Douglass Church - Douglass Blvd Christian Church

That's the Bargain (John 12:20-36)

Jesus says, “Here’s what my glory looks like: Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever wants to catch on with my band of merry souls can look forward to the same kind of ‘glory’ with which I’m about to be ‘glorified.’” And you can hear the wheels spinning in the G...

God's Scandalous Mercy (John 3:14-21)

Have you noticed how many people think the table is too big—that we’ve got no business telling everybody they’re welcome? They say, “Well, of course, everyone’s welcome ... just as soon as they get their beliefs straightened out”—which, translated, generally means: “just as soon as they promise to believe all the things we believe, to hate all the things we hate, and to exclude all the people we exclude.” I’m not quite sure how to put this, but no matter how systematic your theology is, ...

Signs of Disruption (John 2:13-22)

Many people believe that God is to be found at the “temple.” So, they spend a great deal of time trying to figure out how to help people find their way through the doors that they’ve been told for so long is the place where they can meet God. But since so many people don’t believe religion has much impact on their lives, it’s hard to justify taking prime time out of a weekend to go to church. For people struggling to live faithfully, perhaps the focus should be on where God is moving outsi...

Bearing Crosses? (Mark 8:31-38)

Wayward children. Problem spouses. Overbearing parents. Demanding bosses. Arthritis. The heartbreak of Psoriasis. Male-pattern baldness. All of these and more serious things that bring suffering are commonly referred to as “crosses to bear.” But that’s not right, is it? Jesus isn’t talking about the cross-as-symbol-of-just-any-garden-variety suffering. He’s talking about the death-dealing power of the state to impose its will on anyone with enough courage or enough gullibility to question ...

It Is Good for Us to Be Here (Mark 9:2-9)

With the uncertainty Jesus has just laid out for them about picking up their crosses and dying as enemies of the state, Peter sees the ancient Near Eastern version of the Justice League all wearing their technicolor dream coats, and he says, “You know, all things considered, this seems like a swell place to be. Why don’t we pitch a few tents and stay right here? I totally get why the disciples would rather just watch Jeopardy than head down that mountain into an untenable political environ...

What If It's Bigger Than Us? (Mark 1:29-39)

But if Jesus’ mission is about healing, about re-establishing the dignity and purpose of others, of helping them to find a place that’s safe and affirming—then, perhaps, we who are his followers ought to follow suit. Perhaps we should be less concerned with doing what everyone else thinks churches ought to do and worry more about doing what Jesus calls us to do—to make a place in the world for those who have no place. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc

As One with Authority (Mark 1:21-28)

Why? Because Jesus speaks as one with authority—a new kind of authority; he speaks the truth … always. Jesus is, according to this definition, a faithful jihadist who squares off against the powers that preserve injustice by privileging certain classes of "worthy" people, giving them access—while excluding the powerless and the disadvantaged. And we who are trying to follow him don't get to excuse ourselves from the messiness. We don't get to stand by silently while some folks get kicked ...

I'm Sorry, When? (Mark 1:14-20)

Maybe God’s trying to tell you something at this very moment. Maybe there’s not some big PowerPoint pitch to lay out all the pros and cons, not some incentivized benefits package, not some assurance that everything’s going to turn out right, and you’ll become famous, have wonderful, well-adjusted kids, and escape the ravages of arthritis. Maybe it’s just a tug, a gnawing at the edge of your mind that you can’t quite shake, saying, “Follow me. Drop what you’re doing, and follow. Immediatel...

Emperors and Their New Clothes (Matthew 2:1-12)

Herod resides in regal luxury in the thriving metropolis of Jerusalem; Jesus begins his life relying on the generosity of visitors in a modest dwelling in Bethlehem. Herod has access to the most influential leader of the time; Jesus, a mere infant, doesn’t even have access to the local Red Roof Inn. Yet, what’s truly captivating in this narrative is the fact that Herod, embodying power and affluence, is deeply terrified of Jesus—a seemingly insignificant child from an obscure backwater. De...

