THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

This sermon was preached on Christmas, at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 12/25/16.

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned…  For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.”  (Isaiah 9:2, 6)

If I can be transparent for a few minutes this morning, I must confess that Christmas for me this year is rather bittersweet.  I’m certain that I’m not alone in experiencing a sense of joy coupled with pain, sunshine and rain, light and darkness. 
Christmas, for me has always been time of sheer joy, a time when even as an adult, the inner child in me has been awakened - and hope, and joy, and love and the promise of peace on earth is renewed and animated for me.

            I know I’m not alone.  This year is unlike any other.  The time from last Christmas to this one seems like an eternity, and has been wrought with difficulty.  We have seen our share of disappointment, despair, disillusionment, discouragement, dimness, and dismal distress. 

We are living through one of the most difficult political seasons in our nation’s history – people are deeply divided along race, class, inter-religious and even intra-religious lines.  This is to say that Christians can’t even agree on what it means to be a Christian.
         Murder continues to plague many of our cities like Baltimore where over 310 persons will have lost their lives by the end of this year.  Too many people are living out in the streets, too many people are hungry and too many people remain without adequate healthcare.  Around the world, there are wars and rumors of wars – and it seems like there’s another terrorist attack somewhere in the world every time we turn on the news.
        So Christmas for me – and I sense for many of us – is more bittersweet this year than ever.  And yet, we as people who walk by faith live marked by a promise that in every season of darkness there will come forth light. 

TEN WAYS TO STRENGTHEN CHURCH, COMMUNITY, POLICE RELATIONS

C. Anthony Hunt, D.Min., Ph.D.  

One of the keys to a church’s vitality is the quality of the relationships that it establishes with leaders and institutions across a broad spectrum of the community in which it resides.  One of the most important relationships that the church can work toward developing is with police and other public safety officials.  Given recent well-publicized police-involved shootings along with the shootings of a number of police officers around the nation, resulting in challenges with police/community relations - working proactively on strengthening church/community/police relations serves to engender trust and  focus on shared community concerns and commitments for public safety in proactive, rather than reactive ways. 

It is a part of the theological task of churches to “seek the welfare” (shalom, peace, well-being) of all people in their respective communities. (Jeremiah 29:7)  Individuals, churches, groups, organizations, institutions and even governments can continue to seek to promote the well-being of communities by making a sincere commitment to strengthening church/community/police relations. 

Here are ten ways that individuals, churches, and other organizations can work toward strengthening these relations.

1.  Pray for the police serving your community.

2.  Pray for, and publically affirm, the police (and other public safety officials) who are members of your congregation. 

3.  Schedule regular meetings with community police officers to establish/strengthen relationships.

4.  Participate in periodic drive-arounds and community walks with police and community leaders.

5.  Invite police to community events held in the church (e.g. back-to-school events, community meals, food giveaways).

6.  Include police assigned to the church and community on lists for newsletters and email blasts.

7.  Seek to collaborate with community entities like the NAACP, Chamber of Commerce, community associations and churches in the community across denominations and faith traditions in addressing common interests/concerns regarding policing and public safety.

8.  Invite community police to speak to youth and young adults in the church.

9.  Educate youth (and adults) on appropriate conduct if/when stopped by police.

10.  Assist police departments in the recruitment of qualified persons in the congregation and community who would serve well as uniformed police officers (especially women and minorities).

© C. Anthony Hunt, Ph.D., 2016

TEN WAYS TO BUILD THE BELOVED COMMUNITY

C. Anthony Hunt, D.Min., Ph.D.

One of the strivings of all humanity is for us to become authentic community.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was among those who framed the conception of community in what he termed the Beloved Community.  King asserted that “all life is interrelated.”  This interrelatedness was rooted, for King, in the fundamental belief in the kinship of all persons.  He believed that all life is part of a single process; all persons are sisters and brothers, and that we all have a place in the Beloved Community.  Because all of us are interrelated, one cannot harm another without harming oneself. 

