100 Sermons

For people who have been abused, there is no quick fix. I wish I could say there was. However, as the promise from Isaiah makes clear, in Jesus there is hope and healing, liberation and justice. I can only pray that the reality of those promises are evident in your life in the days, weeks, and years to come.

Until then, religious leaders like me have work to do—to interrupt the injustices being perpetrated by our very own leaders on our very own people.

Love cannot be purchased with your pain. We do not need to hurt in order to experience love, for God is love and God intends nothing but your flourishing.

If your pastor didn’t at least acknowledge #MeToo, you need a new pastor.

And so my role is to have you think about the ways in which God is calling you into total liberation. Total freedom. We like to talk about freedom in Jesus. We like to talk about early Sunday morning. We’re so quick to rush to the sunrise that we never dealt with the sunset. We’re so quick to get to the resurrection of the Savior, we don’t even pay attention to the 33 years that He lived and walked and breathed.

 #MeToo has led to #ChurchToo. Jesus’ geneology reveals something profound about God. That God comes to the aid and identifies with people who have been sinned against. God doesn’t overlook them, God doesn’t hide their stories and God doesn’t sweep them under the rug. And it is the church’s job to do the same.

Jesus enters the world through the womb of a woman so that we can go free. He does not make a grand entrance but waits to be born, tarries with Mary, tied to her umbilical cord, connected to her suffering. When she cried out in pain, he said, “Me too.”

So, let’s speak out, just like Jesus did. Let’s get angry, just like Jesus did. And let us, as the church, as agents of Jesus Christ, claim our responsibility for driving out the evil spirit that tries to break our bodies and bend our wills. Right now, in our political reality, we need to pay attention. We need to speak up. We need to resist.

See beloved, sometimes people think that they have written our stories for us. But God says, that is not your story. God gives us the voice, God gives us the power to reclaim our stories of our own. So, then Tamar takes that power to reclaim her story.

Brothers, we are called to create safe space for women at home, in the church, on the job, in the school. We are called to pray for them and not prey on them.

We must love kindness. We must open up our Bibles, as well as our eyes, hearts and minds, to Jesus’ message and remind ourselves that the one we follow is rooted in love. The Hebrew word for love here is chesed. This is a love that is unbreakable and unconditional, like the love God has for us. To love kindness means we in the church must listen to and believe survivors who share their story. Survivors come from environments where they were made to feel powerless. Love kindness means focusing on empowering survivors to make their own choices.

Perpetrators of spiritual abuse are masters at twisting scripture to gain power and control. When God’s name is used to endorse certain behaviours, the assumption is that this type of behaviour comes with a divine authority that no one can argue with. The victim of spiritual abuse becomes convinced there is no way out, they are meant to suffer this way, that God is punishing them, that this is their cross to bear and God’s will for them.

And it is with that hope that we continue to pray all our days, and with the passing of time, we begin to feel our hope is not in vain. We do not know where this assurance comes from. We do not know how or when, but we feel it, know it deep within that someday, somehow God will send a very different kind of king. We can only pray the world will be ready to receive him. He will be a man willing to be ruined on behalf of the people. If only the people will respond in like courage. Amen.

If we are surrounded by a culture, let alone raised in one, which suggests we are made in the image of God but all the images and words and people representing that God are male, what does that tell a young girl about her own worth and value in that system?

Maybe you feel heavy and are questioning how things could have gotten so bad. What have we done wrong in these recent years to allow these atrocities to happen in our congregations? At first I too thought the world was getting much worse, much darker, much more sinister… And then I realized the truth...The reason things seem to be deepening in darkness is not because things are getting so much worse, but because the veil is being lifted.

We are shaking it up and breaking it down. The walls of shame and secrecy are beginning to crack. Inside the dark confines of oppression, light is being shed.

"The pews are full of metoo stories."

“What kind of witness do we give if we pretend that we live in a perfect community, and that everyone who comes here is wonderful, and sin isn’t a problem for us.” That’s just bad theology. This side of heaven, we are living with sin, and the more open we are about it, the more likely we are to see it, name it and address it. We are a broken people. We live and suffer with all kinds of different tragedies. We offer the steadfast love of God to each other, love from a God who knows we are not perfect but who still welcomes us with open arms.