Glad Tidings (Mark 1:1-8)

In a world that feels increasingly out of control every day, we’ve been given glad tidings that sound unrealistic at best and downright deranged at worst. We live in a world that has a way of grinding people down, making them beg for their bread, and judging them by the color of their skin, the country of their origin, the fullness of their bank account, and the people they love. In short, we live in a world content to force people to justify their very humanity before we’ll even see them a...

The Heresy of Freedom (Mark 13:24-37)

God created and loves individuals. No doubt. But God didn’t create us to remain focused on our individuality. In God’s new realm, freedom doesn’t just release individuals from their own private bondage; it also sets individuals and communities free for others so that all God’s children can flourish. "=Why does 'freedom' in so many people's mouths appear to mean little more than 'freedom to feel superior to everybody who doesn’t look/talk/love like I do?' Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon...

Seeing the Unseen (Matthew 25:31-46)

Why does God identify so strongly with these, the powerless? Well, for one thing, God created us … all of us. And afterward, God paused to consider the fine craftsmanship of God’s hands. Apparently, God was heard to say, 'That’s pretty dang good! No … Yeah, that’s excellent!' So, it stands to reason that God might take more than a little exception to watching those whom God has so lovingly called forth into existence have their dignity trampled. Their lives are threatened, either by those...

From Those Who Have Nothing (Matthew 25:14-30)

When we read about vulnerable people being evicted and left to survive in the streets, we find a way not only to help feed and shelter but to agitate for justice in housing. When we witness White nationalists openly advocate bigotry and threaten violence, we don't sit idly by and hope everything turns out all right; we take sides. We followers of Jesus not only sound the alarm, we figure out a way to be in the middle of it—organizing, protesting, lobbying, healing, dispensing the mercy de...

Faith without ... Justice (Amos 5:18-24)

But God says, “If everything else you do isn’t motivated by your love of the imperiled and unremembered, then it’s worse than if you’d done nothing at all. If you’d done nothing, at least that would be an honest admission that you don’t understand. As it is, you take for granted you already know what I want. But that’s the thing: there’s no way to know what I want without looking into the eyes of those who’ve been cast aside.” “Do you know what I really want?” God says. “I want justice to ...

The Claims on Us (Matthew 22:15-22)

Caesar’s always going to want what Caesar wants. Wall Street. Madison Avenue. They vie for our attention like it’s their birthright. There are so many claims placed upon our loyalties ... from every direction. And, sometimes, that which pursues us most relentlessly is our own desire to be in control, to be ourselves, gatekeepers of God’s mercy. We in the church have been guilty of spurning the gifts people bring to God. But Jesus isn’t having it. Jesus says, "Give to Caesar what belongs ...

New Maps (Matthew 22:1-14)

Unlike Matthew's original readers, when Jesus started talking about a King giving a wedding banquet, his audience wouldn't have immediately made the connection between the King in the parable and God. They would be much more likely to see their own cultural struggles in this King—who, let's be honest, seems pretty vindictive and pouty. No, “vindictive and pouty” would have described not their vision of God but of a genuine political figure in their own world—somebody like King Herod Antipa...

Producing the Fruits of the Realm

Jesus heads into the vineyard to cheers of “Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” But he can read the political tea leaves. He’s got a pretty good idea where this story is headed. So, it should be no great surprise to learn that Jesus is a little testy—even in the face of the palm branches. He knows which way the political wind is blowing—but he walks into the vineyard anyway. The parable ends. The fate of the vineyard is yet unresolved. But we know that already, don’...

Starting a Revolution

If you’re starting a revolution, you don’t have to follow the same rules designed to keep power in the hands and for the benefit of those convinced the world was made for them. You don’t have to live in fear—the kind of fear necessary to make a world where some have and some do not, where some get justice, and some silently cry themselves to sleep at night, certain that justice is just a word used to protect the powerful and punish the weak. You don’t have to choose between violence and p...

