McFarland United Church of Christ Sermons

Pastor Kerri Parker's sermon at the McFarland United Church of Christ on April 24th 2011 (Easter)“In Their Own Words: Mary Magdalene”Rev. Kerri Parker, McFarland UCCEaster Sunday (April 24, 2011)John 20:1-18“Why are you weeping?” they asked me.As if the simple fact that I was a woman standing alone by a grave in that lonely hour before thesunrise, weren’t enough.I could have given them any number of answers.It wasn’t just those horrible last hours that had me weeping. That was just the beginning ofwhat had me aching inside.My dearest friend, teacher and guide, was gone.Our community, this family that we built, was scattered and grieving. One of our own hadbetrayed us – had betrayed him.Once, we had hope. Once, we were a community. A people. A movement. Our lives hadmeaning, and purpose.And now we were no people. We were alone. I was alone.Why was I weeping? There were millions of answers to that question.But the biggest one was this: someone had taken Jesus’ body. His body was missing. I realizehow absurd that sounds, but it’s true: when I arrived, the stone was gone, the tomb was open.The tomb was as empty as my hopes and dreams were, that morning. His body was missing. Itwas an extra layer of grief, on top of what was already so difficult to bear.And then again, “Why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?”Why mock a grieving woman?“Who are you looking for?” Just the one person who could take away this pain, who couldmake the world right again. The one person who called us out of our daily routines, the onewho gave our lives meaning.--“Who are you looking for?” It was one of his favorite questions. Right up there with “What areyou looking for?” or “Why are you looking for me?”He said that to his parents, in the temple, when he was just a young thing, and they werefrantic with worry at having lost him. “Why are you looking for me, didn’t you know I’d behere, in my Father’s house?” And you’d want to clutch him to you, hold on for dear life, andsay, “don’t you ever wander away like that again! I thought we had lost you forever!”He said it to John’s disciples, when they started tagging along behind him. “What are youlooking for?” They didn’t quite know how to answer. How can you put words to thisindefinable longing? This sense that things aren’t quite right, that there’s something missing.Once you were certain you were on the right path, and then, not. So you stutter and stammerand finally spit out a question, instead of an answer. “Where are you staying?” As if it weresuddenly of the utmost importance to know, so he doesn’t sneak away from you in the middleof the night, before you have a chance to know him.We were all afraid of losing him, from the very beginning. We were all afraid of losing him,because he helped us see the hole in our hearts that God was just waiting to enter. He had atendency toward risk-taking. He was so sure of himself. So he’d walk up and ask the disarmingquestion. “What are you seeking?” And suddenly, you’d be spilling your heart out to him.“I’m seeking healing,” they would say. Or “fellowship,” or “truth,” or “forgiveness.”He saw the beauty in us that we were afraid to see. He looked right through our rough edgesand imperfections and saw us as beloved children of God. He treated people with honor,embraced them as companions – even people like you, and like me! You didn’t need anyspecial qualification to walk with him, just a willingness to open your heart.“What are you looking for?” That’s what I was looking for. That’s who I was looking for. TheOne who paid attention to the important things. The one who encouraged us to live with everyfiber of our being. The One who poured himself out for us, who told us to love one another,who showed us that there was something more to live for.I ached to have him back, and yet it was impossible. Dead is dead. So I was weeping in theGarden, that morning, because not only had we lost him, but we had lost him. He was dead,and his body had gone missing, and there was nothing certain in the world anymore.--Tears running down my face, I asked the gardener, “Where have you laid him?” It mattered,deeply. I wanted to care for him, in the way that he had cared for us. I didn’t know who thisgardener was, but at that moment, I was reaching out for something, anything.And that moment was when the world righted itself again. “Mary,” he said. It was Jesus! Hespoke my name. He spoke my name and it echoed in my soul. It splashed into my thirsty spirit,carrying with it joy, and confidence, and certainty. He was alive!--“Why are you crying?” “Where have you laid him?” “What do you seek?”In a world full of questions, there is so much we do not know. There is so much that lies out ofour control. We are tempted to isolate ourselves, build up barricades around what we have,live in fear of what we have to lose, pretend perfection.But Jesus is alive. And that opens up all sorts of possibilities.Maybe – more than maybe – the dead places inside you don’t have to stay dead.Maybe - more than maybe - it’s okay to let yourself be vulnerable. Maybe it’s okay to say youdon’t have it all under control. Maybe – more than maybe – it’s okay to let go of whateveryou’re carrying. To ask for help, healing, forgiveness. It is not your burden to bear alone.Maybe - more than maybe - it’s okay to dream. To imagine a world in which this is not all thereis. To throw an armful of God’s promises up in the air and watch them flutter down like ashower of blessings on your shoulders and your head and your nose and around your feet. It isa joy to be shared, to be scooped up and poured out, over and over again.Maybe – definitely more than maybe – goodness is stronger than evil. Love is stronger thanhate. Light is stronger than darkness. And life is stronger than death.I know the one you are looking for. I know his name. I know he lives.Jesus is alive. I have seen the Lord. Alleluia! Praise God.Amen.http://www.archive.org/download/McfarlandUccSermonApril24th2011/MUCC_Sermon_20110424.mp3

Kerri Parker's sermon from March 13th 2011http://www.archive.org/download/McfarlandUnitedChurchOfChristSermonMarch062011/20110306_sermon.mp3

