Audio Sermon, October 27, 2013

 

One Score and Ten Years Ago

Texts: Micah 6:7-8; Luke 18:9-14

Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo

October 27, 2013

 

Audio Sermon for 10/20/13

 

 

 

How Can We Ever Sing God's Song in This Wasteland?

Texts: Jeremiah 31:27‑34; 2 Timothy 3:14‑4:‑5

Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo

October 20, 2012

Audio Sermon for Sunday

 

What Does God Owe Us?

Texts: 2 Timothy 2:8-15, Luke 17:11-19

Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo

October 13, 2012

 

A Place at the Table for EVERYONE (10/06/13) Sermon

 

A Place at the Table for EVERYONE

Text: Luke 17:5-10

Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo

October 6, 2012

One day a minister was driving home from church with his wife. He felt really good about the sermon he preached that morning and was gloating a bit. He asked his wife, “How many great sermons do you think were preached this morning?”

His wife looked over at him and said, “One less than you think.”

And for those who are wondering, no, this is not autobiographical.

It does remind me of something Jesus is saying. Jesus, without ever actually saying the word, humility, is telling people to practice humility.

Jesus, first tells the disciples a little thing about faith. Faith is faith. It’s not something you have a little of or a lot of. You either have faith or you don’t. This is not a slam, by the way. The apostles, like most of us, didn’t believe they had enough faith----Jesus is telling them that you either have faith or you don’t. But then, in a major challenge, tells them if they really had faith, they could toss a tree into the lake. There is a bit of encouragement and challenge all rolled into one.

Then Jesus goes on to make a point about humility. He speaks of doing what we are supposed to do----and not expecting great accolades for doing it.

There is something interesting about all of this. God doesn’t call us to be heroes or expect great rewards for having faith. God, instead, calls us to be saints----and to share God’s holiness with the world.

Which brings us to today, World Communion Sunday, and a sermon title, “A Place at the Table for EVERYONE.” If you have ever chatted on the Internet you know that when you put something all in caps, it’s shouting. I’m shouting EVERYONE today.

We often, in our discussions about God talk about faith and prayer is an act of faith. So is coming around God’s Table. It is an amazing act of faith. How we approach it, I believe, is with faith and humility.

It is, first and foremost, God’s Table.

If you remember anything today please remember this. Merideth and I may be the pastors of this church but it is not our table. It is not owned by the Elders or the Church Council of this church. It is not even owned by St. Marks. This is God’s Table.

Because it’s God’s Table no one ever has the right to deny anyone a place at the table. It is God’s Table. Only God can deny us a place at the table and God never denies anyone. All are invited to the feast.

And we do this. We don’t deny people a place at the table. It’s part of our tradition.

Last weekend I heard a man in rural Missouri, a member of the local United Church of Christ congregation say about his church that they have picked up all the people none of the other churches wanted any longer. I laughed. I’ve said it before that many of our members have been thrown out of the finest churches in town and we do not deny anyone a place at the table----ever. We seem, on some level to get it. It’s not our table. It’s God’s table.

But something haunts me about this. Everyone who comes through our doors is welcome and invited to the table but I often wonder how we deal with a group of people who are already here, many who don’t come to the Table. I’m talking about our children.

We say that children are welcome but we don’t really invite them. We leave it up to the parents and we don’t talk about it very much. Until right now.

About 15 or 20 years ago the United Church of Christ General Synod recommended to churches to begin welcoming children for Holy Communion. For many people it was a shocking development because, they said, it defied tradition. That’s not necessarily so, however.

The thing is paedocommunion, the theological term for children and Holy Communion is not something that is new. We know from the writings of Cyprian in the year 250 that the early church offered children Holy Communion. We also know that in the 13^th century many churches in the west began to deny children Holy Communion while the churches in the east continued, and still continue, to offer children Holy Communion.

The churches in the west stopped for a variety of factors such as superstition regarding the sacramental elements and, frankly, a lack of preaching. Local church pastors were banned from preaching for a long stretch and most people were told not to take Holy Communion. It was not a good time.

