Foundry UMC DC: Sunday Sermons

Rooted In Love - February 13th, 2022

Rooted In Love

A sermon preached by Rev. Kelly Grimes at Foundry UMC February 13th, 2022. “Shine On!” series.

Texts: Luke 6:17-

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Cast a Lifeline - February 6th, 2022

Cast a Lifeline

A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC February 6, 2022, the fifth Sunday after Epiphany. “Shine On!” series.

Text: Luke 5:1-11

“Evangelism is a good word with a bad reputation.” I love this line from A Disciple’s Path Companion Reader. It goes on, “The term has been so abused by slick preachers and manipulative politicians that people inside the church are afraid to speak it and people outside the church run for cover the moment they hear it.” Isn’t this true? The word “evangelical” carries so much baggage in our country it’s difficult to remember that the word evangelism comes from the root word meaning “good news.” To be “evangelical” in its unsullied form is simply to share good news.

Because of evangelism’s well-earned bad reputation, some may feel an impulse to willfully avoid the part of our covenant promise to faithfully participate in the ministry of the church not only by our prayers, presence, gifts, and service, but also by our witness. I think for many of us, however, we understand this piece of our discipleship as “walking the talk,” that is, “proclaiming” or sharing our beliefs and values through our actions. This is a core part of Christian witness. It’s summed up in the quote attributed to St. Francis: “Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.” 

We “walk the talk” both as individuals and as communities. What we do and how we are as a community says a lot to other people. The way we share life and set priorities is a critical part of our witness, what theologian Douglas John Hall calls “ecclesial body language.”

 

And in conversation about our Gospel story for today with my friend and mentor, Rev. Jesse Jackson, he emphasized the responsibility we all have as individuals. He reminded me that God didn’t send a document or an email, God sent a person. And as disciples we are called not just to admire Jesus, not just to worship Jesus, but to follow Jesus. 

In our Gospel, Jesus didn’t send those anxious to receive the good news of God a press release or as an article about the good work of his congregation, Jesus showed up in person among the people. A key piece of witness is showing up where people need to receive some good news.

Jesus shows up and asked a certain person, Simon Peter, to take him out a little way in his boat, and from there he shared with the crowds. When he’d finished speaking, Jesus got Simon further involved, simply by asking him to do what he already knew how to do: “Let down your nets for a catch.” Simon had no reason to believe that there would be any fish. He had no reason to believe there was any point to casting his net. But he humored Jesus and let down the nets. The unexpected happened, the nets were filled, and Simon is moved to confess his sinfulness. I find this part curious. Why is this Simon’s response? 

It makes me think of so many people who don’t believe they are worthy of notice, worthy of good fortune, worthy of others’ confidence, worthy of others’ love. I can hear Simon Peter thinking, “I don’t deserve this bounty. I haven’t earned it. I’m not worthy of your praise or attention for this work, Jesus.” Might that have been part of what is happening here? I think of the heartbreaking lyric from an old Sting song about a transgender sex worker who says, “And no, it’s just not in my plan / For someone to care who I am.” I imagine there are so many in a variety of contexts who sing that song.

Simon had no reason to believe Jesus would care who he was, no reason to believe he would be invited by Jesus to put on Rabbi Jesus’s yoke and follow him as a disciple. The way things worked in those days meant that if Simon had what it took to follow a Rabbi he would’ve already been in graduate follow-a-Rabbi school and wouldn’t have taken up the family trade as a fisher. According to the ways of the world, Simon Peter had little power and limited options. 

But Jesus showed up, recognized that Simon Peter had the resource Jesus needed to do his work (a boat), honored and encouraged Simon’s fishing skill, then called him to apply that skill in a new direction, to “fish for people.” Jesus said, in essence, you have gifts that can be used for the work of the Kin-dom. You are worthy of this call. You are important to God and loved by God. Jesus threw this unlikely fisher a lifeline, an invitation to step more fully into his giftedness, purpose, and place in God’s family.

This is the piece of our own witness that we may sometimes miss: invitation. We are called not only to share God’s liberating love with others through our presence and our action, but also invite them to explore and experience it for themselves.

You and I, like Simon Peter, are called to follow Jesus and to “fish for people.” That doesn’t mean that we manipulate, trap, or hook people, it means we cast a lifeline to those who need one. We’re not asked to be someone we’re not, to be inauthentic, or to insert some testimony in awkward ways. We’re not asked to force anything or try to change anyone’s mind. We’re simply asked to not only be aware of others’ physical needs such as food, clothing, housing, and safety, but also to remember that people are searching for meaning and purpose and belonging and hope and friendship and love. Some people who seem to have everything are looking for those last bits. And many of us find in our faith and faith community some or all of those life-giving gifts. We have good news to share! And you never know how a simple invitation might change everything for someone. Our assumption that people aren’t interested or will be hostile could keep us from being agents of God’s prevenient grace in another person’s life. 

