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While some of you may remember a few years ago, before the COVID pandemic, Greg and I were not here on the first Sunday of Advent – we were on a cruise. And you may remember when we came back from the cruise I told you about a young couple we met who were on the cruise celebrating their babymoon. Now, I had never heard the term “babymoon” before. It's not a honeymoon. A babymoon is when expectant parents take a vacation together before the birth of their child, so they can enjoy some alone time, because they know once that baby is born, they are their lives are going to be turned upside down.
I think that most of you are aware that our church, Douglas UCC, follows the Christian church calendar. Not all churches follow this calendar. But we do. It's a very ancient calendar. It was established all the way back at the Council of Nicaea, which happened in 325 AD. So it's almost 1,700 years old, this calendar. At that council, those dates on the calendar were established, the dates for Advent and Christmas, and Lent and Easter, and all of the special feast days, Epiphany and Pentecost and Palm Sunday.
Well, if you were here last Sunday, you know, we were talking about salvation and heaven, and what the next life might look like. And we're going to continue that conversation this Sunday, because as we just heard, our gospel reading today is a continuation from last Sunday's Gospel reading. Jesus is asked another question about heaven. Specifically, who are we going to be married to in heaven?
Well, as I mentioned at the top of the service today, we're celebrating All Saints Sunday because this Tuesday, November 1, Is All Saints Day, a time for us to honor and to celebrate our loved ones who have passed and to recognize that their light is still with us.
Well, I think some of you know that when Greg and I first moved to Michigan back in 2005, we opened a bed and breakfast in Saugatuck. And at that time, we became aware that there was another bed and breakfast in the area that was embroiled in a bit of controversy. At the time, a couple had reserved a room at that bed and breakfast. But when they arrived, the innkeeper said that they couldn't stay there, because she saw that they were two men, a gay couple. And she said that hers was a Christian B&B.
Well, today's Gospel reading actually has a name, a title. It's called the Parable of the Persistent Widow. And as I mentioned at the top of the service, it's probably one of Jesus's least known parables. I mean, many of Jesus's other parables – the parable of the Good Samaritan, the parable of the prodigal son – most people know these stories, even if they're not religious, even if they've never read the Bible.
Well, one of the very first things I did when I became the pastor here eight and a half years ago was establishing a KUDOS section in the weekly church Epistle newsletter and in the Sunday bulletin. The word kudos comes from an ancient Greek word, which means praise. And I have to tell you, it brings me so much joy each week to bestow praise and kudos on all of you who do so much in service of our church and community.
Well, I think that most of you know that the scripture readings that we read each Sunday come from a book that's called the Revised Common Lectionary. And the reason that it's called the Common Lectionary, is it's a book that the Christian denominations have in common. And I really love that. I love that every Sunday, Christian churches of different denominations around the world, be they Episcopalian or Presbyterian or Methodist, or Catholic, are all focused on the same readings each week.
We're going to begin this morning with a little bit of Show and Tell. This framed poster has been hanging in the foyer of our church for over a decade now. And it says “Welcome to a Progressive Christian Church.” And among the things it says on the poster is, “We are a church that welcomes all people, including agnostics, and questioning skeptics.”
Well, I became the pastor here in 2014. So it's been a little over eight years. And in that time, I have officiated more than a dozen memorial services here in the church, for church members who have died. And those services are always so sacred, so meaningful and so important. They're not only a way for us to honor and celebrate our loved one who has passed, but they also allow us to come together as a spiritual family, to support one another and to comfort one another during our time of grief. But you know, in all the years that I've been the pastor here, I've never once not one time, been asked to officiate a memorial service for a loved one who wasn't human.
Well, I think that some of you know that I am a Facebook person. I'm on Facebook almost every day. And I know that some of you think that is a complete waste of time. And you're probably right. But for me, it's a wonderful tool to promote what's happening at our church, and to know what's going on in the community. And of course, I love looking at your joyful pictures, and reading your supportive and uplifting comments. I also follow many spiritual teachers on Facebook, who post words of inspiration each day, and many times they're often exactly what I need to hear that day.
It's that time – back-to-school – when students and teachers are getting ready to return. In some places in the country, they're already back in school. Many of you know that for 12 years, I was a highschool teacher. And this time of year, I always kind of had some nervous excitement, getting my classroom all ready and awaiting the new students, and to see what the new school year would hold.