Where We Can Look Each Other in the Eye (Matthew 18:15-20)

Real-life virtues—the ones that help us live real lives and not just "impressive” lives among those closest to us—are the kinds of virtues necessary for us to live together in community. These soft virtues like the ability to live and speak truthfully, to be a person others consider trustworthy (and not just being reliable about taking out the garbage, but about being worth the trust necessary to hold the vulnerability of others with gentleness and care), to be able to forgive (especially t...

Didn’t See That Coming (Matthew 16:21-28)

In embracing the cross, Jesus’ followers can say of empire at its most blood-thirsty, “Is this the best you’ve got? God’s got an even more astonishing trick up God’s sleeve. It’s a little something we call ‘Easter.’” Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc

Guest Preacher: Paul-Anthony Turner

Guest Preacher: Dawn Wilson

Guest Preacher: David Conway

Guest Preacher: Dick Burks

Hiding Behind the Truth (John 17:6–19)

My first reaction is to want Jesus to pray for it to be easy. I want him to protect me from the world by installing some kind of force field, some heat shield around me that won’t allow the slings and arrows to touch me. But he doesn’t do that. Instead, he prays not that there be a protective wall around me to guard against the damage life can cause but that I can endure the damage, that I can embrace the truth that life is full of fear and horror. Because Jesus knows that if we who follo...

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (John 14:1-14)

In other words, if you love one another, you’re already doing the works that I’ve done—and you won’t have to question the “way to the Father,” about whether you’re following the step-by-step directions since everyone will already know who you belong to. If you condemn a system that allows police officers to kill a Black man in cold blood … on video … you and everyone else will know you’re following “the way.” If you raise your voice on behalf of the unemployed and the undocumented in a cu...

The Trouble with the Folks in Charge (John 10:1-10)

In other words, the people tasked with watching over the most vulnerable of the flock have proven themselves sightless. They care more that the sheep don’t jaywalk than about the fact that the way they run things has created even more vulnerable sheep. The trouble with the folks in charge is that being in charge isn’t the point; it’s about what kind of world we want to live in. Does it create space for the invisible people? Does everyone have enough to eat, a place to sleep, a means to car...

You Call this Blessed? (Matthew 21:1-11)

We heal the sick; we bind up the broken-hearted; we comfort the grieving; we pick up the downtrodden; we fight for justice … not because it makes for good strategy, but because we follow Jesus, which means we’re prepared to walk with him down any dark alley he enters—in search of those the rest of the world would just as soon leave behind. We do it because it’s right. And because God loves us enough not to let us stay where we are, because we’re the blessed who come in the name of the Lord...

Please, Don’t Let Me Go (John 20:19-31)

“Love your neighbor as yourself," as an ethical system, does have the drawback of relying entirely on me as the reference point—which, frankly, feels like something of a flaw in the system. I mean, what if I don’t love myself very much at all? What if I happen to be self-destructive? Does the golden rule relieve me of any duty I have toward another person beyond what I might expect from myself? The golden rule doesn’t work for nihilists. That’s a problem, isn’t it? Jesus, seeing that more...

When You Can’t Find Words (Matthew 28:1-10)

But the real question to us is, “Now that you’ve got this shiny new resurrection, what’re you going to do with it? Are you going to hang out with it, set up a shrine to it and serve lattes, thinking all the work’s been done two thousand years ago? Or are you going to realize that the freedom the resurrection brings is the freedom to back out of the tomb, walk down the road, and get back to work?” You see, it’s not that the resurrection isn’t cause for celebration; it’s that we’ve misunders...

Who's in Charge around Here Anyway? (John 11:1-45)

Death too often calls the tune to which, sad to say, so many of us feel compelled to take the dance floor. But I’ve got news for you—regardless of how it looks to you at present or who you think is in charge, Jesus is almost finished with his Lenten journey. And while the path he takes will ultimately lead him to a garbage dump on the edge of town called the “place of the skull,” the truth of the faith we profess is that that dump—which too casually deals in the art of death—is not the fin...

