times are hard. Amen.

“Community”

October 6, 2024

Sermon for U-CC Waupun

Guest Preacher: Rev. John O'Donovan

So I bet you're thinking it's odd that we are reading about creation today. But we are only looking at a part of the creation narrative. When the first human was put on this Earth, the Creator noticed that Adam needed “a help mate.” God didn't want Adam to be; or to feel that he was alone. So God decided to put animals on the planet, but in looking them over God thought that they weren’t the companions he was looking for Adam, so God created another human called Eve.

God could have left the earth with just one person on it, God could have created the animals for this one human and left it at that. But that’s not what the Creator did. God had a plan.

From our reading today and other bible readings,  I find that, apparently, the Creator’s plan was for the community to exist from the start. Community and a community that includes diversity. So often we are told you need to do a project by yourself. Being able to accomplish something on your own is looked at as a success. But there are drawbacks to doing everything by yourself.

No new ideas are coming forward because there is no one with other ideas, there is nothing you need to think about because you have no one else to think about - you just have to worry about yourself. There is no advice or help, because there is just you. There is no sharing. There is no love, no compassion.

In theory, you can function without contact of another individual, but think what that would be like. To further illuminate this idea, some countries use solitary confinement as a torture. 
But the idea of being alone doesn’t appear to be what God had in mind from the start.

In reading through the bible there are numerous suggestions that we are to interact with others. Jesus walked with his followers, we had tribes of Israel, when Jesus preached it was usually to groups, and the like. And I have to ask why not be part of a community? Isn’t it nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of, and get advice? Isn’t it comforting coming here, to a place like this, being with a group of individuals who have similar ideas and beliefs, a place where you can discuss and learn about differences; as compared to being in a place where what you do and what you think - is contrary to everyone else and you are looked at as an outsider or someone who doesn’t belong?

In Corrinthians Jesus compares his followers to parts of the body. The writer states that a body is made up of several parts, each with specific gifts and abilities, and yet all the parts are of one body, one community.

A community made up with a variety of people with a variety of gifts, but still one community. This writing is showing that diversity can work in a community and should be part of a community. It also shows that you don’t have to stop being you. Your uniqueness helps make up the community as a whole. One body, but made up of many parts. They always say there is strength in numbers.

Starting a journey with Christ invites you into the community. A community that should give you support and comfort. You become part of another family; a church family. Like any community not all of us will completely agree on everything, but we are still a community.

But like any community when we have differences we need to respect each other's opinions, listen to each other's perspectives,  avoid personal attacks, find common ground, and be willing to compromise.

Something to add to all of this is that today is World Communion Sunday. This is a day when believers all around the world celebrate Holy Communion with a special reminder that we’re all part of one big family, one big community, no matter where we live. Believers live all over the world, and they are part of our extended community. Just like the Bible says, Jesus is the light and that light shines brightly all over the world, bringing love and hope to everyone.

As we celebrate Holy Communion a little later in this service, we remember Jesus’s love for us. But not just for us here in this church, or even just for people in this town or this country. It’s for everyone, everywhere!

We remember that Jesus’s love knows no bounds. It reaches every person, in every country.
Even when you think you are truly alone, you are not. God is just a prayer away. Our God is a living God. A God that does care - - and does communicate - - if you only take the time to listen.  And a God that sends people into your life to aid and help you. Being a strong individual is not a bad thing, but doesn't everyone need help now and then? 
 

You don’t have to travel this spiritual journey alone. In fact, God doesn’t want you to. The same God works in all of us, and helps us in everything we do, no matter who we are, or where we are in our journey with Christ.  Amen.
 

“A Courageous Woman and a Liberated People”

September 29, 2024
TRAD sermon for U-CC Waupun
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22

Focus: We can learn a great deal from Esther’s courage, and how God asks us to advocate for the marginalized folks we know.

There's been a lot buzzing around in my head all week about preaching on this text. I've never preached on Esther before, so I was excited for the challenge (there’s nothing like giving yourself a challenge right before you take a vacation after all!)

But the biggest reason that I chose this text for today was because of a trend in biblical interpretation that I think we need to be aware of. So often, the lives, stories, and experiences of men in biblical times are uplifted. Think of the stories of Jonah, Joshua, Abraham, Moses, the 12 main disciples, even Jesus himself. The list goes on further than that. We might not like to go so far as to think of the Bible as a fallible document (even if I myself might be tempted to make such an argument from time to time.) By contrast, we only have a few prominent examples of women who both demonstrate extraordinary faith and are well-documented in the biblical text. Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Ruth, Hagar, and Sarah are among the few prominent women whose names are actually shared. Other women who were faithful to the way of Jesus are not even given that respect. I don't have to tell you that the cultural norms of biblical times were inherently sexist, and sometimes that sexism pervades our church culture today. Many of us come from church backgrounds where women are not given the right to make important decisions or serve in church, leader, ship, roles, being limited instead to the church kitchen or the youth area. It was wrong then, and it's wrong now, but as Maya Angelou said, "when we know better, we do better.” So now that we know better, we should try to do better.

So that's why it's important when stories like Esther come up to be sure to talk about them. Affirming examples of faithful women is indeed just as important as uplifting the stories of faithful men. So today I'm going to talk a great deal about what we can learn from Esther and her courage.

I haven't heard that many sermons on Esther in my years in the church. Perhaps we don't hear about this as often because, to digest the larger story of Esther, we almost have to read the entire book.Truth be told, another thing I'm almost embarrassed to admit is how close my conception of Esther initially was to the VeggieTales version of the story. I don't know how many of you have seen the VeggieTales adaptation of the story of Esther, but it turns out it's much different from the Bible story that we just heard. For example, the good people at Big Idea Productions probably understood that parents of young children probably would've had a lot of explaining to do if Haman truly had been impaled on a pole, so, instead, at the end, Haman gets sent to the Island of Perpetual Tickling, where you're tickled day and night and they won't stop even if you say “pretty please”!

But I have a wedding to get to back in Neenah after the service today, so we don't have time to read the entire book! I'll give you the short version of what's happened so far.

Basically, the King's first wife refused a command of the king and was banished, which of course became the talk of the town. Suddenly the king finds himself lonely, so Esther is eventually chosen to marry the king. Simultaneously, Haman convinces the king that Jewish people are bad and encourages mass genocide of the Jewish people. As it turns out, Esther herself is Jewish, so Esther's cousin and guardian Mordecai urges her to use her newfound position as the king’s wife to bend the king’s ear, and save the her people from certain death.

One of my favorite moments from the story of Esther is actually not in the lectionary. Esther is understandably, terrified by the proposition of having to single-handedly, save her family and others who are in eminent peril. But her cousin Mordecai says to her something very important. 
“Don’t think for one minute that, unlike all the other Jews, you’ll come out of this alive simply because you are in the palace. In fact, if you don’t speak up at this very important time, relief and rescue will appear for the Jews from another place, but you and your family will die. But who knows? Maybe it was for a moment like this that you came to be part of the royal family.”

Paraphrased another Way by the musician Jonathan Rundman, “could it be that you are called for such a time as this?”

So this is the moment Esther resolves to do what she needs to do to save her people.

Haman gets wind of Mordecai’s attempts to thwart his plan and plans to kill Mordecai. At this point, we have reached the lectionary part of the story. When Esther pleads for case to the king, the king gets wind of Haman’s plan to kill Mordecai, and orders Haman to be killed instead by the same method. This way, Esther saves, not only herself and her cousin, but her people as well, and is lauded as a hero.

Another important thing that differentiates the book of Esther from other books in the Old Testament is that God is never mentioned. But if you read the book of Esther, it's very clear that Esther understands that God is at her side.. Indeed, as the commentator Bruce Epperly writes, “God’s guidance is never obvious, but comes as we are going about our daily tasks, not from the outside, but from within the process itself.” In other words, God does not always come to us, in ways that we can understand, but God is with us nonetheless.

So what can we learn from this here at U-CC?

When I think about what the story of Esther can teach us, I think of two central questions. First, who are the people that we ourselves need to advocate for in our lives of faith today? Also, how can we be empowered by Esther's courage to really do the hard work of advocacy when the rubber hits the road?

We can learn a great deal from Esther’s courage, and how God asks us to advocate for the marginalized folks we know. I think there are lots of ways both in this community and wider, that we can advocate for others in times of great distress.

My family has been following the news of hurricane Helena, pretty closely this week, for example. As many of you know, my mom is from North Carolina, one of the many states that are deeply impacted by this devastation. Thankfully, everybody in our family is fine, but the reality of the incredible damage has hit home for many communities we know well. Of course, this distress is not the same. There's not a person like Haman doing this devastation, but lots of folks on the ground are struggling to meet their basic needs right now, and many people could use the advocacy of friends and strangers to get what they need. Could it be that we are called for such a time as this?

Several folks from our church are going to the St. Katherine Drexel homeless shelter in Fond du Lac this afternoon to deliver a meal, and sit with people who are down on their luck, to share stories, and eat together. Add to that the pressing need of food pantries, domestic violence shelters, and homeless shelters in our local community, and how we can help people in those situations. Could it be that we are called for such a time as this?

And finally, the how long is facing our children and youth are innumerable. This country is in a youth mental health crisis. Children are dying in school shootings, far more often than we would like to admit, while our politicians say nothing can be done except offering empty platitudes, and thoughts and prayers which lead to nothing.

So friends, it's clear that the needs are great. It's clear that we need courage like Esther had if we want to change the world. So how are you going to do that this week in your own small way? We are only individuals on the surface, but we can do so many great things together if we have the courage enough to trust in God's care and in God’s call. So may you go this week to do just that. Remember Esther’s courage, and remember that that courage also lives inside of you. May you be empowered by that courage to partner with God in justice and liberation. Amen.

“The Power of Saying No, and the Joy of Saying Yes”

September 22, 2024
TRAD sermon for U-CC Waupun
James 3:13-4:3, 7-8 (adapt.), Pentecost 18B

Focus: As society is so divided, part of our job as Christians is trying to say no to conflict and dispute, and yes to seeing each other as neighbors and following Jesus.

I am going to let you in on an occupational hazard of local church ministry. I don't do this often because it often feels like “inside baseball”, but I believe that you'll find something in this as well.

When people find out I am a pastor, there can be a lot of baggage. For so many people, the church has not been kind to them, or perhaps some pastors have hurt them, so some people get very uncomfortable. But on the other extreme, other people really consider me as somebody who might magically have some answers for the difficult life experiences they go through. Lots of people bring me their fears and their anxieties about the world, and recently, lots of folks have approached me about their fears about the outcome of this upcoming presidential election.

Without getting overtly political (because that does a pastor and a congregation no good), I'm going to admit to you that when people ask me questions about this, I am truly just as overwhelmed as you are. Whether you watch CNN, Fox News, or something in between, the one thing we have in common is that most of us end up digesting some kind of partisan hysteria, whether we asked for it or not. Lately, I've been seeing lots of commentary about poll numbers, following the recent presidential debate, and what this means for both campaigns. And part of me just really wants to turn it all off. I so badly want to wake up in a world where, no matter who wins the election, we can all just get along and understand each other as neighbors, knowing that we all have the best interest of our country at heart. But as I think I've said in other sermons I’ve preached here, that just isn't reality. In my 30 years of life, I have never seen this country as divided as it currently is. So many friendships and family relationships have been ruined because of our political beliefs.

Now, I understand that many of you probably come to church these days for a refuge from this kind of discussion. So, I promise you I'm not going to beat it to death, but I would argue that it's relevant to the scripture for today, and we have to keep Scripture relevant to the challenges and concerns that we actually face. So today I'm going to spend a decent amount of time talking about how we might redirect ourselves from some of that rhetoric, and with the gospel of Jesus Christ invites us to do instead.

No matter what the cultural situation is, people are people. That means that people in biblical times were just as prone to disagreement as people in modern times. James tells his audience that it's important to live in ways that honor God, including honesty. He says in verse 14, “if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, then stop bragging and living in ways that deny the truth.” In conversations in our society, we often wonder what's true and what's false. Politicians on both sides use misleading information, and even blatant lies, to advance their agenda. The oppressive Roman government was no different. But what James is alluding to here is the reminder that God's truth, God's commandments, supersede the ways of the world in these regards.The theology professor and commentator Casey Thornburgh Sigmon reminds us that James’ point in this text can be boiled down to this: “Are you a friend of the world or a friend of God?” She goes on to say, “In your heart, what drives the choices you make? Envy, James asks? Then your wisdom is unspiritual, devilish. Selfish ambition? Your actions betray you as a friend of the world rather than a friend of God.”

