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Jered Weber-Johnson | Craig Lemming | Marjorie D. Grevious | Barbara Mraz | Guest Preacher | All

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

by the Rev. Jeckonia Okoth
I wonder what was going in the mind of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini when she arrived in New York on March 31, 1889, accompanied by six other religious sisters. Did she see herself as an outsider coming in or as an insider coming home away from home? Let us fast-forward this: suppose someone from the Congo, or Libya or Sudan came in and wanted to start a religious order; what would be the response, and what kind of people would we see in that order?

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Guest Preacher November 26, 2024

Jonathan Myrick Daniels: My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord

“I wonder where we would have been in the Selma 1965 story? Would we have been among those beaten, hosed, and jailed? Would we have been actively registering voters and been present, even living with those struggling for dignity and equality? Would we have been Jonathan Myrick Daniels, willing to confront evil and hatred at the end of a shotgun?”

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Guest Preacher August 27, 2024

The Challenge of Ministering in a Divided Nation

“I argued that to remain silent and not to act in defiance when the Apartheid regime had been taken over by the Principalities and Powers legitimatizing oppression, injustice and racism, seeing this as even Godly, was not an option for us.”

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Guest Preacher July 21, 2024

Divine Pathos Proclaimed: Being Moved to Write, Speak, and Do Justice Now

“Getting out of our own ego’s way, to graciously receive a prophet’s truthful and disruptive word from God, takes courage. Courage to surrender to God’s will. Herod was incapable of surrendering to God’s will to love. The courage it takes to listen, accept, and surrender to a prophet’s divine words is sorely lacking today. Herods are everywhere.”

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The Rev. Craig Lemming July 14, 2024

The Bravest Person You Know

“Perhaps another miracle in this story is about being brave enough to be reliant. Reliance is hard.  It’s hard to go against cultural norms which prize independence, self-sufficiency, self-determination.  It’s hard to admit that we need help an ask for it. It’s hard to risk the appearance of weakness.  It’s hard, sometimes, to believe we are worthy of help.”

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Guest Preacher June 30, 2024

Biomimetic Belonging: Cooperating with God’s Sprigs and Seeds of Trust

“Thankfully, we are slowly turning back to seeing existence as an ecosystem in which diverse organisms and species cooperate so that everything in creation can both survive and thrive together. Instead of a competitive mindset of extraction from the natural world, Biomimicry shows us how we can cooperate with and learn from creation. I would argue, based on this morning’s scriptures, that Ezekiel and Jesus are proponents of a biomimetic theology.”

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The Rev. Craig Lemming June 16, 2024

Holy Transitions: Tarrying with God through the In-Between Times

“In her book, Tarry Awhile: Wisdom from Black Spirituality for People of Faith, African Caribbean Theologian Dr. Selina Stone explains that Tarrying ‘is a collective time of waiting on God… It is a time of surrender to God, in the hope of personal and communal transformation. It is also a moment for intercession, for bringing our spiritual needs to God as well as our loving concern for our neighbors and the world.’ I think we can agree that to face this world’s overwhelming destruction of human lives and of creation, tarrying together as a spiritual practice in community is an absolute necessity.”

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The Rev. Craig Lemming May 12, 2024

Come, Eat, Taste Again Your Salvation

“The gospel of Luke bounces from table to table, meal to meal, and while the details are omitted, I cannot help filling them in with my imagination. You can smell the smoke from the fish. Candlelight reflects off the slick oil in a bowl on the table. Bread is broken. There is wine in cups.

Why did Luke take such pains to include food at every turn in his gospel? Luke wants us to know that this Jesus is the same Jesus who died, who was buried, who has returned—changed yes, but still the same, wounded, hungry, and yearning to be with his people.”

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Rev. Jered Weber-Johnson April 14, 2024

“You a lie and the truth ain’t in you”

“I grew up with this quote weaved among the many southern sayings I heard the elders speak over us and into us as children. Until I became an actual student of theology I did not know that this saying, and many others, are actual scriptural references from specific texts. 1 John 2 reads in part: ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.'”

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Marjorie Grevious April 7, 2024

Resurrection’s Responsibility: Living God’s Rebellious Liberating Love for Others

“Every Easter, we hear those sublime words: “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.” The Roman Empire had tried to crucify and kill the love of God incarnate, and they failed. Empire tried to contain, control, and seal up that incarnate love of God in a tomb, and they failed. Empires still try to control, crucify, and kill the most vulnerable of God’s beloved creatures. Jesus Christ, the love of God made flesh, crucified and risen, triumphs over all empires eternally. God’s liberating love always bursts free from cages, enclosures, and tombs of empire.”

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The Rev. Craig Lemming March 31, 2024
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