What’s Your Problem? (John 9:1-41)

Being born blind is the definition of a pre-existing condition. But according to Jesus, it should never be a pretext for finding an excuse for why helping that person to find healing is wrong. According to today’s Gospel lesson, if you’re more concerned about who doesn’t deserve help than actually helping, I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but Jesus has a fundamental problem with how you view the world. You can talk about having compassion for the most vulnerable. But if you spend m...

Making Good Choices (John 4:5-52)

He could play it safe—you know, suck up to the religious bigwigs, make friends with the influential political high-rollers. But instead, he seeks out the last, the least, and the lost—because he’s not interested in establishing some kind of stable empire where everybody has to come and kiss his ring because he's so important. But instead, he drops any ambitions he might have had about being a big shot, walks down the first dark alley he sees, and starts having theological discussions with ...

Which World? (John 3:1-17)

But because God loves the world—even with all its fear and distrust, God sent Jesus not to condemn the old world, to throw it on the scrap heap. Instead, according to the translation in your pew Bible, God sent Jesus to “save” the world. The word for salvation is probably better translated “healing” here. In other words, Jesus comes to transform the lower world from above and usher in a new reign, a new realm, a new world that looks like heaven right here on earth. Subscribe to us on iTune...

Where You Gonna Turn? (Matthew 4:1-11)

In Matthew’s hands, the devil is supposed to be a clever stand-in for Caesar and his empire, who argues that all the kingdoms of the world are his to dispose of as he sees fit. So, the question posed by this story to the congregation at Antioch struggling with where to put its trust, given the annoying fact of all of Caesar’s persistent and humiliating reminders of who’s in charge, is: Where does the church place its trust? Does the church trust the old regimes and their systems of domi...

When It Is Not Good for Us to Be Here (Matthew 17:1-9)

Peering into the dark valley ahead—the one Jesus has just announced—the thought of camping out on the mountaintop with the Palestinian Justice League sounds like a pretty safe place to be, doesn’t it? Ever feel like that? You’re getting ready to graduate; the kids are getting ready to leave home, or the nurses are prepping you for surgery. As tough as it was in the past, the future seems way scarier. Even if the past was hard, at least you lived through it. You’re not sure you’ll survive ...

Guest Preacher: Chuck Lewis

Still Fighting It (Matthew 5:13-20)

And this is a crucial point to make for people whose purpose for existing requires them to live as agents of God’s love. We’re salt and light. We are who we are, not because the situation calls for it or because of how others treat us, but because through the eyes of the God who created us, we’re already everything we need to be because God made us this way. And through the eyes of an executed carpenter, we’re able to see a vision of a new world that embraces us—all of who we are … garbag...

Not Your Father's Beatitudes

So when Jesus says that those who will be blessed are the poor in spirit in God's kingdom, he’s not talking about the fainthearted. He’s talking about those who are actually poor, those who are so far down the economic ladder that their spirits are characterized by the constant despair that they’ll ever be able to go to bed at night without the gnawing horror of hunger to keep them awake. When Jesus says that the new world God is creating will bless those who mourn, he’s not suggesting tha...

The Problem with Empire (Matthew 4:12-23)

But this new realm Jesus announces is the kind of good news that appeals to everybody else—the other 99%. In fact, the news is so good that, according to Matthew, "Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in [the] synagogues and proclaiming" it—healing the social, physical, and economic disease in the land. Because this new realm is best exemplified not so much by Jesus' rhetorical gifts but through his traveling about and “curing every disease and every sickness among the people." In othe...

