12-16-11 Listen Watch Video
Order of Worship Announcements
Dear Friends,
Everyone needs a champion. When our lives take an unexpected turn and we find ourselves up against forces or circumstances that threaten to overwhelm us, we need someone who is willing to go before us, to march headlong with courage into the fray, even if it means taking a few lumps on our behalf.
Centuries ago it was the function of knights to be champions for the poor and the weak and the wounded. The role of medieval knights in an age of chivalry was to be protectors of the helpless and the unarmed – the priest, the peasant, the child, the widow. They readily put their lives in jeopardy for the sake of others, even strangers. In the ethic of the “Round Table,” personal glory came from royal service and selfless sacrifice.
Everyone needs a champion, and Mary had hers in the person of Joseph, her soon-to-be groom. But it didn’t have to be this way. Joseph, upon being told in a dream that Mary was pregnant out of wedlock and that the child was not his, might justifiably have moved on with his life without Mary, “dismissing her quietly” so as not to disgrace her, but dismissing her nonetheless. Because her life had taken a sudden and unexpected turn, so too had his. Joseph had his questions, his doubts, and his fears. He also had a perfectly good, biblically based excuse for giving up on Mary altogether. But in the end, emboldened by the Holy Spirit, Joseph did not flinch. He not only stayed with Mary, but became her Champion in service to the coming of a new King (Matthew 1:18-25).
Who’s your champion? To whom, in your life, have you become a champion? Everybody needs one, and everybody who pledges to serve the King is called to become one. A champion is someone who has overcome their greatest opponent – their very self – by blocking off all possible escape routes, testing their limits, and striving, struggling, and standing for what matters most.
You can be one of them, if you want.
See you Sunday,
Rev. Mark
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12-11-11 Listen Watch Video
Order of Worship, Announcements
Dear Friends,
I tend to be the kind of person who always pulls for the so-called “underdog.” Show me someone who is over-looked, under-estimated, disregarded, and I’m an instant fan. I like scrappy teams that aren’t supposed to win; on Oscar night, I cast my vote for that low-budget Indy film that features actors I’ve never heard of; whenever I see a “David” pull off an upset against a “Goliath,” I’m inspired. Tell me a story about someone who, against all odds, rises up from nowhere and refuses to quit until they have fulfilled their dreams, and I’m all ears.
This is why I love the season of Advent. Every December we meet up with a cast of characters who, on the world’s stage, are nothing more than bit players and cast-offs. We get people like the fiery John the Baptist – the drifter preacher chosen by God to get the people ready for the coming messiah. People like Elizabeth, John’s mother – a relative nobody who, in her advanced years, believed that God had blessed her for a very special purpose. People like Joseph, the carpenter from Nazareth – the hard-working Jewish peasant, chosen by God to be the Messiah’s surrogate father, despite having no previous experience as a father or as ahusband. And people like Mary, the teenage peasant who, as Luke says, was chosen on account of her “low estate” to bear the Son of God. These are not only the ancestors of our faith, but the models of what it means to be faithful to God. Despite extraordinary odds, each of them believed, persevered, and overcame every obstacle and excuse on their way to making history.
The Christmas story is God’s divine protest against the powers of this world that have proclaimed, from the very beginning of time, that you have to be someone in order to be useful; that you have to have a resume, a pedigree, an endorsement in order to make a difference in this world. Christmas is God’s surprising proclamation that the poor and the forgotten not only matter to God, but are the main characters and indispensible instruments in God’s plan to redeem the world.
What makes them special is not simply that they were chosen by God, but that each of them, in the end, rose to the occasion and answered the call. The timing may have been poor. They most likely felt unprepared and under-qualified. The risks were tremendous. And yet, a way, a path, was opened up to them because each of them, like Mary, found a way to say, “Here I am, a servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.”
See you Sunday,
Rev. Mark
P.S. Many of you have told me how much you’ve enjoyed reading my most recent book of sermons, Stirred, Not Shaken (originally published by Chalice Press and now available as an eBook for Kindle and Nook readers). My first book of sermons, Testimony to the Exiles (2003), will be re-published as an eBook in just a few days. If you (or a friend) are interested, I invite you to sign-up to my personal mailing list at www.markfeldmeir.com. I will email everyone as soon as it’s available and the introductory price will be 99 cents (the lowest I can charge) for a very brief time, after which it will go on sale for $5.99.
12/4/11 Listen Watch Video
Dear Friends,
Everyone needs a Yoda.
Yoda, of course, was the Jedi master and trainer of Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi in the epic Star Wars movies. Yoda was a mentor, a sage, a guide, a guru, a coach – always present to ensure that his apprentices were prepared for their mission and committed to its success, even in the face of great danger and self-doubt and uncertainty. It was Yoda who, time and time again, assured and emboldened his young Jedis with those unforgettable words, “The force is with you.”
Who’s your Yoda? To whom are you a Yoda?