What Dr. Sigmon points out, which I believe is applicable to today’s world, is that we are deeply conditioned in society to put one another in a box. If you're a Trump, voter, we automatically assume that you believe certain partisan, talking points to be true, in the same way we make assumptions about you differently if you're a Harris voter. It would be deeply inappropriate for me to endorse a certain political candidate, or certain political position from the pulpit, but we all know it's true, that the constant political advertisement makes us angrier and more at odds with one another, when was James reminds us, is that our anger and our divisions actually get us nowhere.

The other piece that I wanted to focus on was this idea of being “double-minded”, when they read it, members of the media team asked me, “what the heck does it mean to be double minded? That's not something we say very often.” And they're right.

To me, being double minded is about saying that we believe in God, saying that we do all the right things, one in fact, our motivations are very different. Are we motivated by greed, by power, or by other worldly temptations? What about the people who want to run our country?

Our religion and our politics are often intertwined with one another, which, in some ways can be unfortunate. I bet that all of us can probably think of at least one person we know who says they believe in God, but behave in ways that might imply very different priorities. While keeping all of those people in mind, James uses them as a cautionary tale for us, and reminds us of the importance of purifying our hearts. In other words, James reminds us to stop worrying about what other people do, and focus on our own spiritual growth.

So what are we supposed to do with this, in a time when how much of society is divided against itself and seems to have forgotten God's call to us?

As society is so divided, part of our job as Christians is trying to say no to conflict and dispute, and yes to seeing each other as neighbors and following Jesus.

This is easier said than done, of course, but one of the things that I love most about this congregation is that we can sit across the table at coffee hour with people who might believe very different things, politically or socially, but yet we can have meaningful conversation about what we have in common. Regardless of our political affiliations, many of us have families that we love to talk about. Many of us have difficult challenges that we face, like health challenges, for example. Many of us have powerful stories about how God has brought us through hard times. All of these things are examples of seeing each other as neighbors, but kind of Christian love that James wants us to employ.

In a few minutes I will be singing a special music piece, which my friend Andra Moran wrote with her friend, Gabe Dixon. Andra wrote this before the 2012 election cycle, but it seems like it could just as easily have been written a year ago. Being on the side of love is not easy work, but it is important work.

So my friends, as we move into this week, think about how you can demonstrate the love that God has given you to all of your neighbors, not just for people who think or believe like you. There are so many people in this world who are deeply hurting, and who may need the love that you can provide. Thanks be to God. Amen.

“What Difference Does It Make?”

September 15, 2024
TRAD sermon for U-CC Waupun
Mark 8:27-38, Pentecost 17B

Focus: Our faith deepens when we can understand what difference Jesus makes in our lives, and why we believe what we believe.

As I’ve moved through this week, I’ve been thinking a lot about what Jesus Christ means in our lives. What’s the point, and what difference does it make to believe in Jesus? Kind of an abstract thought process, I know, but I think it’s worth digging into every now and again, because the truth is there are all sorts of ways we could be spending our time on a Sunday morning. Sleeping in, going to sporting events, bonding with our children, going for a walk or a bike ride, doing housework, simply sitting awhile longer with our hot coffee or tea…the list goes on.

For some people, the meaning of Jesus Christ in their lives is very personal. It certainly is for one of my best friends from seminary, the Rev. Tim Powers-Reed. (I’m sharing his story today with his permission.) He was one of the two pastors from St. Louis who came to our church on Pentecost Sunday several months ago. Of the two, he's the older gentleman with tattoos, whose husband sang a song with me. Tim has one of the clearest and most compelling call stories of most any pastor I've ever known. He leaned on Jesus in a very specific way, while he was being incarcerated in Illinois for his embezzlement of funds at the school district he worked in. His father had been a Southern Baptist minister, and not only had Tim just come out as a bisexual man, but he began to sense a call to ministry from behind the bars of his jail cell. He eventually prayed to Jesus, vowing to accept the call to ministry if Jesus would not only be with him through his incarceration, but also bring him out of the deep depression he was feeling.

The road was long and difficult, and even after he got out, he faced many challenges, especially in the first couple of years that I knew him. But I continue to be so proud of all that he has accomplished, and he is an amazing asset both to the church he serves in southern Illinois, and to the entire United Church of Christ. He didn't get the chance to share this part of his story when he was preaching, but I thought you might like to hear it.

Now, I know that not everybody has that clear of an encounter with Christ. I would say that my own encounters with Jesus have been loving and prayerful, but not born out of the same level of personal difficulty. The reason I share that story is because I think it offers a helpful example of how one person responds when Jesus asks, “who do you say I am”. Today I'm going to talk about the ways Jesus invites us to do the same.

It's helpful for us to remember that this story takes place in Caesarea Phillipi. This is an area about 25 miles north of the sea of Galilee, which has one of the largest springs feeding the Jordan river. This makes it a particularly beautiful place for religious worship, and chances to get away. Several commentators remind us, that, perhaps, in contrast to the large crowds that Jesus and his disciples attracted, maybe this was a place where Jesus and the 12 could get away. But, of course, since the crowds follow, Jesus, no matter where they were, word gets around. This is why Jesus starts by saying, “who do people say that I am?” In other words, “what kind of reputation do I have?”

They told him, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others one of the prophets.”

In other words, many people in Caesarea Phillipi would've assumed that Jesus was more likely a messenger of the reign of God realized in the highest powers of Roman government, rather than someone who would turn the status quo upside down.

Then Jesus turns the question back on the disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”

The disciples respond by saying that Jesus is the messiah. When people gave somebody a title, like that, that usually meant that they were the one who was going to rule in unmitigated power. Calling anybody else the Messiah other than the appointed Roman leader, therefore, represented an existential threat to the existing power structure that the Romans relied upon. That's why Jesus sternly rebukes the disciples, telling them not to tell anybody about what they believe. An even more stern rebuke comes later, when Jesus tells Peter to “get behind me, Satan.” Here, Jesus is reprimanding Peter, because he continues to think about the purpose of Jesus's ministry from a human lens, rather than a divinely inspired one.

So what do we do with all this? This is surely a rich passage, as much as it is a confusing one. I think these versus sum up well what I believe the point of the text is as a whole: “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will save them.”

This is my big picture overview for today. Our faith deepens when we can understand what difference Jesus makes in our lives, and why we believe what we believe. For my friend, Tim, Jesus made a huge difference in his life, at a time when he needed guidance and direction the most. He takes up the cross every day of healing from his past, understanding God’s call for his life, and doing his best to follow it. But it's not easy for Tim, and it's probably not easy for any of us if we are honest with ourselves. Meeting Jesus at difficult moments in our own lives is, of course, never easy work. But it's often in those moments that Jesus reveals himself to us. It's often in those moments that our faith becomes more real, something that we are a part of because we want to be, not because we feel like it's the right thing to do on a Sunday morning.

So, as you go, through this week, I invite you to think about how Jesus has made an impact on your life. It might feel like a monumental impact. Or, it might feel like, instead of a monumental impact, Jesus is speaking to you through a still small voice, and a loving presence. However, Jesus interacts with you in your life, may you go be part of the liberating work he invites you to do. Take up your cross, and truly follow him, because, following Jesus always leads to love and liberation, even in our most challenging moments. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Sermon for U-CC Waupun

“Faith=Action”

September 8, 2024

James 2:1-17

I love Reunion Sunday. Some churches call it Rally Day, some churches call it Renewal Sunday, or probably some other name that I don't know.

But whatever you call it, generally, it involves getting the congregation excited for a new program year, which usually starts in September and goes through May. There's usually food, because of course there's always food. Food brings people together.

There's activities for kids and youth, and perhaps some last minute Sunday school registrations, Becky's crossing her fingers. And also, sometimes the pastor will make snide comments to regular members they haven't seen for a while, because they've spent the summers at their cottages, or they've spent the summers traveling, and now the pastor is hoping that they've enjoyed their sabbatical.

Now, getting all the little details of Reunion Sunday right is important.Becky has been working really hard getting things ready for the new Sunday school year. Christina and others have been coordinating the potluck that we're going to have after this service today. But I think today gives us an important point to focus on as we think about this new program year.

And there's a great deal of richness that I could talk about out of this text, but I'm going to leave you to do most of that work on your own as you feel led to do so. We've got a lot of good food, and Rick is going to talk to us about birds, so we've got lots going on, so I'm not going to yammer on forever. But I'll boil it down to two sort of main points.

The reminder to love our neighbor as ourselves, and the reminder that we are to put our faith into action. So James reminds us that loving our neighbor as ourselves is not a simple act. It's easy to love our neighbors if they look like us, or love like us, or act like us, or live like us.

But instead, James reminds us to show no favoritism. We have to treat everybody with the same dignity and respect as we ourselves would expect to experience. James begins by giving us a concrete example.

Two people coming into our sanctuary dressed radically differently, especially on important days in the church year, think Christmas Eve, Easter Sunday, all those sorts of things. We often encounter people in our worship space that we don't know personally. And perhaps one person is wearing a suit and tie, like Wayne often does.

Some people wear Packer jerseys and ratty jeans, like my friend Kevin often did in Nina. Or maybe in this election season, one person is wearing Kamala Harris swag, and maybe in this election season, the other person is wearing a MAGA hat. So on one hand, I hesitate to bring that part up because we don't like to talk about our politicians because we hear all these political ads all the time.

But James offered his people a very stark contrast. And I don't know about you, but I can't find a starker one in this time and place. So if we wanna bring this to a modern context, I can't find a starker contrast than that.

But the unfortunate reality of living in a small town is that we are often wary of people that we consider to be outsiders. If your name does not appear in the Dutch bingo that Wapun talks about so much, we don't know who you are, we don't know who you're related to, we don't know what school you went to as a kid, we don't know anything about you in order to pigeonhole you, right? But I would like to think that the people in this church would be welcoming to strangers, as we ourselves have been welcomed from wherever we came from. So many of us came from different churches and found refuge in this one.

And so that's what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves in these times. And as we think about this new program year, I think it's important for us to remember how we can love our neighbors. Perhaps in our Sunday school classes, we might start to talk about things like poverty and food insecurity and homelessness in ways that are age appropriate, and yet call our children and youth to think about and imagine life experiences that are different from their own.

And as we prepare our budget and think about our overall mission of this coming year, maybe there's an opportunity to help out in some sort of unmet need in our wider community. The other point that I wanna make today kind of piggybacks off of what I've just said, James ends the passage by saying, faith is dead when it doesn't result in faithful activity. But what does that really mean? What does that mean to say that our faith is dead? For me, it means that if we're not willing to put our faith into action, we're not trying hard enough to follow the will and the ways of God.

So as I'm sure you've been following on the news this week, the shooting at Appalachee High School in Georgia is one of 45 school shootings just this year, according to a statistic by CNN. When we see these kinds of things on the news, it's natural to feel kind of helpless, like we can't do anything about this on our own. But the inconvenient truth is that too many people for too long have relied on thoughts and prayers, refusing to end a stalemate on a uniquely American issue, while children and teachers are caught in the crossfire.

Now, of course, I'm not suggesting that one church can solve a national crisis like that on our own, but there are other things that we can do something about that can also empower us to tackle some of these national crises. For example, this week, our local food pantry made us aware that they're running low on supplies, and as the need of these supplies only continues to grow. As I myself make a pretty healthy living, I can only imagine how difficult this time of year is for single parents trying to put food on the table, trying to put school supplies in their kids' backpacks, and trying to keep the joy and the hope in their hearts as this world continues to be frightening and disappointing in some ways.

And one thing about this congregation that I know to be true is that you are giving and you are willing to help when the need arises. So I think we have an opportunity to be a resource for families in need. And in fact, I wanna add, earlier this week, that grocery cart that you see in the fellowship hall there was empty.

And y'all have stepped up, so thank you for that. But given all this, what's the most important thing to take with us into a new week and into a new program year? Friends, if you get one thing out of today's sermon, I want it to be this. God calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves and put our faith to work.

There are so many important opportunities to put our faith in action that don't require taking out a checkbook.

There are so many organizations that need your volunteer work. There are so many organizations that need vital supplies that you might already have that you're not using. And there are so many ways to share God's love with the wider community using gifts and talents that you all already have.

So may you put your faith to work this week. May you understand that faith equals action. You are a loving and creative people with so much to give.

And the community would be better and brighter if you share your many gifts in abundance. So let's put our faith to work. Thanks be to God.
 

Sometimes “Rules” Don’t Matter
Sermon for U-CC Waupun, Pentecost 15B, 
September 1, 2024
James 1:16-27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Focus: The message of Jesus reminds us that the rules made by humanity are less important than the abundant life Jesus invites us into.

