Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the USA, and the violent response that has shaped so much of the world during the last twenty years. With outrage over the tragedies accompanying the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, we also take time to reflect on the world we have created during two decades of occupation and war. And we remember the words of Daniel Berrigan, who, along with countless others through the centuries, taught us to insist that another way is possible and to do the work to bring it into existence: “One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible. It may or may not be possible to turn the U.S. around through nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total inability of violence to change anything for the better.”

The owners of Purdue Pharma have been released from any liability in the deaths of a half a million people in the opioid crisis because they were willing to give a fraction of their ill-gotten gain to the victims of the opioid crisis that they helped to create. When did you ever hear of a drug dealer getting a suspended sentence for giving a donation to an addiction treatment program? We see billionaires spending the wealth earned by low waged employees for a joy ride in space while the wealth gap in America grows. On this Labor Day weekend we need a wakeup call, a reminder that the disproportionate amount of wealth going to the top of the income ladder is making more and more Americans poor for no good reason and eroding any claim we ever had to being a democracy.

Though most public school history classes are silent about it, there was a serious insurrection attempt made in 1932 to overthrow the administration of Franklin Roosevelt and install a fascist leader who would reverse the New Deal legislation in favor of a wealthy ruling class. Although the coups was stopped, none of the finances and planners of the coups were charged or tried…. familiar names like DuPont, J. P. Morgan, William Randolph Hurst, and the father of George H. W. Bush, Prescott Bush, were among those fans of Hitler and Mussolini who wanted to see Roosevelt removed. Do you hear echoes of today?

The oldest known written story is the Gilgamesh Epic, the four-thousand-year-old tale of an ancient king who becomes obsessed with finding the secret to eternal life. From the dawn of civilization, humans have tried to grapple with the awareness that we are mortal, some turning to entirely unsubstantiated religious promises of life after death but some, like Gilgamesh, discover that eternity is beyond our grasp and that we must finding meaning and purpose in a life that is, by definition, limited and yet has the potential for great joy.

As Dr. Ray turns 65, he and David Ketchum will begin to share the preaching load equally. On this special Sunday, Dr. Ray reflects back on his 43 years in the pulpit (so far) with some important observations on the nature of parish ministry with all of the wonders and horrors that come with trying to break out of merely being a priest and striving to become a prophet, leading the community of faith to speak truth to power.

The history of forced assimilation of Indigenous peoples, such as residential schools, has often been hidden or excused in popular memory. By looking at the historical context that brought about these institutions, we can understand how a cultural shift is needed to move away from the attitudes and ideas that were prominent in the history of colonization and continue to be embedded in our collective consciousness. Especially for White folx, our work of the present moment is to heal and transform our collective consciousness, honoring the great web of life and finding our place within it. And to do that, we must part ways with the sins of superiority, forced assimilation, and greed, learning that our own well-being cannot be separated from the well-being of the diversity of humans and human cultures, or from the earth itself.

The realities of residential schools and the tragedies of forced assimilation have filled the news this summer, to our grief, rage, and shame. So while we welcome Secretary Haaland's investigation into these schools and their impacts on Native children and their families, we also recognize our own work that needs to be done. All of us who are not Indigenous, especially White Christians, need to honor and participate in the process of accountability: to own up to injustice when we are confronted with our own complicity, and to speak out and act to help heal the harm.

While many of us long for greater social equality, moving past the identity politics that emphasizes race, gender, and sexual orientation, often times at the expense of discussing ideas, budgets, policies, and infrastructure development, we cannot pretend that such divisions do not exist or that they do not matter. Perhaps one of the most lethal expressions of white, male, hetero dominance is to claim that it does not exist. So, how do we intelligently move past either being afraid of our differences or feeling compelled to “check all of the boxes” towards a more meaningful and way to create a unified society that cherishes its diversity, while affirming the equal worth of all?

Capitalism is here to stay but that might not be a bad thing if we could put up the kind of guardrails that can harness the greed that drives it in a way that does not allow for the abuses it also engenders. Progressive communities of faith can be a part of the “fifth estate” providing alternatives to corporate media and the propaganda spewed by corporations and the politicians they own.

The way that we have settled into minimum wage laws is not simply an exploitation of the labor of the poor and, in fact, in many ways looks like a reconfiguring of slavery. Slave owners provided housing, food, clothing, and basic care of slaves. Does $7.25 an hour provide even that for minimum wage workers anywhere in America, particularly in LA, NYC or Boston? We are not suffering from a lack of resources in our country but we do have an apparent lack of both imagination and compassion. We can fix this.

For many of us, July 4th is a time to forget about history and indulge in nostalgic and sentimental celebrations of freedom. But the holiday can provide us with more than just an opportunity for barbecue cookouts and firework displays, if we are willing to look beyond the romantic notions of popular nationalism. The recent controversies over the 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory invite us to re-examine how we relate to history and how to provide a "true civic education." By doing so, we find that history can become the honest study of human experience, giving us humility in the face of our mistakes (from the most laughable to the most cruel) and hope in the face of our greatest challenges. It is an opportunity to remember that we are making history right now, and we can make a better, freer future not only possible, but something real.

