Community United Church of Christ (St. Paul Park, Minnesota)

Text: Luke 2:1-20

I have what might appear to some as an unhealthy fascination with fire. I mostly keep it under control, but do light candles nearly every day of the week. There’s usually always one burning on my desk, and I can tell you the location of every stash of candles here in the church. Occasionally I’ve been teased for my preoccupation with fire, as well as my messy habit of melting one spent candle’s wax into another. I should just learn to make candles, and then I can justify this obsession as a life-enriching hobby. But at my current rate of combustion, smoke inhalation will probably get me first. Continue reading “Where the Light Shines Through” →

Community United Church of Christ (St. Paul Park, MN)

Scripture: Ezra 1:1-4 and 3:1-4, 10-13

Last weekend Javen and I spent most of Saturday on his grandparents’ farm near Dassel, Minnesota. We and almost a dozen other members of the extended family gathered together for a Swedish celebration of Christmastime. Javen and his grandmother worked together for several hours making thin potato pancakes, or lefse. I did my part by taking pictures and downing cups of glögg, a potent Scandinavian drink. When it came time for dinner, we ate great heaps of delicious homemade food, including Swedish meatballs and the lefse (with butter spread by traditional wooden knives), on special holiday china that Grandma Aileen has had for many years. To show that I too could get into the Swedish holiday spirit, I even had me a little piece of lutefisk. The only thing we were missing in this postcard-ready Swedish Christmas were those iconic Scandinavian sweaters, but I assure you that one has been ordered for next year.

Continue reading “Home Again” →

Community United Church of Christ (St. Paul Park, Minnesota)

Isaiah 40:1-11

All this year, driving along Snelling Avenue where we live has been absolutely miserable. This is a major arterial route in Saint Paul, on which thousands of cars, buses and bicycles travel every day. Yet it’s been torn up for what seems like forever. It started this spring, when the Snelling Avenue bridge over Interstate 94 was closed and then removed entirely. That bridge wasn’t replaced and reopened until the State Fair at the end of August. No cars, buses, bikes or people could get over the highway at Snelling for four whole months. At the same time in our immediate neighborhood just north of the bridge, every inch of Snelling got a total makeover, which jackhammered sidewalks, churned up the pavement and choked traffic to a single, crawling, dusty lane. As if this weren’t enough, all the rest of Snelling Avenue for miles north and south of us has been torn up at half-mile increments on both sides of the road, to put in stations for a Bus Rapid Transit line. So all year long, travel on Snelling Avenue has been nearly impossible. City buses were rerouted and delayed, cars were detoured a half-dozen different ways, and people decided to avoid Snelling Avenue like it was the bubonic plague. So when I hear Isaiah the prophet proclaim a highway prepared, with the uneven ground becoming level and the rough places a plain, all I can think of is road construction.

Continue reading “Road Construction” →

Location: Community United Church of Christ (St. Paul Park, MN)

Scripture: Isaiah 5:1-7; 11:1-5

I’m on the email list for one of the local breweries in my neighborhood, so I get regular updates on their activities. This week Burning Brothers described the near-infinite number of variables that combine to make each batch of beer unique. Temperature, style and quantity of hops, other additions, and the timing of each step all play a role in how each batch of beer turns out. As they say, “With all of these different factors, you can end up with something very different from what you were trying to create, yet still delicious, something that is right on the mark, or something that is completely undrinkable…. In those instances, the brewers grit their teeth, and send barrels of beer down the drain.” This description was all by way of explaining that their latest batch of IPA did not turn out. Instead, they said, the foul-smelling brew “has gone to the beer trolls that live in the trench drains. While they were very happy about it, the rest of us wept a little.”^[1] Having seen firsthand the weeks-long care and prayer that goes into a single pail of home-brewed beer, I have to believe that “wept a little” only scratches the surface of their deep disappointment.

Continue reading “God’s Faithfulness, Our Gratitude” →

Location: Community United Church of Christ (St. Paul Park, MN)

Scripture: 1 Kings 12:1-17, 25-29

Last Thursday, one of the new generation of conservative leaders—the so-called “Young Guns”—was elected to a place of near ultimate political power. Over the last few weeks the man with two first names, Paul Ryan, became the consensus candidate to replace outgoing Speaker John Boehner. Ironically, he didn’t even want the position. It was pressed upon him after there were no other viable candidates who could lead the splintered Republican side of the House of Representatives. On Thursday—at only 45 years old—he became one of the youngest Speakers of the House ever.

Continue reading “Ask the Audience” →

Location: Community United Church of Christ (St. Paul Park, Minnesota)

Scripture: 2 Samuel 5:1-5; 6:1-5

I’m not sure if this is proper for a pastor to admit or not, but I really love to dance. I’m not talking about a genteel waltz, nor have I any idea how to do a spicy tango. What I’m talking about is club dancing, to the kind of thumping bass music that’s on offer most nights of the week at establishments of ill repute. You might not recognize it as dancing, per se. It looks like a cross between jumping in place and flailing after bees. There’s nothing synchronized, structured or planned about it. Nothing especially beautiful either, at least in the classical sense. This is why I keep my eyes closed or look down most of the time, particularly if there are mirrors around. What really captivates me is the beat, and the feeling of complete release that comes from being lost in the music. When Javen and I arrive at a place where the beat is going strong, I go directly to the dance floor. It doesn’t need to be crowded, or to be playing Lady Gaga (though both help). But if I’m in the right head and heart space, dancing without any purpose beyond the joy of movement brings me into a place of adoration. “Alive, God! I’m alive, and moving, and grateful to you! Praise you, praise music, praise artists, praise beats, praise talent, praise life!” Continue reading “A Community United in Praise” →

Community United Church of Christ (Saint Paul Park, Minnesota)

Scripture: Ruth 1:1-11a, 14-22

It’s been just over a year since our dog Ruthie came into our lives. She was a rescue pup that Javen and I adopted into our household of two cats. She has been a joyful, loving addition. I pretend that I don’t like her constant affection, that I need my space, but her desire to be right beside us is one of the things I find most endearing. She follows us around from room to room in the house, stands watching us intently as we cook in the kitchen, begs to go out with us when we’re by the back door, and hops on the couch immediately when we go to sit down. In fact, we named her “Ruthie” because of this passage of Scripture: “Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” One couldn’t ask for a more loyal, loving friend.

Unless you ask our cats, especially Amos. Continue reading “A Community for Outsiders” →

Scripture: Deuteronomy 5:1-21; 6:4-9

Over a year ago I got an email from church member Marlys Rucker. It was an email forward that contained a version of this morning’s scripture. So, since she is the wisest Marlys that we have at church, I saved it and made a note to come back to it when I was preaching on the Ten Commandments. Because what Marlys sent me was The Ten Commandments (Minnesota Style). See if you recognize any of these: Continue reading “A Community Loyal to God” →

Scripture: Exodus 1:8-2:10; 3:1-15

The word “sabotage” comes to us from the Dutch. Hundreds of years ago fabric producers in the Netherlands began shifting the way they made cloth. The old way was labor-intensive, involving many artisanal cloth-makers working on small looms. But with the invention of large, wooden textile looms, business owners could guarantee a more uniform product and didn’t need as many employees. Workers feared for their livelihood and fought back. They took their heavy wooden clog shoes and tossed them into the gears of the industrial looms, snapping off wooden pins and wheels, thereby fouling up the machines. A wooden shoe was called a “sabot”, and that’s how we get the word “sabotage.” Continue reading “Ordinary People, Extraordinary God” →