Come and See (John 1:29-42)

The scriptures present any number of images of God—God the Lion of Judah, the watchful shepherd, the heartbroken lover, the vigilant protector, the loving parent who expects more from us than we’re often willing to give, the vulnerable shepherd who places God’s life in our hands. So why focus all your energy on a God who seems perpetually aggrieved, who prefers manipulation to attraction, whose greatest desire seems to be to set down impossible expectations in the hope that nobody will meet...

The Clash of Kings

But that gives us a clue about the character of the new world God is creating. True power, God’s creative power, will never be found in the place logic tells us to look, among the people logic tells us to expect. This new realm that Jesus inaugurates will always be found among the least likely people in the most outrageous places. People and places no intelligent, successful, influential folks would ever think to look. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc

Help Is on the Way! (Luke 23:33-43)

Jesus was crucified not because he annoyed the Jewish religious leaders, as has been popularly taught for years, but because Caesar’s goons were afraid he’d lead a revolt and try to take over Jerusalem. And they wanted to nip that one in the bud while communicating to the hoi polloi that making political noise could land you in hot water. And this, in a nutshell, is why everyone was so baffled and upset by Jesus. Everybody, his followers, the general population, the two criminals whose com...

But What If It’s Only a Dream? (Isaiah 65:17-25)

What if, for a world satisfied with things it already takes for granted—that white men should always occupy the top of the food chain and that a person’s money or power ought to be the measure of their worth—what if our job as God’s children is to unleash the poetry about a “new heaven and a new earth”—a place where preposterous, unthinkable things are possible? A place where there are no more cries of distress, where the work of our hands is not claimed by someone else for their profit, a...

Blessed? (Luke 6:20-31)

According to Jesus, the reign of God is for losers. It’s for all the people who’re afraid that they’re not worthy, that they don’t have enough going on to commend themselves. It's for everyone who's spent too much time feeling left out, left behind, left holding the bag—all those people who are so casually ignored by everyone else every day. The good news of the Gospel is that no one has it all together—least of all, the people who cling to wealth and power like a life preserver in an angr...

Trying to See (Luke 19:1-10)

The promise of the reign of God is that we will all be seen for who we really are … and we won’t have to worry anymore about everyone seeing all of us—even the humiliating parts. And now, if we want to follow Jesus, our job is to try to seek out others who are desperately trying to be seen themselves—to see them as they truly are … children of God, people God loves just as much as God loves us. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc

Getting Angry for the Right Reasons (Luke 18:9-14)

It should come as no surprise that Jesus sets this parable within the confines of the temple in Jerusalem, which kept you constantly aware of where everyone fits into the great cosmic org chart. There was a wall in the temple to separate the Gentiles from the Jews. A wall separating the women from the men and the priests from the *ordinary men. And there were walls separating the high priest from everyone else. Walls divide us by identifying who’s allowed in and who has to stand outside w...

Grant Me Justice (Luke 18:1-8)

We pray not so that God might get frustrated and finally provide us with what we think we deserve but so that God's reign here on earth might be revealed. A reign where the vulnerable and the destitute, the unseen and the unheard, the abused and the neglected will not be an afterthought to those in power but whose protection is the very reason power gets wielded in the first place. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc

Using Only What You've Got (Luke 17:5-10)

And Luke doesn’t seem helpful when he says, “What? Did you think you were getting a Barcalounger and a lifetime supply of attaboys?” But you see, in the reign of God, that’s good news. You don’t have to feel like a failure just because your life with Jesus isn’t one long unbroken string of notable successes. Just because you don’t always feel like you believe hard enough. Just because people aren’t breaking down doors to tell you what a great job you’re doing. If you’re doing it the way L...

Navigating the Thin Places (Luke 17-11-19)

In a world where crosses and leper colonies exist to dispose of “human waste”—Jesus says “no.” In the face of all the name-calling and lynching and fighting and warring, Jesus appears, takes his place on the tree, and offers up what, at first, sounds like a whispered “no”—weak and ineffectual. Just the words of a dying man on a government hit list. But the echoes of that “no” reverberate. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc