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Sunday, October 09, 2011
Wedding Woes
by Rev. Joyce Antila Phipps
Texts: Isaiah 25: 1-9; Matthew 22: 1-14 Several weeks ago I officiated at the wedding of one of my paralegals and her long time boyfriend at Shadowbrook. Other than the fact that all she had been talking about for the last month was her wedding, which is understandable, of course, I was struck by the – oh, how can I say it – the elaborateness of the facilities, the food, and the rest of it. What a far cry from my own wedding before which I argued with the minister about the language of the vows, or its fairly simple punchbowl and cookies reception, or even the fact that there was no videographer or fourteen people with cameras wandering all over the place to get photos of the event. Weddings have changed in many ways, to be sure. But I remind myself, for every grand show wedding there is also one in a room next to the kitch...
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AT: 10/09/2011 08:30:55 AM
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Sunday, May 15, 2011
Good Shepherds and Bad
by Rev. Joyce Antila Phipps
Texts: Ezekiel 34: 1-17; John 10: 1-10 In 1785 Marie Antoinette commissioned her favorite architect Richard Mique and court painter Robert Hubert to build what came to be called L’Hameau de la Reine, or the Queen’s Hamlet. Nestled within the properties at Versailles near the Petit Trianon, a special chateau built for Madame de Pompadour thirty years before, this remarkable set of buildings contained a working farm where Marie Antoinette would milk cows into buckets of Sevres porcelain with a specially designed royal seal, have her portrait painted as a shepherdess, and cavort about while the people starved in the slums of Paris. Can anyone who has seen the old Ronald Coleman film A Tale of Two Cities ever forget that scene where the nobleman throws out a copper coin for having run over a small bo...
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AT: 05/15/2011 08:30:28 AM
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Sunday, December 05, 2010
Preparing for Peace
by Rev. Joyce Antila Phipps
Texts: Isaiah 11: 1-11; Matthew 3: 1-12 So... here we are in the middle of two wars, two days from the anniversary of a day that will live in infamy, the commemoration of the tragic conflict that tore our nation apart one hundred and fifty years ago, anger and hostility all around us over issues such as unemployment, the economy, and health care, to name just a few, and we are supposed to think about peace. How do we do this in the midst of all that is going on around us? On top of that, it’s the so-called holiday season and everyone is rushing around, and we find ourselves caught up in the general anxiety around us. We listen to the words from the prophet about wolves dwelling with lambs, lions and kids feasting together, and think of Currier and Ives images of Christmas from times past and nod our heads think...
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AT: 12/05/2010 08:30:09 AM
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Sunday, November 21, 2010
Promises, Promises
by Rev. Joyce Antila Phipps
Texts: Jeremiah 22: 1-6; Luke 23: 35-45As a young teenager, I was permitted to go by myself on the streetcar to the National Gallery of Art in Washington on Saturday mornings because it was close to the Corcoran where my parents had sacrificed to have me take art lessons. Like the Met in New York, there are several galleries devoted to late medieval images of Christ Pantocrator, or Christ Enthroned. These images, mostly dating from the Romanesque period, around 800 to 1000 CE, present a stern Christ in judgment. To say the times were tough would be an understatement, nothing like we can even imagine now. The best comparison would be to a third world country, like the Congo, in conflict, only then people did not have automatic weapons. Death was always close. By the flowering of medie...
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AT: 11/21/2010 08:30:24 AM
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Sunday, October 03, 2010
Mustard Seeds of Justice
by Rev. Joyce Antila Phipps
Texts: Amos 5: 14-24; Luke 17: 5-10“Jumping off the gw bridge sorry” was the simple, one line comment on Tyler Clementi’s Facebook page. Outed in a most humiliating way through a video posted on the internet by his roommate, this brilliant young musician simply could not face going on with his life. And he’s not the only one. Seth Walsh, bullied by his classmates because of his suspected sexual orientation, hanged himself but lingered for nine days on life support before he died; he was 13 years old. In Cypress, Texas, another 13-year old, Asher Brown, shot himself for much the same reason. The list goes on and on. Three hundred years ago it was possible to flee a society out to get you by leaving Massachusetts Bay and settling in the marshlands of New Jersey. But the world has not only grown smaller....
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AT: 10/03/2010 08:33:50 AM
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Sunday, September 19, 2010
Honest Brokers
by Rev. Joyce Antila Phipps
Texts: Psalm 81; Luke 16: 1-13Some of you may remember the name of a Wall Street investment firm called Drexel Burnham Lambert and its most notorious employee Michael Milken who drove the firm into bankruptcy by his dishonest trading in what are called junk bonds. That was back in 1990; so you see, the greed of Wall Street has not just been a recent phenomenon. Even further back, of course, we have this morning’s story of the dishonest steward. It’s a really strange parable, the story of a steward who, being dismissed from his master’s service, decides to cut deals with people who owe his master money. And then Jesus tells his listeners to cuddle up to these dishonest people asking how one can expect the true riches to be entrusted if they haven’t been faithful in the unrighteous. What a strange approach this para...
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AT: 09/19/2010 08:30:41 AM
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Sunday, May 23, 2010
The Languages of God
by Rev. Joyce Antila Phipps
Texts: Psalm 84; Acts 2: 1-20There’s a new controversial video put out by the United Church of Christ on the internet called “The Language of God.” It has flash pictures of all kinds of people in all kinds of activities -- worship, rebuilding houses, inner city youth camps, justice demonstrations, and many other activities -- with words that describe the UCC such as compassion, love, community, justice, hope, equality, praise. What it suggests, of course, is that the UCC is committed to all of these things. As I watched the video, I couldn’t help but think that this video should not be just about the UCC but all Christians for we are all called to be faithful to the God who sent Jesus into this world to proclaim God’s kingdom. In his book, The Language of God, Francis ...
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AT: 05/23/2010 9:00:00 PM
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