Douglass Church - Douglass Blvd Christian Church

The Liberation of Sabbath (Luke 13:10-17)

Think about it: this woman hasn’t been able to look anyone in straight in the face for 18 years. She couldn’t stand up straight. She’s hobbled her way through life in a permanent bow. Her view of the world has consisted largely of staring at everyone else’s footwear. Then Jesus comes along and offers her liberation from a life of pain and humiliation, freedom from the suffering and the sidelong glances, welcoming her back into full participation in a community she has been excluded from fo...

When the World's on Fire (Luke 12:49-56)

And as painful as it is, Jesus says that in order for the fire of transformation to be kindled—that is, the fire of God’s change in the world—we have to speak the truth about the new world God desires. We live in a world where division feels inevitable; but Jesus announces a world where divisions are healed—not by passively ignoring injustice, but by shining a light on it. We live in a world that feels like it needs the fire of God’s transformation, a new way of living together. Subscrib...

Maybe Charity's the Problem (Luke 12:32-40)

If you notice in our Gospel this morning, Jesus doesn’t try to impress on his disciples how much better off the poor will be if they receive alms. He’s not trying to persuade his followers that those who are without need charity. Jesus wants to call his followers into the new world he’s announcing, where there is enough for everyone, where people share as a matter of course, into a world that needs them to give their lives and their resources away before they calculate people’s needs—becaus...

That's Not the Prayer I Remember (Luke 11:1-3)

As I’ve grown older, it’s become clear to me that the Lord’s Prayer—far from being about stuff “out there” in some gauzy unbounded ether, or as a prayer about my personal relationship with Jesus—was about the very real and gritty kinds of things that happen right here, where we worry about things such as getting grandma’s outrageously expensive medication, or making sure that our LGBTQ kids won’t get beat up and harassed on the school bus, or how our African American friends and neighbors wi...

Nicole Hardin Preaches (Luke 10:25-37)

The Gift of Life (Luke 7:1-17)

We followers of Jesus are called to follow him into the heart of hell to shake loose the bars of oppression and death, setting loose the captives and freeing the oppressed—not because we’re capable of fixing those things, but because we follow one who’s calling into being a new world where those things no longer lay people low. Like Jesus, we’re called to be prophets of true life—who refuse to acknowledge that death is in charge. Jesus, in walking among the dead and the dying, takes a stan...

Collecting Tents for the Houseless in Louisville

In Louisville, as virtually everywhere, we have friends and neighbors who have no houses. One of DBCC's good friends, Donny Greene, is collecting tents for those in our community who need some shelter. We would like to help as a drop-off point, if you'd like to follow this link to Amazon to purchase a tent. You may purchase them and bring them to us, or you may have them sent to: 2005 Douglass Blvd., Louisville, KY, 40205 Alternatively, we are also raising money for the purchase of those ...

It Depends on Which Kingdom (Luke 10:1-11, 16-20)

One of the primary ways in which the kingdom Jesus’ disciples announces is different from the coercive kingdoms of this world is that the first thing they’re supposed to say when they go to a stranger’s house is, “Peace to this house!” Now, as I’ve mentioned before, in Roman occupied Palestine, everybody already knew what peace looked like in the hands of the powerful. The Pax Romana was a peace imposed on the weak by the dominant, a peace that benefitted the rich and powerful at the expen...

The Reign of God (Luke 9:51-62)

We walk with Jesus toward Jerusalem, knowing that Jerusalem doesn’t just exist in the heart of the Middle East. The Jerusalem toward which Jesus heads is everywhere—from the U.S.-Mexico border to the West Side of Louisville. Jerusalem is wherever those in power steal bread from the hungry and slake their thirst with the tears of the forgotten. Jerusalem is wherever the vulnerable live in fear and the dispossessed die in despair. Jerusalem is wherever people suffer and die because of the...