Well, if you were here last Sunday, you know we were talking about the Kingdom of Heaven, and how it's not a place up in the clouds that you go to after you die. But how it is something we can experience right here and now. Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of heaven is here and now. It is at hand. It is with us and within us.’
Of all of the many statements in the Bible that are attributed to Jesus, it is a line from this Gospel passage from the lectionary for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, that is one of my all-time favorites. And it is the line where he says, “It is God's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Well, I am sure that there are some of you sitting here in the church and some of you watching from home, who have storage units – that you rent storage units. You pay a monthly fee, month after month, to store your possessions that you don't have room for in your house. Then there are others of us who have attics and garages and outbuildings that are filled with belongings and possessions we don't even know that we have, we haven't used them in years. And maybe we'll never even use them again for the rest of our lives, but we're still holding on to them.
Well as I just read for you in the Gospel reading today, for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, the disciples asked Jesus, “Rabbi, teach us how to pray.” Now, do you remember who taught you to pray? I'm assuming for most of you, it was your parents who taught you how to pray when you were a little child. Most of us as kids were taught to kneel at the side of our bed before we went to sleep at night, to press our hands together, and to talk to an old man who lived up in the clouds, and to ask him for things and to ask him for help.
Well, we're going to begin this morning with a little bit of show and tell. This poster hangs over in our Friendship Hall. It says “Beyond Sunday Morning,” and it lists all of our outreach groups or mission groups. We here at Douglas UCC call them our spiritually active groups, and we have seven of them. I'm so proud of these groups, and all of you who are part of these groups, for all of the work that you are doing out in the community, to care for the environment, to work for social justice, and to help our neighbors who are in need.
The very last movie that I saw in an actual movie theater was before the pandemic. It was the 2019 movie called Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. And it starred Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers, who most of us grew up knowing as Mr. Rogers, from the beloved PBS children's program, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
I was so honored and excited to learn this week that I have been selected as an official delegate at the UCC National Synod, which is going to be held next summer in Indianapolis. It's going to be the very first in-person, national gathering of the United Church of Christ since before the pandemic.
Well, you may have seen on the news recently that the Christian Reformed Church in America just a few weeks ago at their national Synod, voted to continue to classify gay people as sinful and immoral, and therefore intolerant in their churches. That's the word they used – intolerant – which means that LGBTQ people will not be tolerated or welcome in their churches. Now, I know that it seems crazy that here we are in 2022, and there there are still Christian denominations, not just the CRC, but many, that are still deciding and debating and discussing whether or not gay people are allowed to be a welcome in their churches.
Well, as I mentioned at the top of the service today, we are celebrating Juneteenth here in the United States. It is the day that we celebrate the emancipation of enslaved black Americans on June 19, 1865. Now, although President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, two and a half years earlier, in 1863, that news was kept from 1000s of enslaved black Americans in the South, in states that were still under Confederate control. In fact, places like Texas refuse to even acknowledge the Emancipation Proclamation.
Well, last Sunday, we all wore red in celebration of Pentecost Sunday. And every year on the Sunday after Pentecost Sunday, the Christian Church celebrates what's known as Trinity Sunday. So this morning, Christian churches all over the world are putting their focus on the very same thing: the Trinity God as three persons. Now that can be very confusing for us, because most of us who grew up in the church were taught there was just one God. So how could God be three?
Well today on the Christian church calendar, we are celebrating what's known as Ascension Sunday. We are celebrating Jesus's ascension into heaven. This is the very last week of the season of Easter. And the readings that we read from this morning are actually from this past Thursday's lectionary for the Ascension. The Ascension is always celebrated 40 days after Easter Sunday, so it always falls on a Thursday.
Well, I am sure that many of you have have heard of these two places in Europe, Lourdes and Maggiore, that millions of people make pilgrimages to, in the hopes of receiving a miraculous physical healing.
Well, as we just heard from our gospel reading from the lectionary today for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Jesus gives the disciples a new commandment to love one another. Now we're reading from John's gospel. But Jesus also gave this new commandments in Matthew, Mark and Luke’s Gospels, where he said things like, love one another, as I have loved you.
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