Troy Sims

The Grinchy Way of Salvation – A Sermon

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This is the sermon preached for Capitol Hill United Methodist Church on July 12, 2020. It is part of a larger series entitled, The Importance of Imagination, which uses children’s books to help us think imaginatively about God, faith, and our relationship to both. This one focuses on How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Listen to it here:

Right-mouse-click to download the audio.

This sermon was inspired by:

Ephesians 2:1-10
1You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 4But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (NRSV)

Matthew 14:22-33
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25And early in the morning he came walking towards them on the lake. 26But when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. 27But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’

28Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ 29He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. 30But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ 31Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ 32When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’ (NRSV)

Reconciling Prayer

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This is a prayer I shared at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church on June 14, 2020 as we celebrated becoming a Reconciling Congregation in 2005. 

O God of grace and God of glory,
on Your people pour Your power.
We need Your power to navigate these challenging times.
Even when it is time to celebrate,
we find it hard to find Your peace and joy.

Lord, in Your love – HEAR OUR PRAYER.

As we look to our biblical ancestors, O God
I’m reminded of how You invited the Israelites
into a covenant to be a light to the nations.
And yet, throughout history we see how
they have been persecuted
simply for being born Jewish.
To this day many still experience discrimination.
And so today, we join the voices of so many
who have gone on before when we ask, “How long?!”
How long must Your people endure pain at the hands of the world?

Lord, in Your love – HEAR OUR PRAYER.

And Lord, we look to the unrest here in the United States
as our black and brown siblings have for centuries
been abused by the insidious power of racism,
simply for the color of their skin.
Though they are created in Your image, O God,
many still treat these, Your children, as somehow “less than.”
And so today, we join the voices of so many
who have gone on before when we ask, “How long?!”
How long must Your people endure pain at the hands of the world?

Lord, in Your love – HEAR OUR PRAYER.

And loving God, on this day when we celebrate
this church’s step to openly welcome and empower our LGBTQ+ siblings
for ministry in the church and out into the community
we are reminded that these Your children, created in Your image
have also been seen as somehow “less than” or even “wrong”
for being who You created them to be.
And these beloved siblings have experienced discrimination,
oppression, and persecution through the centuries.
And so today, we join the voices of so many
who have gone on before when we ask, “How long?!”
How long must Your people endure pain at the hands of the world?

Lord, in Your love – HEAR OUR PRAYER.

And even as we cry out, “How long?!”
we believe what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr said,
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
We trust that through Your love, the example of Christ,
and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit
that change is possible
and that You invite us into a covenant
to help bend that arc towards the end that You are drawing all of us to.
So, to our crying ask of “How long?!” we add
“Here we are, send us to be Your light to the nations”
but particularly to our black and brown and LGBTQ+ siblings.

Lord, in Your love – HEAR OUR PRAYER.

O Lord, we join all these prayers we have shared today with the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray saying:

Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
and thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil
for Thine is the kingdom
and the power
and the glory forever.
Amen.

Time to Pull Up the Carpet?
by Rev. Jim Taylor

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I sold my house of 23 years in the District of Columbia last year. In preparation, I took up the carpets and rolled up the rugs. And there it was: 23 years of dirt and debris. What? I assumed I am a reasonably good housekeeper. I had vacuumed regularly. I shampooed periodically. On the outside and on the surface, my house was clean and tidy in appearance. Who knew? It took years for that dirt to become deeply hidden. Actually, my house was built in 1904, so much of that dirt was shaken loose from within the very structure of the house. It wasn’t my dirt . . . or was it?

My life is like that too. Racism is like that too. For white people like me it became easy to think there is no problem. “I am not a racist.” I was taught to respect others, so what is the problem? Racism may not be intentionally in my heart and mind, but it planted itself there regardless because society had made certain:

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear
You’ve got to be taught from year to year
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught

Little by little I learned implicit racism. I lived in a white neighborhood. I went to a white school. We had a housekeeper who came everyday to take care of me while my parents were working in the family business. Her name was Ruby. She taught me my ABCs and “Jesus love me this I know. . . .” I was an adult before I wondered how her own children were being cared for across the tracks. I was kept ignorant by the system to the legacy of slavery. My history book literally said “When the slaves came to America …” That was not a Carnival cruise! I’ve since understood that “history is the fable agreed upon.”

The COVID pandemic and the resulting stay at home orders forced most of us inside. It also gave us the opportunity to look inside ourselves in a fresh way if we chose to do so. Recent events have reminded me of the importance to pull up the carpets of my heart and mind and examine the dirt that has accumulated. I may not have put all that dirt there, but it is my responsibility to clean it up before I (and the world) can move on.

I’m still cleaning up. How about you?
–

Rev. Jim Taylor, retired

Before retirement, Jim was pastor of Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church (UMC) in Baltimore, Maryland from 2006-2010. Before that, he served as the Associate General Secretary of the General Commission on Religion and Race of the UMC in Washington, DC from 1992-2006.

Originally from Indianapolis, Indiana, he now resides in Rio Vista, California.

What Do You Choose? – A Sermon

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A sermon from Palm Sunday 2020. This was part of a larger Lenten series at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church where we were also looking at African America Spirituals.

We find ourselves living in unprecedented times in our lives, don’t we?
 
As we prepare for worship this Sunday, we come to one of the most iconic days of the Christian year – Palm Sunday – a day so often equated with joy and triumph. Can that old-time story of Jesus bring us guidance for this uniquely challenging time?
 