King also intimated that “everyone could be great because everyone could serve.”  In the uncertain times that we find ourselves in as churches and society, as United Methodists, the General Rule of Discipleship continue to point us to the importance of engaging in acts of compassion and justice as means of living out our faith and loving our neighbors.  Making a sincere commitment to community-building and social engagement to serve the causes of promoting peace with justice is how individuals, churches, groups, organizations, institutions and even governments can act to continue to perpetuate the pursuit of Dr. King’s vision of the Beloved Community.

Here are ten ways that individuals, churches and other organizations can enact with the goal of promoting peace with justice. 

1. Support and develop community-wide plans aimed at expanding economic opportunities for racial-ethnic persons and women specifically in the areas of housing, banking and employment practices.

2. Actively participate in programs that reach out to help those in the most need – the hungry, the homeless and the unemployed.

3. Adopt an inner-city or rural school. Offer your skills where appropriate. Do your part to assure that every inner city and rural young person can look forward to an adequate education.

4. Encourage schools, colleges and universities in your community to include Dr. King’s (and other freedom fighter's) teachings in their curricula and programs.

5. Take specific actions to deal with the problems of drugs, alcohol dependency, teenage pregnancy, and family violence in your community.

6. Become an advocate - and encourage church, political and community leaders to advocate - for the removal of all weapons from our streets, homes and schools.

7. Support causes that promote freedom, justice and peace abroad. Help extend human rights, dignity, health and economic well-being to all persons.

8. Take a stand, and encourage persons in your church and community to actively oppose those groups that promote hatred and violence. Actively and vigilantly oppose racism, homophobia and other forms of xenophobia in our communities.

9. Sponsor and participate in programs that encourage interracial, intercultural and inter-religious goodwill and unity.

10. Read the Social Principles of The United Methodist Church (or another denomination/faith group) and strive to make them an integral part of the faith and life of yourself, your church and community.

© C. Anthony Hunt, Ph.D., 2016

WHAT BECOMES OF THE BROKEN HEARTED?

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 12/4/16)

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?   My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises. In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.   To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. Psalm 22:1-5

             If I can be transparent for a few moments, there have been only a few times in my life when I have been truly broken hearted.  One was when our Son, Marcus William Hunt died from an accidental drowning on August 7, 2005.  Another was on September 11, 2001, with the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon in Virginia.  Yet another was the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968.  And a fourth was at the presidential election on this November 8-9, 2016.

If you’ve ever been broken hearted, you know what it feels like, and you can feel the same pain that I’m still experiencing in the aftermath of the election.  To be clear this is not, at its core, a political concern – it is more an existential concern – getting to the very core of who I am, and who we are as the people of God. 

Indeed, many of us right now are living with broken spirits - broken hopes and dreams - indeed broken hearts.  

And it would not be an overstatement to declare that the experience of broken heartedness is often accompanied by a sense that one has been punched in the gut so hard, and knocked down to the point that one finds it difficult to get back up.  The broken heartedness that I’m talking about today carries with it profound disappointment, dis-heartedness, a confusion, and pain – and indeed fear – fear for the future of God’s creation.   And this brokenness often leads to bitter tears of despair – which may seem to drip with no end in sight.

LESSONS FOR A LUKEWARM CHURCH

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on  11/20/2016)

"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. ¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!                     (Revelation 3:14-22

These last two weeks have found many people in the midst of heated conversation.  Anywhere you find news on the television, on newsstands, or on the Internet -there seems to be heated conversation about last week’s presidential elections. 

The heated discussions have extended into the church, where it’s clear that even Christians, those of us who profess to be followers of Jesus, are not of the same mind about the implications of the election on the well-being of all God’s people. 

Indeed, many people are passionate in their beliefs about the efficacy, or not, of the election.  And if the truth is told, this has resulted in often heated conversations, even among Christians.

It leads us to wonder, what if the church and society was as passionate about other important things as we are about who the President-elect is, who will be on his cabinet and how he will govern after the Inauguration?  What if we were just as passionate about doing good, doing no harm, and staying in love with God?