“Shake it up”Rev. Kerri Parker, McFarland UCC______Reformation Sunday (October 30, 2011)Matthew 23:1-13I did a Google search on hypocrisy. Some truly ugly images came up, a decent number aboutpoliticians, but a lot of them about Christians.And Jesus said, “therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do,for they do not practice what they teach.”Ouch.With images like that, is it any wonder that only 17% of people in the U.S. attend church?Really. Seventeen percent. While we’re here in worship, and our friends over at theLutheran church, and Christ the King parish, and the folks up the road at Crossroads Church areworshiping, 83% of the population is doing something else. Away at the cabin, attending roadgames for their kids’ sports, sleeping in, watching a movie on Netflix, having brunch with thefamily, working,…the list of opportunities for your Sunday morning are endless. Even amongour own faith community, our Sunday morning attendance is about half of our membership.We’d like to say we were in church more often than we actually end up in church. This is not aguilt trip. It’s a statement of fact.When I look at these things together – the photos, and the news stories, and the statistics –and then read Jesus’ words, I cringe. Is it any wonder people find better things to do with theirtime? When they don’t see faith making a difference in a person’s life. When they see obviousexamples of hypocrisy in the media. When people who say they are believers act in ways thatare contrary to the teachings of Jesus.Gandhi once said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlikeyour Christ.” Are you really making a God-space in your life if no one can see it makes anydifference?In today’s scripture, Jesus pointed out the behavior of the “religious” folks of his time – thestumbling blocks that made people cynical about religious faith. It was all about having super-wide fringes on a prayer shawl or getting seated at the head table during banquet. In ourtime, we might see these folks slapping Jesus fish magnets on their car, and carrying aroundbig Bibles (the bigger the Bible, the more Christian you are, of course). Claiming churchmembership, and rarely attending. Avoiding the homeless men at the top of State Street onthe way to a protest. Making a nice clean $25 online donation to a friend’s charity walk, andthen blowing $60 on a videogame.In other words, you’d see people like us. The early twenty-first century suburban Christianfor whom – most of the time - Christianity is a condiment, not the main course. One speakerI know puts it this way: Christians have become more comfortable wearing bibs than aprons.Christ’s church has become a place where individuals can come to consume – church dinners,pastoral care, programs, entertainment. We wear bibs; we are more used to waiting to beserved, than serving.Christ offered another vision: a community where people come to be transformed, wherethey learn to live as if God’s heavenly realm were already here, to spread the seeds of theKingdom of God. Christ’s vision was of lives transformed. Communities transformed. Theworld transformed.We follow a savior who shook things up. Who stood against the status quo. There was nothingof status quo in his ministry. Nothing about survival in his ministry. Not so much about goingin, but an awful lot about going out.One of our youth shared with me recently, “I’m not sure I have time for Jesus.” Preach, child.You are saying what we are all thinking. All of us here, and quite possibly, that 83% of peoplewho are doing something else this morning.If Jesus is just a condiment, a little added flavor into my day, he’s not worth my time. If I canfollow Jesus and not change anything else about my life, why follow in the first place? I haveplenty of other things I can do with a Sunday morning.I can give to charity on my own. I can volunteer with any number of organizations, from theHumane Society to the Red Cross to the AIDS Network, without it being one bit about faith.I can shake hands with my opponent on the tennis court and congratulate them on a goodmatch, be a good sport without Jesus entering into the equation. I can sing my heart out in thefall musical to wild applause, and God doesn’t have to be in the house.Hey, you can see all sorts of people claiming that they’re Christian, and it doesn’t make adifference in their life. They can lie, cheat, steal your boyfriend, then participate in the fooddrive; gossip, text message through the movie, leave the doggie doo on the path at the dogpark, and still show up for communion.So why bother?Why give to good causes through the church?Why get up and come here on Sunday morning?Why make time for Jesus?Because despite all the ways we prove ourselves unworthy, God loves us. God forgives us. Godimagines that the world can be different, and invites us to participate. God is on a mission,dragging the future into the present, and God wants us to be part of it.God made us – as imperfect as we are - to shake the world up. We follow Jesus Christ, a shake-it-up savior. We are descendants of the Protestant Reformers, who took on a church that hadgrown stagnant and inward-focused, out-of-touch with the real spiritual needs of those outsideits doors. We are not called to be Christians, following the model of the official religiouspeople, accepting the way things are as the way things will always be. We are called to beChrist-followers, dragging heaven into the world moment by messy moment.Why make time for Jesus?Because people need to hear the God-story over and over and over again. And you can bethe one to offer it. People hear so many terrible messages about themselves: lazy, selfish,technology-obsessed, overeaters, bullies, messed-up, damaged goods, undesirable…. Whenwhat they really need to experience is the simple idea: You are loved. You deserve respect.And I’m not just going to say something about it, I’m going to do something about it. I’m goingto give you the respect you deserve as a child of God.The world needs to see what Christ-followers really look like. Not for your own sense of pride,not for the best seat in the house, not so people can look at you and say, “what a super-religious-person she is.” Practice what Jesus taught. Because somebody needs to stand upand say, “things can be different” and start doing something to make it happen. Jesus said, “letyour light shine.” Put on your apron. Let God shine through you so the people who are facingtheir dark night see something different and reach for it.Make time for Jesus, because God is shaking it up, and that is where you’ll find heaven breakingin. Amen.http://ia700703.us.archive.org/18/items/MuccSermonOct30th2011/MUCC_Sermon_20111030.mp3

Pastor Kerri Parker's March 21st sermon at the McFarland United Church of Christhttp://www.archive.org/download/McfarlandUnitedChurchOfChristSermonFromMarch21st2011/MUCC_sermon_20110321.mp3

