Beatitudes Blog

Do It Anyway

Submitted by AnnMarieKneebone on August 7, 2008 - 1:18pm.

My sermon from July 20, 2008

Ecclesiastes 10:1 – 11:6

This week's text is filled with practical advice, analogies, consequences, and challenges. Having grown up on a farm, I know the truth of an iron, such as an axe, needing to be whet, or sharpened, so that you don't have to exert as much force. And I know that at some point, if you are splitting logs, you will get hurt by one of them. It isn't about not getting hurt as much as it's about not getting hurt badly.

Verse 11 of chapter 10 talks about not needing a snake charmer if the snake bites you first. The elders in my family had a similar saying, "No point closing the barn door once the horse is out of the barn." That's what they would tell us kids. It is the same as saying, "too little too late." We were being taught to look ahead, make plans and provisions, to think about consequences - stuff like that.

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To Forgive and Retain

Submitted by AnnMarieKneebone on March 28, 2008 - 12:09pm.

John 20:19 - 23

It takes freedom to forgive sin. It takes freedom in your soul and in your heart. It takes freedom in your mind and in your spirit. It takes a freedom in your body as well. The kind of forgiving and retaining that I believe Jesus is referring to is not the holier-than-thou-I-am-doing-this-for- you-to-make-you-a-better-person type of forgiveness. That is not the kind of forgiveness that Jesus practiced. Jesus forgave sins of others so that they could be empowered – often for their own healing. It was an empowerment of faith. As I consider the many times that Jesus referred to forgiving someone it was never for his own betterment or status. It was one path of healing – a healing that was presented to him as a need. This is a cyclical thing, I think – forgiveness which evokes healing which evokes empowerment which comes around again back to forgiveness.

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Our Father Loves Our Mother

Submitted by AnnMarieKneebone on December 10, 2007 - 5:17am.

Hi All,
This is a sermon that I wrote in response to last summers Be'ats trip to La and MS.

The text for this sermon is Leviticus 25:1 – 22

Our Father Loves Our Mother

This morning I want to talk about two things. I want to talk about gender metaphors and I want to talk about our responsibility to the rest of creation. These topics may not seem very related, but assigning a gender or using a gender metaphor for the Earth can directly impact our relationship with it.

The title of my reflection, Our Father Loves Our Mother, may seem a bit out of place for a liberal theologian. After all, I use inclusive language as often as possible. In the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples I am apt to say “our Creator” instead of “our Father”. I encourage churches to add an inclusive language statement in their bulletins. I also want to make clear that in this world not all of our fathers love our mothers. Many women are abused by their male partners. I think this happens in part because of the schism our culture has created between male and female, with the male being a dominating “god” figure and the female his subservient. Also, not all families have a father and a mother. Some families have only a father or a mother, some have two mothers and some have two fathers. I want to make it clear that I am not setting up the ideal family as having a mother and a father. What I am setting up is a thought experiment and an ideal that if a family has a mother and a father, that the father should love the mother.

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Come Out Come Out Wherever You Are

Submitted by AnnMarieKneebone on August 16, 2007 - 1:40am.

Siblings in Christ,

The Lutherans made a risky move recently. 82 LGBT ministers and seminarians outed themselves to their religous community. The result of their brave act of solidarity and resistance is a resolution that urges bishops to refrain from disciplining pastors who are in "faithful committed same-gender relationships." It is true that this is not a statement of full inclusion of queer people, but I believe it is a good start. If I had my way queer people of every faith tradition would come out at the same time - October 11th, 2007. What would religious leaders do then? They might crucify us. It's happened before. But, the Rule of Heaven may just be made manifest here on Earth; the oppressed may have victory over their oppressors not through acts of violence but through truth-telling and acts of mercy. Even if the only result was that each faith tradition resolved to urge their authorities to not discipline their ritual leaders who are in "faithful committed same-gender relationships" I would call that a solid step toward victory.

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