Sometimes, when I am scrolling through my Facebook feed, I see people, post political opinions, and then I see their friends commenting on the posts getting all upset because the original post doesn't match their opinion. I've even had a person private message me, saying how wrong I was for my particular view on a particular political or religious topic. So people inevitably end up getting into these angry, politically charged arguments on social media, when the world would be so much more peaceful if they were to just keep scrolling. You can so easily unfollow people on Facebook or choose not to see their posts. It got so bad for my dad during the 2016 election cycle that he eventually had to avoid using Facebook altogether. At some point, social media, which we intend to use to keep up with our friends and loved ones across countries and time zones, ends up being a hotbed of hostile, dangerous and potentially misinformed debate.

At some point, our mental health has to take precedence over our need to be right, doesn’t it? Or are we really just trying to get little “highs” over our ability to shut down the other side, and this “might makes right” sort of arguing? At some point, we have to know when enough is enough, and when we need to replenish our energy.

But one of the big things I'm going to talk about today is a theme that weaves through both of our texts. I'm mostly going to zoom in on the gospel, but the verse that has been buzzing around in my head all week is a verse from James. The reason that I used the Inclusive Bible over some of the other translations that we use more often is because of how it renders verses 19 and 20: 
“Remember this, my dear sisters and brothers: be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to anger; for God’s justice is never served by our anger.”

“God’s justice is never served by our anger.” I want you to keep that in mind as I share the rest of the message, and I will circle back and talk more about it.

Many of the Pharisees back in biblical times might've benefited from such a lesson. It's tempting to view many of these Pharisees as one-dimensional characters, who wait around, ready to pounce on Jesus and his followers for doing things that they believe are wrong or against the gospel. (Not every Pharisee was like this, of course, but many of them were.)  But more than just being one-dimensional characters, it's important to remember that the very existence of Jesus gave the Pharisees reason to fear. Many psychologists agree that there is a powerful link between anger and fear, and that one often fuels the other. When we feel threatened, when something changes the equilibrium in our lives, it's natural to respond with some sort of hostility. Many of these Pharisees have ascended to power and leadership positions over long periods of time, and thus, think they have it all figured out. They think they know all there is to know. The status quo, and the way society is organized, benefits them, and they think they've earned it.

But this isn't just about stroking the Pharisees’ ego. The commentator Courtney V. Buggs reminds us that there is a cultural layer to this as well. She puts it this way:

“Notice, Jesus does not condemn the Jewish washing practice, one of many rituals common to their faith identity. Jewish food practices helped build community and reminded Jewish people of their commitment to live according to God’s values. The issue is not with traditions—it is the privileging of human traditions over the commands of God.”

Said another way, in itself, washing our hands before we eat is not a bad thing. In fact, we still encourage it in our practices today. But when our practices overshadow the bigger picture, when our culture actively disconnects us from being in community, that's when we have a problem. When we think about the traditions that the institutional church has adopted over generations, I wonder what traditions we could come up with that are at odds with the ways of God. Maybe it's our country’s obsession with privileging those who are rich or well-educated, when so many of us here in places like Waupun struggle to meet our basic needs. Maybe it's adopting purity cultures for our children when what they really need is to be loved and accepted for who they are. Over and over again, Jesus shows us that living a life according to God’s desires means that we must work towards serving God's justice. God's justice is not served by upholding legalistic interpretations of God's word, because with God, there is always grace. The Pharisees were more concerned with the facts of the disciples were not following purity codes than they were that the disciples were hungry.

I'll admit that, in the context of the scripture, today's sermon title is perhaps a little flippant. But I stand by it, because I think Jesus is trying to remind us that the rules we hand down, these purity cultures, can so often disconnect us from the ways of God that we profess. Jesus reminds us that it's only the standards that we set for ourselves that can contaminate us.

But here’s the good news. The message of Jesus reminds us that the rules made by humanity are less important than the abundant life Jesus invites us into.

Indeed, in today’s media song, Phillip Phillips reminds us to pay no attention to what fills us with fear, and to what drags us down. Instead, we can find home, we can find love and grace, in the liberating teachings of Jesus Christ.

As many struggles as people are going through right now, we don't need to be angry at each other for “not following the rules.” I've always been convinced that, even if I don't agree with somebody viewpoint and faith or politics, that God knows our hearts, and that it's not my place to judge another person. Because, as Jesus reminds us, the rules that are set forth by humanity, always go in second place to what God desires of

So may you continue to go live, authentically into who God created you to be, setting aside your judgment of others, and focusing on your own spiritual growth. May you remember your traditions, and keep them sacred, but may you also know that God is always more concerned if you have eaten enough than if you have washed your hands first. Amen.

“Decide Now!”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

August 25, 2024

Pentecost 14B
Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18

Focus: Like Joshua reminded the Israelites, God reminds us that it’s important for us to commit to our own justice work.

By and large, Neenah, Wisconsin was a good place to grow up. By the most recent population estimates, Neenah's population is about 2.5 times the size of Waupun’s, but to me, it still had a small-town feel. Lots of people knew each other, we had good schools, we had good churches, and we were family-oriented.

That also meant that we as a society were not particularly outspoken on social issues. We supported things quietly. We would share our beliefs with people if we could sense that they believed the same thing, but we would never be accused of being outspoken about our beliefs. We wanted to be congenial, we wanted to get along with others. So that didn't often leave room to have an unpopular opinion or be super outspoken. We knew what we believed as individuals, but we didn't know for sure if it was the church’s place to boldly proclaim anything about social issues. The phrase “social justice” made us a little uncomfortable.

It wasn't until I went to seminary in St. Louis that I truly started to learn more about the disparities in larger cities. Suddenly, issues like racism, housing inequality, poverty, homophobia, and classism were issues I heard about on a daily basis. Eden Seminary is only about 20 minutes away by car from the street where 18-year old Michael Brown was killed in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Rev. Dr. Deb Krause, Eden’s current president, was on the front lines of protest marches,  along with many other Eden faculty and students.

The event fundamentally changed Eden's approach to theological education, and by extension, I believe it changed my own approach to faith. It became abundantly clear that we had a choice to make as progressive Christians. We could either watch idly as people in our city were actively disenfranchised and ostracized, or we could remind ourselves that God’s heart is closest to the cause of the oppressed.

I share this anecdote because, like many smaller cities in this country, I think that cities like Waupun and Neenah are in the very beginning stages of a reckoning of their own. As more people identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community, for example, schools and churches in this town are starting to think more seriously about what that means. How will we respond to these issues as people of faith? What do we believe God is saying to us in times like these? I think many of us who are older than, say, 50, would agree that some of the social justice issues didn't appear to affect us quite so strongly when we were growing up. We weren’t trying to be discriminatory; we just didn't think much about it.

Part of why I find today’s text in Joshua so interesting is that this moment is part of Joshua's farewell address to the Israelites, after successfully bringing them to the promised land and dividing it among them. Joshua takes this opportunity to remind the Israelites of everything that God has done for them, all of the difficult things that God has brought them through. “Long ago,” he says, “your ancestors lived on the other side of the Euphrates. They served other gods.” He basically says, “Remember? They served other gods and it didn't work out well for them. You, on the other hand, were brought out of bondage and given a chance to start again. What are you going to do about that?”

While there were a multitude of other gods that their neighbors worshipped, Joshua reminds his audience that he has made his choice. His family is going to serve the Lord.

That leads me to think of the constructions of God that we make. All the time in society, we see versions of Christianity that are at odds with our own understandings. Some churches we're familiar with might not allow women to hold positions of leadership in the church, or even to make a vote on a church issue. Some churches believe that God will give us great wealth and prosperity if we believe in God. Some churches might go along with the notion that God wants to put our country first and other countries a distant second. Finally, some churches believe that people who are different from us—because of their race, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, or socioeconomic status—should not receive the same opportunities for God’s grace as everyone else.

Joshua then gives the Israelites an ultimatum. He says in verse 15, “If it seems wrong in your opinion to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Choose the gods whom your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But my family and I will serve the Lord.”

Sometimes I believe my cultural upbringing made me hesitant to be outspoken. Sometimes I believe that my cultural upbringing made me fearful of asking the harder questions, for fear of what my extended family or my friends or even strangers might think. I just wanted to be a friendly person to everyone.

But I’ve come to believe that I can be both friendly in my interactions with others and firm in my beliefs. It’s not mutually exclusive. I’ve come to believe we cannot truly serve the Lord if we serve a version of God that excludes, ostracizes, or demeans. I’ve come to believe we cannot truly serve the Lord if we “straddle the fence” while the people we love are struggling.

I recognize that this is extremely uncomfortable for some of us, and I recognize that my own evolution on these issues did not happen overnight. I said and did things that I regret. I wasn’t always a strong enough ally when my friends needed me to be. There are ways I still want to grow.

But I can continue learning and growing, and so can you. As one of my seminary professors used to say, “We are all on the way. No one has arrived.” I’m not pretending to stand here in judgment of anyone in this congregation. You are good, justice-seeking, faithful people. If you’re interested in exploring ways to be bolder and stronger in your beliefs as we do our particular ministry here at Union-Congregational Church, I will walk beside you with care and with love as you discern where God is leading. I believe we can do incredible work together in the months and years to come.  

Like Joshua reminded the Israelites, God reminds us that we must choose how to commit to our own justice work. But like those who sang today's media song, I have so much hope for the future. Mumford and Sons and Pharrell Williams repeatedly sing, “Good people (have) been down for so long, and now it's like the sun is rising.”

Where are ways that you can see the sun rising in your own thoughts on some of these social justice issues?

Joshua reminded the Israelites, and so reminds us, of what is possible when we serve the Lord. As you go into this week, I invite you to think about how you can commit to sharing your own beliefs in a time and place where doing so might feel a little risky. When we commit to being clear in our witness, when we commit to worshiping God in our actions, and not just in our words, that is when we can proclaim with integrity that “we too will serve the Lord, because the Lord is our God.”

May it be so. Amen.

“A Heart of Wisdom and Justice”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun, Pentecost 13B 
August 18, 2024
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14

Focus: When we follow God’s guidance and instruction and are attuned with God’s will, God’s glory will be revealed in us and we will receive true blessing.

My dad, who many of you know, has served his church in a lot of different ways. Among them have been terms on pastoral relations committees, church councils, and the youth program. In particular, he was a high school Sunday school teacher for a number of years and has been a confirmation mentor on multiple occasions.

I never had my dad as a Sunday school teacher, a fact that I regularly reminded him of for many years. Even so, he taught me a lot about what it means to live a life of faith and truly modeled living a life of prayer and discernment.

As I think about the text for this week, where King Solomon asks God for a wise and discerning mind, and a good, strong heart for his people, one such example of dad's faith sticks out to me.

When it was his turn to lead Sunday school lessons, my dad would often read through the curriculum on Saturday evening to prepare, and then think of an activity or discussion topic that would be particularly meaningful to his high school class. I remember being so proud of my dad for doing this, because, in addition to being a very present and loving father in my own life, he understood that it was important to give back to his church, and the youth in the church’s care.

I don't remember particularly what the lesson was about that week, but sometime when I was in middle school, my dad made a point to tell me a story about his preparation. He told me he had read through that curriculum for that week over and over and over again, and couldn't find an entry point. He knew that he had to make it relevant for high school students and their time and place, something which isn't always easy to do when Bible passages so often feel like they relate more readily to an adult life experience. Prayed, asking God to help him find a way to teach this lesson in a way that was meaningful and helpful to them. Then finally, in the middle of the night on Saturday, he got an idea that he was able to use to teach the Sunday school lesson.

I'm struck by how my dad wanted to do what was best for his Sunday school students, like King Solomon wants to do for the people of Israel. Today I'd like to talk about what happens when we are attuned to the needs of our people, and how King Solomon can be an example to us of what happens when we are mindful of God's instruction.

Our text does a pretty good job of placing us inside of the story. We understand that King Solomon is the son of King David, who ruled over Israel with generosity and with care. The success of David's reign is well documented, but not without controversy, and neither is Solomon's appointment. Many commentaries on this text remind their readers that Solomon's rise to power was the talk of the town, and Solomon is not a perfect person.

But even still, this part of the text has something to teach us about how to do I think about what is most important to God and follow that. As Solomon begins his reign over Israel, he is painfully aware of his own youth and inexperience. I love how the Common English Bible translates his lament. He says, “I know next to nothing.” It's in this humility that Solomon essentially says, “Prepare me, God. Make me wiser.” He is fully grasping the enormity of his calling: “I’m here, your servant, in the middle of the people you have chosen, a large population that can’t be numbered or counted due to its vast size.”

I also love that Solomon regards the Isrealites as “this important people of yours.” He regards these people with care and compassion, because he understands that they are people who are close to God’s heart.