http://archive.org/download/MuccSermonMay21st2012/MUCC_Sermon_20120513.mp3

PresenceRev. Kerri Parker, McFarland UCCTransfiguration B (Feb 19, 2012)Mark 9:2-10It’s been a rough week in the McFarland area. The news has been neither uplifting norinspiring. First, there was the news about a 15-year-old young woman who was abused andstarved for years, found walking down the street just north of here.And then there was the news about one of McFarland’s high school seniors, who took his ownlife.People move to small towns in “nice” Wisconsin to get away from things like this, as if goingsomewhere else would make it all better. We want to turn our faces away from it. We want topretend it doesn’t happen – or at least, not here. It’s something you read in the newspapers,or online, something that happens far away, or at least, a while back.And then a week like this bursts into our consciousness, dragging up memories, dragging upfears, confirming our worst nightmares: we can’t get away from it. It’s enough to make youwant to curl into a ball and retreat from the world. “I can’t,” we say – I can’t take one moreof these stories. I can’t take one more of these terrible things happening. Not one more youthdying out of season. Not one more child being beaten or molested. Not one more persondiagnosed with cancer. No more. Enough.We haven’t invented anything new, in our emotional exhaustion. It’s an ancient struggle.“How long, O Lord?” said the folk who wrote the Psalms. How long must this pain go on? Howlong until you answer the prayers? How long until you turn the world right-side up again?How long until the killing and dying and the beating stop?I like to think that’s the same question that sent Peter and James and John up the mountainwith Jesus. Finally, they must have thought, the secret knowledge we’ve been waiting for.Finally, the answer to the questions we’ve been flinging to the sky for all of our lives. So theywent up the mountain with their teacher. Surely, there’s some magical formula, something hecan say to help us make sense of all this. Make some sense of all these crowds with their painand their suffering, and their raw aching need.Because that’s why you follow Jesus, right? Because you’re convinced that there’s somethingspecial about this guy, because it matters, because there’s something of life-and-death in hiseyes? At first you follow him around because somebody told you it was a good idea. Andthen because you like his company. And then he starts demanding more of you – you startnoticing things. Like the gal at the next desk who has red and puffy eyes, as if she’s been crying;like an increasingly negative series of Facebook posts from someone on your friend list; like theparent struggling to manage their squirmy child; like the folks in the grocery store who startpulling items off of the counter and setting them aside as the total on the cash register creepshigher and higher.You notice these things, and they begin to occupy your attention, and your concern. You don’tknow what to do with them. It’s a lot to hold, and there’s only so much a human heart cancarry. Not one more, Lord, you think. Not one more.And then Jesus asks you to climb the mountain with him. More faith, you think. What I needis more faith. Then it’ll all make sense. So you go up the mountain, looking for this specialreligious experience that will somehow, miraculously, answer all of your unasked questions:“Where were you, God?” “Why, God?“ “How could you do this, God?”Maybe the top of the mountain is a place where you can let go and let God.And instead, you arrive, and hear a voice out of nowhere, “This is my son: listen to him!”Seriously?Someone dies by suicide every 14 minutes. Five children die every day as a result of childabuse. This hour while we’re here in worship, sixteen abuse-related injuries will be inflictedupon children somewhere. A child died here, in this town, this week, by his own hand.Another nearly starved to death.And all you’ve got, God, is “This is my son: listen to him”? As if climbing a mountain andseeing the shining light of an inaccessible God is somehow going to make it all better?The Bible tells us, “they looked around, and they saw no one with them anymore.”No God. No prophets descending from on high. No bright-and-shiny-fixer-upper. Just Jesus.Flesh-and-blood Jesus who eats with them and walks alongside them, who does the tough workof meeting the crowds and healing, and feeding, and forgiving, and proclaiming.The shiny doesn’t come back down the mountain. Just three very confused disciples and theirteacher, who just happens to be the son of the Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth.“Listen to him” isn’t all that God’s got. There’s more than the glory-on-a-hill God we pull out onspecial occasions. There’s more than the “live a good life” self-help guru that we reduce Jesusto. There’s a cross. There’s suffering, and pain, and death – and if you don’t think that’s goodnews, you could be excused. It doesn’t sound like it, but it is.Because God who created heaven-and-earth also showed up in this week’s news: in a cardriving down Sigglekow Road, as a driver who stopped because something didn’t seem right; ina room full of people yesterday at the funeral home to bear witness to the fact that the deathof a young man mattered; and a school full of adults who said “you matter,” over and overagain this week to young people who desperately needed to hear it. And God was there in thatbasement, and God was there in that house, and God was there with every bitter tear that hasbeen shed, and there with every question, “My God, my God, where are you?”We’re not the only ones saying, “Not one more.”Not one more, says God. I will set my face toward the pain, says God, and I will not look away.And I will go there myself, says God, and I will enter into it. And I will allow myself to bevulnerable, and I will love my children, and I will suffer for them, and alongside them.At first you follow Jesus because somebody said it would be a good idea. Then because heseems to offer solid moral and ethical advice. And one day you realize, there’s more than that.You follow because you realize that the Jesus story is your two-thousand-year-old evidence thatGod shows up.Sisters and brothers, Jesus Christ has called us to follow. We are not called to harden ourhearts, but to enter into the pain of the world. We are sent to bear witness to the pain, andthe truth that God is present, even amid the pain and the terror and ugliness that is the work ofhuman hands.Because while there are still Pharaohs, God will need Moses. And while there are still Ninevahs,God will need Jonahs. While there are still palaces, God will need Esthers. While the world isstill in pain, God of Mercy still needs healers and truth-tellers and Christ-followers.This is God’s son. Hear what he is saying.Amen.http://www.archive.org/download/MuccSermon20120219/MUCC_Sermon_20120219.mp3

