by Stephen Phelps | Sep 9, 2012 | disability, identity, sermon 2012, social justice
Could it be more plain that nations yearning to practice only strength, whether financial, legal, military or moral, segregating and oppressing their weak, their workers, their aged, their disabled, their poor, their sick, their least, their lost—that such nations always ultimately lose their bearings and collapse in weakness? Why? Because the human race was not for winning. The human race was for learning how to become humane. Care for what is weak is the core value of the left wing; and all share in its benefits.
by Stephen Phelps | Jun 17, 2012 | America, freedom, hope, identity, sermon 2012
Today, we begin a series of sermons which aims to connect our faith in Christ with the fights of our times. Right up to the November presidential election, we will consider many of the vexed conflicts of our civilization around which no moral or political will exists for decision and solution of vast injustices. I do not aim to define “what Christians must believe” about the crises we face, but I do want to claim that your commitment to Christ must issue in a decisive way of seeing our situation . . .
by Stephen Phelps | Apr 5, 2012 | criminal justice, disability, economic justice, hunger, identity, inequality, Lent, mass incarceratiom, sermon 2012, suffering
Now, though the hour is night and many are deep in the sleeps of denial and cynicism, of fear and self-betrayal, know this: Beneath the last garment that covers our life with kindness and community; at the base of bereavement; in the basement beneath the broken beams of all a person built or dreamed, there yet a mystery awaits: Your being, your eye, You absolute: irreducible, precious without price: being.
by Stephen Phelps | Aug 7, 2011 | freedom, identity, interpretation, sermon 2011, spiritual community, suffering, transformation
The struggle is a mystery. You cannot force the fight to make yourself grow. It is strange grace to be given such a night and such a fight and such sight as comes with the rising of the dawn. The gift is offered far more often than it is accepted. It can come through the veil of any crisis—at work, in health, in jail …
by Stephen Phelps | Jul 24, 2011 | hope, identity, sermon 2011, spiritual practice, transformation
The Genesis stories send a peculiar task: to feel after a spiritual meaning for an unspiritual life. In all of Genesis’ 3,000 words, the name of God appears not twenty times, and even then, mostly as a believer’s boast—but God in Godself does not appear. Therefore, let us ask about an unspiritual life. What is it?
by Stephen Phelps | Jun 26, 2011 | doctrine, freedom, gay rights, identity, love, sermon 2011
“The Ayes are 33, the Nays 29! The bill passes.” My oh my! Those were the words in the New York State Senate chamber this past week as the marriage equality bill was passed into law. Sometimes you win. What pride we share with our fellow citizens in this state today.
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