Monthly Archives: November 2023

Gaslight, Gatekeep, #Girlboss

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Grace Church in New York

November 12, 2023

Podcast

Towards the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus has been trying again and again to explain what’s about to happen to him to his friends, but he’s doing it in this very Jesus-y way: he’s being slightly cryptic, dropping little truth bombs here and there. In the chapter before our story this morning, Jesus drops one of these little bombs as he’s coming out of the temple, “oh, by the way, this whole thing,” he says, pointing to the temple, “is going to come crashing down and just be, like, totally obliterated.”

The disciples are like, “wait what?” And so they ask him, “ok, Jesus: you’ve been saying some crazy stuff. When is this going to happen? And how will we know this is going to happen?”

When is this going to happen and how will we know this is going to happen? These are the questions Jesus is answering when he tells his friends the parable we heard this morning. Jesus answers his friends’ questions by telling lots of different stories about how we should be ready for the end of the world, for the second coming of Christ, for what awaits us in the new perfect place once Jesus comes again, for the future when life is not as we know it, but perfect in the kingdom of heaven.

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The Subway Sermon

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Grace Church in New York

The Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

October 29, 2023

Let me paint a New York City scene for you: You’re on the subway. You’re lucky enough to have gotten a seat. It’s one of the cars with the light blue seats, and you’re on the edge, against the silver arm rest and rails by the door. It’s nice, you can kind of lean your head to the side and rest for a second. But then the train starts to get crowded, taking on more and more people at every stop. People are tripping over your feet, their scarves are dangling over your phone. And then someone jams in the door at the last second, the back mid-section of their body now protruding slightly through and against your face.

“Get out of my space,” you think. You look up at the back of this interloper and think, “Do you not realize there is someone here?” Every little thing they then do becomes fodder for your increasing annoyance and anger towards them. Ugh, you can hear the music through their headphones and it is awful. Their backpack, thrown on the ground, is perilously close to leaning against your leg. “You are the worst of humanity,” you think.

Now here’s another familiar subway scene: You’re waiting and waiting and waiting on the platform. You were about 3 minutes late when you left your apartment, but then you remembered you forgot your umbrella, so then you were 7 minutes late, and then you just missed a train. So now, all of a sudden, you’re 17 minutes late for work and maybe you know your boss will not be happy about that ….

The train finally comes 3 minutes later and now you’re 20 minutes late and the car is also crowded. So you sneak in the best you can, sidewise, so you’re leaning against the side rail next to a seat. You take your backpack off because you’re a good subway rider and put it on the ground wherever you can find a spot and put in your headphones to try to get a little peace of mind but every single person around you is driving you crazy. If people would just move in there would be enough space. And if this person who is so lucky to have a seat behind you would just stop leaning against your backside. “Ugh, you are the worst of humanity,” you think.

Who is the worst? You’ve probably figured it out by now, you are both people. Have we not all been both people?

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