CLGS

Preached at Oakhurst Baptist Church in Decatur, GA
Lectionary Texts: Ezekiel 6:1-5; Psalm 123; Mark 6:1-13

As I sat to write this sermon, I did so with a sense of dread. Not a ...

National Coming Out Day Worship

Easter is more than egg hunts and candies though MCC in the Valley gathered over 800 plastic Easter eggs with candies for orphans. Nobody wanted to provide plastic eggs filled with candies for the Easter egg hunt this year. MCCV, under the leadership of Audrey Antley, stepped up to volunteer. Orphans are castaway children, social nobodies. Easter is about nobody and nobodies. Let me reflect on this a bit.

General Minister and President, United Church of Christ

At a time when high stakes decisions before the church set us on edge with one another and threaten to unnerve us, a beloved hymn of the German Reformed tradition calls us back to the center

Minister at First Parish in Concord (UUA)

This sermon was born on a day in early November, the day after the election. I came downstairs, looking for coffee, and turned on the radio.

The following sermon was offered by Jay Emerson Johnson in 1995 at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Berkeley, California, in a liturgy of Holy Union for two women.At that time, ...

"Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; wherever you go I will go, and wherever you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God; where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you."(Ruth 1:16-17)

I am a United Methodist clergy and I stand before you today in support of same-sex marriage. I do this in opposition to the stance of my church, The United Methodist Church, which has continued to affirm that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Most recently, my church has also declared its support of "laws in civil society that define marriage as the union of one man and one woman." I have opposed such discriminatory and oppressive stance of my church and will continue to do so.

Having just come back from General Conference, I find myself wondering: Just when did love become so unfashionable for the Church of Jesus Christ?

The call came to my office in the early afternoon: "The City is issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples!" The date was February 12, 2004. A quick check on-line confirmed my parishioner's call. Two hours later he called me back, "Karen, will you marry me?" (ah, how confusing these days are!) "I am in line, and trying to reach Sean." Without a moment's hesitation, I said yes.

To write and to title a book Understanding the Bible is a rather far-reaching claim, yet that is just what John Buehrens has done. John received his M.Div from Harvard in 1973 and went on to serve several congregations before he was elected President of the UUA in 1993. If he was bold enough to attempt to explain the Bible to skeptics, seekers and religious liberals, I wanted to read it. I invited members of the congregation along for company.