Learning to Tell a Different Story

1 Samuel 17: 38-54

Roger Lynn

January 29, 2017

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

It hasn’t always been this way, but for the past 5,000 years or so most of the cultures of the world have been dominated and shaped by what some scholars refer to as the Empire model. David Korten, in his article in the Summer 2006 edition of Yes! Magazine, “The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community,” describes it this way, “Empire organizes by domination at all levels, from relations among nations to relations among family members. Empire brings fortune to the few, condemns the majority to misery and servitude, suppresses the creative potential of all, and appropriates much of the wealth of human societies to maintain the institutions of domination.” It is a way of living in which violence is so intricately woven into every aspect of life that it is simply taken for granted and assumed to be “just the way things are.” 

This way of understanding life has profoundly influenced our faith as well. We need look no further than our scripture text for this morning to see this dramatically illustrated. The story of David and Goliath. It, along with other Biblical stories like it, has shaped the way we understand God, the world, and ourselves for countless generations. We teach it to our children in Sunday School! And we do it without even flinching. Most of the time we don’t even see the irony which is contained within the story itself. David proclaims, apparently with a straight face, “This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.” (1 Samuel 17:46-47) David says this moments before he kills Goliath and then uses Goliath’s own sword to cut off his head. What happened to “the Lord does not save by sword and spear”? Violence and domination and might-makes-right are so deeply imbedded into our way of seeing the world that most of the time we don’t even recognize the inconsistency.

Called Beyond Our Fear

Isaiah 6: 1-8 & Luke 5: 1-11

Roger Lynn

January 22, 2017

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

At the church I served in Moscow, Idaho, there was a place in the bulletin each week where we listed the names of those who were serving in various capacities. At the bottom of that list there was a small but important notation which read, “Ministers: Every Member.” We don’t print that message in our bulletins, but the attitude is certainly present here in this congregation. It is an understanding that speaks volumes about how we understand our relationship with God, with each other and with the world at large. Ministry is the task of reaching out to touch the world with God’s healing grace. And it is a task to which each of us is called. I may be the pastor, but all of us are ministers. And as such, today’s texts offer profound insights in terms of our self-perceptions and God’s relationship with us.

Dancing with the Mystery

Song of Songs 2: 8-14

Roger Lynn

January 15, 2017

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

2017 is only a couple of weeks old. The sense of new beginnings and fresh possibilities is still hanging in the air. And so, in that spirit, I offer an antidote to the old, narrow understandings of God which we sometimes get stuck in. Our spiritual senses were made for wider vistas than that. Fortunately there is help for expanding our horizons. This morning, rather than offering a lot of my words I choose instead to offer you the words of some old friends of mine. When I say “old” I’m not referring to how long I’ve known them, since I was only introduced to them in the last few years. I really mean “old.” Some of them from as far back as the 8th-century. I want to share with you some spiritual insights from a variety of mystics – folks from various faith traditions who experience God at a very intimate level through the path of the heart. Their poetry inspires me, and I hope will inspire you as well. 

As you listen to these poems you will hear a variety of names for God, including “Beloved” and “Friend” and “Guest.” One of the interesting things about these writings is that it is often difficult to tell what particular faith tradition they are a part of. In the face of such an intimate encounter with the Holy, doctrines and dogmas just seem to fall away.

I will warn you, however, that you may need to set aside some of the images and understandings about God that you grew up with. I know that is true for me. And oh, what freedom we discover when we do. So, sit back, relax, and listen to some sacred love poetry from folks who have learned to dance with the Mystery of God.

Starry Eyed & Worldly Wise

Isaiah 60: 1-6 & Matthew 2: 1-12

Roger Lynn

January 8, 2017

Epiphany Sunday

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

Down through the years we’ve been given all sorts of names and titles. Some folks know us as kings. Others call us the Magi. Some say we were Oriental. Mostly though, we get referred to as Wise Men. But regardless of what we are called it is all rather amusing, because at the time we never would have dreamed that anyone would worry about calling us anything. How could we have known that we would be remembered? How could we have guessed that what we did would so capture people’s imaginations? You’ve never really known very much about us. That Matthew fellow is the only one who ever wrote down our story, and even he didn’t tell very much. But that hasn’t stopped the dreamers and the storytellers over the years from expanding what little they had to go on into countless stories and conjectures about who we were, what we did and why.