Another objection people often have with paedocommunion is that they say that children do not understand. There’s some validity to this----except I have to admit. I really don’t understand Holy Communion either. My thoughts and feelings about Holy Communion from when I was in seminary and until now are drastically different. I no longer really try to define what happens----I just know something happens----and I really don’t understand it.

Holy Communion is not really about understanding as much as experiencing something special. I figure if I don’t really understand what’s happening, I’m not that worried about other people really understanding it either.

There is also something else about this. Why would we deny children something good and wonderful? Whenever we gather around the Table of God something good and wonderful and holy happens. I love for children to have the opportunity to be part of that and I not only invite them, but I invite them and their parents to avail themselves of opportunities to talk to Merideth and me about this.

We cannot honestly say we welcome everyone to God’s Table if we do not invite our children to God’s Table. They are welcome, but they have not been invited. Today, I’m inviting. If not today, I invite parents to talk to us so we may invite and welcome all.

I say all of this in the context of today’s Scripture.

We can easily pat ourselves on the back. A lot of churches don’t invite everyone and many don’t welcome everyone. We do. Great. Hooray for us.

But let’s be reminded that Jesus wouldn’t be patting us on the back and saying ‘hooray!’ Jesus’ response would be more to the point that we are doing what is expected.

Let us be reminded today, as we gather around God’s Table that it is indeed God’s Table and we are invited and very welcome guests. All of us. No exceptions. It is God’s Table there is a place for EVERYONE.

Rachel Held Evans---A Woman of Valor

Last night my wife and I had the opportunity to hear Rachel Held Evans speak about her book A Year of Biblical Womanhood. Her lecture, like her book, was both very serious and yet very humorous at times. As a minister in the last decade of active ministry hearing this remarkable young woman speak was a sign that Christianity will live on. She is certainly an amazing witness to the power of Christ in the world.

Biblical womanhood is a hot button issue. It coincides with Biblical manhood and Biblical marriage. Behind her observations, of course, is the burning question as to what exactly ‘Biblical’ really happens to be? As she pointed out, the term Biblical is often used as an adjective and, frankly often used cheaply as an adjective. It tends to be a word used to end discussions rather than facilitate discussions.

The Bible is full of stories of women, many who are unnamed. Many of the women in the Bible change the course of history and they either get little to no credit and many of them remain unnamed. Being a woman in Bible times was difficult, to say the least.

Ms. Held Evans was raised in an Evangelical worldview and much of her terminology and heart obviously come from that world. The difficulty she encountered was that she began to ask questions----very good questions----and in her research came to understand that the worldview she was living in was too limited. God was greater and more expansive and human life was far too complicated to fit into any sort of blueprint. In her research for her book she spent a year living out portions of the Bible in very literal ways to see what, exactly, was possible, or, perhaps, reasonable.

Her lecture last night was excellent and well received at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Louisville. The applause she received was well deserved and very affirming to her. I had a sense, however, that she was a bit taken aback from all the applause she was receiving and thanked everyone for the affirmation. I had the impression that affirmation for her work is something she has struggled with.

Last night I ordered her book on my Kindle. Amazon has a sweet deal on the book and I could not pass it up. I decided to read the reviews of A Year of Biblical Womanhood. Wow.

Please let me preface this by saying the overwhelming number of reviews were very, very positive. She is averaging 4 ½ stars and that is a remarkably high percentage. I have not yet read the book as I just purchased it last evening. However, based on the premises she laid out in the lecture, I have no doubt the book is every bit as good as the reviewers.

However, being the fatalist that I am, I decided I needed to read the 1 star reviews. Frankly, I could not imagine how people could have critiqued her slow low.

Here is what I discovered. The critiques were less ‘critiques’ but personal attacks. It became obvious that Rachel Held Evans had decided to look at the idea of Biblical womanhood from a more objective and even critical perspective. The fact that she interjected humor into the equation made people go downright mean.

