Sermons and Talks at Myers Park Baptist Church

Rev. Dr. W. Benjamin Boswell | Mark 6:30-44   “The good news of the gospel is not just words and feelings, or thoughts and beliefs, its bread and food, it is work and wages, it is healthcare and housing.” “We can’t send the hungry away or explain their poverty with trite clichés. We have to cast off the scourge of scarcity that stunts our imaginations, and live into God’s abundance by organizing people and resources and sharing all things in common so everyone’s needs can be met.” – Rev. Dr. Ben Boswell

Rev. Dr. W. Benjamin Boswell | Mark 6:14-29   “Even though we are the followers of Jesus in an age of whitewashed history and a whitewashed gospel, the real good news can always be reclaimed. Like the disciples, we too can become the resurrection of Jesus. We are the hope for the resurrection of the prophets and their message of love for the world. It is up to each one of us to decide which prophet of love and liberation will be raised up in our lives. Who will we become the resurrection of?” “Resurrection is the uprising of freedom and liberation. It is the reality that if you chop off the head of a prophet, God will raise up something more powerful in its place. It is the way God, and Creation, deals with the problem of death, by giving birth to something stronger, more potent, and resilient. It is the truth that the blood of the martyrs are the seeds of the church. It is the hope that if you strike down John, God will raise up Jesus; and if you strike down Jesus, God will raise up an entire movement in his place.”

Rev. Mia McClain | 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 | “When we dance, we are re-membering—re-membering our bodies in a culture that has disembodied us. We are putting pieces of ourselves back together again after 16-months of estrangement. We are re-membering the muscles we’ve forgotten existed—the gifts and the talents that help make communities like this one happen and flourish. We are disrupting a dangerously sedentary status quo—a passive existence that prefers stagnation over liberation—that prefers deadly tradition over life-giving innovation. When we dance, we are re-membering the power of God that works in us. “

Rev. Tara Gibbs | Mark 6:1-13  “Saying ‘You are welcome and at home’ is one thing. Actively welcoming and taking a stance is another. Too often we passively hope our words are enough. When in reality, our homes or safe spaces for us, are harming others.”“Scripture reminds us in various ways to welcome one another. From the recurring theme of hospitality in the Hebrew Scriptures; to Jesus repeatedly commanding us to welcome the stranger; to Paul and other New Testament writers urging us to welcome one another. The type of welcome referenced in scripture goes beyond mere comfort. Remember that Jesus’ being unwelcome put him in real danger just as many in our communities are today. Being unwelcome for women, Black people, transpersons, non-English speakers, native persons, and other marginalized groups can literally lead to being abused, refused service, kicked out of their homes, or even killed.”

Rev. Dr. W. Benjamin Boswell | Mark 5:21-42  “There’s not just enough to go around; there’s more than enough for everyone, there’s an abundance! There’s not enough for everyone’s greed, but there is enough for everyone’s need! History has shown us time and again that there will never be enough for everyone if we start with the rich and hope there’s enough left for the poor—or worse, expect it to trickle down. However, there will always be more than enough time, power, and healing to go around—if we prioritize the poor.” “… the ‘last shall be first and the first shall be last’ was not some pie in the sky vision of what the kindom will look like in the future. No, it is the rule of life for the followers of Jesus, the blueprint for the beloved community, the construction manual for the church, the instructions Jesus gave us for how to prioritize suffering and healing right now in the present at this point in history if we want the kindom of God to come on Earth as it is in heaven. The good news is that if we put the last first and the first last, then there will be enough for everyone and joy will abound for all.”

Rev. Dr. Bill Leonard |   Psalm 107:1-3; 23-32 &   2 Corinthians 6:4-10   “Today, Juneteenth Sunday 2021, can we recommend ourselves by the the innocence of our behavior – our grasp of the truth, patience, kindliness – our experience of the gifts of the Holy Spirit – our sincere love, and – our declarations of the truth – all held together by the power of God? Can we do that? Today, that audacious little list of profound gospel graces is why I think the world still needs the church, needs us to try and live out those graces right in front of everybody whether some folks ever find their way to the church at all – a spirituality and praxis that embodies that audacity, humility, and the humanity of the gospel.” – Rev. Dr. Bill Leonard from his sermon “Humility and Audacity: A Gospel Enigma” on June 20, 2021

Rev. Dr. Bill Leonard | Isaiah 58:6-12 &   Mark 4:26-34 “In the gospel infrastructure, we confront injustice, oppression, hunger, homelessness. We confront the yolk in large movements and in small acts and when we do, something good, something gospel take place. And for a moment at least, we are restorers of the breach. We sow seeds of justice, compassion, and reconciliation, hoping they make a difference, with the faith that they will, even when we do not know how it may happen.” – Rev. Dr. Bill Leonard in “Repairers of the Breach A Gospel Infrastructure” on June 13, 2021

Rev. Dr. W. Benjamin Boswell | Mark 3:20-35  “The problem in Nazareth wasn’t Jesus; it wasn’t his mental health or spiritual condition. The problem in Nazareth was a society that was fundamentally opposed to the work of healing and liberation. The crowds followed Jesus because he brought good news to the poor, healed the sick, lifted up the brokenhearted, released the captives, gave sight to the blind, and set the oppressed free. He didn’t come to control people. He came to set them free. He came to tear down the kingdom of Satan by infiltrating the Strong Man’s house and plundering his property so it could be redistributed for the sake of building a more equitable society and a beloved kindom.” “Hope is the possibility of a new family that transcends kinship, biology, heredity, and patriarchy—a family we choose for ourselves to walk with on a journey of faith. Hope is the possibility of a community where our deepest relationships are with those willing to face their pain and travel with us on the road toward healing and liberation; not only of ourselves, but the entire world. Hope is the possibility of an inclusive and loving body of people who sacrifice their time, resources and lives to welcome those who society calls insane or possessed—to gather those who have been marginalized by their families, or demonized by the religious authorities.”

Rev. Dr. W. Benjamin Boswell | Mark 2:22-3:6  “Jesus told the religious leaders that all their fasting and praying, worship and liturgy, laws and traditions, tithes and offerings, rules and regulations, all their piety, spirituality, and devotion meant nothing to God—absolutely nothing unless they were also seeking justice for the poor and oppressed.” “Jesus intentionally subverted laws and traditions in order to reveal how they’d been detached from the underlying purpose of things, which is not the accumulation of power, money, control, comfort, or the preservation of the status quo, but people; especially the multitudes, the masses, minjung, the ochlos, and the poor.” – Rev. Dr. Ben Boswell

Rev. Dr. W. Benjamin Boswell | Acts 2:1-21  “This pandemic is only one of many crises we face today. The storm outside the ark is as strong as ever, and it may not seem much worse than the stench inside. It may seem overwhelming or terrifying, but we’ve walked through storms and crisis before and we will do it again together, because that is what we were born to do and who we were born to be. No matter what the storm is outside, our responsibility will always, always, always be to the new creation.” “The church was born from the fulfillment of three promises—the promise of Gentile inclusion, the promise of Jubilee, and the promise of the Holy Spirit—which is the force that not only holds it all together, but is always expanding beyond the boundaries of the church with more inclusivity and empowering the church in the pursuit of justice.”