By This Everyone Will Know

A sermon for the fifth Sunday of Eastertide given at the United Church of Acworth, NH on April 28, 2013.

Acts 11:1-18

John 13:31-35

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said,

“We must face the sad fact that at eleven o’clock on Sunday morning when we stand to sing ‘In Christ there is no East or West,’ we stand in the most segregated hour of America.”

Now it's a sad truth that Sunday morning worship across the nation is still the most segregated hour of America.

And it's not just by race.

Last week we sang “There's A Wideness in God's Mercy”

a hymn written in 1854 by Frederick William Faber, a Roman Catholic priest

“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea;

“For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of our mind;

“There is grace enough for thousands.”

How scandalous it is that God's grace is enough for thousands, that God's love is broader than we can comprehend, that God's mercy spans the seas.

The Charcoal Fire

A sermon for the the third Sunday of Eastertide given at the United Church of Acworth, NH on April 14, 2013.

John 21:1-19

As Jesus handed out cooked fish and bread to the disciples one by one,

Peter stared straight ahead at the charcoal fire in front of him.

After the initial excitement of being once more in the presence of the risen Christ,

Peter had begun to remember the night when Jesus had been arrested.

He had been scared and confused that night

but he had wanted as best he could to stay right with Jesus.

So he and John had followed

and they made their way into the court of the High Priest.

No sooner had he been allowed into the courtyard that the woman who guarded the courtyard looked him up and down and asked him accusingly,

“You're not also one of this man's disciples, are you?”

“No, I'm not!” Peter had replied in a knee-jerk reaction of fear.

Having to wait outside in the cold,

he found comfort in the circle of people warming themselves

around a charcoal fire.