What I read were not theologically sound assaults on her theological perspective. Many of those who chose to do so did so from far shakier ground than Ms. Held Evans ever trod. Her research was obviously extensive and very coherent. Their research was either painfully shallow or non-existent. Whereas Ms. Held Evans attempted to analyze and understand the Scripture, they were busily using clichés in reference to faith.

What was most, obviously, however, was that these ‘reviews’ were not so much reviews but personal attacks. In a twist of the famous Michael Corleone line, she ought not to take these professionally, this was personal. Much of it surrounds, I suspect, the words of Proverbs 31:

Proverbs 31:10-31

¹⁰ A capable wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. ¹¹ The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. ¹² She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. ¹³ She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. ¹⁴ She is like the ships of the merchant, she brings her food from far away. ¹⁵ She rises while it is still night and provides food for her household and tasks for her servant-girls. ¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. ¹⁷ She girds herself with strength, and makes her arms strong. ¹⁸ She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. ¹⁹ She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. ²⁰ She opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy. ²¹ She is not afraid for her household when it snows, for all her household are clothed in crimson. ²² She makes herself coverings; her clothing is fine linen and purple. ²³ Her husband is known in the city gates, taking his seat among the elders of the land. ²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them; she supplies the merchant with sashes. ²⁵ Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. ²⁶ She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. ²⁷ She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. ²⁸ Her children rise up and call her happy; her husband too, and he praises her: ²⁹ "Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all." ³⁰ Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. ³¹ Give her a share in the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the city gates.

Many women have used this as a job description and often feel guilty about it. Often it has been interpreted as the commands to women on how they ought to be wives to their husbands. It is, they believe, a command from God unto them, and most fall short.

To make matters worse many men have also used this as a blueprint for their wives. Talk about a set up for abuse!

However, the only command in this comes at the end when it speaks to the men: Give her a share in the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the city gates.

It is a poem and often used as a song from the men singing praises to the women in their lives. It is not about the work the women SHOULD be doing, but a song of gratitude for the life and commitment she has made to her husband.

Furthermore, as Ms. Held Evans points our very well, the opening words are not translated very well. This is not all that uncommon in the Bible, especially in the Hebrew Scriptures. Translations are often toned down or adjusted to our sensibilities. But the opening words, as here in the New Revised Standard Translation are ‘a capable wife.’

I decided to do a little research myself to see how other translations rendered Proverbs 31:10:

Proverbs 31:10
^31:10 A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. (NIV)

Proverbs 31:10
^31:10 A good wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. (RSV)

Proverbs 31:10
^31:10 Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. (NKJV)

Proverbs 31:10
^31:10 A good woman is hard to find, and worth far more than diamonds. (Message)

Proverbs 31:10
^31:10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. (KJV)

Proverbs 31:10
^31:10 A worthy woman who can find? For her price is far above rubies. (ASV)

Proverbs 31:10

The truly capable woman -- who can find her? She is far beyond the price of pearls. (NJB)

I was most struck by the last one from the New Jerusalem Bible. In many ways the NJB is the most accurate English translation of the Hebrew Scriptures and, like the others, it rendered the Hebrew rather inaccurately.

Proverbs 31 begins with the words “Eshet Chayil.” Rachel Held Evans said that in her research she discovered the words literally meant “woman of valor” as opposed to the way it is often rendered. Her critics do not appreciate this rendering very much so I felt I needed to research it myself.

There is a reason Rachel Held Evans got such good reviews on Amazon. Her research was and is right on target. Her critics, bless their little hearts, (A wonderful Southern expression….), are as wet as anyone who stood outside in the Louisville area this weekend as we got 6 inches of rain. Proverbs 31 is not a job description given from God to women, but a song of praise, from men, to the women in their lives, these women of valor.

Interestingly enough, the Bible leads us in some very amazingly wonderful ways to view the women in our lives. Despite the often brutal passages concerning women and the brutality many women have received in Bible times, and now, there are beautiful statements in the Bible for and about women. Rachel Held Evans has found the good, the bad, and the ugly as a disciple of Jesus Christ. She really is a woman of valor.