Crossing Borders (Luke 8:26-39)

Legion’s still in power wherever the poor are kept in their poverty by those who believe they have everything to gain and nothing to lose, wherever children are bullied, and the elderly are forgotten. Legion still lives wherever people are made to believe that the way they have been created by God is not good enough—either for God or for us. Legion still runs the show whenever little children are kept in concentration camps without toothpaste, soap, and mattresses—while the folks in charg...

Which God? (Acts 17:22-31)

What Paul’s getting at is that after Easter, if it’s true that we’ve been given the assurance that “by raising [Jesus] from the dead” God has said “no” to the the systems that sacrifice our children, then we have a story about a new world that we can’t keep to ourselves. In a world willing to pray to any god who promises to keep us safe from people who don’t look like us, in a world where the music of our worship sounds like the ticking of a time clock, or the growl of an SUV, in a world i...

A Whole New Set of Problems (Acts 2:1-21)

The great paradox of Pentecost is that we find ourselves not by hunkering down, trying to avoid the pain of a world that feels like it will swallow us whole, but by being led by the Holy Spirit out into that world for the sake of those who need the kind of disruption the Spirit always seems to stir up. Pentecost doesn’t necessarily solve our problems; it confronts us with a whole new set of problems. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc

That They May Be One (John 17:20-26)

Jesus prays that his followers might be one not for their sake, but for the sake of the world—which is, as we’ve said, fundamentally divided. He prays for unity for those who follow him, first as a sign to the world that he is who he said he is. If the world is ever to take Jesus seriously, in other words, it has to quit seeing us as wall-builders, as constructers of barriers, as those more willing to exclude than include. To the extent that those who claim to follow Jesus have continued ...

A Different Kind of Peace (John 14:23-29)

Roman peace rigs the system to benefit only the folks who were already born on third base. But the shalom Jesus gives is a different kind of peace; it draws the defenseless to his breast and extends a healing hand to the despised. Roman peace views anyone who’s at all different as a potential threat, an incipient enemy of the kingdom. But the shalom Jesus offers sees those the world has called “other” and places them at the center of the life of a new kingdom that embraces the vulnerable a...

Just Trying to Hear (John 10:22-30)

It strikes me that much of what drives this unenthusiastic response to religion—at least in the case of Christianity—centers on the apparent inability of Christians to hear Jesus, and then to live like him.  The “Nones” have heard endlessly about Christianity and how everybody would be better off if the world would just believe the stuff Christians believe. But many of them have read the Gospels. They’ve seen all the stuff Jesus did. But then they look around at his followers, and they ...

Feed My Lambs (John 20:1-19)

  Real forgiveness is tough. It’s not for cowards. Forgiveness requires truth-telling, a willingness to decide that maintaining relationship means more to you than the pain of walking away. Forgiveness costs … sometimes everything. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc

Breaking through the Barriers (John 20:19-31)

The most tempting thing to do is to hunker down, and wait for Jesus to show up and calm the storm, re-order our worlds, take the heat off, make everything all right. Jesus asks us to throw open the doors and announce a new world not only absent violence and hatred, but filled with the goodness of God’s blessings—a world in which the poor have enough to eat, enough to care for the health of their children and their aged; a world in which those who’ve been turned out, sent away, shuffled off...

Back to work (John 20:1-18)

What does the resurrection mean? If it means anything, it certainly means God’s cosmic “yes” to Jesus and the reign of peace and justice he fought and died for, and God’s “no” to the systems of domination and death that killed Jesus for challenging the powerful by seeking to center the needs of the vulnerable Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc

I Will Not Be Put to Shame (Isaiah 50:4-9a)

But please don’t misunderstand me; I’m not suggesting that the humiliated just bide their time until some day in a diaphanous and distant future. Because, if that were the case, there would be no need for resistance—since there would be no more shame. The Suffering Servant is, if anything, one whose denial of the power of the system to shame renders that system impotent right now. The Suffering Servant in Isaiah is talking about setting our “face like flint” in ... the present, refusing to...