Solomon would have been like many kings in his day, who, instead of asking for a discerning heart, ask for things that will make their lives better. But God is impressed by Solomon's desire, and gives those things to him anyway even when he didn't ask for them.

Sometimes I wonder how much we ourselves would be willing to be so attuned to what is close to God's heart. The renowned Latin American theologian Leonardo Boff  urges anyone who reads his work to remember that anyone who serves God should be attuned to the cries of the Earth and the cries of the poor. Depending on which American politicians share your beliefs and your worldview, perhaps you think that those individuals follow the ways of God and the opposing politicians don’t. But it truly isn't that simple. Before we put Solomon on a pedestal, we have to remember that even Solomon falters. Later on in his reign, he worships other gods and implements forced labor and heavy taxes. It might not be unlike the politicians of today’s day and age, who say they’re going to do one thing and end up doing something else. It’s also a reminder that we aren’t perfect.

But I'd like to think it's not about being perfect. I think my dad would tell you that he doesn't know all there is to know about God, or about Jesus, but he does know what's most important. Dad always taught me to love God, do your best to follow God, and love the people in front of you. 
It’s in those moments that we find what truly matters. When we follow God’s guidance and instruction and are attuned with God’s will, God’s glory will be revealed in us and we will receive true blessing.

In today’s media song by Mumford and Sons, they sing:

“Now I'll be bold
As well as strong
And use my head alongside my heart”

I wonder if God is calling us to be bold as well as strong, as we think of Paul and situations that are closest to God's own heart. The cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor. For many ways we can do that. Perhaps it's as sacred as preparing to teach high school Sunday School. Perhaps it’s knowing how to care for the most vulnerable in a community where many churches and many individuals have a perspective that differs from some folks in this particular community of faith. Perhaps it’s remembering the life and witness of people like Pastor Cathy Carlson, a predecessor of mine who was an early advocate for certain social justice issues in the region.

Friends, may you be blessed with wisdom and discernment from God as you carry out God’s will. May you always be attuned to the cries of those most vulnerable. In that work, may you find joy in your advocacy and in your care. Amen.

“Have You Eaten Enough Today?”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

August 11, 2024
1 Kings 19:4-8

Focus: God did not make us to be machines of capitalism and grind culture. God made us to be sustained by Jesus’ loving presence and reminds us to rest our weary bodies and spirits.

I feel a little like Mr. Rogers this week, because today I'm going to do some show and tell as part of my sermon.

I got a special deck of cards from Amazon that I wanted to bring in to show you. But it's not just any ordinary deck of cards. It's called the “Rest Deck” by an organization called The Nap Ministry. The card deck promises to give its users “50 Practices to Resist Grind Culture”.

When I say “grind culture”, I'm referring to the kind of uniquely American tendency to be workaholics, to always go from one thing to the next, to work and work and work and work, and brag about our productivity like it's a badge of honor. But Tricia Hersey, the founder of the Nap Ministry and the appropriately named “Nap Bishop”, put these cards together as spiritual practices that people can use to remind themselves to rest, she also wrote a book called Rest is Resistance, because she believes that allowing our bodies and souls to take a rest is one form of dismantling white supremacy and other oppressive structures in our society. Each card has a short affirmation on the front and a longer meditative practice on the back. As a spiritual practice, she says you're supposed to close your eyes, pull out a card, and do what it says. I'll show you a couple of the fronts of these cards, but I'll keep the whole deck in my office for a while so if you want to take a closer look for yourself, I'd be happy to show you.

These are really beautiful multicolored cards. You’ll see two examples on the screen.

One is written against a flowery orange border. It says, “Rest is not a privilege. Rest is a human right. I don’t have to earn rest.” (Show card)

The other is written against a blue and flowery border. It says, “Rest is my foundation to build, invent, restore, and imagine the world I want to see.” (Show card)

As I looked at some of these cards in preparation for today, I was reflecting on the text from 1 Kings. It's kind of an odd text, but I think it gives us a good reminder of the character of God and what God calls us to do. Today I want to talk about what our society has been conditioned to believe about capitalism and the allure of constant productivity, and how it's antithetical to what God invites us into in a life of faith.

First, it feels important to set the scene for what the prophet Elijah is going through here. You have to go back a few chapters are in the book of 1 Kings to truly understand Elijah’s plight, but I’ll give you the “spark note version”. As Rick noted before he began his reading, the prophet Elijah is attempting to escape from Queen Jezebel. In previous chapters of the book of 1 Kings, Elijah has proven himself victorious over other prophets that follow the will of a false god, Baal. After a violent and bloody scene, which ends in Elijah killing 450 of these false prophets, Queen Jezebel issues a death threat against Elijah. Fearing for his life, Elijah runs into the wilderness, and now here we are at the point of our story.

The text doesn't really explain why Elijah is depressed, why he prays for God to take his life. So, commentators are left to make educated guesses and ask questions of their own. But, whatever the reason, I am mindful that some of us sitting here might resonate with the depth of Elijah's lament. The National Institute of Mental Health calls major depression one of the most common mental disorders in the United States. Depression causes feelings of hopelessness, and the feeling that there is no way out of how we feel. It is for this reason that I would argue that Elijah is not being overdramatic in this passage. His feelings are real and valid.

These feelings can also be worsened when we don’t have what we need. When we haven’t had enough physical sustenance or enough time at rest, how on earth could we be expected to regulate our emotions? Sometimes it feels like we are not unlike the toddler versions of ourselves, who cry when we are hungry or tired or overstimulated or scared. We might just show it differently.

At a certain level, I think Elijah is mindful of this. After his lament, he sits down under a solitary broom bush (or perhaps a broom tree, depending on your chosen translation.) On the screen, you'll see a picture of a broom tree. This is a tree that grows in deserts and other hot places, and because of its structure provides a great of shade from the relentless Middle Eastern sun.

The commentator David G. Garber, Jr, says it well: “…the messenger of God comes to Elijah and offers him practical pastoral care.”

I would add this: God’s messenger does not offer him platitudes. God's messenger does not simply say, “it will get better,” or “I’m praying for you,” or my personal least favorite, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.”

Instead, God’s messenger provides fresh bread on hot coals, and a jar of water. God’s messenger provides Eliah with what he actually needs. And then the messenger says something to Elijah that’s been buzzing around in my head all week. The NRSV translates it slightly differently than the CEB, which Rick just read. The messenger says, “Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.” The CEB, on the other hand, reminds us that we have difficult days ahead. After all, Election Day is in 85 days. So we need sustenance.

In our media planning meeting, we loved the idea of a sharing a Snickers commercial, because of their slogan that “you’re not you when you’re hungry”, and of course Robin Williams is arguably one of the finest comedic actors of his generation. But also because of the reminder that our faith in God and our faith in Christ gives us not just physical sustenance, but also spiritual sustenance. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Our story of Elijah finishes with this beautiful reminder: “Elijah got up, ate and drank, and went refreshed by that food for forty days and nights until he arrived at Horeb, God’s mountain.” Refreshed by that food. Refreshed by that rest. Refreshed by God’s love for him.

God did not make us to be machines of capitalism and grind culture. God did not make us to be alone in our depression, in our loneliness, or in our despair. God made us to be sustained by Jesus’ loving presence and reminds us to rest our weary bodies and spirits.

Of course it isn’t as simple as not doing anything. Those of us who are farmers have to tend to our crops with care and help them grow. Those of us who are educators have to interpret assessment results. Those of us in the corrections industry have to be dedicated to the work of restorative justice every day. And none of these are easy tasks. They require a lot from us.

But the work Tricia Hersey, the Nap Bishop, and the work of God, your great Provider, remind us that our bodies and souls are made for more. More of what brings joy. More of what brings peace. More of what brings hope and liberation to a hurting world.

So may you receive the invitation to rest. Eat some food and drink some water. We have difficult days ahead, but by the grace of God, refreshed by that food and that rest, we can continue to build the world that God wills. Thanks be to God. Amen.

“Many Gifts, One Spirit”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

August 4, 2024
Ephesians 4: 1-16

Focus: We are called by God to live lives worthy of what we have been called to be. Sometimes that will require a lot from us, but we are always invited to grow into it.

Around the time I started to respond to my call to ministry, I was disoriented, and sometimes even troubled. I was in the midst of what I would now describe as my “wilderness era”. I describe that time as a period of my life that felt so confusing, because I had previously prepared for a totally different trajectory, and spent multiple years of college, studying for a totally different career. It was a period of high anxiety and intense disorientation.

When I was finally coming out of the wilderness, I started to hear words of affirmation from people. One common phrase that was said to me, “Jacob, I think you’ve found your calling.”

As lovely as that affirmation was, I was still so disoriented that I didn't know what to do with that. How could I be totally sure that I had found my calling after such a difficult time of discernment? Did I have the right to be sure of anything after everything I had thought was going to be part of my future radically shifted?

That was about five years ago, and as I stand here before you today, I can tell you that I've grown a lot in that time. I feel very peaceful in this work much of the time, and you all are just such a fabulous congregation to have my first settled pastorate.

And I'm going to continue to grow. As I was scrolling on Facebook this week, I encountered a post by a prominent United Church of Christ pastor named Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, who pastors Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, one of the most prominent black churches in the denomination. I reposted this in solidarity with other pastors, who encounter both the joys and the challenges of the work. He writes some things that are difficult to hear, which you can read if you want toby going on my Facebook page, but he ends his post with this.

“You will never be good enough, smart enough, wise enough, strong enough, kind enough, tough enough, humble enough, quiet enough, close enough, or holy enough.

But never ever forget this,  “you are enough.”  You are called not to be anything else, but you.  Rest in the knowledge God had enough holy humor to call a broken, ill equipped, stumbling person such as yourself. It would have made more sense to call any other creature in creation but God called you! You need to smile and recognize the irony of your call.  What a joke and an honor God calls the jester of the court to be a prophet before the King.”

Of course, Otis Moss had a particular audience in mind when he was writing this—fellow pastors and other ministers—but I think this piece of the post can apply pretty directly to what I want to talk about today and how it can relate to us.

Many people believe that the writer of this letter is probably the apostle Paul. If you look at the book as a whole, there's some pretty solid evidence for this, but the authorship been contested, like many other books of the Bible. If we assume that the book of Ephesians is in fact, written by Paul, we would then assume that he is writing a letter to a church, or a group of churches, which are trying to do their best to share the good news of Jesus after his death. So there's some context for you.

There are two major points of the letter that I want to illustrate today.

The first is the author’s discussion on the importance of unity. Some of the beginning verses say, “Accept each other with love, 3 and make an effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit with the peace that ties you together. 4 You are one body and one spirit, just as God also called you in one hope. 5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 and one God and Creator of all.”

This reminder of the need for unity is in many ways as important today, as it was then. If you've been watching the national news recently, especially the comparisons of the nominees for this year's presidential election, you know that division is something that we are painfully aware of. Both sides have lobbied intense personal attacks on the political candidates and their policies, so unity is not something that comes easy to most of us these days. But I think it's important for us to remember that, in our faith, we belong to one another. We work together in building up the body of Christ no matter if we all believe the same things or I have exactly the same theology. You may not agree with everything I ever say from the pulpit, and that's OK, because I think that all of us here at this church can recognize that we share the mission of sharing God's love with our greater community here in our own particular ways. We serve a God that is bigger than partisan disagreements, a God who gives each of us important gifts that we can share for the benefit of those around us.

This leads me to the second most important point that is text discusses, I am the one that I've spent the most time with this week as I have considered this text. We are each given different gifts, which can benefit our community of faith. 
I often tell members of our congregation that I am so thankful for our finance committee, because my only D in any of my educational career was in a math class, so I purposefully found a career where math is such a small part of it! If I had to understand the ins and outs of church finances to the level of Chris Van Buren and everyone else on that committee, this church would be in big trouble! But by the same token, I can’t tell you how many people have told me, “I’ll help you any way I can, as long as it doesn’t involve getting up and talking in church on Sunday!”

The writer of Ephesians says, “Christ’s purpose was to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son.”

We all have work to do in building up the body of Christ. From the ministry of answering the phones, to the ministry of meaningful visitation, to the ministry of stewarding various gifts, to the ministry of preparing our communion elements, to the ministry of caring for our physical building, to the ministry of music, to the ministry of teaching our youth, and on and on.

Each of these are big and small ways that God has called us to build up God’s community here. We are called by God to live lives worthy of what we have been called to be. Sometimes that will require a lot from us, but we are always invited to grow into it.