Audio Sermon 9/22/13

Renewing Ourselves in Faith at St. Marks United Church of Christ: A Conversion That Never Ends

Texts: Jeremiah 8:18-22 1 Timothy 2:1-7

Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo

September 22, 2013

 

Our Increasingly Divided Nation

 

I am concerned over our increasingly divided nation. In looking at the threats we face as a nation I cannot overcome the thought that our greatest threat is coming from our midst. We have become our own worst enemies.

Several years ago, during the election cycles, the

terms ‘red states’ and ‘blue states’ entered the picture. The red states were the Republican states and the blue states were the Democratic states. Anything that transpires in the state that either corresponds or differs from their assigned color is newsworthy. The colors are marked in terms of the Presidential elections and the colors never waver. Every news network uses them. We have become a divided nation, red and blue.

Churches are divided. There are conservative churches and liberal churches or ‘left wing’ and ‘right wing’ churches. I love Rick Warren’s statement that he’s not really looking to have the left wing or the right wing, but the ‘whole bird.’ I agree with him. I’d like to think people didn’t feel a need to differentiate themselves in church by conservative or liberal-----two words, by the way, that are completely absent from the Bible.

CNN has recently brought back the show Crossfire with four hosts, two from the left and two from the right. I greatly appreciate their effort to assist in making a divided nation a bit more divided. CNN, for the most part, has attempted to be somewhat balanced. For their efforts they are dead last among cable news providers. People on the right watch Fox News and people on the left watch MSNBC. We have to be sure to divide our news watching.

If you are a senior citizen you can now join the AARP which, I guess, is the ‘liberal’ version of being retired or AMAC which I’m guessing is the ‘conservative’ version of being retired.

Scouting has also divided. There are the Girl Scouts and a new version of ‘conservative’ Girl Scouts and a new ‘conservative’ version of the Boy Scouts is coming out.  Those ‘wild’ scouts.  Frankly this offends me beyond words.  I know so many men who grew up in the Boy Scouts who are beyond amazing and wonderful men, and I can talk endlessly on the amazing and wonderful experiences my daughters had in Girl Scouts.  As I said, this offends me beyond words.

I’m wondering if there are going to be ‘right’ and ‘left’ restaurants so that people don’t have to eat in the same room with people who may disagree with them.

The consequences are becoming devastating.

Within Christianity there has been a precipitous drop in Worship attendance in the past decade. Churches from all traditions and backgrounds have expressed concern and bewilderment that people are staying away in droves. Tragically the message of Jesus has often been twisted by political beliefs as opposed to influencing beliefs. Churches are growing smaller---rapidly.

Increasingly people are getting their news from the Internet. The Internet does have a lot of reliable sources but it is a free domain of every possible idea. Social media often drives the information or misinformation that abounds. People with nut allergies are being told to stay away from Twitter as they will come into contact with a lot of nuts on there.

Our two major political parties are no longer interested in governing the nation. They are interested in blocking the other party from governing the nation. That is all they are interested in doing. The consequences of this are inevitably one party taking over everything and, essentially becoming a dictatorship. If we continue to move in the direction we are going, this is not potentially going to happen, it IS going to happen. It is only a matter of time. The direction we are heading has been traveled before many, many times and the results have always been the same.

Historically we have always been able to come together in the past. We did, briefly, after September 11^th, but that togetherness is long over. We were too divided for it to continue.

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have further divided us. Perhaps the closest we came to a sense of togetherness was an overwhelming opposition to going to war with Syria, albeit for different reasons.

In 2007 there was a massacre at Virginia Tech. Last year small children were gunned down at a grade school in Connecticut. These kinds of events used to bring people together and now they just manage to inflame the division. People no longer just disagree with one another, they have come to hate one another. Everything, no matter how big or how small has become a time to condemn people who are different from us or disagree with us.

We do it, of course, in the name of loving our country and loving our God. I suspect God is not amused at people choosing to hate and blaming their hatred on loving God. Jesus invited us, demanded us even, to love one another. Hating one another in the name of God, and dividing in the name of God strikes me as the ultimate blasphemy. Jesus once said that the only unforgiveable sin was to sin against the Holy Spirit. He didn’t define exactly what that was, but I keep thinking we may be seeing it now.

