Sermons and Talks at Myers Park Baptist Church

Rev. Dr. Peter Wherry: Luke 9:28-36

Rev. Dr. Amy Butler: Isaiah 40:21-31– “I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.”“It is terribly important to realize that the leap of faith is not so much a leap of thought as of action. For while in many matters it is first we must see then we will act; in matters of faith it is first we must do then we will know, first we will be and then we will see. One must, in short, dare to act wholeheartedly without absolute certainty.”“People who fear disorder more than injustice will only produce more of both.”William Sloane Coffin

Rev. Dr. H. Stephen Shoemaker: Isaiah 61:10-11 | John 15:11 | Philippians 4:4The joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it….don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.Mary Oliver, “Don’t Hesitate”Joy: that durable,inexhaustible,essential,inadequate word, that something in the soul that makes us able to claim again the word “soul.” Christian Wiman, “Joy: 100 Poems”

Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell: Mark 1:14-20We have been a church throughout our history that has been a bold witness to God’s inclusion of all people. In 1965, during the civil rights crisis in America, we voted as a church to be ‘open to all and closed to none.’ This vote stated our openness to all people of any race. We have in the last three decades moved to be more fully inclusive by: involving women in all areas of church life; opening our doors to the synagogue and deepening our relationship with the Jewish community; and receiving people into membership who have been baptized in ways other than believer’s baptism by immersion. At this point in our life together, we seek a fuller statement of our inclusiveness. While gay and lesbian inclusion is an important dimension of this statement, inclusiveness is much broader than one issue. We are a church that believes in the worth of every person as the good creation of God and a church committed to justice and peace in the civic realm. As such, we want to state our full welcome to all who wish to join us on our journey of faith. -Statement from the Steering Committee for the All Church Dialogue onGay and Lesbian Inclusion, printed in MPBC Church Newsletter, January 23, 2002

Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell: Matthew 2:1-12All this was a long time ago, I remember, And I would do it again, but set down This set down This: were we led all that way for  Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly, We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death, But had thought they were different; this Birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death. We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,  But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation, With an alien people clutching their gods. I should be glad of another death.” ― T.S. Eliot, Journey of the MagiThe Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. – Martin Luther King Jr. (1967)

Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell: Luke 2:22-40In all of these ways, the stranger of public life becomes the spiritual guide of our private life. Through the stranger our view of self, of world, of God is deepened and expanded. Through the stranger we are given a chance to find ourselves. And through the stranger, God finds us and offers us the gift of wholeness in the midst of our estranged life, a gift of God and of the public life. Parker Palmer, The Company of StrangersGod gives justice to orphans and widows. God shows love to the foreigners living among you providing them food and clothing. You must also show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. Deuteronomy 10:18-19

Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell: Luke 2:1-20 I AM making my way. Leaving everything I’ve known, for solidarity, to be with you. Can you make room? Like Mary, open your womb; give me refuge, make living space within . . . It is believed that it takes a divine act, an angelic messenger or miracle, an unwinding string of unbelievable-yet-real circumstances to convince and inspire real world change. True, and yet willing souls also make a difference. People courageous enough to resist death dealing, starve fear, and consecrate space for holiness: life begetting life, new breath, fresh eyes, hope!This kind of resistance calls you with me to offer dignity, house the refugee, grace the infringed-the exiled-the homeless-the stranger. To become the inn keeper allowing just one more family without reservation his last bit of room. Just enough for me. Light, embodied. I AM, after all, forever the last one of you. Lead one another by my way, leaving everything you’ve known for solidarity. To be with me. I am expecting you. Make room, beloved. There is more than enough.– Expect Me? by Kelly Ann Hall

Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell: Isaiah 40:1-11 | Mark 1:1-8 – You can best serve civilization by being against what usually passes for it. – Wendell Berry(When asked what he thought of Western civilization): “I think it would be a good idea.” – Gandhi

Imam Ronald Shaheed: Reading from the Holy Qur’an: Chapter 4, Verses 97-100 |  Isaiah 64:1-4 – “Where Is the Darkness and Where Is the Light?”In this age of science and technology, more and more of us humans are accepting that the earth mothered all of us and, by and large, we humans are more good than bad. Hence, with our different colors, facial features, languages, political ideas and religions, we all have the same birthrights: We have the right to share space here and we have the right to dream of a better existence. That is to say, each member community has a right to its own plans, to the future of its own dreams. What lights the way for each of us to dream, to plan and to work out a better future for ourselves here is a present and growing willingness among ethnic groups to tolerate each and to give equal recognition and respect to each other. The more we are moved to get acquainted with each other, to know more about what we separately live for and what we will die for, the more we grow to like what is admirable in all of us, to invite and welcome contributions of excellence from each of us, into our worlds, the brighter the future will be, for us all. Imam W. Deen MohammedUtne Reader Visionfest, New York, NYJanuary 26, 1995

Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell: Isaiah 61:1-11 – Advent Lovefeast – We fail at hospitality because hospitality doesn’t begin with a program, it has to begin in the heart. We routinely fail to notice that external walls originate with a failure of the heart; a wall erected within our souls, and hearts aren’t easily changed. You can’t change hearts with pep talks, protests, podcasts, Facebook rants, tweets, or a really good sermon. Hearts require spiritual formation through habits and practices that directly address the social and psychological dynamics at work that keep us from seeing and welcoming each other. Hospitality, before it can be anything else, begins as the emotional battle to widen the circle of our affections. ~ Stranger God, Richard Beck