Sunday 15 March Sermon

I am very much indebted to many Revgalblogpals and Jan Richardson especially for my thoughts in this sermon.

I know that, beginning with Pentecost, I will be preaching to my congregants about what it means to be church and different ways of being church. Being church is different from doing church --I know this in my heart and gut, but not sure how to articulate the difference.

However, I got a start on defining that difference in this sermon.

I read an article on the Common Dreams website about how people in the US are turning away from the church and becoming increasingly secularized, America, One Nation Under No God by Michelle Goldberg. Seeing articles like this one reminds me that something is terribly wrong when the church becomes identified with corrupt and corrupting instititutions, self-serving religiosity, anti-intellectualism, patriarchy, capitalism, exclusion, injustice ... and I could go on and on.

OTOH, the Spirit is always waiting to form and reform communities of faith --perhaps the Spirit is speaking to those of us within the church in the voices of those who are outside the church, if we have the ears to hear.