When the Story Takes a Turn (Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32)

We need to think carefully about what Jesus is selling here. Since we’re the children of this parent who stands looking out the window—waiting for us to come home, waiting for us to come inside—we need to ask ourselves, 'Who are we looking for?' Because here’s the thing, there are an awful lot of people who’re trying to find their way back home—but they’re scared that we who’ve been here for so long, we who’ve faithfully tended the fields for all these years—they’re scared we don’t want t...

The Commonwealth of the Reign of God (Philippians 3:17-4:1)

We serve a God who came among us, who refused to stand back from us in the comfort of heaven. We model our life together on the God who forsook security to become vulnerable by coming down among us, placing God’s life in our hands. God is able to “transform the body of our humiliation,” because God took on that body … felt the humiliation that comes from living in a commonwealth where the wealth is anything but common. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc

Headed in the Wrong Direction (Luke 13:31-35)

You see the thing that’s so amazing to me about this passage isn’t that the powerful want to kill a prophet, the one who’s sent to turn a stable world upside down—that’s what the powerful always seem to want to do. No, what I find so amazing is that … knowing the danger ahead of him, Jesus goes to Jerusalem anyway to challenge the old kingdoms with a word about a new reign—all because he can’t keep quiet about the world God wants to create to replace the old one. Subscribe to us on iTunes...

What's Your Story? (Deuteronomy 26:1-13)

Now if you begin your history with the exploits of the privileged and the powerful, it’s easy to justify organizing your political and economic life around the people born on third base—because those are the very people history is meant to recall, and their lives, therefore, are enshrined as the purpose and meaning of true life. But if you begin the telling of your history by being reminded that you literally came from nowhere and that your ancestors were nobodies from nowhere ("A wanderin...

Disciple Dazzle (Luke 9:28-36)

Rev. Chuck Lewis in the pulpit today, speaking on the importance of radiating the light of God in a world that sleeps. Subscribe to us on iTunes!

You Can’t Tell Me What to Do (Luke 6:27-38)

You get to choose how you’ll view the world, to whom and what kind of attention you’ll give. Nobody is the boss of how you choose to act but you. No one can tell you what to do about the kind of love you offer to others. The whole “you’re-not-the-boss-of-me” thing is always about power. You just don’t have to give yours away." Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc

Today! Book-signing and reading of 'Outlandish: An Unlikely Messiah'

Derek's book is out! We're hosting a reading and book-signing this afternoon from 4-6pm and we'd love to see you there. Come get a book signed, have a snack, or just enjoy some warm company. See you there!

The Shape of the Kingdom (Luke 6:27-36)

Notice what Jesus doesn’t say as he unveils the vision statement of the reign of God. He doesn’t say, 'I’m announcing a kingdom where everybody who gets their theology right, who demonstrates a sufficient level of personal piety, and who manages to muster up the appropriate level of faith in me … will get a comfy split-level with walk-in closets and an in-ground pool in the hereafter.' He says 'The word I’m envisioning, the shape of the kingdom I’m announcing is going to feel like bizarro ...

Let Down Your Nets (Luke 5:1-11)

What if Jesus showed up around here and said, 'Let down your nets, things are fixin’ to get interesting?' Would we hear that as good news? What if Jesus said, 'I’ve got something for you to do, but it’s not anything like you were expecting?' Would we find ourselves rolling around on the bottom of the boat, telling Jesus to go someplace else? Or would we look at who shows up as a gift? The people nobody else has any time and space for? Are those the people God wants to put in our path b...

When Grace Runs Headlong over the Cliff of Entitlement (Luke 4:21-30)

Coming to terms with our own privilege is a tricky thing. In my experience, most people resent the idea that they’ve somehow been given a leg up. But the problem with our privilege has less to do with what we’ve been given than with what we’re willing to sacrifice so that others can have the same advantages we do. From God’s perspective, from the perspective of the new world Jesus is painting as he begins his ministry, the walls have been torn down so there’s no 'us' and 'them,' no 'inside...