We want to reach everyone who is suffering in darkness to come find light here in our parish. Everyone who suffers desperation and despair to come and find hope here at our parish. We want them not to think God has abandoned them but to come here and experience the love of Jesus Christ that we will extend to them.

My challenge to you today is that we must move out of our comfort zones and begin to engage in this movement of breaking silence and becoming a welcoming community that is “moved with compassion.” In other words, we need to own that this exists within our community, and like Jesus, we must confront it head on. Remember, Jesus was never afraid to confront, nor question beliefs and stereotypes!

So, I am a lectionary preacher. That means that I choose from assigned texts on any given week, in order to work through the Bible in the three-year lectionary cycle ... It forces me to preach on some scriptures that I would rather ignore ... But as I was reading this text, I became furious, not only with the Bible story, but also with the lectionary itself. Because the lectionary skips some stories, from time to time, and the story that directly precedes this text, is skipped by the lectionary. And that story includes the reason that David’s army is fighting his son, Absalom.

You are not allowed to say ‘no’ to the King. And so perhaps Bathsheba went willingy, but she did not give her consent. In a situation in which a person is not allowed to say no—when we read that the King sent guards to get her and he lay with her, then we can and we should read, friends, then that means King David raped Bathsheba.

This is not an easy sermon. These are not easy times. These are not easy scriptures. This is not an easy conversation. But I trust you. And I trust God. And I trust that together, we will end the silence. It is time. It is far past time. But with the help of the God who created us all – male and female – may we move forward, together.

In the West, the church doesn’t really have a theology for those who have been abused. We talk about sin – the way in which we’ve acted against God or others. Sin is active. It’s a thought, word, deed, attitude, or intention that goes against God and humanity. But we don’t have language to talk about being sinned against.

God comes when our bodies, which according to Genesis are sacredly created in God’s image, open our tear ducts in refusal of a violent reality. God comes when our flesh, which Jesus chose to come in, quakes in revolt against any action that makes our flesh feel anything less than Divine.

If you don't believe that he died for women's liberation then tell me why there were so many more women at the foot of that cross when he bled than the brothers that was supposed to be his roll dogs.

He died for this moment right now. Because when Tamar was crying he was listening.

If you have been the victim of harassment, abuse, or assault, I want you to know that Jesus understands. You can go to Jesus and know that he will hear your prayer and understand your pain and anger. Jesus will believe you. Jesus will stand with you. And because Jesus understands and stands with you, we who are His followers will too.

We have come to understand that… just because the Bible was written during the patriarchal times DOES NOT MEAN that patriarchy, male-dominance is God-ordained. And, just because there is a law in the land does not mean that every law is God-ordained, especially when it is in opposition the greatest of all Law of Love.... We have to be able to separate the practices of the time from the intent.

When 95 percent of the sexual violence that happens, happens at the hands of men, then why don't you talk to the men? So, I want to close with saying, men, will you stand up? Will you say, this is not okay? This is not my wife's issue...this is about men. This is about us. Can we look at ourselves?

The story of Hagar and Sarah is still being played out today, all over the world... 
I think of Hagar when I hear of the 4.5 million people around the world who are being trafficked as slaves and sex slaves.

It is our call to teach each other, our brothers, our sisters, our fathers and mothers, our daughters and our sons - about how each of us is made in the image of God, and how each person must be treated with respect and dignity. We must continually stress that God calls our adult relationships to be based on equality and love… 

It is a crime, it is a sin; and it is an abomination before God to treat one of God’s created people as simply an object or as a means to an end.

If it is not good news for the women, it is not the good news of Jesus. 

The Spirit runs through our veins like a telephone wire telling God who we are, what we feel, what we think, what we need – even or perhaps especially when we can’t quite find the words to understand it or say it ourselves. What does this mean for the oppressed? For the trauma survivor that I spoke of earlier? This means that God, through the Holy Spirit, understands her story, her personhood, her cries and sighs.

There is an unexpected reversal in our country: we are listening to women and powerful, abusive men are falling from glory. It feels to me like God’s love for justice is breaking in. Merry Christmas, y’all. This is what holy reversal looks like, and it is messy and it is uncomfortable and confusing and praise God, the status quo can never return.