http://archive.org/download/MuccSermonApril29th2012/MUCC_Sermon_20120429.mp3

“Whose Image? God’s Image!”_Rev. Kerri Parker, McFarland UCC18th Sunday after Pentecost (October 16, 2011)Matthew 22:15-22The first presidential campaign I had any substantial interest in was the 1992 Clinton campaign.James Carville, a political strategist, was hired to keep everyone “on message.” He posted asign in campaign headquarters to remind everyone of that message: (1) Change vs more of thesame (2) The economy, stupid (3) Don’t forget health care. Point number two morphed into apopular catchphrase: “It’s the economy, stupid.” It was a phrase that caught our imagination,and a message that may well have won the election.Twenty years later, there’s a lot that has changed, and a lot that has stayed the same.Commentators on CNBC might be saying, “It’s the Dow Jones Industrial Average, stupid.” Somecongresspersons say, “It’s the deficit, stupid.” Those who are long-term unemployed maysay, “It’s the jobs, stupid.” The youth and young adults with five-figure student loan balancesand no employment prospects, who are protesting nationwide alongside aging hippies andWorld War Two veterans and union members, trying to raise awareness of how the financialtitans have stacked the deck against ninety-nine percent of our country’s population, aresaying, “It’s Wall Street, stupid!”What do these all have in common? Money. We hang an awful lot of angst on the economy,on money, on making a living, on making do. Last week, we discussed how sometimes, ouraccount balances can become idols. In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus faces a challenge fromthe Pharisees and supporters of King Herod. What does it appear to revolve around? Money.Money – the topic that is publicly off-limits, but always on our minds. “They” say it’s not goodmanners to talk about money, it’s gauche, it’s not discussed in polite society. Or maybe youwere raised to not let people know how little you had. Maybe your employer says employeesare not supposed to discuss pay. Maybe you postpone opening your mail – willfully ignoring itsexistence because you can’t face one more bill (which may or may not be overdue). Money –financial resources - is the topic that comes up in the Bible thousands of times.And it’s also not the point of this passage.The money is a convenient vehicle to hang our anxiety on, to divert our attention from deepermatters.It happens when Jesus plants himself firmly in the seat of civil and religious power and daresthem to ignore him. The way Matthew tells it, this coin incident takes place during Holy Week.Sitting in the temple courtyard, Jesus is teaching. The Pharisees send their close followers, andsome of King Herod’s groupies, to ask Jesus a trick question. Starting with some praise, theymove on to the question of whether it is acceptable, under Jewish law, for Jews to pay taxes tothe emperor.This is not a question of tax relief from the IRS. This was about a fundamental values conflictbetween the life of faith and the political realm. This is a no-win question. Jesus answers, “yes,it’s acceptable to pay taxes” – and he’s unmasked as an incompetent rabbi, incompetentteacher, not worth following. Because Roman coins proclaimed, on one side, the divinity ofCaesar. Caesar is God, according to Roman values. In using those coins, in carrying themaround with you, you might as well be uttering blasphemy, if you’re a deeply observant Jew.“Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.” “I am the Lord your God, who broughtyou up out of Egypt, you shall have no other gods before me.” Big problem.On the other hand, Jesus could say, based on fundamental precepts of Jewish law, “no,absolutely not, this is blasphemy, a good Jew shouldn’t bow down to an Emperor, in anyway, even by using his money.” At which point, somebody would tattle back to the Romanauthorities, and then he’d be in deep trouble – because refusal to pay taxes identifies him withJewish zealots and rebels, violent sects who are subverting the empire, and you know thatthings never end well for ragtag mobs who challenge Rome.It’s not about the money. It’s about the power.I’m not instigating a revolt against the IRS or the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. Nor am Icalling you to go out and participate in “Occupy Wall Street” or “Occupy Madison” – althoughif you did, I’d bless you on your way. I think you might find Jesus there among the unwashedmasses holding the sidewalk, making room for hope in the midst of despair.Really, this about power – do you bow to the might of Rome, or do you forcefully resist? Doyou keep paying your taxes into the system like a good subjugated population ought to – or doyou align yourself with the fringe elements who are aiming for revolution?Jesus, as always, opted for Door #3. He answered the real question, not the false either-orsituation he was presented with. Fundamentally, the question that Jesus answered that daywas an ancient one. Earlier than the Roman conquest of the Holy Land, earlier than the nationof Israel arriving in the Holy Land, earlier than Moses receiving the law on the mountaintop -before nations, before cities, before taxation and before tributes. It goes all the way back tofirst things.From the book of Genesis: “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be likeus.”Ah.Whose image? God’s image.It’s not about what you pay, what you spend, what you carry around in your pocket.It’s about whose imprint you bear.Do you have clothes or accessories with a corporate logo today? What does that mean? Whydo the logos get bigger and bigger as a design element? They want us to know who made theseitems – because if we like it, we might want to imitate it, and we might want to know where toget it.Jesus gets it. He knows what they’re up to, the power games they’re playing. And so heanswers the question behind the question. Is Caesar’s imprint on the coin? Then it belongsto Caesar. And it can be issued by Caesar and repaid to Caesar and circulated by Caesar, andwithdrawn by Caesar.But whose imprint are you wearing? Who has placed their mark on you? Is it God’s Holy Spirit,by the waters of baptism? Was it Jesus Christ, God-with-us, changing your life? Was it theGreat Creator of all that is, who knew you even before you were born?God who created you, and saves you, and sustains you. God, whose imprint is in every fiber ofyour being, in your DNA, in those intangible elements that also make you, you. Your laughter,your tears, your passions, your gifts. Whose imprint to you bear, every day and night of yourlife? God’s.“Let us make humankind in our image, to be like us.” When someone is walking around in theworld looking for someone, something to imitate, they have so many options. Imagine if theysaw the imprint of God in the way you live your life – and they chose to imitate that. Imagineif they saw the imprint of God in the choices you make, and started asking questions. “Why doyou do that?” “It’s a Jesus thing.”Who gave the gift? God. To whom do we owe the gift? God. Who will call the gift back home,at the end of its days? God.Offer up to God, that which bears the imprint of God.Whose image? God’s image.Amen.http://www.archive.org/download/McfarlandUccSermonOct16th2011_34/MUCC_Sermon_20111016.mp3

http://www.archive.org/download/MuccSermon20120108/MUCC_Sermon_20120108.mp3

Kerri Parker's sermon from March 6th 2011http://www.archive.org/download/McfarlandUnitedChurchOfChristSermonMarch062011/20110306_sermon.mp3