I keep thinking of two Scripture readings I’m preaching from this coming Sunday. The Message translation is great. In Jeremiah 8 it reads, “I drown in grief. I'm heartsick. Oh, listen! Please listen! It's the cry of my dear people reverberating through the country. Is God no longer in Zion? Has the King gone away?”

The second, the words of St. Paul to Timothy, however, may provide seeds of hope. He writes: “The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation.”

My first prayer is this. I pray we stop dividing among ourselves and allowing people to divide us and to remember, first, to love one another.

Audio Sermon September 16, 2013

 

Renewing Ourselves in Faith at St. Marks United Church of Christ: When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Stick Around

Texts: 1 Timothy 12-17; Luke 15:1-10

Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo

September 15, 2013

Audio Sermon September 8, 2013

Renewing Ourselves in Faith at Saint Marks United Church of Christ—Living Lives of Faithfulness
Text: Genesis 25:19-34; Luke 14:25-33
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
September 8, 2013

Audio Sermon for Sunday August 25

 

Formed by God  to be More Than Indignant Fools
Texts: Jeremiah 1:4-10; Luke 13:10-17
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
August 25, 2013

Audio Sermon 8-18-13

 

 

Prince of Peace?  Depends on you Define Peace…
Texts:  Hebrews 12:1-2; Luke 12:49-56
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
August 18, 2013

 

Audio Sermon for August 11th

 

A Real Live Treasure Hunt

Texts: Hebrews 11:1-3 Luke 12:32-40

Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo

August 11, 2013

 

Audio Sermon 8/4/13

Forgotten Graves and Tied Up Cats
Texts: Luke 11:37-46
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
August 4, 2013

Prayer Is a Lifestyle; Not an Emergency Exit

Prayer Is a Lifestyle; Not an Emergency Exit

Texts: Colossians 2:6-10; Luke 11:1-13

Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo

July 28, 2013

Do you pray?

In fairness I know I’m asking a group of people sitting in Worship on a Sunday morning which means that everyone hear prays. Worshiping God in a community like this is really the ultimate form of prayer and considering that only 15-20% of the American population attends Worship on Sunday morning, the people who do probably pray a lot more than the average person does.

Prayer is not something we just know how to do. Christian prayer is not an innate thing; it is something we need to learn how to do and it is something that we need to practice. Often people say, “Well, I pray but I get frustrated and don’t feel anything, so I give up.” If that is how you feel, please know you are not alone.

Luke tells us that Jesus was praying and one of the disciples asked him to teach them to pray. Jesus’s response was to give them the words of what we now know as the Lord’s Prayer.

Let’s talk a little bit about this prayer.

A couple of weeks ago when I did the Bible Study at the Logos Snapshot I asked people if they knew the words of Matthew 6:9-15 by heart. No one raised their hands, but when I pushed them, everyone knew those words by heart. The words are the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew’s Gospel. In fact, at Worship every Sunday we pray those words directly from the King James translation of the Bible. We end it with words not in the New Testament, but from an early Christian church document, the Didache, “For thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.”

Luke’s version of this prayer is shorter. Most scholars believe that Luke’s reflected the original words of Jesus more than Matthew’s version as Matthew’s is more defined. Potentially the two versions reflect different ways Jesus himself used it, teaching us HOW to pray more than exactly what words to say. When you look at what Jesus is saying and doing, in the context of what he’s saying and doing, is that it’s not just saying a specific set of words, but making prayer a lifestyle.

My sermon title is: Prayer is a lifestyle, not an emergency exit.

For many of us prayer is an emergency exit. We don’t pray until we have some sort of crisis in our lives and feel an overwhelming need for God’s help. We don’t know what to do so we turn to God.

Now this is a good thing, but we often turn to God without a good sense on how to turn to God. Prayer is learned behavior and praying is developing a lifestyle and until we learn to pray, we struggle.

