Friends,

Yesterday, the Rev. Anna Broadbent-Evelyn preached about Joseph's care for Mary and the unexpected baby she bore. God showed up in the midst of Joseph's personal catastrophe, with both comfort and a challenge that he hadn’t expected.

Sharing with humor and vulnerability about her own experience of giving birth, she spoke about Joseph's modeling of male tenderness. She contrasted that with many of the models of masculinity on display in our culture now and invited us to try a little tenderness. You can listen to the sermon here.

Where has God shown up in your own catastrophes before? Where is God meeting you with comfort and challenge now?

A few good shares for these last days of Advent are below. I hope we'll see you for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day - and if you're traveling and celebrating with loved ones, may you have a safe journey and return with hearts full and renewed to practice the way of Jesus in the new year.

With love,
Susan+

Tags: Rev Anna, Joseph, Tenderness, comfort

Friends,

On Sunday, I preached about Jesus using coded language from the Hebrew Bible to send hope to John the Baptist, who was in a Roman dungeon, awaiting execution. Jesus is carrying the torch for John, working for the same mission John gave his life's energy to serve -- God's vision of a world of love and justice. Today, in the midst of so much chaos and relentless spectacle of unconstitutional cruelty nearby, and scenes of hate and violence around the world, we need to look for the people carrying that torch today.

"When you feel like John, in the depths of the dungeon, calling out to God and asking, 'Where are you? Is there somebody else we should be waiting on?' I want to remind you that your despair is in the tradition – John felt it too. And God is a grownup, and God can take it. But when you’re down in that dungeon with John, remember what Jesus said: Go and tell what you hear and see. See the places where the hungry are being fed and the sick are being healed and the stranger is being welcomed. It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming. And let the courage God gives you through those folks drive you to join in with your own acts of courage and kindness."

You can listen to the sermon here.

With love,
Susan+

Tags: Rev Susan, courage

Friends,

On Sunday, Huldah preached about John the Baptist's voice in the wilderness. Drawing on indigenous traditions that see John as a trickster figure, representing radical welcome to all. She called us to claim the transformative power of love that John proclaimed -- God's love without hesitation for all people. You can listen to Huldah's sermon here.

Most Sundays, at the beginning of worship, I remind you that gathering for worship gives us more courage to practice the way of Jesus for the rest of the week. This is the moment for that courage, friends. Jesus taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and our neighbors are afraid. Immigration raids and deportation are being used to target not criminals but legal residents, undocumented non-criminal taxpaying workers, families, and people who dare to speak out against the current administration. These violations are a challenge to constitutional law, an offense to our national identity, and a spiritual attack on our baptismal promise to honor the dignity of every human being.

Those of us who are not being targeted have a unique power to step in, with God's help, to help be the hands and feet of Christ for our neighbors. As you navigate our city in the coming weeks, please keep your rights as a legal observer in mind, and ask God for the courage to step up when you see injustice. More resources for that courage are below.

With love,
Susan+


Know Your Rights and your Neighbors'

Tags: courage, immigration, neighbors, Rev Susan

Friends,

On Sunday, the Gospel text we read had Jesus predicting a coming apocalypse in the lives of his hearers, and promising to come in the midst of those catastrophes, breaking in like a thief in the night. My sermon asked this question: How do you hold on to hope in the dark? We practiced an adaptation of the ancient Jesus Prayer together as part of our response. You can listen to the sermon here.

Learn more about the Jesus Prayer using this handout from our friends at the Episcopal House of Prayer. The words I like to use are simpler than the traditional ones -- "Oh Jesus, have mercy."

One more note: If you've been exposed to Rapture theology, Sunday's Gospel text was likely very familiar to you. Below you'll find some thoughts on that.

With love,
Susan+

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Last Sunday's Gospel and the Rapture

See last Sunday's readings here.
The earliest Christians took seriously the promise that Jesus would come back, so much so that early Christian leaders had to tell people: no, please don’t quit your jobs and go live on a mountaintop watching for signs in the sky. Daily life goes on. That might be part of what Paul is doing in the text from the letter to the Romans in Sunday's assigned readings. Paul says to those people wondering what was holding up their Lord and Savior, stay awake. Don’t be lulled into sleepwalking toward all the seductions of the world. Live honorably. Practice the way of Jesus.

For two thousand years, Christians have been holding that tension. How do we live in the world as it is, this beautiful world, this world on fire, and stay watchful for God to set things right? How do we hold these things together?

Some Christians have tried to resolve this by piecing threads of Scripture together as if it were a puzzle, to try to predict what the end will look like. If you grew up hearing about the Rapture, this Gospel text might be very familiar to you. One will be taken and one will be left. In that rapture worldview, you want to be the one who gets taken up to be with God, right? Nobody wants to be left behind in the chaos.

Alas. That doesn't appear to be what Jesus is talking about at all. Read the Gospel text again, or even the whole 24th Chapter of Matthew. Jesus is talking about a flood coming along and sweeping people away, and in that context, I’m pretty sure we want to be the ones who get left behind. Not the ones who get drowned in the raging waters or swept up into slavery in the Roman Army’s campaign of exploitation.

One of the major problems with Rapture theology is the way it cherrypicks texts like this one from various places in the Gospels to support a very specific, very historically recent, very imaginative vision of the second coming.

A deeper question I'd like to ask is this: In your experience, how has Rapture theology been used as a tool of fear to control your behavior and your choices?

What if, when Jesus shows up, however that may look, it's actually good news for all God's people and for the world?

Tags: Rev Susan, Hope, Rapture