That will be our goal as we consider together two texts: Mark’s version of Jesus entering the city of Jerusalem and a snippet from the book of Revelation. We’ll also be thinking through some of the lyrics to “Ride On King Jesus,” an African American spiritual. As you look at those two passages and the song: What is similar? What is different? What do you think they say to our current situation? 

Listen to it here:

Right-mouse-click to download audio.

Watch the sermon here:

This sermon was inspired by:

Revelation 19:11-13
11Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed that no one knows but himself. 13He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God. (NRSV)

Mark 11:1-11
1When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. 3If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” 4They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, 5some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. 7Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 8Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. 9Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,

“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

11Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. (NRSV)

Standing on Holy Ground

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Where could I go to get away from your spirit?
Where could I go to escape your presence?
If I went up to heaven, you would be there.
If I went down to the grave, you would be there too!

Psalm 139:7-8 (CEB)

It was not supposed to go like that.

The day before, the senior pastor had talked to the terminally ill church member on the phone. She was weak and knew the end was near, and she wanted the pastor to drop by for a visit.

This person was a dedicated wife, mother, and church member who truly inspired us all. Though I couldn’t know what was going on internally, on the exterior she faced down her cancer diagnosis as if it were just one more step on the journey. If she had doubts she’d survive, she didn’t show the majority of the church. In fact, she tried to have fun with it, turning up week after week with wildly different wigs on her chemo-induced bald head. None of us expected cancer winning.

I had literally only been on a church staff for about 2 weeks, my newly minted title being “Ministerial Assistant.” As such, I had never even done a pastoral hospital visit before; so, the senior pastor thought it would be a good learning experience for me and the youth director to tag along. When we arrived the morning after the phone call, we realized that her prognosis had gone from a few days left to minutes.

I remember the pastor asking the husband and daughter if they would like us to leave, but we were invited to stay. We joined hands around her while each of us staff members said part of a short prayer, then we stepped back for the family to be close.

Not only had I never done a pastoral hospital visit before, I had never been in the room of a dying person. Let me just begin by saying it was surreal. For some reason, I felt a deep sense of joy that I truly could not explain and for which I was feeling guilty. How could I dare feel joy in such a sad happening? I remember looking at the pastor and seeing a gentle smile on his face and wondered why he had that.

Now, had he still just been my pastor (I had attended this church for a few years before they created this position for me), I probably could have talked to him about this strange feeling, but now he was my boss. I simply couldn’t go there. So, I meandered around for weeks in this strange, silent guilt for feeling joy.

Then, one day in my pastoral care class in my first semester of seminary, a hospital chaplain was visiting. I’ll never forget these words he said, “When you are in the room of a dying person, you are standing on holy ground for Christ is in that room.” In that instant, I knew the source of the joy I was feeling – a joy that I suspect the family couldn’t quite feel – but I knew without a doubt that God in Christ in the Holy Spirit had showed up for them, for us as the pastoral staff, and for this dedicated woman.

As I have struggled with feelings of guilt for not being with my Dad when he passed (and anger for not knowing he was that near the end), I take comfort in knowing that God was there. Dad was not alone. The God who never leaves us shows up in just the way we need God. God always shows up.

Palpable

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For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit,
and I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
Colossians 2:5 (NRSV)


It was the Thursday before the Washington DC Metro Area blizzard of January 2016. I had led Covenant Bible Study at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church, and afterwards, I was going to my friend Luke’s house to play a little guitar. It had started snowing shortly before I left the church, but no one had predicted more than a dusting. So, I made my way over to jam for an hour or so. When I left Luke’s, it was clear that the predictions were off. The ground and roads were totally covered and, as I was soon to discover, very slick.

As soon as I noticed how slick the roads were, I decided I’d take Bladensburg Road to Highway 50 to avoid a few overpasses, but soon realized there had been an accident as traffic was backed up near Benning Road and not moving. So, I took back streets, slipping and sliding along the way. I eventually made it to Highway 295 where I crawled along at about 25-30 mph to Highway 50 where I continued the quite slow pace while crazy people continued to fly by – some of which slid off the road.

Just east of Landover Road on US-50 (just outside of DC), there is an S-curve before reaching the Beltway. Even though I was taking my time, all of a sudden, I found myself going sideways, headed towards the concrete pillar holding up an overpass with nothing I did making a bit of difference.

“Oh, expletive!” I shouted out loud and in fear, and in that moment, it literally felt like Dad, who had died almost a year before, was sitting in the passenger seat. I heard him say, “Pop it up into neutral,” which I did. My car immediately straightened out. I incredulously said out loud, “Thanks, Pop!”

Now, some hearing this story will say, “Your dad is your guardian angel! That’s so cool,” which honestly, I don’t know that I buy as I really don’t know that I believe in angels like that. Others will say, “No, you just remembered what your Dad had said to you in a similar situation years ago,” which he definitely said to me when driving around on sleet-covered roads while I was in high school. And yet, the palpable sense that Dad was right there with me was way more than just a memory.

But my point is not to argue the mechanics of what happened. My belief is that the angels we have loved and lost are still somehow with us. Whether in some spiritual way or vividly in our memories, they are never far away. And though I would prefer being able to play music with him again or sit and talk with him again the way we used to, I’m thankful for these occasional moments when I still feel Dad and other loved and lost angels with me.

My hope and prayer is that, for each of you who have also loved and lost an angel, you can find moments of their ongoing presence and that this will bring you comfort, peace, and hope.