The chorus in today's media song is pretty simple, but it’s powerful.

if you could see me the way I see you
If you could feel me the way I feel you
You'd be a believer

What if God were saying that to us? What if God was acknowledging the gift that God has given us, but we could use them to speak truth to power and speak the truth in love? It's not always going to be easy, and sometimes we have to talk about hard things. But when we are given the gift that God has given us, we can't simply use them when they're convenient or when the stakes are low. Like Otis Moss said, “Never ever forget this,  “you are enough.”  You are called not to be anything else, but you.”

So this week, I invite you to think about this: how are you going to use the gift that God gave you? How are you going to use them for the benefit of this church, and how are you going to use them to benefit a world in need of more love, more light, more hope? What I love about this congregation, among other things, is that we are a faithful, discerning, and creative congregation. There are so many ways that we have learned to use our gifts to lead us in deeper encounters of our faith. So, as you go into the week, may you be empowered to find the way is that you can use your gifts. The world needs them more than you will ever know. Amen.

“This Story Again!”

Sermon for U-CC Waupun

July 28, 2024

It was brought to my attention from a member of the Congregation that it gets kind of old hearing the same stories over and over again. And I can  understand that. In fact in our scriptures today we find that there is a similar story to the parable in the book of Kings. There are some things that need to be considered in these thoughts. Many religions and pastors follow a guide called the Liturgical Calendar. It gives us a framework throughout the year, to keep us organized, 
and gives a sense of reverence and structure. It also helps expose people to verses and readings that they may not be familiar with. It also brings back the familiar stories or parables. Jesus used parables a lot.
It’s similar to how we include current music and graphics in our services. It is also similar to how Jacob preaches.

If you’ve noticed he interweaves a bit of his personal life in many of his sermons. The process is done to help all of people understand what is being said and the meaning behind it, in a setting of their everyday interactions with the world; and if you allow yourself, it also gives you a starting point to continue to reflect and what was really meant.

So let's look at today's parable. A large crowd comes to hear Jesus, reported there are at least 5,000 people. 
It’s said that these folks needed food. Nobody has money but there is this kid that shows up with 5 small loaves of bread and 3 fish, yeah that’s going to work isn’t it? But Jesus says it’s enough, pass it out, and low and behold when they are done, everyone is full and there are left overs!

With this parable we have it easy, the writer even explains the parable’s meaning to us in the verse, “the people saw that he had done a miraculous sign, they said, “This is truly the prophet who is coming into the world.” 
So this was all done so Jesus could show his power to the people, that is what I always thought this parable  was all about, but was that the only meaning?

When I decided to look at this as our Scripture for today, I noticed several ideas and other meanings laying off in the weeds.

What popped up right at the beginning is that we need to have faith in Jesus.  Marvin Gaye just sang about this thought in another way saying “I’m  Always there in time of need And when I lose my will You'll be there to push me up the hill.”

Jesus told the disciples to do something that they thought was going to end in failure, however when they actually followed what Jesus told them they succeeded in multiple ways. They just had to have faith in what Jesus was telling them.

Along this line there is another meaning, “God will provide.”  Jesus knew how many people were there, he knew they needed to be fed, and provided a way for the group to receive nourishment when everyone else thought it impossible. 
Isn’t this something we’ve been told from little on, to put it in God’s hands, look to God for help, God will provide.

Now whether or not you listen to what God is telling you or whether or not you embrace what God is providing to you, that’s up to you. Nothing is going to be forced upon you, it will be offered, but you need to make the decision whether to take it. It’s my belief that God continually provides for us, so if you don’t take, or realize what is offered this time, God will provide for  you again and again. The Creator wants the best for us, but God isn’t going to force you, you need to make the decision. You need to have the faith and courage to step up and take what’s being offered.

One last meaning that I found in this parable is abundance.

Now you are thinking there wasn’t much abundance in this parable; there was just a tiny amount of food; and yes you’re right, however that tiny amount of food was enough, in fact it was more than enough. The so-called civilized world is keyed into the belief that we need stuff, at times we need more stuff.

I’m not bashing businesses, we certainly do need things to survive and to live, but just how much do we need?

In other Scripture, the writers of those words point out that the sparrow does not work and yet is cared for, the grass and flowers toil not but are they not dressed in the finest colors.

Sometimes I think we need to take a moment and just look at how well we may have it, to think about what we have. To evaluate what to do with what we may not need. I’m not telling you to sell off everything you own, to put on sackcloth and become missionaries to a far off land, 
but what I am asking is for you to appreciate and look at your lives, and realize you probably have something to share that will make someone else’s life better.

If you're retired you may have time to give, to volunteer, if your clothes or possessions don’t suit you anymore there are resale shops and consignment stores, if you feel the best way for you to help is to donate finances, there are many upstanding organizations that will take it and turn it into things that are wonderful.

The saying, “ that it is better to give than receive,” comes to mind here. Think back to when you gave of yourself and you were able to see the result of your actions.

Didn’t the smile on the person’s face, the gratitude of another, the organization taking your donation and making changes for many, didn’t that just make you feel wonderful. After feeding the multitude 12 bushel baskets of leftovers where gathered up, a demonstration of the blessings from sharing with others what little you may have.  
We all truly have an abundance in one way or another and we have something to give. The world is truly in need, maybe now more than ever. We need to use our faith, our trust, and our gifts. 
Even if you believe what you have is too small, as we have read, God has the ability to make what you have be enough to help others. You just need to believe that God will provide what you need, and in the abundance of what the Creator gives you, you can share with others.

Yes there is one book and one Jesus that we can draw from for our teachings, and the stories may repeat, but never stop looking at them to see what else they are telling you; remember God is still speaking to you, to us, to the world. Don’t ignore the Creator’s message, don’t put yourself in do not disturb mode. 
God will, and is providing for us. Take what you need of the bread and fish, but make sure to pass it on what’s leftover,  so others too can be fed in a variety of ways by God.
 

“The Good Samaritan, and the View from the Ditch”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

July 21, 2024
Luke 10:25-37

Focus statement: The call of Jesus to love our neighbors is as important and revolutionary today as it has ever been. When we love our neighbors, we are offered the opportunity to extend love and grace to those who need it most, regardless of what society would tell us to do. 
Behavioral purpose:

Yesterday evening, I returned from a week in Illinois, representing the Wisconsin Conference UCC at the Great Lakes Regional Youth Event. In total, there were about 110 youth and their adult leaders, representing 12 different conferences of the UCC. You’ll see a group picture of us up on the screen. I’m on the top step, next to my friend Bekah, whose name you might recognize as the woman I wrote the song with last year for Access Sunday. It had been the first time I saw Bekah in person since I first met her in 2019.

The theme of the event was the reminder that “love is greater than fear.” I want to talk a bit about what I learned this week in relation to that, and how I think today’s youth embody this lesson so well.

First off, I want to assure you that as long as the youth are in charge of running the world, the rest of us have nothing to worry about. A lot of today’s youth frankly get a bad rap from the rest of society for being disrespectful, disengaged, and disconnected from the real world while they’re glued to their phones and tablets. To be blunt, I believe the rest of us so often write them off for not behaving like we expect them to, when we would do well to form genuine relationships with them and engage them in non-judgmental conversations about issues that matter to them. Some of the issues that are most important to youth today are things like this: how can they be assured they’ll be safe to live into the fullness of their identity? How can they be assured that they’ll be safe from school shooters and other people who want to hurt them? How can they be assured that they’ll inherit a planet that is safe for future generations to live on?

But the most important insight I had was this: these youth have such clarity about the need to lift up the voices and experiences of people who have been oppressed. They want to give back to their community by making the world a better place for those who are disadvantaged in some way, particularly by race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or socioeconomic background. They understand what it’s like to be “in the ditch”, like the man in our story. Maybe some of them have been there themselves. If these youth are any indication, today’s youth are attuned to the needs and experiences of others than some adults might expect.  

And that takes ri
sk. I may only be 30, but I’ve never seen our country as divided as it is today. With a few exceptions, many of my friends and family who are older than me feel the same way. We’re divided on religious, political, and ideological issues, in ways that prevent us from seeing each other as neighbors.

So sometimes, on our less generous days, we may be like the legal expert who asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor”. He asks this not because he wants to learn about the people to whom he should show compassion and love. He asks, instead, because he wants to know who he has license to ignore or push aside, whose plight he doesn’t need to worry himself with.

As is often the case with Jesus, he doesn’t directly answer the lawyer’s question. He turns it into a teaching moment instead. He uses one of his favorite teaching methods, telling a story, to make a point.

The story begins with a Jewish person being robbed and left for dead. Then a priest and a Levite pass by the man and go another way.

But why don’t they help him? The commentators of the Jewish Annotated New Testament say it’s not out of purity concerns, but out of a lack of care for someone in their community. Maybe they were in a hurry on the way somewhere, or maybe they thought, “Ah, well. Someone else will help him.” We don’t get a very satisfying answer to that question from reading the text alone, but Rabbi Amy-Jill Levine reminds us that that’s not the point. In her book, Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi, Amy-Jill writes, “Neither [Jesus nor Luke] gives the priest or Levite an excuse. Nor would any excuse be acceptable.” In other words, they knew what the Torah said about loving your neighbor, and they did nothing.

That’s what makes the Samaritan so interesting. Samaritans and Jews were brutal enemies, and yet this Samaritan is the one who helps his neighbor. 
And this isn’t the “brush you off, give you some water, and send you on your way” kind of help. He does this at great personal cost. He dresses his wounds with wine, hoists him onto his donkey, and takes him to an inn to recuperate, at great personal expense. The Scripture says he was “moved with compassion.”

I wonder what he might have thought when he saw his injured neighbor.  Did he hesitate for a few moments before approaching the man? Was he cynical about helping someone he was supposed to see as an enemy? Did he wonder what others might think if they found out?

Whatever he might have been thinking, he understood the importance of loving the person in front of him, without considering whether or not he was worthy of that love. The Jewish man was a person in need of help, and he had the resources to provide that help.

Jesus ends the parable by turning the lawyer’s question back to him, albeit in a slightly different way. “What do you think? Which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who encountered thieves?”
The lawyer correctly answers: The one who demonstrated mercy toward him.”Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”  

This might naturally lead me to end my sermon by talking about how we should care for those in need in our communities, those who are oppressed by unjust systems. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s a good thing to keep in mind.

But Amanda Brobst-Renaud, who serves as Assistant Professor of Theology at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana, reminds us that we should take the invitation a step further.

She invites us to ask ourselves what we can learn from the man in the ditch. What does it feel like to be forgotten or dismissed by others, or even by God?

When you’re in the ditch, either in a literal or metaphorical sense, you’re caught in the middle of a life circumstance you can’t escape. You’re passed over by some, waiting for that one person to help you out of the goodness of their heart. When you’re in a ditch, you’re hoping someone will do something that runs counter to human nature, and show you compassion.

We’re all in the ditch in one season of life or another.

Sometimes it looks like being robbed and left for dead. Sometimes it looks like growing up in an unimaginable world, doing your best when you inherit the problems previous generations either couldn’t or didn’t want to fix. 
Sometimes it feels like the creeping anxiety as food and gas prices go up, and there’s too much month left at the end of the money. 
Sometimes it looks like infertility in the midst of a society that values reproduction, and Christians who tell you to pray a little harder for God to help you. (People use that Deuteronomy passage to support that kind of theology, by the way.)
Sometimes it looks like doing your best to navigate social systems that were designed for your exclusion.

In today’s media song, Drew Holcomb talks about shining like lightning, “even if our back’s against the wall”. Not only o we get the chance to shine when we help others, but we get a chance to shine when we know what it’s like to be in the ditch, and we’re given an opportunity to live authentically into our beings.

The Samaritan might have had empathy for this downtrodden individual because he knew what it felt like to be in the ditch, metaphorically or maybe even literally. Christ offers a similar call to us: to help not because we want to feel good about ourselves, but because we have empathy and compassion for those around us.  

The call of Jesus to love our neighbors is as important and revolutionary today as it has ever been. When we love our neighbors, we are offered the opportunity to extend love and grace to those who need it most, regardless of what society would tell us to do.

So my friends, may you be moved with compassion this week. May you pull someone out of the ditch, or sit with them in it, because you know how important that gift of grace was when it was extended to you. May you lead with love, with empathy, and with kindness. May you be surprised by what you learn, and how God’s grace is with you along the way. Thanks be to God. Amen.

“Focus On…What Exactly?”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun

July 14, 2024
Philippians 4:4-9

Focus: in thinking about the mission of our church, it's important for us to remember that God calls us to focus our spirits on that which brings joy and blessing to us and our communities. It's in those acts that we will receive the peace of Christ.

When I was scrolling on Facebook this week, I encountered the image on the screen. It says, “You can do anything… but not everything.” As the image shows, you can either fill one jug of water all the way full, or five jugs of water partway fall. You can't do both unless you have more water. I want you to keep that image in your mind as I share today's message, because it has lots of relevance to my own life, and the life of this church. Maybe you might find some relevance in the ways that you love your own life as well.

