Douglass Church - Douglass Blvd Christian Church

In a world obsessed with its own private longings, following Jesus frees us from ourselves, and redirects our longings, focusing them no longer on ourselves, but onto the people who need our passion most—the despised and rejected, the misused and forgotten, the voiceless and the vulnerable. In other words, the people who are always at the mercy of the powers who make crosses. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: [ web][1] | [ doc][2] [1]: [2]: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hAtwOH8iw2yvab50NJ4rOwg0i3jKbwKs/view?usp=sharing

In following Jesus, our lives lived in hope are a clenched fist in the face of the systems of domination and death that screams out, “You do not own us! You will not have your way with us! We live for one who does not live in fear!" Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: [ web][1] | [ doc][2] [1]: [2]: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GN9-vlkdqruI0o_rkFf-Fx0uX3bo2aog/view?usp=sharing

If you happen to be one of the people kicked to the curb by the folks in charge, Jesus’ anger down at the Temple may just be what love sounds like. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: [ web][1] | [ doc][2] [1]: [2]: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J0CA7IOcumeiXm7tBVG46ju3hlZQ38PA/view?usp=sharing

The reign of God announces a new kind of family, the beloved community, one that doesn’t underwrite a system built on racism, patriarchy, cisgender heterosexual norms, or wealth, or social position. It’s a different kind of family—one that makes room for those for whom there never seems to be enough room. The family Jesus announces isn’t first about destroying what you love; it’s about destroying that which—because of its need to retain power, to keep those in control … in control—could never love you back. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: [ web][1] | [ doc][2] [1]: [2]: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Km-fDr41IgLlicLgPm7NliNPfnkBxy2Y/view?usp=sharing

But it’s important to remember that Jesus’ protest, his public testimony, isn’t just a “no” to the folks in power; it’s a resounding “yes” to people who need the powers and principalities to step off the necks of the powerless, to work for the vulnerable—not against them. Jesus’ ministry is about laying out for us a vision of what God desires for all humanity, not just those who believe they can afford to look the other way at injustice. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: [ web][1] | [ doc][2] [1]: [2]: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15LNGgWXxCydW7G7-Z6yYKPtq4MPjdG7E/view?usp=sharing

We need to find our own voice in the voice of God who cries out for a new creation, a new world, formed from the chaos—a world where the poor and the powerless finally have the seats of honor at the table… —a new world where immigrants are treated with the respect and dignity of those who are native born… —a new world where LGBBTQ people can flourish as full participants in this beautiful dance of community and solidarity… —a new world where poor black people and poor white people are no longer pitted against one another by the people who have a heavy stake in their continued division… —a new world where the needs of the many are taken more seriously than the demands of the few… We plead with God to create something new, and to give us the responsibility to help see it birthed. ;Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: [ web][1] | [ doc][2] [1]: [2]: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gLwdyBBKIboM44JE9VCQg__6kYVyQuUI/view?usp=sharing

Paul says that the beloved community is about community. If someone is only concerned with “What’s in it for me?” the body will be miserable, just to the extent that a body cannot withstand an eye, an ear, or a pancreas that acts as though its function has no impact—except on itself. We are bound together you and I, a community given the task of living out the good news that Jesus seeks out those who’ve too often been cast aside, left to rot in the convenient waste bins of a disinterested world. The body of Christ, the community of faith anticipates the beloved community in which it is impossible to say to people of color, to the poor, the sick, the aged, the spat on, the pepper-sprayed, the victims of state-sanctioned terror, the forgotten ones: “‘I have no need of you.” Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: [ web][1] | doc [1]:

What Jesus prays for ultimately isn’t that we might be protected so that we can live happy lives, untroubled by inconvenience. He prays that we might be protected … as a way of safeguarding our unity. Because if Jesus’ followers can’t stand together against the things that cause God grief, then anything else we might have to say about love and peace and justice isn’t anything anybody ought to be expected to take seriously. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: [ web][1] | doc [1]:

It’s difficult, I know. But think about what the first Advocate, Jesus, looked like, how he acted, who he loved and who he stood up for. The poor, the hungry, the sick and despairing, the forgotten and the powerless, right? Then look around you for those who look like *that; look for the advocates. Standing up for people this culture doesn’t think are worth it is hard, painful work. But that’s what the Advocate looks like, that’s how the Spirit of Truth sounds. Every time you see someone standing up for the vulnerable—you’ve seen the Holy Spirit. Every time you hear a voice raised in opposition to oppression and violence, you’ve heard the Spirit of Truth. Every time you’ve felt the hand of someone on your shoulder, holding you up against the wave of dehumanization that threatens to overwhelm you—you’ve felt the Advocate. We are the presence of the Holy Spirit in the world. We put flesh on the abstraction. We incarnate the breath of God right here.It’s difficult, I know. But think about what the first Advocate, Jesus, looked like, how he acted, who he loved and who he stood up for. The poor, the hungry, the sick and despairing, the forgotten and the powerless, right? Then look around you for those who look like *that; look for the advocates. Standing up for people this culture doesn’t think are worth it is hard, painful work. But that’s what the Advocate looks like, that’s how the Spirit of Truth sounds. Every time you see someone standing up for the vulnerable—you’ve seen the Holy Spirit. Every time you hear a voice raised in opposition to oppression and violence, you’ve heard the Spirit of Truth. Every time you’ve felt the hand of someone on your shoulder, holding you up against the wave of dehumanization that threatens to overwhelm you—you’ve felt the Advocate. We are the presence of the Holy Spirit in the world. We put flesh on the abstraction. We incarnate the breath of God right here. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: [ web][1] | doc [1]:

Following me isn’t paint-by-numbers, no easy way to look like you know what you’re doing, without ever putting in the effort to become a master. That would be nice, but that’s not how it works. If you want to know the way to God, you’re going to have to live the way I live, challenge the injustice I challenge, show mercy the way I show mercy. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: [ web][1] | doc [1]: