Sermons and Talks at Myers Park Baptist Church

Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell: Luke 5:1-11 – Each of us has a unique part to play in the healing of the world. ~ Marianne WilliamsonYour weekly paycheck, your profession is what you’re put here on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling. ~ Vincent van GoghBefore I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am. ~ Parker Palmer

Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell: Luke 4:14-30 – When I feed the poor, they call me a saint, but when I ask why the poor are hungry, they call me a communist.~ Dom Helder CamaraTo be wounded by the suffering of others is a gift of the Holy Spirit.~ Gregory BaumThe evangelically poor are those who make themselves available to God in the realization of God’s project in this world, and thereby make themselves into instruments and signs of the kingdom of God. The evangelically poor will establish solidarity with the economically poor and even identify with them, just as the historical Jesus did.~ Leonardo and Clodovis Boff

Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell: Luke 3:1-20 – Whatever we do, we must keep God and love in the forefront. Let us be Christian in all of our actions. But I want to tell you this evening that it is not enough for us to talk about love, love is one of the pivotal points of the Christian faith. There is another side called justice. And justice is really love in calculation. Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love. Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives. Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 – What happened when we became possessed of a dream? We did not find ourselves dreaming of a Church edifice, lovely as this is. We did not dream of an institution. We did not dream of a program. We did not dream of an organization, but we dreamed instead of what God might do with each of us in bringing into actuality our unique, unprecedented, never recurring potentialities. ~ Dr. George Heaton, First Senior Minister, 1957Maturity is the full development in a human being of the power to be truly and fully one’s self; in being related to others who also have the power to be truly and fully themselves. This is Church. And the Christian church then becomes simply what God has done, does, and will do in Christ to make us human and to keep us human…we have family, and we worship, and wherever our endurance of humanity is truly shared we are in Church. And here, a very great grace spills over on us all.~ Dr. Carlyle Marney, Second Senior Minister, 1967 Each one of us is distinct, unique. Each one is a story of success and failure. Each one is a personal map of disruption and fragmentation. Each one of us stumbles and walks toward maturity. Each one of us waits for experiences of resurrection. This resurrection is realized through faith. It is historical and supra-historical. It is the newness of life. ~ Dr. Gene Owens, Third Senior Minister, 1992

Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell: Matthew 2:1-12 –It might have been just someone else’s story,Some chosen people get a special king.We leave them to their own peculiar glory,We don’t belong, it doesn’t mean a thing.But when these three arrive they bring us with them,Gentiles like us, their wisdom might be ours;A steady step that finds an inner rhythm,A pilgrim’s eye that sees beyond the stars.They did not know his name but still they sought him,They came from otherwhere but still they found;In temples those who sold and bought him,But in the filthy stable, hallowed ground.Their courage gives our questing hearts a voiceTo seek, to find, to worship, to rejoice. – Malcolm Guite

Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell: John 1:1-14 –Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it. – Blaise PascalMy religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Nonviolence is the means of realizing it. – GandhiSuffering, failure, loneliness, sorrow, discouragement, and death will be part of our journey, but the kingdom of God will conquer all these horrors. No evil can resist grace forever. – Brennan ManningI do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us. – Anne Lamont

Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell: Luke 2:1-20

Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell: Isaiah 9:2-7

Rev. Chrissy Tatum Williamson:  Luke 1:5-23 and 59-80If you want to end the war, then Instead of sending guns, send books. Instead of sending tanks, send pens. Instead of sending soldiers, send teachers. ~ Malala Yousafzai (17 year-old Noble Peace Laureate) If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation . . . . ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell: Luke 1:26-38 – When hope dies, the pregnant mother of time dies with the unborn child of a redeemed future. ~ J. Alfred SmithHope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the same.~ AugustineHope holds us captive; we cannot give her up, let go of her hand, lest we become utterly lost. Yet we know now that where she is to be found is not in the places of comfort and safety. Hope is the womb in which all our struggles are conceived and nurtured, and out of which they are all born into the world for the healing of the world. ~ Allan Aubrey BoesakLike a seedling, with sun, good soil, and abundant rain, the roots of our future will bury themselves in the ground and a canopy of hope will reach into the sky.~ Wangari Maathai