Sermons and Talks at Myers Park Baptist Church

Rev. Dr. Ben Boswell | 1 Samuel 2:1-10 from A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church Year W by The Rev. Wil Gafney, PhD. Luke 1:46-56 from A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church Year W by The Rev. Wil Gafney, PhD.“What would it look like if we were able to receive the gifts we’ve been given in our lives—even the most precious gift like our children—as gifts that are not only for our own edification and enjoyment, but for the freedom, liberation, and deliverance of the world? Our bodies, minds, hearts, spirits, lives—could we receive them as gifts to be employed in the struggle for freedom? Our children, homes, money, resources, businesses, mouths, hands, feet—could we receive them as gifts to be engage in the struggle for liberation?” “So, this Christmas, may the proud be scattered, may the powerful be dethroned, may the rich be emptied, may the hungry be filled, may the poor rise up, may the lowly be lifted up, may each and every one of us find our role in God’s deliverance, and like Hannah and Mary may we all turn away from ourselves and toward our neighbor as we sing for the joy of all humanity.” Rev. Dr. Ben Boswell

Rev. Dr. Ben Boswell | Genesis 17:15-22 from A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church Year W by The Rev. Wil Gafney, PhD. “Sometimes laughter is the only weapon we have that has the ability to overcome the power of fear and the banality of evil. Laughter can be a subversive activity—an invaluable tool for resistance in a time of oppression. To laugh in the face of evil is it to shrink its power and to take our minds back from the tyranny of fear, which is why laughter has always been a critical defense mechanism for those living under oppression.”“No matter how difficult our life has been in the past or in the present, God is making all things new. Those who laugh at the future know that God is doing a new thing, the future will exceed our wildest imagination, and the newness will be so spectacular and surprising the only response will be to laugh. Like Sarah, if we can name our future laughter we will never forget to laugh with God, or that God’s promise of new life arrives over and over—it is effervescent and ever recurring, and every Advent we are invited to receive that promise of new life again.”

Rabbi Asher Knight | Genesis 28:10-22 & Matthew 25:34-46“God is everywhere at the margins – manifest in the least of these. And God is manifest in those who can and choose to help the least of these. The Jewish framework for these ideas is from Genesis 127 where scripture teaches that humanity was created … in the image of God. That means when Jesus, son of man, says in Matthew 25, ‘Just as you did to one of the least of these, who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ It’s not really a metaphor.” – Rabbi Asher Knight

Rev. Dr. Ben Boswell | Judges 13:1-25 from A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church Year W by The Rev. Wil Gafney, PhD. |  Judges 13:8-14 & 24-25 “Contrary to what many of us believe, joy does not lead to gratitude, it’s the other way around. Gratitude is not a random feeling we experience as a response to the beauty and goodness of life. Gratitude is a spiritual practice we can engage in to spark joy. Gratitude is a resource that has the power to eviscerate our anxiety. In fact, it is often the case that summoning immense gratitude is required to break the deathly pattern of fear, greed, and anger in our lives because gratitude is often the only thing that can get our minds off ourselves and onto what God is doing in the world—the work of delivering people from scarcity into God’s beloved community of abundance.”“There is much for us to be anxious about these days, but the promise of this season is the possibility of our deliverance from all our fears and failures, all of our illusions and delusions, all our anxiety and anger, all our inequalities and injustices. The promise of deliverance is that we can go from our life as it is to our life as it could be—from our community as it is to our community as it could be—from our church as it is to our church as it could be—from our world as is to our world as it could be.” – Rev. Dr. Ben Boswell

Rev. Tara Gibbs | 1 Samuel 1:2-20 (A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church Year W) “Maybe what I could not find in othersOr in marriage or in shared identity kinship,I could find in a holy place.A sacred placeA God place…But even there,Would my longing be heard?Would my longing be understood?Would it be a safe place to bring my longing?Where do you take your longings?”

Rev. Dr. W. Benjamin Boswell |   1 Kings 17:8-24 “The healing of our bodies and souls is tied up with the healing of the Earth and the poor. If we seek our healing without the rivers and ravens, widows and orphans, then our healing becomes another idol that lets us feel quenched and full while the world dies of thirst and hunger. The path to healing begins by shaking off the empire, venturing into the wilderness, and entering into solidarity with the land and the creatures who live upon it.”“We’re not going to get out of this moral, spiritual, and ecological drought doing the same things we’ve always done. We have to come to grips with the fact that our healing resides in the wilderness and our path to new life can only be found in the practices that help people survive in the desert—economic sharing, radical hospitality, stewardship of the earth, and extravagant generosity.” – Rev. Dr. Ben Boswell

Rev. Dr. W. Benjamin Boswell |   Hebrews 12:1-4; 12-15 “As we express the grief that resides in our hearts over the losses that have changed our lives, honor those Saints who came before us, remember all our family and our friends we have loved and lost, and we lament the death that has come from this global pandemic and culture of devastation; the great cloud of witnesses and ancestors are singing over us ‘I feel like going on. Though trials come on every hand, I still feel like going on.'” “One way for us to love those that we have lost is to grieve, but the other way to love them is to keep on going, to keep on fighting against all the evil and injustice of our world, to keep on seeking the kingdom of God and building beloved community, to turn our wounds into a source of energy for the road ahead, to preserve, to renew our strength, as the prophet Isaiah said, to mount up with wings like eagles, so that we might run and not be weary, so that we might walk and not faint, so that we can press on towards the goal, for the prize of the high calling of God.”

Rev. Dr. W. Benjamin Boswell |   Mark 10:46-52“Faith is not, getting Jesus right or our theology straight. Faith is not believing or assenting to doctrine. Faith is taking up our cloaks and our crosses and following Jesus. Faith is loving God and neighbor. Faith is crying out for mercy when we need it and stopping in our tracks to hear the cries of the poor, marginalized, and disabled. Faith is not a bunch of words, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, or statements. Faith is following a poor Galilean carpenter who was executed for blasphemy and treason, strung up between two thieves and died in solidarity with the oppressed. Faith is the ability to see the world for what it is and the vision to make the world into God’s kingdom.” – Rev. Dr. Ben Boswell

The Rev. Wil Gafney, PhD | Revelation 6:9-11 and Luke 6:43-45- from “A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year W, Proper 24″“Where do you stand? . . . I know where Jesus would stand. . . . He stood in so much solidarity that he stood with the dying and died himself. And in his dying, he destroyed death and took away its power. . . . He cried out life from the grave. And when he came back again to stand with the living and the dying, Jesus chose a woman, very much like Rizpah, to be the first preacher of his gospel and the apostle to the apostles. Jesus stands with us in life and in death, his and ours. . . . Where do you stand church? Don’t tell me, show me. Show me your fruit, good fruit, bad fruit, strange fruit.” – The Rev. Wil Gafney, PhD

Rev. Dr. W. Benjamin Boswell | Mark 10:17-31 “If we want to be possessed by a dream, we cannot allow ourselves to be possessed by our possessions. Instead we must be dispossessed for the sake of the dream. The dream is not a building, sanctuary, a governance structure, a liturgy, or a tradition. The dream is a beloved community—a people on a journey—the dream is us. And when you have a dream this big, you’ll be willing to give up anything for it.”“Our dream of a beloved community is always out on the horizon—something we’re constantly reaching for and working for but will never fully achieve. It’s the dream of a people who are dispossessed of the principalities and powers; privileges and entitlements of class status, power, and wealth, for the sake of something bigger—for the sake of beloved community.”