I had a friend of mine, a wonderful man, who had been married for 50 years and his wife died. She was a wonderful person and had done all the cooking and laundry for them for their entire married life. When she died he was confronted by two painful realities. He had a washer and dryer that he had no clue on how to work, and a refrigerator full of food that he did not know how to cook. He had never, in his entire life, done laundry and had never cooked anything more than toast or steaks on the backyard grill.

Here was a man in his 70’s and many people in his position in life would have felt lost and overwhelmed. He went to the library and took out books. He read about how to use a washer and dryer and did his laundry. He got some basic cookbooks and cooked his way through his refrigerator. He became self-sufficient. What he found out was that it was less the books and research he did, it was actually doing it. Unless we take the time to actually sit and pray, we never really learn.

The second thing is learning to listen at prayer.

Years ago, at my previous church the tradition was that the pastor would turn and face the altar and do the Offertory prayer facing the altar. I did this every Sunday so it was automatic. There, like here, I say the exactly same prayer before the sermon, “My the words of my mouth,” prayer. Like here, I did it every week.

I plead guilty to getting into prayer ruts and I did the same prayer every week for the Offertory. One Sunday I placed the gifts on the altar, turned and face the altar and said, “My the words of my mouth…” One person figured this out listening to a recording of the Worship Service. I didn’t realize I had done it and no one in the congregation had listened to the prayer either.

I went to a workshop in seminary once and the leader gave us a demonstration of a prayer and said that in his opening prayer, which was a tad lengthy, ended with him asking God that we all be struck with malaria and leprosy and our cars turn to rust and our houses burn down, as we pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. And we all said, AMEN. He played it back to us. No one in the seminary had picked up on the ending of the prayer. We had all tuned out.

Part of my daily prayer is praying Psalms. I try, and I’m not always successful, to pay attention to the words with the intention of listening to what the words are saying.

Sometimes I read the words and pray the words and they fill my heart. Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, when I listen and pray attention, my heart is filled with comfort and joy. Other times I end up reading Psalm 137 and it ends with the words, O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!

Really listening to the words of the prayers forces me to confront all my thoughts and all my emotions.

Today we’ll pray the Lord’s Prayer. We do this every Sunday. It’s printed in the bulletin today and it’s Luke’s version. I’m not doing this to say the version we use is bad, or that we have to change. Next week it’ll be back to normal. But today, I’m using a different version from a different part of the Bible to force all of us to slow down and listen to the words.

Prayers is not just about saying words, it’s about listening.

The last thing I want to say is that prayer keeps us focused on God. When we take time to pray every day we have the ability to remain focused on the way of God.

Paul, in his letter to the Colossians references people who are captive through philosophy and empty deceit. Being someone who majored in Philosophy my ears perked up.

Paul is making a reference to what we would call the secular world and the religious world; the realm of humanity and the realm of God. Philosophy can live in both or it can live in just the secular realm. I taught Ethics in a college and I had to focus on Philosophical ethics as opposed to Christian ethics. They often come to the same conclusion and often use the same reasoning to come to those conclusions. One, however, adds the issue of faith and God’s will into the picture.

It is, however, easy to get lost in the world of pure reasoning and pure logic and reason our way away from God. It is easy to put our hope and faith in things that are not related to God. It can be money, power, technology, and other people.

When we pray, we keep our focus on God. It does not mean we can no longer integrate logic into our lives, or technology, or money, or power, and especially other people. We cannot survive in a world without these things and people. But our world and our lives are greatly lacking when we do not make God a central part of our lives.

Do you pray? Everyone here does. To be at Worship in July speaks volumes. But we probably all strive and desire to pray better. The best way to do it, is to do it. It’s important to listen, and it’s important because it keeps us connected with God.

Prayer, after all, is a lifestyle, not an emergency exit.

Audio Sermon for 7/28/13

 

Prayer Is a Lifestyle; Not an Emergency Exit

Texts: Colossians 2:6-10; Luke 11:1-13

Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo

July 28, 2013

Civility: Who Knew?

