I was asked to preach at my home church soon after the pastor announced that she would be leaving the congregation. It occurred to me that in times of change, it is often easier to focus on what we will miss than to remember what we still have. I hope this speaks to you.
Today is the First Sunday of Advent, the first day of a new church year and the beginning of a time of spiritual preparation for Christmas. On this first day of a new year, I am doing something that is very unusual for me: I am preaching on the reading from Saint Paul. When I looked at the readings that are designated for today, in the Common Lectionary of the mainline Christian churches, I discovered that the first and last ones were about the end times. From Third Isaiah and from Mark, we have doom and gloom, shock and awe, war and destruction, fear and trembling. And in the middle of those two passages, there was a little word of hope from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. I was led to meditate on that word of hope this morning.
Paul wrote to the community in Corinth in a time that was unsettled and crazy, a time not unlike ours. As I meditated on his words, I began to wonder: If Paul were to write that letter to us, MCC New Haven, right here, right now, what would he say?
I invite you to imagine with me. I imagine that Paul’s letter to us would go something like this:
A Letter from Paul
A sermon preached at the Metropolitan Community Church of New Haven, CT
November 27, 2011
(c) The Rev. Dr. Joan M. Saniuk
Today is the First Sunday of Advent, the first day of a new church year and the beginning of a time of spiritual preparation for Christmas. On this first day of a new year, I am doing something that is very unusual for me: I am preaching on the reading from Saint Paul. When I looked at the readings that are designated for today, in the Common Lectionary of the mainline Christian churches, I discovered that the first and last ones were about the end times. From Third Isaiah and from Mark, we have doom and gloom, shock and awe, war and destruction, fear and trembling. And in the middle of those two passages, there was a little word of hope from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. I was led to meditate on that word of hope this morning.
Paul wrote to the community in Corinth in a time that was unsettled and crazy, a time not unlike ours. As I meditated on his words, I began to wonder: If Paul were to write that letter to us, MCC New Haven, right here, right now, what would he say?
I invite you to imagine with me. I imagine that Paul’s letter to us would go something like this:
