I reached out, held Brad’s hands, and said, “You can count us. We will pray for you and with you.” And we did. I prayed with Brad in my office that day. Together we launched an AIDS Prayer group for others who were living with this disease, for partners and other loved ones, for health care workers, and for those who identified as the “worried well.”
Read MoreLike other humans, Jesus had to be challenged to think outside of the box that he had grown up in. He had to be challenged to try the food, speak the language, and imagine that the ways of his people might not be the only ways to believe or to do things.
In short, Jesus had to be healed of his parochialism, before he could expand and fulfill God’s calling to be the hope and healer of all nations.
The great irony of this story is that the tables are turned twice. Instead of Jesus instantly fulfilling the Syrophonecian’s request that he heal her daughter from the unclean spirit, Jesus has to be healed of his parochialism.
He couldn’t heal himself. He needed the help of a foreign-born, non-native speaker, from a different faith tradition. So in the end, four miracles unfold in Mark 7. . .
Read MoreUnless a person has experienced doubt, can they claim to have faith? Unless a person has felt despair, can they really know joy? Unless a person has gone without, can they truly be thankful? I don’t think so.
That’s why Psalm 34 is so powerful. It’s tried and true. It’s been taste-tested by our ancestors in the faith.
As a consequence, we can trust the veracity of these verses, and hold onto the hope that they exude, even when we may not yet be able to proclaim the words of Psalm 34 with our whole hearts.
Read MoreToday we are celebrating the 26th Anniversary of our Open & Affirming recognition by the UCC Coalition for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns--aka “the Coalition.”
Eden Church is out and proud to be on the forefront of the LGBTQQI justice movement, and part of the fastest growing welcoming church movement in the world!
In 1995 we received this honor in recognition of the year-long study and decision-making process that our church participated in, which included the adoption of our ONA declaration. We were the 159th congregation out of about 6,000 congregations in the United Church of Christ to complete this process and to be recognized in this way.
Read MoreThink back to 2019: what you were complaining about last year? The weather, your work, being unable to buy something or being unable to go somewhere. How does that compare to this year: when what we are complaining about boils down as much to survival as it did for the Israelites: will I get sick, will someone I love get sick, will my job last, can I get unemployment benefits, will my house be destroyed by wildfire?
Daily, 2020 reminds us that our complaints in 2019 were probably not nearly as real or as important as they are today. And the Bible reminds us that God hears and sees and is present with us, both yesterday and today. Like the Israelites, it may be time for us to make it a practice to be more discerning about what we complain about and where we focus our energies when we are in a time of transition.
Read More“As descendants of Abraham, we must re-member. We must put together the stories that were handed to us. We must claim them as our own, and we must understand our roles in confronting modern-day Pharaohs, claiming our power, and engaging in liberation movements that would set all people free.“
Read More2020 has thrown some hard stuff at us: COVID-19 and the inequities in our society that it has laid bare; the continued empowerment of white supremacy by our current president and the evils it manifests in our streets and neighborhoods; the dismantling of a already inadequate immigration system; the overwhelming of our dysfunctional healthcare system; climate change and the droughts and wildfires that come with it; even distanced learning. All of which disproportionately affects the poor and people of color. At times it seems all we can do is cry out. And that’s where our story begins this morning.
Read More“I wonder, have you ever been surprised by where God has shown up in your life?
To answer this question, let’s first consider where it is that we expect God to show up. I imagine that most people expect God to show up in Church. Right?
I think this is why the Shelter-In-Place order is so difficult for many Christians to accept. In this tipsy-topsy world, people of faith would like nothing more than to be in worship—in a familiar place, singing familiar songs, saying familiar prayers with familiar people—so that we might reground ourselves in the knowledge that God is in charge, and that everything is going to be OK.
But then, lo and behold, the County Health Officer and the Governor start pulling back the reins on phasing out Phase 1. . .”
Read MoreIn addition to confessing that racism is America’s original sin, it’s also necessary for us to acknowledge that the Christian Church has a lot of racism to confess, and that congregations like ours (that come out of a Liberal Protestant tradition) aren’t too enthralled with confession. . .
Read MoreA modern-day equivalent of the “Feeding of the Five Thousand” has unfolded in the Eden Area over the course of the past two months under the banner “UIY Cena Caliente,” or in English, “UIY Hot Meals.”
The program was born out of suffering.
Two counselors from Tennyson High School (Diana, who is employed by the Hayward Unified School District, and the other, Elizabeth, who is employed by La Familia) reached to me and asked me to sponsor one of the World House students, so that they could during the pandemic.
You see, the counselors were getting calls from their students asking them where they could get something to eat, because they couldn’t go to their low-wage jobs to earn a few dollars an hour to buy their own groceries and make their own food.
Read MoreI hope. I pray. That we have finally reached a “tipping point” in the United States of America in which a critical mass of people acknowledge that racism is alive and well, and deeply embedded in our culture--and they, that we, have got to do our part to name it and eradicate it.
Yes. I hope, and I pray that we have reached a “tipping point” in which enough White people are committed to consistently and persistently doing our own work of self-reflection, confession, and contrition, so that these heinous crimes, the militarization of law enforcement, the perpetuation of the school to prison pipeline, the profiteering of private prison systems, and the cycle of oppression that is grounded in White supremacy is undone.
Yes. I hope and I pray that enough White people--and people from every other racial and ethnic group in this country--will no longer tolerate a white supremacist in the White House.
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