Acts 2: 1-12As most of you know, I have been enrolled in Lay Academy for the past 3 years. For those that do not knowwhat Lay Academy is; the Wisconsin Conference of the United Church of Christ hosts a Lay Academyprogram, offering courses of study to pastors and lay people who seek to: deepen their faith, strengthenChrist's church, and grow in spiritual maturity.We meet five weekends per year at the Wisconsin Conference Center in DeForest and are usually led byinstructors from various Seminaries or specialists in that subject's particular field. It is a fantastic program andI highly recommend it.I have learned much from my Lay Academy experience. It has been quite a journey so far. From the firstclass on Theology where I was so afraid these classes would be way over my head to my most recent class onEvangelism. My faith has been tested, stretched and has grown more than I could have ever imagined.During our class on the Old Testament we were introduced to the term “exegesis. This Greek word, means acritical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. We were taught that through exegesiswe were to look at the historical background and ask questions to discover the meaning, surrounding the textand how we can use this today. Well, lets give this a shot.So what is the historical background to today's text? Pentecost is historically and symbolically related to theJewish harvest festival of Shavuot , which commemorates God giving the Ten Commandments to the people,fifty days after the Exodus. Among Christians, Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit uponthe Apostles and other followers of Jesus. For this reason, Pentecost is sometimes described as the "Birthdayof the Church".Let's keep that in mind, the “Birthday of the Church”.So what happened to this “Jesus Movement” after the death and departure of it's founder? What were thedisciples going to do? How would they go on without their leader? All along they had displayed fear andhad questioned what they should do next. They must have felt totally lost and afraid, but as they had beeninstructed by Christ, they prayed and waited.Acts, chapter 2 opens up and it says “they were all together in one place”. This was for the celebration ofthe 50th day after the Passover when the Jewish pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate God's graciousprovisions of harvested food, land and Torah.Who was there? Verse 13 of Acts 1 says, “Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas,Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All thesewere constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women including Mary the mother ofJesus as well as his brothers.”What exactly were they really doing? Waiting and probably wondering. What were they waiting for? In Luke24: 49 Jesus says, “so stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” In Acts chapter 1verse 8 Jesus also tells the disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you andyou will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.After hearing Jesus say these words in many different ways, they must have been convinced because theywaited.Waiting. Now, how many of you like to wait? Like a child, waits for their birthday to arrive, or worseyet...Christmas to arrive? Waiting for a loved one to come home, that you haven't seen for a very long time.For the traffic light to turn green so you can go. For a baby to arrive. We all spend a good share of our liveswaiting. Sometimes we do it patiently. Sometimes, not so much. How do you think the disciples were atwaiting? Were they patient? Did they wonder what this power was that they were promised they wouldreceive? How would the Holy Spirit come to them? What do you think this would this feel like? Or looklike? But alas, all they could do was wait.Our texts describes the Holy Spirit as “the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where theywere sitting and that tongues of fire appeared among them and rested on each of them. They were filled withthe Holy Spirit.Now, how would you expect the Holy Spirit to arrive? Tiptoe quietly in? Nah, I suspect that there were a fewof those disciples that would have needed to be convinced. Probably Thomas for one.What a fearsome sight this must have been. A wild violent wind whipping through the room and red flamesdancing over their heads. Not a sight you see every day.Then to make things even more interesting, they began speaking in other languages. Why was this? Wellthe Holy Spirit had now given the disciples the tools to share the good news of God, through witnessing (orevangelism). This was for ALL people, even from other nations. What an inspiring sight this must havebeen. It WAS the Birthday of the Church. Because of their witnessing, these Jews of other nations, becamebelievers and now followers too.Now that you think about it, it seems that time has not changed this practice over the years on how we too cangrow the church.This text for today reports a miracle that is often overlooked because it is not as flashy as most. No one ishealed. No one is raised from the dead. No one has a demon driven out. No one's water is turned to wine. Noones sees a storm stopped by Christ's command. What we do see is that every person gathered in Jerusalemheard the Word of God in their own language. How was this done? Thru the Holy Spirit giving the disciplesand even us, the gift of Evangelism.This miraculous story reminds us that to hear God's Word we have only to open our ears, for God speaks God'sWord to all people, in all places for all times though the power of the Holy Spirit.How do we speak to the guests that come into our church? How do we speak to the people outside thesedoors? Do we speak their language? When the Holy Spirit is present, we speak the language needed, for themto understand. Just like the disciples who now were speaking the same language to the devout Jews of othernations. It's the sharing and receiving of the Good News that is Evangelism and that in turn will grow thechurch.Oh, and there's that word that has so many connotations. Did you hear it?...Evangelism. What thoughts cometo your mind? TV evangelism? Someone pushy? Tent Revivals? Knocking on doors? In your face?How about this; A messenger that brings the Good News of God, an Angel, Testimony, Acceptance,Relationships, Love.Have you ever experienced a Pentecost or Evangelism moment? I'm sure most of you have and didn't realizeit. It was maybe a time when you shared something about your faith with someone or maybe someone sharedsomething about their faith with you? It is indescribable what can happen. You may not see tongues of firebut you certainly will feel something. And that's the Holy Spirit.Let me give you an example. Some of you were present the Sunday when Ryan Krattiger shared his journey offaith through his travels to Juarez and his experience with the ACT Ride. We were all pulled into that momentas he spoke. We were sharing in his experience. At that moment, the church was alive with the Holy Spirit.We all felt it, in fact most of us were actually brought to tears. The love, relationship, the message.For myself, I can say that I have recently been so fortunate to be on the receiving end of some inspiringmoments in this church during our Fellowship time. I've witnessed some beautiful faith stories that havebeen shared with me. I wish I could sit down with each one of you and hear your faith journey, for being onthe receiving end, is truly feeling the Holy Spirit at work. I have found, after these experiences, that I leavechurch feeling like I'm walking on a cloud all day. Now, that is what church is all about and I feel like I wantto share it with everyone. It is such an infectious emotional feeling.Our Fellowship time is a time for sacred moments such as these. It's an opportunity to share with others. Tofeel the Holy Spirit at work. Experience it and then to take it out beyond our doors and share it with others.You may have noticed, a little slip of paper in each of your bulletins. On your slip of paper is one of 8statements that can be used to start a conversation with someone. I'd like to encourage you to try talking tosomeone during Fellowship time today talking about what your slip of paper says, and then listen to what storyyou hear back. Wait until you see what happens. I think you will be surprised. Evangelism is so easy and therewards are huge. Give it a try.Christ may have died on the cross and rose again on Easter morning, but without Pentecost, our Easter storywould have eventually become a forgotten memory. When Christ had left he promised to send the Holy Spiritin his place; to guide, teach, comfort and remind us of who we are and who's we are. Share that good newstoday with someone and see what happens. Happy Birthday! Amen.http://www.archive.org/download/MuccSermonJune12th2011/MUCC_Sermon_20110612.mp3