People often have passionate beliefs about things for which they have no evidence or, even worse, they believe in spite of contradictory evidence. In religion, such baseless convictions often masquerade as a virtue but isn’t blind belief just a narcissistic projection of personal preferences? Karen Armstrong, the late Marcus Borg, and Bishop John Shelby Spong have argued that faith has more to do with courage and commitment than it does with belief in a literal set of creedal statements. This sermon takes the position that presenting sacred stories as being literal historical accounts actually robs them of their intended meaning and purpose. A faith community’s sacred stories are the myths they use to bind them to one another and by which they define themselves and their purpose. Perhaps progressives can once again renew their love for their faith community if they cease trying to force themselves to believe in the absurd and the obviously false claims of creedal faith. The major world religions are always th

Let’s be honest, most of the truth claims made by traditional forms of almost all religions are not just beyond anyone’s ability to prove, they are, by and large obvious absurd to any critical thinker. It wasn’t just Voltaire and Bertrand Russell who clearly articulated deep skepticism about religion, most of us have in less articulate ways. But the choice is not between either total atheism or assassinating our brains to pretend to believe silly things. There is a way of being intensely spiritual within the mystery and wonder of existence. The way of the mystic promotes love rather than division, and joy rather than fear. We can live beyond the guilt and manipulation of our former religious lives into a much more honest and happy existence. Overcoming Religious Trauma - Tuesday June 22 at 7:00 PM Central Time

Events of the past few years have brought the issue of race much more clearly into focus, especially for the dominant white culture that has been willing to learn about the ways in which race has affected wealth disparity, policing, the judicial system, the penal system, as well as housing and employment. We recently discovered that most white people had never even heard of the Tulsa Race Massacre until the city was marking the 100th anniversary of this most violent attack on the black population in America’s history. Even still, there are public protests in many states against teaching Critical Race Theory even when what is basically at stake is making our history lesson more factual and less dishonestly “white washing” America’s history of discrimination. How we think shapes our culture and when it comes to race, it is time for us to prophetically embrace truth and reject propaganda.

In addition to today’s sermon, we will be hosting an online event via Zoom on June 22 discussing “Overcoming Religious Trauma.” Despite our growing understanding of religious and spiritual abuse, many people continue to suffer. And despite the public record of this harm, too many religious individuals and institutions refuse to take these issues seriously. We need to reflect on our own experiences in light of 1) historical and sociological analysis of religious institutions and 2) with our best psychological modalities for addressing religious trauma. By doing so, we can continue to move ourselves and our communities toward relationships that are not built around delusions and threats, but around reason, curiosity, wisdom, compassion, and love.

This Memorial Day weekend we mark the passing of 600,000 Americans in the Covid-19 pandemic and we are similarly aware of the many ways in which millions of lives have been impacted in lost jobs, damaged health, and in the closure of many vital and familiar businesses and institutions. We also acknowledge that churches, synagogues, and mosques have suffered from the pandemic, many will never re-open for in-person community services. As our Emerging Church, which has been a hybrid of on-line and “seated” congregations for 13 years now becomes an almost exclusively on-line resource, we acknowledge the grief that comes with change but we double down in hope of being a meaningful force for social justice for many years to come.

Childhood poverty in many American communities now exceeds 50% of school aged children. A part of the proposed stimulus bill addresses this problem in the most direct way possible, offering a monthly stipend paid to parents as well as support in child care and education. If this bill is passed it will be the most transformative correction to poverty since FDR's "New Deal." It may be too much to hope for but if we don't all speak up in support of this, what does that say about how we really value our children?

The word “socialism” has been, through media and political manipulation, turned into a term that means little more than “pure evil.” That’s just crazy. The belief that economic resources should be owned and controlled by the few rather than the many is contrary to all world religions and fundamentally favors slavery over freedom. Christian Socialism was a very strong movement in the late 19th and early 20th century and was undermined only by associating socialism with fascist dictators. What we really need to do in our sharply partisan country, is to set aside the name calling and talk about the most effective and compassionate way that we can share resources.

We often think of the great moral leaders of history as if they just fell from the sky in our hour of need. The truth is that people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and even Ruby Bridges had courageous mothers who taught them, inspired them, and even held their hand while facing a culture in desperate need of change. It often seems to be "reasonable" to adapt to the status quo but, as George Bernard Shaw pointed out, progress depends on the unreasonable person who demands change.

One of the lessons we have continually been reminded of throughout the pandemic is how interconnected we are all, whether we like it or not. Similarly, both social and ecological justice issues remind us that our worlds are intimately connected, even if we create artificial boundaries that give the illusion that harmful actions don't have consequences. The last year has been terrifying in so many ways, but we've also witnessed wonderful acts of creativity, compassion, wisdom, and community. We carry both that pain and that joy with us as we take tentative steps toward creating communities of care in a post-pandemic world.