The story of Christmas would not be the same without Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist and the older cousin of Mary. According to the Gospel of Luke, Mary, upon being visited by the angel Gabriel and informed of her curious, astonishing pregnancy, runs to the hill country of Judah to visit Elizabeth, trying to make sense of her inexplicable situation. She is doubtless confused, full of fear and uncertainty and even disbelief. Blindsided and shell-shocked, standing at the threshold of an uncertain future, unsure of what to make of any of it, she turns to Elizabeth, her wise, trusted mentor. And it’s Elizabeth who, in all of her wisdom and faithfulness, assures Mary that this is God’s doing – a fulfillment of God’s promises. “You are blessed,” she tells Mary in so many words. “And we will all be blessed because of you. God is with you.”
We cannot live without such wise, trustworthy people – especially those who, with genuine grace and through the eyes of faith, can inspire us to be strong and courageous whenever God calls our number, whenever we are given a mission for which we may feel unprepared or unqualified, or whenever we cannot see clearly the way ahead of us. We all need an Elizabeth to model for us that courage and trust, to remind us that we are not the first to be called, and to stand with us when we are unable to stand on our own.
Who is that person for you? What qualities do you look for in that person? Given all of your experiences, your successes and failures, your discoveries and wisdom gained over the many years of your life, to whom might you be that person, for the benefit of the world?
We all need a Yoda. And we all are called to be one.
See You Sunday,
Rev. Mark
11-27-11 Listen
Order of Worship Announcements
Dear Friends:
This Sunday begins one of our “dark” seasons. We have two in the Christian year. One is Advent and the other is Lent. I suggest they are “dark” seasons, not because they are gloomy but more like the way the term “dark” is used in the theater. A lot of shows “go dark” one night a week for rest and preparation. Advent is “dark” in that way. It is a season of preparation. We need Advent in order to get ready for Christmas.
As you will see in the sanctuary, the color for Advent is purple. Purple is often seen as a somber color, used in mourning; but it also has a depth and a richness that represents reflection and waiting. The theme for the current liturgical decorations comes from Luke 21:25-28. “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars… Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Faithful anticipation is what is summoned this season. For as we journey through the dark of Advent, we know that we will arrive, in due time, under the one star that shines its light down on the manger in Bethlehem.
During Advent, Rev. Mark and I will be preaching on the theme of The Christmas Conspiracy. Each week, we will look at one of the characters in the Christmas story who conspired or worked with God in faith and trust to usher in the birth of the Christ child. This Sunday, John the Baptist will be front and center as a harbinger of the salvation message that was inaugurated on that Christmas morning in Bethlehem. (Luke 3:1-6)
As a prelude to Christmas, one purpose of the Advent season is to impress upon us that Christmas deserves all the preparation that our hearts can muster. Outside of church, there are all sorts of distractions to turn the holy day of Christmas into just a holiday. That is one reason why we need each other around here this season – to be witnesses to the power of the biblical message over the secular message.
So, as we begin this season of preparation, we look to our times of worship to keep us focused. The advent wreath helps us keep pace. The hymns offer direction and set the mood. The scriptures herald the good news that God is with us through the saving gift of the baby Jesus.
I look forward to traveling this Advent journey with you.
Rev. Martha Wingfield
11-20-11 Listen Watch Video
Order of Worship Announcements
Dear Friends,
In Matthew 25 Jesus tells a story – the very last story, according to Matthew, that Jesus ever told – about Judgment Day, when the King calls each of us before him so that he can make a final assessment of how we lived our lives. Unlike the popular images we have of Saint Peter standing at the gates of Heaven, clicking his Bic and holding his clipboard, asking us what we have done to deserve entrance, the King in this story does not ask us for an accounting – in part because the King already knows us through and through, and knows already everything we have ever done.
But there’s another reason he doesn’t ask us to help him make the final assessment, and that’s because he knows that we don’t always recognize the good we have done when we’ve done it, nor do we always recognize the good we have failed to do.
Jesus says that some people enter the kingdom of heaven, and some do not, but none of them beforehand know for sure. Some of them, in their lifetimes, had fed the hungry, and some did not; some gave a cup of cold water to the thirsty, andsome withheld it; some gave the shirt off their back to the unclothed, and some turned their backs on them. None of them, however, knew at the time that the stakes were so high. On Judgment Day, they all ask the same question: when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or naked or lonely? We didn’t know that was you.” But the King says, “Inasmuch as you did or did not do it to the least among you, you did or did not do it unto me.”
God judges us according to how we act in those circumstances when it’s not altogether clear that God is around, when the stakes do not seem high – when, by all appearances, the day is like every other day that has come before it, and the people like all the rest.
All of which means that you can go about your business each day, trying your best to show mercy to everyone, knowing that it just may be that one of them will be Jesus in disguise. Or, you can try your best to show mercy to everyone because, in the end, everyone of them is Christ. The first approach is love for the sake of a reward; the latter is love for Christ’s sake.
You never know when he’ll show up. Then again, you really do.
See you in church,
Rev. Mark
P.S. Many of you have told me how much you’ve enjoyed reading my most recent book of sermons, Stirred, Not Shaken (originally published by Chalice Press and now available as an eBook for Kindle and Nook readers). My first book of sermons, Testimony to the Exiles (2003), will be re-published as an eBook in early December. If you (or a friend) are interested I invite you to sign-up to my personal mailinglist at www.markfeldmeir.com. I will email everyone when it’s available and the price will be 99 cents (the lowest I can charge). The book will go on sale in early December for $5.99.