(We had some technical difficulties this morning, but sound comes on at the 24 minute mark, and the sermon begins 36 minutes in.)


Viola White. Mary Wingfield. Mary Louise-Smith. Claudette Colvin.

Do any of these names ring a bell?

Each of these black women refused to give up her seat to white passengers on the Montgomery Bus line in Alabama, before Rosa Parks.

I don’t share this in any way as a slight...

I should really be a vegetarian. And let me tell you: if I had to kill my own food, I probably would be. Anyone else feel that way? I don’t know about you, but if I needed to slaughter my own meat, I have no doubt that I’d find a way to live on dairy, eggs, vegetables, and grains…. maybe the occasional fish. Maybe.
But there is no way I’m offing a chicken or a pig or a cow with my own two hands, and certainly not a lamb. Have you ever held a lamb? Spent time with a lamb? Seen one at the farm or the petting zoo or at a Christmas pageant with a little diaper on so it doesn’t ruin the carpet?
I don’t think I could kill a lamb if my life depended on it.
Now again, I’m not saying ....

We were blessed with the preaching of the Rev. Dr. Diane Johnson today. Enjoy.

Here is this morning's sermon. I also commend the words of welcome to you, if you are struggling to handle all that is happening in our country right now. There is still some echo, but it's getting better. We'll keep working on it.


(Sarah pours water from the pitcher into the baptismal bowl in the font.)

“This is the water of baptism.

(Lifting it up she says:)

Out of this water we rise with new life,
Forgiven of sin and one in Christ,
Members of Christ’s body.”

(Bringing it back down she says:)

And yet this water is just ordinary water.
It came out of the tap in the kitchen.....

Our livestream audio is still echoing. Please know we're working to address the issue. In the mean time, you can read the text of this morning's sermon here and use this link to generate a star word https://www.trcnyc.org/starwords/

What if I told you were already enough?



Good enough. Smart enough. Healthy enough.



Just, you know, enough.



So much so that you don’t have to resolve to be anything other than who you already are?



What if I told you that all the rushing around trying to perfect your life - especially at this time of year - is actually a massive distraction from what God has already equipped you to do?



What if I told you that all the pressure to improve yourself right now is actually a deep denial of who God has already created you to be?



Would you believe me...

(Note: The audio on the recorded service has a pronounced echo which didn't hurt the music but makes it hard to hear the speakers. We'll see if we have back up audio this week. For now, here is the text of the sermon from Christmas Eve).

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined. ~ Isaiah 9:2

I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. When the time change hits and we lose that hour in November, my spirits sink like a stone. And one of the ways I manage the storm is by getting ready for Christmas.

I find that Advent helps a lot because

We’re allowed to be sad and acknowledge the dark and

b. We’re supposed to light candles and (in my house at least) put up a gazillion little white lights.

And you can’t put up Christmas lights without Christmas music playing in the background. So I do. (Sometimes, if it’s a particularly hard year, I even do it before Thanksgiving. This year I probably could have started in September).

Anyway, music helps set the mood...

Does anyone here read the U.C.C. Daily Devotionals that come via email? Well, then, you might have seen the one this past week where Molly Baskette tells of a family tradition gone awry. Every year, she and her daughter cut down a Christmas tree together, stuff it in the car, and then toast their lumberjack skills with homemade cocoa on the tailgate. But “one year,” as Molly tells it:

we went on a hike beforehand and came back to a smashed car window, a stolen electric saw, and a spectacular amount of broken glass all over the car seats. (Nevertheless,) We drove to the tree farm and met my sister and her 4-year-old. We wrestled the 6-inches-too-long tree into the car amidst the sparkling glass, and toasted our mixed morning.  

Then the 4-year-old splattered a tsunami of cocoa all over himself, the tree, the glass, and the ground. He looked down. He looked up. He looked at us… and said loudly: “It’s all right. It’s just a mess.”

“It’s alright. It’s just a mess.”

O man, that hit me hard, because ...

We were joined by St. John's for a lovely vespers service. Click on the link above to watch.

“Be careful that the life you are building in the present
aligns with the dream you have for the future" ~ Audre Lorde


“What do you want for Christmas?”

People close to me are already asking and, well, I don’t mean to sound like a Scrooge or the Grinch, but that is my least favorite question at this time of year.

“What do you want for Christmas?”

It’s my least favorite question because the truth is, I don’t know.

I have no good answers because....

Deep down inside of me

I got a fire going on

and part of me

wants to sing about the light

and part of me

wants to cry, cry, cry

That’s a song by Adelle Getty that Jeff Olmstead shared with me the other day. He'd come in to talk to me, as so many of you do, about the state of our union and the state of his soul. And Jeff being Jeff, began with a song…. a song that really captures where so many of us are right now.

In a weird way, or maybe it’s not weird at all...

A pastor gets up on Sunday and announces to her congregation that she has good news and bad news. “The good news,” she says, “is that we have enough money to fix our steeple, repair the front steps, and repaint the church.” “

“That’s great,” they all say. “What’s the bad news?”

“The bad news is that it’s still in your pockets.”

***

A teen comes home late one Friday night and tells his parents he has good news and bad news.

“Tell us the good news,” says mom....

We began this Season of Origins questioning what really happened in Jericho during the days of Joshua and thanks to the lectionary we are ending in the city of Jericho as well. I didn’t expect this or even notice it until this week.

When we set out to design this new liturgical season we decided to stick with the established lectionary passages rather than go in search of new ones that were more conducive to our theme.

I wondered how the story of Zacchaeus might tie into all of this and didn’t make the connection till this week that he is the chief tax collector of the same city that Joshua was said to have conquered 1400 years earlier. That got me curious about the history of Jericho and when I get curious I go digging.

It turns out that...