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From the Desktop of the Pastor – Week of Holy Trinity Sunday

Hi everyone,

So I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but there was a pretty big wedding this weekend.  I’m not one to ever really invest a lot of time into the lives of others that I don’t know personally, especially the lives of celebrities.  But I always like to hear a good sermon, and knowing that this wedding was going to have one, I knew I had to hear it.  I didn’t need to watch the rest of the wedding, as I’ve seen enough weddings in my lifetime, but I would imagine that the preacher for such a largely televised wedding such as this would have a really good sermon.

And Bishop Michael Curry didn’t disappoint.

If you haven’t seen it yet, go see it.  Or read it.  Or listen to it on some sort of audio device that doesn’t produce video.  Or something.  Just.  Listen.

But as I watched the video of the sermon, the cameras at times panned to the people sitting in the congregation.  And honestly… I couldn’t read their faces.  I don’t want to sound judgemental at all, but there were times that it seemed like people were mockingly laughing at the Bishop for his sermon.  I do hope that I’m wrong though.

And then I heard and read about some critiques people had on it all.  Some said that it was too much religion.  Some said that it was too evangelical.  Some said he was too energetic and it made people uncomfortable.

Oh, irony of ironies.  Watch the sermon and you’ll know what I mean.  But for now, let’s look at next week’s readings.

They are:
Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 29
Romans 8:12-17
John 3:1-17

I think these readings point a bit to what I think was going on with Bishop Curry’s sermon at the royal wedding.  We have someone annointed to preach the good news, we have someone who doesn’t understand the good news, and we have someone who says that understanding the good news takes humility and an open mind.

Now, I’m not saying that those who were in attendance were snobby and narrow minded, I don’t know any of them so it would be snobby and narrow minded for me to do so.  But I do think that the criticisms that I’ve seen against the sermon may have come from a place that isn’t riddled with that humility and open mindedness.  Because really, to know God takes an open mind.  To understand God’s love takes humility.  And to believe that God has good news for us all takes both.

In a world that has become so cynical and suspicious of anything religious, God tells us to believe.  In a world that has become so judgemental and self-righteous, God asks us to open our hearts and learn to forgive.  In a world that has become so closed off from each other and anything different, God invites us to love with grace and mercy and to live in community with each other.

For God is community.  God is love.  God is the embodiment of grace, mercy, and right relationship.  And God welcomes us into all of that, as we are born anew and changed from within and brought to see this radical and earth-changing love that saves us all.

God bless the newly married royal couple.  God bless Bishop Michael Curry.  God bless all us, that as we continue to navigate through this world of confusion and multiple opinions and world views, we might be able to see, feel, and know love, and act upon it for the sake of all of God’s children.

Thanks be to God.  Have a great week, everyone!

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