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“Alarm Clock”Rev. Kerri Parker, McFarland UCCEpiphany+4B (January 29, 2012)Mark 1:14-20 (text for Epiphany+3B)I use my telephone for all sorts of things these days. Talking, playing games, surfing theinternet in the doctor’s waiting room, checking my email when I’m away from my computer,finding my way from here to there, and waking me up in the morning. Recently, I upgradedthe system that makes this complicated little tool run, and it now has the capability of makingnew sounds. It can quack like a duck, chime like a bell tower, give me a piano riff, beep like thesonar on a submarine, - it can even wake me up to little snippets of songs. However, on thislist, my old wake-up sound was nowhere to be found.I set out to find an appropriate replacement. My specifications were a little bit picky, I have toadmit. There’s a relatively narrow sweet spot. Loud enough to cut through my dreaming andtell my consciousness that morning has broken. Gentle enough that it doesn’t set my heart a-pounding when it goes off, and start my day in a panic. With so many options available, youwould think it would easy to find the right one. Several weeks later, I’m pretty sure I haven’tfound what I’m looking for.Once upon a time, alarm clocks came with just one setting: loud. Some of you might be of anage where you can remember alarm clocks that had actual bells on them and a little hammerthat whacked into the bell. My first alarm clock was a little digital number with red digits, andthe insistent electronic BEEP BEEP BEEP was enough to vault my teenage body out of bed at O-dark-thirty, and leap across the room to silence it.Alarm clocks have one simple job to do: inform you, in terms you should be unable to avoid,that IT’S TIME. That action of some sort is required. That whatever it is that you are supposedto be doing, you’d better get a move on. NOW. The snooze button was the best – and worst –invention in the history of alarm clocks. It totally defeats the intended function; it lets you talkback to the alarm. With every push of the snooze button, it lets you say, “I’ll get a move on – in9 minutes when you come back to remind me.”Jesus does not come with a snooze button.The Gospel of Mark is full of words like “immediately” and “right away” and “just then.” Markis not concerned about finding the sweet spot. We are racing through the story, because thesituation is urgent. We need to know Jesus’ message. We need to know that we are called tofollow. We need to know what brought Jesus into confrontation with the authorities. We needto know what brought him to the cross. We need to know that he is going ahead of us.We need to know this, because this is our road, too.Jesus was baptized and immediately he was driven out into the wilderness, where he wastempted. John was arrested, and there’s no bridge, no “let’s get our feet back under us”period, no interim ministry. Jesus just kept going. “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came toGalilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom ofGod has come near.’”BEEP BEEP BEEP: It’s time! Get moving! Repent, and believe in the good news.I don’t know about you, but that alarm clock going off at O-dark-thirty seldom feels like goodnews to me. Nevertheless, Jesus is traveling along the sea of Galilee and saying, “Wake Up!God’s time is here. Get up! Get moving! Pay attention!”And we say, “where’s the snooze button?” I don’t want anything else on my to-do list. I don’thave ROOM for anything else on my to-do list. I don’t want an unexpected appointment. I hadPLANS. I was going to have a cup of coffee and a bite to eat, get my gear together, and get towork early. I was going for a bike ride. The calendar is packed. I can’t squeeze anything elsein. Maybe next Tuesday?But Jesus shows up, and stands at our desk, or our workbench, or our locker, and says, “It’sGod’s time.” God’s time: not only did God make it, but God owns it, and God has plans for it,and those plans involve you. The Kingdom of God is here. Now. It’s time. Get moving.Jesus will not be put off. The invitation he offers is brief, and simple: Repent and Believe.Follow me and become fishers of people. Follow me, and become agents of the Good News.The Jesus we see in the Gospel of Mark is not waiting around for an answer. This is not aphilosophical debate or a long-drawn-out courtship. Jesus asks each of us to make a real liveflesh-and-blood decision that will change your whole life. You: New life – yes, or no? Want tocome work for me? Then come on.Immediately, he called them.We want some time to think. To reflect. To strategize and to figure out if this will fit into ourplans. To see if we can add fishing-for-people to our to-do list without blowing the whole thingup.The invitation is brief and immediate. Jesus is not calling or inviting us tomorrow. Jesus iscalling us right here. Right now. No snooze button. There’s a short shelf life on this offer, andif you miss it, you’ll have to scramble to catch up.The lesson that the first disciples offer us is that it is possible to respond differently.Immediately. Like the folks in Ninevah (the ones we heard about last week), they hear themessage, and get the urgency, and do something about it. Immediately, the Ninevitesrepented. Immediately, Simon (Peter) and Andrew left their nets and followed. Jesus sawJames and John, and immediately called them, and they went.There’s not a ton of explanation up front. This is on-the-job training at its finest: “Followme, and I will make you fish for people.” The older translation – and quite possibly the moreaccurate one – is “I will make you fishers of men.” He doesn’t invite us to dabble in the hobbyof fishing – he invites us into the life of fishing.Jesus does not ask us to add one, or three, or five more things to our to-do list. Jesus asksus to change our way of living to follow the Good News. Jesus calls us to let go of our ownpriorities, and accept God’s priorities.That’s what being a Christian means. To order our world according to God’s priorities. To stopworking for ourselves and start working for what Mark calls the Kingdom of God. Discipleshipmeans dropping our nets – giving up whatever we have been fishing for – and picking upChrist’s net: fishing for those who are left out, who are outside, who desperately need to hearsome Good News in their life.So what have you been fishing for? A promotion? Financial security? Independence?Popularity? Peace? A little breathing space?Put down the net. Step away. Jesus is here, saying “Follow me.”Jesus calls us to accept the urgency of spreading the Good News. Here. Now. For the sake ofwhat God is doing in the world. For the sake of our neighbors. For the sake of ourselves.Jesus is on the move, already heading off down the road. The alarm clock has rung. TheKingdom of God has come near. Have you heard it? Do you intend to follow? Get up. Getmoving. The Good News is urgent business.We have ministry to do, fishers of people.Amen.http://www.archive.org/download/McfarlandUccSermon20120129/MUCC_Sermon_20120129.mp3

“How Deep?”Rev. Kerri Parker, McFarland UCCCreation 4: River Sunday (September 25, 2011)Ezekiel 47:1-12Remember the water at the beginning:“In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,when no plant of the field was yet in the earth,and no herb of the field had yet sprung up –for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth,and there was no one to till the ground:but a stream would rise from the earthand water the whole face of the ground –then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground,and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;and the man became a living being.And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east,and there he put the man whom he had formed.Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every treethat is pleasant to the sight, and good for food,the tree of life also in the midst of the garden,and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.A river flows out of Eden to water the garden…“(Genesis 2:4b-19a)There was a river at the beginning, my friends. Water flowing through and around and overeverything. Before it rained, before the trees, before humankind, there was water, by thegrace of God, a stream from the earth, watering the whole face of the ground.I was reminded this week that among all the stuff that makes up the human body, two-thirdsis water. We come to this life surrounded by water, and we cannot continue to live withoutwater.Water is life. It is all around us and within us, from the very beginning.And yet sometimes, we feel parched. We feel as if the Spirit and the source of life have left us,and we are wandering through a dry and thirsty land. As if those waters that once coveredthe earth, once bathed us in love, once soothed and nourished us, have trickled away into rockycrevices. As if we must hoard every last precious drop because it may never rain again.The prophets of the Bible describe the dark days of the Children of Israel in terms of dryness.They speak of times when the rains failed, before it was time for the harvest. When mightyrivers are a shadow of their powerful selves, and streams slow to a mere trickle. The dry times,when it got so bad, the people wandered from town to town in search of drinking water. Whenthere was only mud at the bottom of a cistern, so dry that you could use an empty well as aprison, rather than a source of life.And in our own dry times, perhaps, if we are not wandering in a parched desert, we may live atthe bottom of a dried-up well like the prophet Jeremiah, wallowing in sticky mud with neitherblessed rain nor clean water, nor even a hint of sunshine making it down to the bottom tocheer us. We cry out from the bottom of that pit, from our mucky prison, “My God, My God,why have you forsaken me?”Sometimes we feel as if we are wandering, alone, through a dry and thirsty land.But, in the beginning and in the end, and in all places between, there are the waters.Remember the gift of the waters: Water signifies birth, and death, and rebirth. The sacramentthat makes us Christian – baptism – takes place in the water. The waters of baptism, and theblessings and promises that go with them, mean new life. We die in the water, and we arebrought into new life, born of water and the Spirit.Water at the beginning, and at each new beginning. The presence of God around us, within us,ready to sustain and refresh us. Deep waters.Like our prophet this morning, we are each invited to test out the deep water. Remember this:See the stream that springs forth and waters a dry and thirsty land. It starts as a trickle, at thecenter of all things, and spreads outward. You go a little ways off, and it is ankle deep. Thenknee-deep, then waist-deep. Deeper than you are tall. So deep that you cannot wade acrosson your own two feet.You edge out into the stream. Ankle-deep, and knee-deep. Waist-deep. Finally, there’snothing to do but swim. To immerse yourself in the river of God’s love, flowing forth from thecenter of all things, and trust in God to hold you up.This is the invitation that has been offered to us. Remember the water at the beginning.Remember the water of life that flows forth from the earth. Remember the water that rainsdown from the sky and blesses a parched and dry land, refreshes a parched and weary people.Remember the water that is within you. Remember the water of baptism that gave you newlife. Remember the waters that surround you and bathe you in God’s love.Sisters and brothers, there is a river, the water of life bright as crystal, flowing from the throneof God. This river goes forth from the center, from the source and creator of all things – theone who made you and knows you and loves you. This river is deep, and broad, and you cannotexhaust it. It was there in the beginning, and it will be there at the end of all things.Thanks be to God.Amen.http://ia700700.us.archive.org/12/items/MuccSermonSept252011/MUCC_Sermon_20110925.mp3