If we not only admire Jesus, but truly follow Jesus, our witness will be both life changing and world changing. We know that Simon Peter’s life was changed forever; but it wasn’t just about him. Simon Peter became part of a community of friends and disciples who tried to follow, teach, and serve in the way of Jesus. That work was imperfect, but Spirit and grace fueled. And, as the story goes, the public witness of the first Christian communities provided a powerful vision and invitation into a new way of living together, grounded in the love, mercy, justice, and generosity of God. Their communal “body language” was a beacon of hope.

We may choose to avoid the word “evangelical” because it is so twisted in our time. But in our words and our actions, as individuals and as faith community, we are called to follow Jesus, to fish for people, to cast a lifeline, putting the net of our hearts and lives down deep into all the hopeless, cynical, wounded, weary places where people have no reason to believe that emptiness can be filled, that meaning can be found, that they can be loved, or that things can be different or good or life-giving. As we respond to the call, we will experience and share the bounty of God’s grace that always emerges in Spirit’s wake. And isn’t that good news

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Loving Presence - January 30th, 2022

Loving Presence

A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC January 30, 2022, the fourth Sunday after the Epiphany. “Shine On!” series.

Texts: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Luke 4:21-30

Do you have to “go to church” to be a Christian? Evidently there was quite the robust conversation on this topic amongst our last confirmation class. There are at least a couple of solid responses. First, I would pose a follow up question, does showing up for worship and other church activities on a regular basis make you a Christian? If, by Christian, we mean (as we say in our Baptismal liturgy) “a true disciple who walks in the way that leads to life” then the answer is a resounding, “no.” Going to a church makes you a Christian as much as going to a garage makes you a car. It is quite possible to be a card-carrying Christian whose life has little resemblance to Jesus—and perhaps even does damage to Jesus’ good name.

The story of what happens when Jesus goes back to his “home church” in Nazareth is a good example. Jesus reminded them that God’s prophetic work focused on those considered “outsiders” or “other,” implying this would be the case for Jesus’ ministry as well. The hometown crowd couldn’t stand the thought that he wouldn’t just share his gifts with them, they were enraged at Jesus’ implication that the miracle of his love would be offered to people whom they deemed enemies, to people they despised. When Jesus went to his home church to visit the adults with whom he had grown up, perhaps folks who had taught him the Torah, and played with him as a child, perhaps adults whom he had admired…what happened?  They didn’t just damage his name, they tried to kill him. They had somehow missed the part in scripture about caring for the stranger and sojourner, doing justice, and walking humbly with God. They wanted what they wanted for themselves, were looking out for themselves.

But, as Jesus points out and models, the Judeo-Christian story provides a stark contrast to this human tendency. The story we tell is not just about us as individuals, not just about “me.” It’s about “WE.” Our faith is all about relationships, it involves caring about more than just my own needs or desires, it involves being part of a community, it involves attending to the needs of the most vulnerable ones in God’s creation. These relational, communal, other-focused aspects of the faith are not peripheral to our practice of Christian faith. They are at the very core. And here is where we get to another response to the confirmands’ conversation. In short, “there is no such thing as solitary Christianity. Being a follower of Jesus means being in community with other followers of Jesus. We can be…spiritual without the presence of other people in our lives, but we cannot be growing disciples of Jesus Christ without the encouragement, guidance, wisdom, and accountability of other disciples.”

I often talk about the community of the church as the “lab” or training ground for the rest of our lives. It is in our faith community that we get to practice mercy, compassion, leadership, courage, speaking up, holding our tongues, sharing our gifts, honoring others’ gifts, and all the rest. The 1st letter to the Corinthians was focused on helping that congregation get clear about where they needed to do better in their practice. As Pastor Ben pointed out last week, Paul is speaking to the ways that some gifts were being valued more than others, some people being valued more than others. Paul encouraged them to practice a more excellent way of living in relationship and community, the way of love. We practice when we are present with one another.

Weekly gatherings for worship are our most regular, broadly shared communal experience of relating to God and to one another. For those who are new among us on any given Sunday, what they see, hear, and do as part of our worship tells them a lot about who we are and what we’re about. For those of us who worship as Foundry regularly, everything we do in worship is an occasion for rehearsing our faith. One writer says that “the repeated patterns and practices of Christian worship over time shape us in ways of being with God and one another. In the repeated patterns and practices of Christian worship, we are formed and fashioned into the values and vision of the gospel.”  “Repeated patterns and practices,” it is suggested, are necessary in order to be formed into the shape that more closely resembles the Kin-dom of heaven.  

Think of a body-builder: if he wants to change the shape of his body to emphasize certain aspects of his physique, then regular, repeated patterns and practices are required. The same movement, over and over, builds strength and definition. If we want our lives to look a certain way, to have particular characteristics and reflect particular values, then repeated patterns and practices—disciplined habits—are required to help our lives take that shape. We might also think about a sports team. Individuals can practice the fundamentals on their own, but the team won’t play well together or accomplish its goal unless each person is consistent in team practice and utilizes each team member’s different strengths.