As some of you know, outside of playing and singing music, a hobby of mine that is also part of my vocation is songwriting and producing music. My second bedroom in my townhome is a cross between a home office for doing church work and a small home recording studio. One of the things that I was most looking for and excited about when I moved here was the opportunity to have a dedicated space for making music.
But I'm learning that I need to carve out more time and space in my life to utilize it. I still have a lot to learn about the recording and production process. But the learning and the doing is also something that brings me joy, something that helps me fill my own cup when the workday is done.

As this is my first proper ministerial call, I know I have a lot to learn there too. I love this church, and I am honored to accompany you through important parts of your lives and be invited into both joyful and the challenging moments. You are constantly in my thoughts and prayers and every day I ask myself how I can be more effective or more present. Because I care about you all so much, you deserve my time, my attention, and my prayerful discernment, in order for me to serve you well.

But in order for me to serve you well, you also deserve a pastor who has taken time for self-care and other things that feed my creativity. You deserve a pastor who has interests and passions outside of local church ministry. You deserve a pastor who finds ways to set aside anxiety and focus on things that are important to me when I’ve done what I can do for the church that day. If I don’t engage in time management as a spiritual practice, if I don’t care for myself and do the things that feed my soul, there’s no way I can do a good job caring for you.

I think the same is true for this church. I think the anxieties that Paul talks about in today's passage are felt both in our local church here, and in the church universal. Because we have a unique theological perspective, in comparison to some of the other churches in the area, many of us want to promote that we still have “something for everyone.” And to make it so, we want to say we have progressive theology, meaningful children’s and youth programs, innovative worship engaging secular media, generous community outreach. and so forth. And most of that is true. We have a lot of that already. But so often the institutional church believes that we have to be all things to all people in order to stay relevant. Because if we don't, how will we pay our bills? How will we preserve our traditions? How will God's love be shared with the next generation?

But Paul reminds the church that the anxiety does not need to oppress us. You might remember that I often construct a sermon based on a particular verse or phrase of the text that has been buzzing around in my head all week. This week, that phrase is this one: “if anything is excellent and if anything is admirable, focus your thoughts on these things.”

When there are so many things that we think about as individuals, and so many things that we think about as the church, to me, it's deeply liberating to be reminded to focus on what brings joy and love to the world. God calls us to focus our spirits on that which brings joy and blessing to us and our communities. It's in those acts that we will receive the peace of Christ.

For me personally, it might be the recognition that at some point it's time to set aside my own anxieties for the day, take the “pastor hat” off, and write a new song. (I have lots of ideas that could be fleshed out.) Maybe for you, it's taking time to spend with your families, or with those who love.

Maybe for the church, it’s the act of liberating ourselves from doing everything for everyone, and focusing instead of clarifying our mission, our particular ministry here at U-CC.

Perhaps we might respond first, by reciting the words of our mission and vision statement that we now recite about once a month. That's a good start. But I wonder if it's the place we finish.

There's a question that's worth asking as the church changes and we begin to realize that we can't be everything to everyone. Like the image at the beginning of my message, we can do anything, but we can't do everything. That leaves us with this question: Because we can’t do everything, what are we going to do?

Maybe Paul's encouragement can give us an answer. Our job is to focus on the things that are excellent and praiseworthy in our ministries. Perhaps that looks like packing over 300 lunches for people in need. Perhaps that looks like widening our welcome as we think about how to be more inclusive. Perhaps that looks like building beloved community, lifting each other up when times are hard. Perhaps that looks like providing meaningful visitation ministry or bringing food to folks when they need it.

In today's media song, Whitney Houston sings this:
“Each day I live, I want to be
A day to give the best of me
I'm only one, but not alone”

This reminds me why it’s important to stay focused, and to be present. If we let the peace of Christ live within us, and focus on the things that are most important to our church’s ministries, and to our own lives, we can put them into practice.

So is he going to your week, may you think about how you can unburden yourself from the pressure to do everything. Think about the things that you do best, the things that bring you joy, and do more of that. Yes, the work still needs to get done, and the anxiety might not totally go away. But it is when we live our lives with joy and passion that the peace of Christ can be with us. Thanks be to God. Amen.

“The Choices We Make, and the Challenge of Sharing God’s Love”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun, Pentecost 7B

July 7, 2024

Focus: Sharing God’s love asks a lot of us, and sometimes the challenge is how we are going to share a different message than what others believe or what we’ve been taught in the past.

One of the side effects of being the pastor of a more progressive denomination of Christianity is that I often get a lot of questions, questions I think many people in a church like ours can resonate with because of what we say we believe.

Here are just a few.

“How can you believe that being gay isn’t a sin?” (That one came while I was getting a haircut.)

“I don’t believe in female pastors. How can you think that’s acceptable?” (It’s no coincidence that women were the first preachers of the resurrection and also no coincidence that the one who doubted it was a man. Also, I’m not criticizing anyone who is less used to the idea of female pastors, only the peoples who say that shouldn’t be.)

“Do you really think talking about racism or other forms of oppression are acceptable in church?” (In fact, yes I do, because I believe God wants all people to have the same rights as everyone else and we as God’s people cannot be free until everyone is free. Besides, if we’re doing it right, I believe we should be talking about hard things, even risky things, and trying to make the world better as a witness to God’s work in our lives.)

But unfortunately, not everyone who claims to be a Christian understands things that way. Too often, people go to church simply because they want to feel better about themselves for doing “the right thing.” Too many people want to "check it off the list”, saying they did their good thing for the week and can now live their lives without consequence the rest of the week. Or worse, some people believe that the primary motivator for believing in Christ is that you'll go to hell if you don’t.

I feel like Jesus probably felt the same way. For so many, the teachings of Jesus presented a radical departure from the established social norms of the day. Listening to Jesus, therefore, also forced listeners to make a choice: either get on board with what Jesus was saying, or don’t.

My overarching theme for today is that Jesus and his disciples offered a very different message than what people were accustomed to, and those who listened had a choice to make: either receive it or dismiss it. There are two important things that happened in this lectionary passage, and I will take each one by one. But that's the theme that runs through both of these, and after I make those connections, I will talk about what it means for us.

First, Jesus receives what can only be understood as a cold reception in his hometown of Nazareth. The popular paraphrase called The Message interprets it this way:

“He’s just a carpenter—Mary’s boy. We’ve known him since he was a kid. We know his brothers, James, Justus, Jude, and Simon, and his sisters. Who does he think he is?”

The people of Nazareth can't experience the authority of Jesus, because they know where he came from, who his parents were. They could make assumptions about him based upon what they had experienced of him. Anyone who knew him couldn't get behind most of the more important things Jesus was saying, because they couldn't get past the image of “little boy” Jesus in their heads.

We're about to watch a clip from one of my favorite movies, called Freedom Writers. It's based on a true story of a first-year high school English teacher, by the name of Erin Gruwell. Two years after the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, Mrs. Gruwell, a middle class white woman, is hired to teach at risk high school students. Before the beginning of this clip, she’s startled by a derogatory drawing of one of the other students in the class, and has an encounter with her students which eventually teach both her and them some very important lessons. Let's watch.

(clip)

Happily, the scene we just watched, represents a breakthrough for both teacher and students, but they seen it also shows how people in the business of teaching others don't always get the reception they expect.

But this leads into the second part of the scripture, where Jesus gives the disciples some instructions. They are to share the good news of God’s love with others, but if others are not receptive to that love, the disciples are to kick the dust off their shoes and move forward.

Sometimes I wonder if that might be part of our task as more progressively-minded Christians. We are far from a monolith of our beliefs, to be sure, but we pride ourselves on being a church where people can belong if they don’t agree with the way the churches and their past have done things. When you put out your church profile in the most recent search process, one of the things on your “wish list” that intrigued me right away  was the sense that you were seeking to become more inclusive, more welcoming, and more strong in your mission than you already were. You recognized in that time that you were already doing some great things, but that you hoped that your next ministry leader would help you do more. I'm certainly not a perfect pastor, and if we wanted to take on some wider or deeper initiatives, those things could not be initiated by me. The pastor does not cast the mission of the church; the people cast the mission of the church and the pastor advises them, guides them, and prays for their discernment.

But here's what I do know.

So often, churches say that they want to learn to be more inclusive, or to be stronger in their mission. And I think most of the time when they say those things, they really believe it.

But so often, when we are faced with the desire to make a change, we are afraid of what other people in our communities will think if we take a strong stance on a controversial social justice issue. We live in a small town, and that risk is not a small one, because in small towns like ours, people talk. People form opinions of our church based on what we say we believe and how we choose to broadcast that belief system. Sometimes people will agree with our message and our belief system, and sometimes they won’t. That’s the nature of discipleship; what’s right isn’t always easy.

But what Jesus asks his disciples to do in this text is not to simply avoid doing the work of discipleship because of what other people will think. He asks them to keep going, shake the dust off their feet, and continue to spread the good news of God’s love to anyone who needs it, especially those who are most vulnerable, those who were caught in systems that oppressed and demeaned. 
I’m going to let you interpret what that means for you personally and how you want to see the church live out that call. But here’s the message I want you to take with you today. Sharing God’s love asks a lot of us, and sometimes the challenge is how we are going to share a different message than what others believe or what we’ve been taught in the past.

Because when we share a message of love, inclusion, and liberation—instead of the exclusionary belief systems of other churches—and share it boldly, incredible things can happen. Perhaps people in our community who are yearning for an accepting and caring church home can finally find that in us. (We’ve seen that in action today, as a new member has joined our church!)

So may you continue to do as Jesus asked of all of us us, to share the good news, to be courageous in your beliefs, and made stronger because God accompanies you on the way. May it be so. Amen.

“Lament, and Finding Our Way Back to Hope” 
Sermon for U-CC Waupun, Pentecost 6B, 

June 30, 2024
Lamentations 3:22-33

Focus: Even when there are reasonable circumstances to lament, we can have faith that God has not left our side.

When my mom got endometrial cancer, it was probably the moment where my own faith was tested the most. It was also undoubtedly the moment where God's strength and presence has been revealed to me the most.

When our family received the diagnosis, it was the summer before my last semester in college. We were told from the get-go that my mom had treatment available to her that would represent a full cure, but it would require some pretty intense treatment. They called it “sandwich therapy”. Three rounds of chemo, followed by 30 days of radiation, followed by three more rounds of chemo. As anybody who has ever had cancer treatment will tell you, that is the worst kind of sandwich you could imagine! But if that's what it took, my mom was willing to do that.

As it turned out, she would run into some difficulties along the way. The chemo made her feel absolutely horrible for several days afterwards. Going to radiation treatment every weekday for a month took its toll. And finally, since the radiation had wiped out most of her platelets, her last three chemo treatments had to be postponed several times because of low platelet counts.

Especially that first few months of her cancer treatment, I was an hour and a half away, trying to finish my last semester of college. I wanted nothing more than to be able to sit with her during her treatments and help her around the house when she needed it. I remember feeling so helpless, because there was so little I could do, and if I was going to find hope in the situation, I was going to have to dig deep to find it. Sometimes it felt like I had to stick my face in the dirt, like the text says.

But my faith was strengthened in these moments, because of the ways that God showed up to carry me and my family through. God showed up through casseroles and restaurant gift cards brought to my parents’ house so that dad didn't have to cook all the meals by himself. God showed up through college friends who would meet me for coffee on the days of mom's chemo treatments and tell me stories that would make me laugh. God showed up through caring teachers and professors who helped my sister Emily and I process our emotions around what was going on.

But on our journey to find that hope, we had to lament first. Part of the reason I chose this text from really strange text from Lamentations today was to remind us, that part of our faith journey both encourages and sometimes requires us to lament. In so many of our faith traditions, we've been told throughout our lives that if we're not praising God in every circumstance, we're doing it wrong. If we aren’t giving God thanks at all times for all the things God has done for us, we are ungrateful. But I think this text is inviting us to challenge that assumption. Lament is, by definition, an inevitable part of the human experience, because there's no way we can be happy all the time. The text says, example, that we should simply put up with anything God throws at us. We should expect to be slapped on the cheek, set our face to the ground, and sit stoically, waiting for God to deliver us from our current situation. It's almost as if the writer we should expect some kind of punishment from God in times of our distress.

We don't know exactly who wrote this part of the book of Lamentations, because the book of Lamentations has many authors, but the stark reality is that in this chapter of the book of Lamentations places the blame for the individual’s circumstance squarely on God. The lectionary cuts, this part out, but I feel it's important to give you some context. Among other complaints, verse 8 says: “Even though I call out and cry for help, God silences my prayer.”