“Everyday gods”Rev. Kerri Parker, McFarland UCC­­­17th Sunday after Pentecost (October 9, 2011)Exodus 20 and 32Imagine a woman, recently retired, at home full-time, when she had been used to being at theoffice more than full-time. Or, if you prefer, a man, unemployed, who has applied for every jobhe might be remotely qualified for within a 100 mile radius, and even some he isn’t qualifiedfor. Or, perhaps, a teen, too young for a paying job, home alone for a chunk of the day duringsummer vacation.Imagine them, sitting at the computer, having discovered some mildly entertaining socialgame called “FarmCityGardens”, or maybe “MafiaRestaurantVille” online. At first, it’s a nicediversion from the hours and hours that need to be filled. A click, and a virtual field has beenplanted. Click. Harvested. Click. In the storehouses. Click. A dish is on the stove. Click. It’splated. Click. A cute little virtual figure heads across the screen to serve it to the customers.And so on, and so forth.It takes a certain number of seconds, or minutes, or hours, until the task is completed. Formany of them, if you don’t return on time, the crop withers or the food burns. After somepretend currency has been expended for seeds, and a few hundred mouse clicks to plant andwater and fertilize a field, you don’t want to lose your investment. There’s a little pressureinvolved – the game makers want you to come back, on a regular basis, and they’re prettyskilled at finding ways to make that happen.So our hypothetical friend starts writing down the times the dishes are ready or the crops aresupposed to mature. They structure their day around it: “I planted pumpkins at 2 pm, so ifwe go out for dinner with friends, we have to be back by 8 pm, or they’ll rot on the vine.” Andsoon, this calendar of virtual obligations to imaginary entities rules their life.Now, this is not intended to be a rant against Facebook or other social media, or the evils oftechnology. Really, this is just a simple story that is played out millions of times every day oncomputer screens across the country. How very easily we fall into the trap of creating, andorganizing our lives around, our own gods!***“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” That’s “gods,” small g.The people got what the people asked for. They had been so frightened, earlier, when God (bigG) spoke. They were so unsettled by God’s presence, that they said to Moses, “You speak tous…do not let God speak to us.” They would rather count on Moses to be the God-person, thanrisk encountering God themselves.So back up the mountain Moses went, and disappeared for 40 days. For forty days, the peoplewere out there in the desert, with no God, no Moses. Hmmm… Maybe this “no God” thingwasn’t such a great idea after all. You need something to follow. Something to organizeyour life around. Since God (big G) was too intimidating, they opted for something moremanageable, more accessible.“Let’s make some gods!” might sound like the height of hubris, a contrived conflict in thestoryline of the Israelites. It was foreshadowed, way back in chapter 20. “You shall have noother gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol….” Hello!? If you’ve beenfollowing the story, you know. Of course they’re going to do it.They needed a god. So they made a god (small g). Oh, it’s easy to pick on the Israelites for thisone. But we all need something to organize our life around, a center to our universe. Whenthe world is big, and chaotic, we need some way to make sense of it. It seems to much even tograsp, sometimes. And so we flail around, gleaning from what we he have already at hand, toput something together. A central organizing principle, one friend of mine calls it. Somethingto focus on when God (big G) seems impossibly far away.We are addicted to finding these small gods, to substituting them for the God who cannot bereduced to manageable proportions. We worship many gods, and they each have their ownsphere. It’s like we’re juggling gods, all day long. There’s the god of the meeting agenda, thegod of the Packers schedule, the god of athletic or music practice. There’s the report card god.The god of the grocery bill, the god of our morning step on the scale.We dance around gods of the calendar, the clock, our smartphones and tech gadgets, the daysour major bills come due, our credit rating, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, whether ourfavored political party is in power. When we are in front of them, they have our loyalty and ourattention. We organize our lives around them. We let them become all-powerful in our lives,believe that they shape our destiny. As if these gods had the power to save us. When in theend, we are children of a much mightier God.It’s a golden calf! It’s made from melted-down jewelry, for heaven’s sake! How can a god youmake, possibly compare to the all-mighty, all-powerful God who just delivered a resoundingdefeat to the most powerful empire in the known world? Who sets the boundaries of the sea,who placed the stars in the sky, who kept an impossible promise through all the generations.This is the God we worship. God, big G. God who said, quite clearly, “I am your God, whobrought you out of Egypt, who brought you out of slavery.” This is the God who sets beforeus the ways of life and death, who gives instruction for relating to both God and neighbor. TheGod who sings over, and over again, the songs of freedom.And it is this God who invites us to deny those other, puny “gods” any air time. Those godscannot bring anyone out of slavery. Those gods have no power other than the power we grantthem. We are children of God the almighty, maker of heaven and earth, who conquers thepowers of chaos, death and destruction. This is our God, sisters and brothers, who brings usthrough the wilderness and opens possibilities we can, even now, barely imagine.Thanks be to God. Amen.http://www.archive.org/download/McfarlandUccSermonOct9th2011_196/MUCC_Sermon_20111009.mp3

