Hearing Other Voices – Week 2
June 14, 2020
Church of the Servant, Wilmington, NC
June Worship – Hearing Other Voices
This week Church of the Servant used our worship time to hear the voices of St. Stephen A.M.E. church, led by their Pastor, Rev. Thomas Nixon. When I asked Pastor Nixon how they’re doing virtual worship in the midst of COVID-19, he shared the evolution…
It started with a video recording of worship from the sanctuary, providing Rev. Nixon with the familiar pulpit, yet preaching to empty pews. When the A.M.E. Bishops directed their clergy to no longer use the sanctuary, he began recording video-sermons seated in front of his computer camera – not his style. The congregation let him know that it was more important that they hear him preach “as he is” than to see him in a way that didn’t ring-true. So they’ve been worshiping each Sunday by teleconference. No video, just real-time, real Pastor Nixon, worship. Here is the sermon portion of that worship from today. He draws on Exodus 1:8-14.
Making Room
April 19, 2020
Church of the Servant, Wilmington, NC
2nd Sunday of Easter – Year A
John 20:19-31
Social Distancing: A Means but Not the Dream
March 15, 2020
Church of the Servant, Wilmington, NC
3rd Sunday in Lent – Year A
John 4:5-42
(gospel text provided below)
Not part of my vocabulary just five days ago, I’ve now used the phrase social distancing at least a dozen times in the past twenty-four hours. In response to concerns about the spread of the new COVID-19 virus, we’re embracing the call to limit in-person social interaction in the hope of “flattening the curve” (another newly adopted term) of the virus’s reach. 
And while social distancing may be new to our vernacular, its existence is as old as time. Perhaps not so much the mitigating risk kind we’re enacting today, but the kind that results when we exclude others because of who they are, what they’ve done, or how they live.
The story told in John’s gospel about Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman demonstrates social distancing on multiple levels. Read the rest of this entry »
Remember Me
November 24, 2019
Church of the Servant, Wilmington, NC
Christ the King, Last Sunday after Pentecost, Year C
Luke 23:33-43
Listen here:
Source: Luke Timothy Johnson, The Real Jesus: The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels, HarperSanFrancisco, 1996 ,p. 149.
Link to Tideline: https://cosepiscopal.ecdio.org/News/tideline_nov_2019.html#Jody
The Gospel:
Luke 23:33-43
When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing. The people stood by, watching Jesus on the cross; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”
One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