I Will Not Keep Silent (Isaiah 62:1-7)

The need to cry out on behalf of people who feel like their world is about to chew them up didn’t die with Isaiah and the children of Israel. There are still people—many who live here among us—who urgently want someone to take their side, to refuse to remain silent in the face of despair and injustice—not so much as a white knight coming in to save the day, but often just as a reminder that they’re not the ones always left holding the bag by themselves. Part of what it means to follow Jesu...

On the Way (Matt. 2:1-12)

The question for those of us committed to following in the steps of the magi, and ultimately in the steps of Jesus is: When we spot the old world trying to stamp out the new, the powerful trying to subdue the powerless, will we take the easy way and acquiesce to the whims of a tyrant, or will we resist? Bethlehem—and the gospel toward which it points—is the focal point of the politics of empire. Don't kid yourself. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc

The Gift of Epiphany (Luke 3:15-17, 21-22)

We were important enough to God that God had it figured out from the beginning how to bring us home. We, therefore, if we are to be like God, must devote ourselves to the prospect of making a home for one another—both the kind we live in, as well as the kind that lives in us. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc

Embracing the Darkness (Psalm 88)

Merry Christmas! We’re blessed to have Rev. Teresa Pecinovsky sharing from the pulpit today about the importance of lament. Subscribe to us on iTunes!

The Redemption of the Humiliated (Luke 1:39-55)

The question posed by Advent is: How do we who live at the front of the line make Mary's song our song? Ironic that we, whom most of the rest of the world envies, might have to sit at the feet of Mary and Elizabeth to learn how to sing the song God gave all of us to sing about the reign of the coming messiah, a song for the humiliated and disposable people sung in anticipation of Emmanuel—God with us. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc

Who Needs the Truth Anyway? (Luke 3:7-18)

Following Jesus isn’t about securing our own piece of the heavenly pie, it’s about living with and loving those about whom John the Baptist speaks, and those whom Jesus loved. Living under the reign of God isn’t about escaping this world; it’s about offering God’s welcome to those whom the world has marginalized and forgotten. It’s about God pitching a tent in the muck and the mire of our sometimes godforsaken lives and living with us in the midst of the madness and horror. Subscribe to u...

Unsettling the World (Luke 3:1-6)

Luke’s quoting of Isaiah isn’t meant to help us visualize a flatter, smoother world, or to help us to feel better about the hilly, bumpy world we live in. In this context John the Baptist’s call to repentance isn’t about trying to be more sincere about our remorse. It’s about shaking up the world as it’s currently situated, so that something new can be born. In Luke’s hands these words are about tearing things up, about unsettling the way things are currently arranged. But this time around...

Adjusting Our Expectations (Luke 23:33-43)

Not only does God not respond to us with violence—God, in Jesus, has a front row seat to the very systems of domination that deal in the kind of death Jesus suffers—the kinds of death people continue to suffer at the hands of the wealthy and the powerful—the very people Jesus announces from the beginning that his new reign will lift up: the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed. It’s hard to imagine Luke getting any further away from our established understandings of what const...

What Will Be the Sign?

"Look at popular Christianity and you’ll find that what many people want out of faith is not a way to relinquish control. Many Christians don’t live as though they believe God is in charge even when they don’t understand how it’s all going to work out. Instead, people often look to faith for a way to order their existences…a way that will inoculate them against pain. "But we trivialize the gospel when we convince ourselves that it’s possible to be a disciple of Jesus without it ever costin...

Everything She Had

We need to advocate for a just economic system that looks out for the needs of those on the margins, that refuses to devour widows houses—that refuses to make the poor feel like they’re not full participants until they cough up their last five bucks until payday. But in the meantime, we need to work like crazy to be a church worthy of the kind of financial sacrifices people make. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc

What If Love Isn't a Second Hand Emotion?