The repeated patterns and practices of Christian worship, meant to be lively and life-giving can certainly become formulaic, boring, and, well…deadly. The founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley, was deeply concerned that the Anglican Church of which he was a part had devolved into empty ritualism, seemingly cut off from the life-transforming power of the Holy Spirit. His response was to organize small groups to study the Bible, pray, support one another in the faith, hold each other accountable, and serve the poor. These small groups provided a context within which folks were reminded of what they were doing, nurtured a faith that was really connected to their everyday life, and deepened their relationship with the God they worshiped when they showed up on Sunday morning. Wesley remained an Anglican priest his whole life and always expected members of the small groups within the Methodist societies to worship at their parish church, bringing their spiritual awakening with them into the pews to enliven the ritual with a vital and living faith in a living God!  

Our spiritual heritage as United Methodists, therefore, is rich with a model for small group community, with worship patterns and practices of the Anglican Church out of which we grew, and an intentional focus on the movement of the Holy Spirit who is always at work in our daily lives and in our worship to challenge, transform, inspire, and make us new. 

There is a basic pattern and movement of our worship—gathering in prayer and praise, being encountered by the Word of God, responding to the Word in acts of faith, generosity, sacrament, and commitment, and being commissioned and sent forth. Within the basic pattern, those of us who plan worship may add something creative or different at the prompting of Spirit. And in any given week, something may happen “on the spot”—something unplanned or uncontrolled. The regular pattern and practice of communal worship creates the trusted “container” in which Spirit can move in surprising ways.

I will never forget the Ascension Sunday when, after preaching a sermon inspired by an image of Christ dancing into heaven, I planned to have my friend sing the song “I Hope You Dance.” I knew I would invite the congregation to respond during the song, but wasn’t sure what form that response would take—whether it would be an invitation to pray at the altar or in the pews, or—well, I just didn’t know ahead of time. When the time came, I simply invited folks to respond however they wanted to…they could pray, they could just ponder, they could dance, whatever. And, lo and behold, people got up and started dancing together, right there in church! 

Communal ritual—whether in worship or participation in a small group—helps create trust that allows taking risks like that. It’s also important because of its consistency. It helps us remain in relationship to God and to one another through the varying conditions of our lives and the inconsistencies of our feelings and moods; this is why I encourage those who are grieving—or those struggling in their faith—to get back into regular worship or connection with their small group as soon as possible; the ritual helps provide something constant, a place to be held. It has also been said that ritual practice is necessary for us because of our persistent amnesia—our forgetting who we are, whom we live for, and why. And so we gather in small groups to share what’s real in our lives and to receive encouragement, support, and prayer for the journey. We are present with one another in worship to pray, listen, and ponder, to sing our praises to God, to speak words full of poetry and mystery that call us to remember the story, to remember who we are and who God is and why we are here anyway—that it’s not all about me or just looking out for Number One, that there is something larger of which we are a part and that there is hope for our lives no matter what the circumstances.

Perhaps the most poignant example for me of the power of communal ritual to form and shape us and to become so much a part of us that it lives in our bones is the experience of praying and singing with folks who suffer from Alzheimers Disease or dementia. Somehow the Lord’s Prayer, the favorite Christmas carol—whatever was repeated and enlivened through the rituals of the Church for that person—those things remain when so much else is lost. The disease can’t touch that part of them; they can still recite those prayers… Those rituals live in very deep places in us. They form us; and they remind us who we are even when so much else of our lives is forgotten.

And, of course, the thing that matters most of all in life is the love we give and receive. Cultivating relationships, caring for one another, sharing life in all its complications, and highs, and lows, working shoulder to shoulder for things that matter, laughing, crying, and persevering together—this is the heart of it all. Our worship and our intentional connections in relationship with one another in small groups, classes, ministry teams and committees provide the place for us to practice living faith, hope, and love. Only when we’ve been at it awhile, will we be able to create enough trust to do the really difficult things and work together in ways that truly honor every gift and member. It is in these contexts we are formed and grow in the love and compassion that reflects the life of God revealed in Jesus.

Do you have to “go to church” to call yourself a Christian? No. Do you need to be part of intentional covenant community—even with all its challenges, needs, disappointments, and foibles—to be fully shaped and formed over the course of your life in the perfect love of God in the image of Jesus? Well… yes. The good news is that God’s faith in us, hope for us, and love for us abide. And that loving presence will guide your steps…and always on a path that leads to life.

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Gifted for Service - January 23rd, 2022

A sermon preached by Rev. Ben Roberts for Foundry UMC

January 23rd, 2022

"Shine On" Sermon Series

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January 16th, 2022 - Making a Difference - Bishop Marcus Matthews

2022-01-16

Guest Preacher Bishop Marcus Matthews

Retired Baltimore-Washington Conference

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