 

There are, at times, interesting conversations on Facebook.  There are significant issues the nation is facing and people of faith happen to face.  Often there are threads of people having civil conversations with a variety of viewpoints.  This is good.

I am amazed and saddened, however, when many of these constructive conversations come to an abrupt halt usually because of one person. The person becomes what is often called a ‘troll.’  They are the person who chooses to bring incivility into the thread.  They throw around names and labels and call people stupid, etc.  Instead of good intentioned people having a conversation the discussion turns nasty and one person begins to ‘take on the room’ so to speak.  They become the center of attention and conversation and the civil give and take is lost.

The mechanisms by which this takes place vary.

There is name calling or calling someone dumb.  There is the tossing of red herrings to divert attention away from the main subject.  There are the consistent attacks on others; especially those who are trying to be reasonable.

Civility has become a major problem.  Who knew?

Seriously speaking, most people learned manners while growing up.  If our parents didn’t teach us manners, our teachers did.  We learned decorum in school along with everything else.  We learned to now shout out, to not interrupt, to be unkind to other people was not a good thing.  I know I learned during ‘nap time’ in Kindergarten that we were supposed to be quiet and that my teacher had very good ears.

We have all been taught or told that ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ are important and to listen to everyone who speaks with respect.  I’ve learned over the years that listening to people with respect has been helpful. 

I am not sure what happened.  I suspect talk radio has had an impact on things.  Many of the talk radio hosts seem to take on the ‘troll’ role and go on and on, often viciously about other people.

In the political realm we see truly nasty and mostly dishonest commercials about other candidates.

But now this lack of civility has crept into society in very sad ways.  In a day and age when we face really difficult issues, people who behave badly in conversation with others are disrupting the ability to solve complex problems. 

I’ve taken to deleting threads and taken, also, to be sure that I do not sink into the mud with others.  There’s an old saying that when you get into the mud with someone pulling you there you are in the mud with someone who likes it.

For one, I don’t like it at all.

Audio Sermon 7-21-13 (Complete Version)

 

The Day The Image of the Invisible God Left Dinner Covered in Stew with a Carrot Hanging from His Nose

Texts: Colossians 1:15-22; Luke 10:38-42

Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo

July 21, 2013

 

Audio Sermon 7/21/13

The Day The Image of the Invisible God Left Dinner Covered in Stew with a Carrot Hanging from His Nose

Texts: Colossians 1:15-22; Luke 10:38-42

Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo

July 21, 2013

Random Musings for Today

I have been watching very little news these days.  There is very little I am actually interested in watching.  I find that whenever a politician gets on television my first impulse is to change the channel.  It has made me a far happier person.

There are some things of note.

I am dazzled, amazed, and impressed by the three young women who had been held hostage and abused in Cleveland.  What they endured was horrific.  By coming out and talking about their lives moving forward, I find they are exhibiting an amazing amount of courage and class.  Their healing has a long way to go, but one cannot be anything but impressed by them right now.

I worry about the world we live in right now.  Egypt is once again in a mess and so much of the Middle East is turning upside down with revolution and violence.  We are seeing it in Brazil and there are moments in Europe when it is breaking out.  Culturally we seem to be, as people, pulling further and further apart----and this is often goaded on----at times when we need to be pulling together.

While this may only be of interest to me, and Giants’ fans, I’m glad Victor Cruz signed a long term deal with the Giants.

Mitch McConnell and Alison Lundergan Grimes are competing against one another in the Senatorial election in Kentucky in November, 2014.  It will not only be ugly, it already is ugly as there are already attack ads running for this election.  AGH!!!!!

I’m guessing other people are very interested in the George Zimmerman trial.  Last week, when I actually wanted to watch news for a little while, MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, and Headline News were all running the trial live.

Why We Do Logos at St. Marks

Rev. Dr. Dale Milligan is the creator of the Logos program we use at St. Marks.

It started as Youth Clubs and turned into Logos; and now Logos is part of GenOn Ministries.  Here is a sermon he preached that articulates the vision he had.  It always moves me.