Sermons & Meditations

Isaiah 55:1-9; John 4:1-30, 39-42
Presented March 11th, 2007, by Jeanne Davies
Third Sunday in Lent

As I began thinking about this morning’s texts, I realized that several of my family’s often-repeated stories had to do with the recurring theme of wasting one’s time, energy, and money: my brother’s disappointment in his Snakes Alive game, the long anticipated and disappointing climax to the journey in search of a giant man-eating clam. Fortunately, my parents had the ability to laugh at themselves and I think that these stories were so often repeated because they were important life-lessons about believing in illusions, in deceptions, either created by others or created by ourselves.

My father was a child of German immigrant parents. They moved here in the aftermath of World War I, when Germany was destitute, in desperate straights. They worked hard and then ten years later they lost everything again in the Great Depression in this country. My father knew the value of a penny; he knew how to save, to spend thriftily, and to work hard. My father was also imaginative and made good use of opportunity. One summer vacation, he had my mother and all four of us children picking up rocks on a Lake Superior beach. He had learned that rock shops would pay good money for agates. He showed all of us what an agate looked like and instructed us to pick up any we found. We spent all day picking up those rocks and at the end of the day we had buckets full. Sunburned, tired, and excited, we drove to the rock shop and waited as my dad took a handful of our precious cargo in to show the shop owners. He came back to the car and said to us, in disgust, “We have a carload of flint. It’s not worth anything.” We took those rocks back home, put them in our garden and ever after, we laughed about the time and effort we spent picking up those rocks on the beach. “Picking up agates” became a metaphor for futile effort at a task not worth one’s time, just as “Snakes Alive” and “giant man eating clam” represented misplaced enthusiasm, belief in half truths, and a delight in delusion.

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Matthew 25:34-40; Ephesians 3:16-21
Presented January 21st, 2007, by Jeanne Davies
Mental Health Awareness Sunday

As you walked through the sanctuary door this morning, every fifth person received a wristband on their arm. These bracelets were given out at random to represent the prevalence of mental illness in our country. Mental illness affects people of all ages, races and genders. According to the Surgeon General’s report in 1999, one in five people will suffer from serious mental illness in any given year. Half of all Americans have such disorders at some time in their lives. The statistics are the same for children. Major depression is the leading cause of disability in this country. Yet less than 1/3 of those who suffer from mental illness will receive treatment; the largest barriers to treatment being lack of insurance and also the stigma associated with mental illness. This is a problem that is all around us but one that we are uncomfortable talking about.

But 40% of those who reach out for help will turn to a church first, according to Carlene Hill Byron in her book, Building Up Without Burning Out. Carlene was, as she terms it, “put out” of her church because of her behavior when she was going through a period of mental illness. And if some people’s experience is that they are “put out” the door of their church family, there are many others that never get in the door, because of stigma and shame. Still others stop coming because they do not find the support they so desperately need.

Instead of a place of judgment and dis-ease, the church can be a place of acceptance, support and encouragement. There is evidence that strong social ties can have a profound effect on recovery from mental illness. The World Health Organization, in a three-decade-long study, has found that people with schizophrenia typically do far better in poorer nations such as India, Nigeria and Colombia than in Denmark, England and the United States. Their best explanation is that most people with schizophrenia in poorer countries live with their families or other social networks—in contrast to those in the U.S., who are homeless, in group homes, on their own, in psychiatric facilities or in jail. In India, family involvement and social connections, including low-stress jobs, are seen as central to recovery.