Have you ever felt that God has ignored your distress, or that God has failed to intervene in our communities when it mattered? To be honest, it would be quite faithful of you to say yes, because it's biblical. So often, so many of us are forced to try to hold onto faith, and hope, even as it seems that the world is crashing down. So often, we are forced to ask the question of why bad things happen. Does God simply allow it, sitting and watching while the medical treatment doesn’t work, or the rights of marginalized communities are taken away, or people are without a home or dependable food sources in Dodge County? Did God simply watch idly as last weekend’s storm completely demolished the building of the Apple Grove Lutheran Church in Argyle, WI, a building that has been standing since 1893?

The truth is that sometimes we don't know why these things happen. The author of today's scripture passage was dealing with a particularly difficult moment in their lives, one that they believed that God caused.

But even in the midst of these complaints, even in the midst of this deep trouble in their lives, the author of this text doesn't falter in their faith. In spite of everything else, they say, “Certainly the faithful love of the Lord hasn’t ended; certainly God’s compassion isn’t through!” There certainly is reason for hope.

In our media song for today, we are reminded that, even when there is no star in sight, God will be our guiding light. God is with us, even when things seem unexplainably difficult.
We're about to watch a heartwarming movie clip from A Dog’s Way Home, which we also thought was appropriate for today's message.

(clip)

After 2 1/2 years, a period of time which surely would have meant certain death for most dogs, a dog can still find her human companions. In a similar way, no matter what the situation, God can still give us hope.

This is the good news, friends. This is the grace you can take with you today Even when there are reasonable circumstances to lament, we can have faith that God has not left our side.

That was the grace that I took away from my mom's cancer journey. By God’s grace, she is now cancer, free, and we're very thankful. By God’s grace, my faith was strengthened, instead of weakened by hopelessness. No matter what happens, God has been faithful to me in my life, and I know that God will see me through any situation. And I know that God will do the same for you.

So this week, I invite you to not shy away from despair when it comes on your path, because it might be what strengthens your faith, the most. Think about a time where your faith was strengthened in a time of difficulty, and give thanks for God's faithfulness, which has sustained you. Amen

“Don’t You Have Faith Yet?”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun, Pentecost 4B, 

June 23, 2024
Mark 4: 35-41

Focus: In the midst of the storms in our lives, Jesus’ presence offers us hope, even when it seems like the rain won’t stop.

Do you ever feel like the rain won't stop?

On one hand, I actually mean this literally. Over the past couple of months, it seems like it's rained and rained and rained. I haven't been able to get my bike out to ride to work as much as I could this time last year, and most of you understand my bike is something that gives me a sense of independence. The mosquitoes are horrendous. The farmers in our community have probably wondered how all this rain would impact the planting, growing, and harvesting that they rely upon for survival. I had to stop writing this sermon when we were under a tornado warning, and the news told me we got well over 3 1/2 inches of rain yesterday.

But on the other hand, I mean this in a more metaphorical way. There was a time in my own family. For example, that was just so full of loss. First, my dad's brother, Jim, with whom he had a very close relationship, had just retired from managing a paper mill, and was consulting with his former company one day to help the young guys shut down the mill for routine maintenance. As he was giving them instructions, he collapsed right in front of them, and either had a heart attack or a stroke. They put him in a medically induced coma, and he never woke up.

Then, my mom's mom, the grandma that I talk about from North Carolina, was diagnosed with Stage 4 bile duct cancer, and 21 days later she was gone.

Then, our dear family friend, Dave, died a few days after my grandma, after a difficult journey with pancreatic cancer.

The three of them died in the course of about four months. All of us were grieving so much and it was just exhausting. For a time we didn't really know how to cope with it all.

It felt like the rain just wouldn’t stop.

Of course, at one point, the rain finally did stop, and we knew Bo felt God was with us, and that the people we had loved and lost. We're with us also, in our minds and our hearts. My sister, Emily, and I, can do pretty good impressions of the various wacky things that my grandma would say in her sassy, southern drawl. There are very few memories of my Grandma, Uncle Jim, or our friend Dave, that don't give us a smile or laugh, even if sometimes we laugh through misty eyes.

I would imagine a number of us have stories like this, in our own lives, in our own families. Maybe not with death specifically, but other traumatic life events, perhaps. If we're honest with ourselves, maybe we’ve felt like the disciples in the boat. There are many songs, both on Christian radio, and in our treasured hymns, that use the image of Jesus being with us in the storm. And it's a nice idea that gives us comfort, but it isn't always so simple. 
While we are caught in the eye of a storm, it sometimes seems to us that Jesus is absolutely unbothered by our circumstances, literally sleeping on a pillow (or a cushion, depending on which translation you follow), while we are the ones saying, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re drowning?”

Often times when I'm preparing to preach, there will be one sentence that the Holy Spirit nudges me to talk about. This week, that sentence is this one: “Jesus asked them, […] ‘Don’t you have faith yet?’”

I think there are two ways to hear that sentence. The more obvious way is probably the way that Mark might want you to hear it, which is to say that Jesus is rebuking the disciples. He saying, “don't you get it? Snap out of it!”

But in his commentary for Working Preacher, New Testament professor Matt Skinner puts it this way: “[The disciples] have lost hope; their words reveal that they have already figured out how the story must end.”

Like them, when we face difficult circumstances, if Jesus were to ask us, “Don't you have faith yet?”, a response might be, “to be honest, it's a little shaky at the moment,” or maybe even, “I’m not so sure anymore, Jesus. So many terrible things have happened to me and you haven't been able to stop them.”

But what if we read that sentence a little bit differently? What if, instead of rebuking us, and telling us to shape up, Jesus said these words with love and compassion in his voice? As if to say, “why are you frightened? Don't you know I am going to love you and keep you safe? Don't you know I'm not going to leave you to yourselves? Don't you know that, no matter what happens, I am not going to give up on you?”

“Don't you have faith yet, in what I have done, what I'm doing, and in what I am going to do for you?”

I don't know what the kind of inflection was in Jesus’ voice, because I wasn't there. But something is leading me to believe that a rebuke from Jesus would not be the end of the story, because, as he says this, the storm call is down, and the disciples are filled with awe, and maybe even with a kind of peace. “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!”
Just like the disciples, we ourselves might be able to be filled with that kind of peace. Just like the disciples, the storm is not the end of the story for us. In the midst of the storms in our lives, Jesus’ presence offers us hope, even when it seems like the rain won’t stop.

It's true, that Jesus doesn't take away the things that caused the storms in our lives. Jesus didn't prevent my grandma, my Uncle Jim, or my friend Dave, from dying and leaving loved ones to move forward and navigate their lives without them. But we can have hope in these moments that Jesus does not leave us to ourselves. Jesus is gently calling us to be more faithful, to trust that Jesus will be there for us, as he has been so many times before. I can say for certain that my faith enabled me to get through that incredibly difficult time in our family’s life, and my faith will enable me to get through many more difficult circumstances in the future. I have every confidence the same will be true for you, because, from everything I know about you, you are a strong, faithful, and prayerful congregation. All of these attributes will carry you through any storm.

Even as, in many ways, UCC Waupun has recovered quite well after the pandemic, I think, in other ways, we are still trying to calm down again. And while it's true that the future will not look like the past, and things won't necessarily return to exactly how they used to be, Jesus is inviting us to maintain a resilient hope that he will be with us for whatever comes next.

Mumford & Sons exemplifies that resilient hope in today's media song. The chorus is simple and beautiful, and I want to make sure you caught this assurance in these lyrics:

But there will come a time
You'll see, with no more tears
And love will not break your heart
But dismiss your fears
Get over your hill and see
What you find there
With grace in your heart
And flowers in your hair

As you go into this week, I invite you to think about the storms that Jesus has carry do you through in your life. Remember, with gratitude the times that Jesus called you into deeper faith. A life of faith, after all, it's rarely easy, but so often deeply rewarding. May you were reflection on the times that Christ has carried you offer you opportunities to continue to grow. When Jesus asked you the question, “don't you have faith yet?”, may you work toward being able to respond in earnest, with a heart full of awe and joy. Thanks be to God. Amen.  
 

“Mustard Seed Moments at U-CC”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun, June 16, 2024, Pentecost 4B
Ezekiel 17:22-24 and Mark 4:26-34

Focus: Even as the church is changing drastically by every measure, we can celebrate the goodness of what we do together and recognize how God is calling us into exciting new opportunities to grow even more.

It's no secret that the institutional church is changing a lot. From this pulpit, I have talked about many disturbing trends that are impacting society and impacting how society views the institutional church. Add to that an increasingly divided political landscape and competing moral values, and it's enough to make anybody feel more than a little uneasy.

These are all real issues, and I don't want to belittle them or pretend that they don't exist. In the same way that I can't pretend that these social issues have no impact on us as a congregation, you can't pretend that, at some level, you don't come to church looking for personal direction, in the midst of all of it. As a Christian community, I think we crave spiritual accompaniment in the midst of life's challenges. So honestly, every once in a while, I think it's important to remember the things that we do well, as a tool for cultivating the resilience we need to get through the challenging times we're living in. 
So today, I want to talk about a couple of “mustard seed moments” that I personally have experienced here in this congregation, and how God might be calling us to continue our growth.

When I say “mustard seed moments”, I'm talking about the kinds of things that happen in the church that start a small and grow to something bigger. Jesus says, “When scattered on the ground, [the mustard seed is] the smallest of all the seeds on the earth; but when it’s planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all vegetable plants. It produces such large branches that the birds in the sky are able to nest in its shade.”

The first of many “mustard seed moments” I can point to is the formation of our congregational care committee. At some point along the first few months of my pastorate here, I realized two things: first, that I couldn't visit everybody on our visitation list with the frequency I would desire, and second, that not everybody in our congregation is well acquainted with the people in our membership who are living in care facilities. So I solicited the help of other individuals from the congregation, who now make regular visits to those in need of care and companionship. I can tell you that those who receive the visits find them extremely rewarding, and they feel more connected to their church family and less isolated. The care committee, in return, feels that this gives them the opportunity to get to know more people in our congregation, and provide friendship and companionship to those whose days might otherwise feel mundane or even boring.

The second “mustard seed moment” I want to lift up is the relationships I've been able to foster with people who have helped me out in various ways. Because of my disability, I need help in different ways than what might be typical for a pastor to need. To be blunt, some people in my life have questioned whether I could be a pastor, because of some of the physical limitations that I have. (One of them is transportation, but there are more ways than that that other people have stepped in for me. In fact, I would argue that pretty much every active member of this congregation has made ways for me to do the work that I do in big and small ways, some people in ways they wouldn’t even realize.) Not only has this congregation not seen my disability as a deficit, but you continue to celebrate my particularities, and you foster a sense of interdependence, relying on one another, in ways I deeply appreciate.

To me, this is what the realm of God is like. The people of God caring for one another, as Jesus cared for us. And what strikes me is that Jesus understood that dense or abstract theological concepts couldn't be grasped by most people at face value, but he could translate them into something that they could understand. It's probably fair to say that most of us would fit that description as well. Mark also makes a point to remind his readers that Jesus only spoke to most people in parables, and that he decoded the meaning of his teachings, only to those who were closest to him. Since they would be the ones carrying on the teaching, after he was gone, it was important for them to understand his motives. In the same way, that the farmer did not always understand how the seeds grew we don't always have the opportunity understand how God can take the stories, the joys, and the pains of our lives, and use it for the goodness of God's dream in the world. What I love the most about the mustard seed parable is that, even when we don't always understand it, God shows up and multiplies our efforts far more than we could fathom. God shows up through a caring congregation. God shows up through meaningful visitation ministry. God shows up even in the moments where we have difficulties and disagreements with one another.

This is the good news for today. Even as the church is changing drastically by every measure, we can celebrate the goodness of what we do together and recognize how God is calling us into exciting new opportunities to grow even more.

Nobody ever said that the realm of God would be without its uncertainty. We don't always know what will grow when we plant our mustard seeds. That's why I think the Sara Bareilles song, “Uncharted”, is appropriate for today's message. As I alluded to earlier, the institutional church is in a state of transition. We're out of foolproof ideas. The things that worked 50 years ago to grow the church just aren't going to work anymore. So, this calls us to be inventive with the mustard seeds that we plant.

And if there's a way you want to see the ministries of our church reach people in new ways, let's talk about it together. Let's think about how our particular ministries can be “mustard seeds” for the city of Waupun and beyond.

I’d also invite you to this week think about how God might be calling you to work toward spreading God’s realm in the world. What are some of your own “mustard seed moments”, when God showed up and turned something small into something bigger than you could fathom?