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“Holy Conversations”_                  _____              Second Sunday After Easter (May 8, 2011)Rev. Kerri Parker, McFarland UCC                                 Luke 24:13-35Back when I worked for a social services agency, we used to run into a pretty big problem on Friday afternoons.  You see, we had an immigrant assistance program, but it was only staffed four days a week.  That was all we could manage with the funding we had, to have people providing services Monday through Thursday.  If someone walked through the doors on a Friday, there was no one who could assist.  It was so disappointing to say, “I’m sorry, there’s no one here right now who can help you with that.  Can you come back on Monday?”  To make it even more challenging, the folks we worked with had very limited English language skills.    They were primarily Spanish speakers, who came to us because they wanted to learn English, to become fluent in local culture and part of the community.   Most of them approached us because they needed help dealing with complicated, grief- and anxiety-filled situations in their lives.   And when the staff was gone for the week, all the receptionist knew how to say was, “ellas no estan” – “they’re not here.”  That was the limit of what we could do.  “No, there’s no one to help you.”  The person’s need – no matter how important, no matter how sad it was – would have to wait.    That was the limit of the communication we could offer.    If their need didn’t present itself in the appropriate way, at the appropriate time, they were out of luck.  Now when I arrived, I can’t pretend we had any great improvement in the situation.  I had five years of extremely rusty high school Spanish under my belt.   I couldn’t even roll my ‘r’s anymore.  I didn’t work for the program, but somehow, shortly after I joined the agency, the receptionist got wind of this alleged skill.  And so when I was the only manager in the office on a Friday afternoon, I would get the phone call.   “Um, there’s somebody out here looking for help, and I don’t know what they’re saying.”   So I would trot out of my office, over the front desk, and introduce myself.   If I was lucky, they would respond with, “¿Hablas español?”   If I was not so lucky, they would launch immediately into the detailed explanation of their need, in Spanish, and I was left to stand there, looking sympathetic, but not fully following.   And then I would be forced to admit, “Solo un poquito.  Lentamente por favor.”  “Just a little.  Slowly, please?”  We would stand there, cobbling together a combination of our limited Spanish and English vocabularies – Spanglish – and gestures toward specific lines on important documents, until we could arrive at some sort of mutual understanding of what was going on.  Often, I could find some way to lessen the crisis – explaining what the important letter was asking, telling them what time the court appointment was, explaining what their next steps might be.  It was an exhausting way to end my week, but it made up some of the most meaningful moments of my time there.---How do you have a conversation with someone when you don’t speak the same language?   You start with any fragile connection you can build.  You start with a one-to-one relationship. You build this relationship on storytelling and empathy, on careful listening, borrowing words and concepts from one another.   You keep trying, opening your hearts to one another, cobbling a new language together, and listening for the wisdom that comes in these holy moments.---Jesus and the disciples were speaking two different languages that day, on the road to Emmaus -  two different languages, two different worldviews.   The disciples were speaking the language of the world as it existed before Jesus, before resurrection.  The limited vocabulary they had to work with was: fear, suffering, division, death, my-way-or-the-highway, the empire wins.   So when Jesus asked them, “what are you talking about, as you go along?” that was how they answered him.   “We had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel.”  We had hoped (past tense).    We had hoped that he would fit into our notions of what a Savior looks like.    All the while, standing beside them with an inquiring, sympathetic look, was the unlikely Savior from an unlikely place, who they could not recognize.And so Jesus reached out to them, using Resurrection language, born in the light of an unlikely Easter morning.    Language rooted in his teachings, but now filled with the music of divine love. The vocabulary was this:  Promise.  Anticipation.  Fulfillment.  New Life.  Generosity.  Widening possibilities.   He heard their version of the story, and offered his own vocabulary to flesh it out.   Jesus accompanied them along the way, taking the time to travel this road with them.    He had sympathy for where they were, emotionally.   They had heard of the resurrection, but as of yet, it was still just a tale.  The language of the world-as-it-is was still more powerful, in their minds and hearts.   So he cobbled together the language they had with the language he had, to make a new thing they could understand.  In-between places call for in-between language.   Language that admits to the world as it appears to be, but layers over it a good and gracious God, a divine presence that wills life for us all.   Jesus language.   A new language that consistently says, “yes, but…” – “Yes, suffering, but sympathy, too.”  “Yes, death, but life, too, beyond that.”   “Yes, unjust powers, but also a holy community where those powers do not reign supreme.”---This is the language of Christianity.   This is the language that disciples and evangelists used to spread Jesus’ way throughout the world.   These are the building blocks of our conversation, of our relationship with one another.    And in today’s tale of the road to Emmaus, we hear one of the first conversations in this new, resurrection language.  We are Christians.   We are an Easter people, and we speak resurrection language.   Jesus taught it to us, all those long years ago.   And Jesus is still teaching it to us.    This is what God calls us to do, as disciples of the Risen Christ.My friends, Jesus shows us how to do it.   Jesus shows us how to grow a church.  Jesus shows us how to do ministry together.   Find the lost and lonely ones going along the road.   There’s not some mystical secret about this.  It’s not rocket science.  The lost and lonely ones are going down the road, just like you and me.   We bump into them all the time.   Sometimes they’re here, sitting in a chair next to you on Sunday morning, desperately lonely and yet they struggled to walk out their own front door.   Sometimes they’re slouched on a sofa, or at a desk at school, immersed in their own private thoughts, convinced nobody loves them for who they are.  Sometimes they’re in the next cubicle over at your workplace, trying to figure out how to get through the thirty five things they have left to do today before they collapse, exhausted, into bed.  These are Jesus’ people.  They are walking along the road talking about what they have experienced, using the only language they have, to make sense of what happens to them on a daily basis.   And they need Good News.Do what Jesus did:  befriend them.  Befriend these people.  Listen to them.  Listen with love to what is burning in their hearts.  Offer them the gift of resurrection language:  Hope.  Fellowship.  Caring.  Possibility.   New life.  Extend the gift of table fellowship to the lost, the lonely and the broken ones.   Share a table.  Break bread together.  Christ will be there, too.Amen.http://www.archive.org/download/MuccSermonMay8th2011/MUCC_Sermon_20110508.mp3