And the fact that Jesus links love for neighbor and love for God together suggests that the way we love God is through our love for our neighbors. Jesus doesn’t offer up some vague notion of love that centers first on our ability to muster up the correct emotional responses. In fact, if we’re ever going to feel love, then, in all likelihood, we’re going to have to act lovingly first. The secret of love that our culture seems not to know is that the feelings of love generally follow loving...

Build a Longer Table

By Derek Penwell “When you have more than you need, build a longer table not a higher fence.” ~Author Unknown You’ve probably seen the meme on social media. The sentiment about preferring longer tables to higher fences serves as a reminder that we have a choice in how we respond to those people of a different tribe from our own. Such a reminder about hospitality is especially important as we face an uncertain future, where the prospect of division seems inevitable. As a pastor, and even t...

Just a Crumb (Mark 7:24-37)

I love the idea that the Jesus I’ve spent my life learning how to follow is big enough to allow himself to be stretched by a Gentile woman with a sick kid—about the very last person in the whole world Jesus ought to be taking religious instruction from. I love the idea that Jesus is big enough to listen for the voice of God in even the most unlikely places—not in the institutions busy authorizing and credentialing everything, making sure that it meets all the government standards for cage ...

Clawing Our Way up to Middle Management (Mark 10:35-45)

Popular Christianity promises a Jesus who wants to be your pal, a Jesus who doesn’t want you to be inconvenienced, a Jesus whose real concern is that all your biases are continually reconfirmed for you. A Jesus who knows what true glory looks like. And, let me tell you, that would be a whole lot easier on me. But unfortunately, I’m not good enough at this to give you that Jesus. Instead, I’m so incompetent at my job that all I can manage to figure out how to give you is a Jesus who seeks o...

Dinner and Beer with Jesus

Dinner and beer with Jesus tonight at North End Cafe on Bardstown Road at 6:30!

The Question Is: Who Gets into the Party? (Mark 9:38-50)

Let me put it this way, in the reign of God not only do I want everyone included, I want it so badly that I don’t want anything to stand in the way. I don’t want your need to have final approval on God’s guest list to be an obstacle to them knowing they’re welcome to the party. Moreover, I don’t want your zeal to scare off the people who’ve spent so much time convinced that they’re not welcome at any party—let alone one thrown by God. And, just so you know, your judgmentalism isn’t helping...

Fear and Welcome (Mark 9:30-37)

Welcoming the wonderful (and newly ordained) Rev. Nicole Hardin to the pulpit. Subscribe to us on iTunes!

Just For Being Faithful (Mark 8:27-38)

What if the cross, as fearsome and terrifying as it is,is the place where we meet Jesus? What if the cross allows us to consider that cross-carrying is not an individual, but a team sport? Even Jesus needed help lugging that lumber up the road. Not only do we find Jesus struggling under the load, but we find one another there too. Moreover, being near Jesus puts us near the poor, the disenfranchised, the powerless. That’s good news. Because since we’ve embraced the cross, we’ve already em...

Abide—in the Active Voice (John 15:1-5)

Abiding, which on the surface feels so passive, is just the opposite. If we abide in Jesus, if we live out the vision of the world he sees, we can’t help but take on the work of dismantling the systems that result in the shedding of the lifeblood of the poor and the outcry of the oppressed. We have no choice but to stand against the powers that foreclose on the futures of the defenseless, in the service of adding to the stockpiles of their own avarice. Abiding, at least as Jesus imagines i...

The Economy of God (1 Samuel 15:34-16:13)

We’re conditioned, socialized to the see the world through lenses that magnify everything. Ministers often keep score the way everyone else does. What we rarely stop to ask ourselves is whether, in all our scorekeeping and advanced measure-taking, we’re keeping score of the right things, measuring the stuff that really matters. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web

Absolom Absolom (2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33)

Welcoming David Sprawls to the pulpit today! Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web