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Genesis 9:8-17; Mark 1:9-15
Presented March 5th, 2006, by Jeanne Davies
The First Sunday in Lent

I first learned to appreciate the holiness of water when living in Oregon almost twenty years ago. I spent time there with Native Americans, and learned from their rituals of suffering, including the inipi, or the sweat lodge. The inipi is a low enclosed space. You must crawl on your hands and knees to enter. Inside it is very hot and steamy. You sit and sing and pray and suffer together; and there is an intensity to the prayer that is not always present in your average Sunday worship service. Now, I always joked that I had an advantage in the inipi coming from the Midwest. Those poor Northwesterners, I’d say. This is just like July in Chicago – unbearably hot and humid. But the truth is that I suffered as well and when I got out, I was grateful for a cool drink and even more grateful for a shower, an abundance of life-giving water flowing from the tap.

My mother used to say, “Why do you do that? You don’t need to go looking for suffering. There’s plenty of suffering in the world. Suffering will find you.” I know that is true. There is no shortage of suffering in the world. But the inipi teaches us to suffer well, which is worth learning. The sweat lodge, they say, is to prepare you for the big sweat lodge, which is out here. In our Christian tradition, we used to have rituals of suffering – fasting and penitence. But these have long gone out of fashion and the goal of our culture and our faith has become avoidance of suffering as much as possible.

There is a clarity that comes from suffering, a stripping away of all that is unnecessary, and we see the life that really is life. It is in our suffering that we understand what is our true joy.

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Mark 12:28-34
Presented February 26th, 2006, by Jeanne Davies
The Last Sunday of Epiphany

I don’t know about you, but I’m glad that it is Sunday. I’m ready for a new week. I’m not going to preach long. Usually I follow an elaborate process of scripture study and reflection before I prepare my sermons. This week, that wouldn’t have helped me. Preaching on this day is difficult. In tough times like this, sometimes words fail. People have been asking me how I am. Sometimes I just say: “….” More importantly, people ask me how Pastor Joel is doing, and often I say: “….” When trying to describe what’s happening sometimes I just say: “….” When we try to speak words of comfort to Joel or his family, sometimes we just say: “….” I know that our suffering is not unique and that many communities today around the world are suffering what we suffer. In particular, I think of the war still going on in Iraq and the families and communities that continue to grieve there. But today I’m going to keep our focus here, at home, in our congregation. And I’m going to keep it simple.

When tragedy strikes we get back to basics. It strips away the unimportant things and we are left with what truly has value and meaning. When Jesus was asked, “What is the greatest commandment?” He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

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A dialogue Christmas sermon
Presented December 25th, 2005, by Pastors Kline and Davies
Christmas Day

Joel: Hey, Jeanne, I bet no one here woke up this morning saying to themselves, “I sure hope I get to hear a great Christmas sermon on feet”! But did you hear the words of Isaiah the prophet, “How beautiful are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation…” (Isaiah 52:7).  How beautiful are the feet? What’s up with that? Just how beautiful can feet be? I could understand the prophet saying, “How beautiful are the lips, or the voice, or the mouth, or the words, of the one who proclaims good news?” But why feet?

Jeanne: “How beautiful are the feet of the messenger?” Yes, that is strange. Why not a beautiful heart? Or even beautiful hands? Why feet indeed?

Joel: Well, feet are used to move or travel. Perhaps Isaiah is honoring the movement needed in order to carry the good news, the gospel message. He was writing to the people of Israel living in exile in the strange land of Babylon, cut off from all they knew and loved. They had given up hope. No doubt they had become foot-draggers. Isaiah announces to them the promise of a homecoming to Jerusalem, a new beginning, filled with hope – one in which they themselves become messengers of peace and promise, their feet carrying them over the mountains and plains that stand between Babylon and Jerusalem, as they bring good news.

Jeanne: We talk so much about the “good news.” Sometimes these words or phrases are repeated without actually exploring what we mean by them. When we talk about the “good news” for the people of Israel in exile, we are talking about their return to Jerusalem and their kingdom and temple restored as it was in the “good old days” of David. But with the birth of Jesus Christ into the world, our understanding of this “good news” expanded. In Christ, God is revealed in creation and we begin to see ourselves and the world the way God created us to be—as peaceful, just and joyous.

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