Jesus comes from a history that is very, very messy. And what does that say about God? It says that God claims us even in our mess. God loves us even in the mess that we come from. That the mess in our family histories do not have to define who we are. That God's future for us is bright.

Whatever else is in the Bible, whatever else we need to banish from being promoted as religious truth, in the beginning we were equal, we were one. God is still calling us to return to that potential with which we are all gifted. So we must teach our children that the only body they may claim is their own and never believe anyone who tells them differently.

Imagine a Christian—a follower of Jesus—as a beautiful crystal glass. [Hold up wine glass.] A valuable vessel ready for God to use. [Lightily strike it to make it chime. Pick up a similar-looking plastic wine glass.] Some people call themselves Christians, but they don’t treat others with love. [Drop or throw the plastic one.] This one’s plastic. Those who call themselves Christians and do what Jesus says are the real deal—the crystal glasses. Those who call themselves Christians but do not do what Jesus says are fakes, plastic, imitations of the real thing. They look a lot alike on the outside, but eventually, the lack of fruit in their lives, the lack of foundation, will show when they do not love others. If we call him Lord, we must do what he says.

Speaking your truth requires courage and it requires community. In fact, the two usually go together.

Because of these crises of faith, victims are vulnerable to spiritual abuse, in which people try to keep women in those abusive relationships. But there is nothing in Christian teachings that can be rightly used to justify abuse.

Domestic violence does not, in one sense, have anything to do with religion. Yet, religion, if not the cause, often provides the context for abuse in a home in which either the abuser or the victim may cite religious beliefs for the abuse itself or for staying in an abusive relationship. Thus, where religion is part of the problem, religion necessarily must be part of the solution.

Freedom from sexual assault. Freedom from exploitation. Freedom from war. Freedom from mob beatings and unjust imprisonment. Freedom from a bound spirit. Freedom to be where Jesus is. Freedom to see his glory. That’s a mother’s prayer, and Jesus’ prayer. Amen.

There’s also spiritual violence, when the offender keeps the victim from practicing his or her faith. It also includes taking bible verses out of context in order to keep victims in submission.

Beloved siblings, it is our right to be whole. Hear Tamar's story. Let her story be a reminder that privilege and power have devastating effects on marginalized bodies.

Love is not supposed to hurt. No one should be loving you to death.

These women and girls came together, strengthened and supported by each other, to speak the truth of their horrific experiences and for once, the world listened. This is what casting out demons looks like in our world. This is what confronting evil directly looks like.

Even now, we rest in a gleaming sanctuary outfitted with the latest liturgical colors. And yet, there are members of our community whose seemingly picture-perfect worlds, are actually shattered at the core. And it’s only truthelling, love, and acceptance covered in worship, praise, and prayer that will help us gather these shards of personality and pain to create a mosaic truly becoming of the Body of Christ.

We’re going to move straight into communion today, into this physical reminder that Jesus isn’t just watching from afar, but that in Jesus, God has joined us in the whole human experience, including in any suffering. That God has been subject to violence and abuse and injustice, and has used that experience to know all of our pain, and to make a way forward toward new life and connection and redemption.

When asked why she did it all, [Rosa Parks] famously said: “My cup of endurance runneth over.” Me too, Rosa Parks. Me too.

My cup ran over the day my eyes were opened to the many layers between me and the justice my own body has never received.

My cup ran over on the days I chanted with my city, my country: “I can’t breathe.”

My cup ran over when I read defenses of Harvey Weinstein and the many assaulters whose stories have been famously surfacing these days.

My brothers, we need to show that our masculinity doesn’t reach its height with sexual conquest or the domination of women in anyway. We reach the fullness of our masculinity when we can look at our sisters in Christ, and all women, and say to them, “I walk beside you and you walk beside me as together we seek to work toward the beloved community God desires the world to be.”

The workplaces of our world, especially the church and the school, these need to be safe and protected places for children and young people to grow in faith and in knowledge.

No man has the right to dominate His wife, to intimidate His wife, to abuse His wife! That is not love! It never has been, and it never will be love! Love is not selfish, it is giving! Love does not demand it’s own rights, or insist on it’s own way! Love is not arrogant or rude! Love is not irritable or abusive! Love is patient and kind. Love is how we treat each other—with tenderness, gentleness, kindness, understanding, and respect.