Worship. Serve. Grow.

Sermons by The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista (Page 9)

The End of Things

The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista considers what it means to find hope in the apocalypse (Mark 13:1-8): “One of the most popular stops in Israel is a fortress named Masada. It is high up on the Judean desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. In the first century BC, Herod the Great built himself a palace there on a mesa, fortified its walls and made it nearly impenetrable. And yet for all its fortification, its vast food store houses, its complex aqueduct system and ingenious engineering, it is the location of a major defeat, the last stand of a host of Jewish rebels, finally fed up with imperial Roman rule.”

Job and Fred Rogers

The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista reflects on Job 1:1; 2:1-10: “Before Senator Pastore sat a soft-spoken Presbyterian minister who was convinced of the value of public programming. This man had recently premiered a children’s show with low production value… Before the Senate committee, he articulated his mission as clearly as he did in every one of his shows: ‘if we can only make it clear in public television that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great surface for mental health.'”

Practicing True Religion

The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista considers the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees in today’s gospel reading (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23): “The Pharisees were actually part of a reform movement in their day and age. They were trying, like Jesus and his followers, not to burden people with the law but to bring the law into their daily life, to help the everyday person find meaning in it… Both Jesus and the Pharisees were trying to interpret the law in the light of their current situation, not demanding observance for its own sake.”

The Steps of Wisdom

The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista reflects on 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 and the endurance of wisdom: “We are complicated people, and each day we are given choices. We require wisdom to do not just that which is convenient but that which is right. Will we seek after God’s wisdom?”

Wings of Fear and Hope

The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista reflects on John 6:1-21: “In Islam, the pilgrim or believer is often imagined as a bird with two wings: one of the wings is fear, one of the wings is fear. In order to make her journey through life, the believer must hold these two in tension.”

Everyday Prophets

The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista considers Mark 6:1-13: “What kind of person is a prophet? Abraham Heschel had something to say about that… He describes a prophet as a person concerned with God’s involvement not just in the big events but in the particular circumstances of day-to-day existence.”

Patterns Disrupted

The Rev. Javier Almendárez Bautista discusses Paul’s radical message to a community in conflict (2 Corinthians 6:1-13): “The great hope of the Christian faith, the scandalous thing about it, the most daring thing it offers, is that the past does not have to determine our future. Our scandalous hope is that God will not judge us by our worst moment or by the popular opinion poll of our potential… Will we treat people according to society’s worst assumptions of who they are, or will we treat them exactly as we ourselves have been treated by God?”

Being Born Anew

The Rev. Javier Almendárez Bautista considers Nicodemus (John 3:1-17) and the work of Jean Vanier: “I wonder if in the moments where we each feel the ground shifting beneath our feet, when someone stands before us and challenges the way we think, feel, and act in the world, whether we could hear Jesus in their words, beckoning us forward, urging us again and again to be born anew. I wonder if we, like Nicodemus, could sit more often with the discomfort of not being the expert and truly listen to the Spirit’s movement among us.”