Friends, there are “mustard seed moments” all around us, and there are ways that this church has been part of God's transformative work in the world. Let's celebrate the gifts that God has given us, and then, after that, let's think together about how God might be calling us to plant more mustard seeds in the future. Thanks be to God. Amen. 
 

Listening to a Still-Speaking God
Revelation 3:20-22
Delivered at the Wisconsin Conference Annual Meeting 

Green Lake, WI 

June 8, 2024
Adapted by Pastor Jacob
 

Listen!  I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you, and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Grace and peace to you!  I bring you greetings from Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, where graduation was just a few weeks ago and we are now in our summer term. We at Eden continue to prepare passionate, well-educated leaders for congregations like yours, and we’d love to talk with you about which members of your congregation are being called to lead congregations in the future. I’m honored to be asked to explore this passage of scripture with you this morning, and I hope that you will be able to hear whatever the Spirit is whispering to you, for your life and for your community.  
 

Have you read about the new dolphin communication technology?  It’s so cool, and I am totally not making this up.  It’s called “CHAT,” C-H-A-T, which stands for Cetacean Hearing Augmentation Technology. (A cetacean, if you’re wondering, is a marine mammal like a dolphin or a whale.)  A team of scientists led by Denise Herzing has developed a device that you can strap to your wrist that will both listen to and produce dolphin sounds.  Using hundreds of recordings gathered over the course of 35 years, they are using artificial intelligence to build a large language model that will allow this device to both hear and produce dolphin communication signals.  It’s a little bit like the phone translation apps that will speak Italian or Mandarin or Serbo-Croatian—except that you’d be using it underwater, which is often a little hard on phones, and you’d be talking to a different species.  It may be stretch to say that dolphins have a language in the sense that we think of a language (Dr. Herzig prefers the term “communication signals”), but with this technology we humans are learning some amazing things about how dolphins learn communication signals from their parents, how they can learn new communication signals and add to their repertoire, and how they may be communicating far more than we knew.  With the help of artificial intelligence some waterproof hardware and a whole lot of research and effort, these scientists are learning how to listen to dolphins in new ways. 
 

What about listening to galaxies?  Have you heard about that?  Astronomical data sonification takes digital information gathered by telescopes and converts it into pitch, volume, and types of musical instruments.  You can go on Youtube and listen to the ghostly, mystical sounds of star clusters thousands of light years away.  Sound can’t travel through empty space, obviously, so we’re not hearing distant stars exactly, but data sonification allows people to listen for patterns in a data set, as well as making the data accessible to people with visual disabilities.  Scientists and musicians have worked together to develop this new way of listening to the stars.  
It's pretty amazing how much effort and creativity people are putting into finding new ways to listen. Makes me wonder if we in the church might be able to find new ways of listening as well, with some effort and creativity of our own. Not just listening better, but finding new ways to listen. 
We in the United Church of Christ are fond of claiming that God is still speaking: that revelation, or the word of God, is still unfolding, still evolving.  We are a faith tradition that tries to be more open than defensive when it comes to new kinds of knowledge. We’re not as afraid of new scientific discoveries as some faith traditions, for example. And we’ve tried to learn from the voices among us that have been historically marginalized and silenced. At our best moments we have worked to be less rigid, more flexible as new, emerging theologies have offered fresh ways of understanding Jesus and the astonishing, liberating grace of God.
 

But this theological stance brings with it some sticky questions about what it means to actually engage in listening to the God who continues to speak in an ongoing way.  It’s not always clear whose perspective is the new thing God is speaking, and it’s often even less clear how we can adapt to new ways of listening and responding in each new era.
 

We want to keep growing, to stay on the journey with a stil speaking God, but it’s so tempting to stay in one place after we’ve arrived at a new, exhilarating way of understanding the gospel.  We’re like Peter on top of the mount of transfiguration, saying to Jesus, “It’s so great that we’re here!  If you want, we can just set up camp here on this mountain top.  We’ll set up a tent for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah, and it will be all mountaintop experience all the time!”  But then a voice comes from the clouds.  Do you remember what it says?  “This is my Son! The Beloved!  Listen to him!”  Listen. You thought you were paying attention, you thought you already were listening. But Jesus is not staying on the mountaintop.  He is headed back down into the suffering world, he is “setting his face toward Jerusalem,” as Luke’s gospel says, to go confront the authorities in the streets. “We’re not staying.  I know you’re excited, but stop for a moment, and listen differently.” 
 

“Time makes ancient good uncouth,” as the old hymn says.  “They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.”  But when the ways of listening for God we’ve grown accustomed to don’t keep abreast with truth, our first impulse isn’t always to figure out new ways of listening.  When the ways we’ve interpreted scripture, or the theological frameworks that shape our worship aren’t meeting the moment, we are just as likely to assume that God just isn’t saying much, rather than seeking out new ways of listening.  We can start to feel like the elderly Eli in the temple at the time of the call of young Samuel. The story says, “The word of the HOLY ONE was rare in those days. Visions were not widespread.”  Eli is tired.  His adult sons are spoiled and greedy, taking more than their share of meat from the temple sacrifices, and they never listen to him, the text says that.  They just keep staring at their phones.  None of them, including Eli, are really hearing much from God.  
 

But is it really the case that God was not speaking much those days?  Or is it something else?  Is it, perhaps, that a younger generation can hear something that Eli can’t, because he’s not ready for God to be saying, “Samuel!  Samuel!” Samuel comes to Eli three times in the middle of the night, because Samuel thinks it’s Eli who is calling him.  Finally, on the third try, Eli figures out what’s going on. Maybe he remembers what it’s like to hear that call himself.  So, he tells the boy to go back and lie down, and if he hears the voice again, he should say what? Do you remember?  “Speak, Holy One, for your servant is listening.”  There it is again. The future is not Eli’s, but it’s his task to teach young Samuel how to listen differently, and perhaps Eli will learn to hear something that only seemed like silence before, in the process. 
 

In our reading for today, John (not John the gospel writer, a different John) is stewing in exile on the Island of Patmos, off the coast of what is now Turkey, with plenty of time to write. Apparently, banishment to a remote island has left him with more time on his hands, and he wants to keep in touch with some of the congregations he’s been supporting.  He sends a letter that includes seven different messages (which he says he has received from the risen Christ in a vision) for each of seven churches in Asia Minor. And honestly, a lot of it is pretty harsh.  The message to the Laodicians, in which the verses we heard appear, says they’ve gotten too rich and comfortable, and that they’ve become lukewarm in the process, neither hot nor cold, just kind of enjoying their prosperity and going with the flow. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on that, since it obviously has little to do with us, BUT…. But….each brief message ends with the same sentence: Let anyone who has an ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”  It’s kind of a refrain that rounds out each message. 
 

This refrain about listening to what the Spirit is saying gets repeated seven times. And of course there’s a good chance that John adds these words at the end of each message just to give some weight and authority to what he’s saying, since the implication is that these scolding messages are what the Spirit is saying. But it’s also a theological assertion, made by the risen Christ according to John’s vision, that the Spirit is saying things currently, in the present tense. And that is really good news, because at the same time that John is saying, “Shape up!”  He is also saying, “Don’t give up.  It’s not over, because the Spirit is still speaking to the churches.”  These are tiny little congregations, scattered far from each other in cultures that generally assume these Jesus followers have lost their minds. Many of them have risked persecution from their neighbors and sometimes the government. (And Franz, just so you know, the bishop of Laodicia was martyred a few decades after this was written, under the emperor Marcus Aurelius.) Over and over, seven times, John is reminding these tiny, struggling churches—Smyrna, and Ephesus, and Laodicia, and maybe Appleton, and Cecil, and Three Rivers, and Waupun, to Listen. To keep listening, and maybe listen differently than they have been. Why? Because God is faithful, and steadfast, and therefore the Spirit will continue speaking. 
· The Romans are breathing down your necks?  It's not over.  Hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
· Fascist, white supremacist, misogynistic, and xenophobic imitations of Christianity seem to be overshadowing authentic lives of struggling to follow in the way of Jesus?  It's not over.  Hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
 

What does it actually mean to listen to what the Spirit is currently saying, or listen to the God who is still speaking?  What does it look like in practice, to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches, in this era we’re in?  In your life?  In the practices of your congregation?  And how might we listen in new ways?
· It might mean listening in new ways through congregational practices of collective, prayerful discernment. 
· It might mean listening in new ways to the biblical interpretation of Palestinian Christians. 
· It might mean listening in new ways to distant galaxies, or dolphins. 
· And it might mean listening to what the Spirit is saying about new ways of being church.  Because the Spirit is saying something, to the churches. Thanks be to God. 
If these words be true, then let all who agree say, “Amen.”

“Known and Called”
Sermon for U-CC Waupun, Pentecost 2B

June 2, 2024

Focus: God knows us more deeply then we can ever imagine, and calls us into important work in the world.

Whenever somebody discerns a call to some sort of ministry, usually there's a biblical story that coincides with something in their own lives. The experience of identifying with certain biblical stories in the midst of what is going on in a person’s own life is often referred to as their call story. The story of Samuel and Eli from today's text is a part of my own call story. There's also a bit of Jonah wrapped up in there, too.

For years, so many people thought that I should go into ministry, even though I believed that I was doing what God called me to do going into music education, and sharing what I thought was one of the best gifts God has given me with the next generation. And still, for years, there were so many voices that were placed in my life to help me recognize a call from a God, who, in many ways, knew me better than I could know myself. I've since come to believe that God was calling me in the night through those voices. The voices that I thought were simply friends and professors and other influential people in my life were instead the voice of God, calling me into something deeper.

It was far from easy. There was a lot that I had to give up, and a lot of hard work that I had already put towards that other profession, that I am would learn to recontextualize into a different line of work. I had to learn that I could leave out my musical calling in other ways. Looking back on it now, I can recognize what God was doing, even though in the moment it felt like I was wandering through the wilderness for many years.

I think many of us can relate to the feelings of disorientation around being called into a new direction. Being called by God to explore a new passion, sometimes feels like being in the wilderness. But we do this because life changes, circumstances change, our family dynamic changes, or some other change in our life necessitates something new. According to a study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average person changes jobs about 12 times in their career, so society as a whole is very familiar with this concept. So it might be helpful, then, to think about what it means to be called to the work we do, as so many parts of our lives deal with some sort of transition.

What I'm going to trace for you is a theme that weaves through both of our texts for this week. I'm going to talk about how God knows us, and how God calls us.

Psalm 139 is almost creepy in how it talks about how deeply God knows us. Some of the first verses of the psalm recite this way:

2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
   you discern my thoughts from far away.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
   and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
   O Lord, you know it completely.

If the Psalmist was talking about anybody, other than God, I would have a lot of questions! Who is watching me sleep? Who is following me all the time? Is somebody inside my mind?

But still, I find this really beautiful. No matter what the rest of the world sees about us, no matter what we thought about ourselves, God has searched us and known our inmost parts.

Today's media song is one of my favorites off of Kacey Musgraves’ new album. God knows the complexities of human life. God knows both the joy and the pain of the human experience, and sometimes that causes us to ask God some questions, like, “Are you sure about this, God? Has anything surprised you? Is there anything that you regret?”

It's clear to me that God can only know us this deeply by loving us so much. One of the reasons this Psalm is my favorite Psalm in the entire book is the reminder that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made. We are made to live into God's joy, and to respond to God’s call with gratitude and with courage. This also seems like a meaningful message as we head into Pride Month. I've heard important and powerful stories from members of this congregation about how members of the LGBTQ+ community have found refuge and welcome here, in this faith community. And yet, far from patting ourselves on the back, I'm also struck by the reality that the institutional church, all around the world, has so much work to do as we think about what it means to be more fully inclusive. Being fearfully and wonderfully made by God is not something that applies to only some of us.

But because we are fearfully and wonderfully made, God calls us into something deeper. In Samuel, God calls a young boy. If my understanding of biblical life expectancies serves me, I would imagine Samuel is probably not much more than 10 or 12 years old. The scripture says he didn't know God at this point, but when Eli tells him what's going on, Samuel has the courage to immediately respond to God’s call, even if he didn't fully understand how to listen for God’s voice.

It's the same way with my story from earlier. I had to have a reminder on how to listen to gods voice in my life, and maybe you do too. But this is the good news.  God knows us more deeply then we can ever imagine, and calls us into important work in the world.

Here at U-CC, we recognize the call to be messengers of hope and liberation for a community in need. This week, I would invite you to think about where is that God has called you in your own lives. How has God called you by name, and what does God invite you into?

God would not call you into the work that you do in the world if God did not know you. But it's because God made you in the fullness of who you are, and because God loves you so much, that you have the chance to light the world with your love and your important witness. Thanks be to God. Amen.