March 30, 2025 · Rev. Derek van Gulden · Psalm 36
Continuing the Lenten series on awe, Rev. Derek van Gulden turns to delight: the church's commitment to the struggle against injustice, Jesus's joy in sharing meals, and neighbors met over shovels in the great snows of 2015. The sermon dreams of lining School Street with tables and inviting the whole neighborhood to eat together.
Transcript
People of God. Would you join me in a moment of prayer? Gracious and loving God, this morning, I ask you to move the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts by your love, and help each of us not to be the oppression of anyone or our own oppression, but to be an instrument of peace in every step, in every breath, in every moment of every day. Amen.
Somebody asked me last Sunday why, with everything that's going on in the world today, we are talking about awe. And I said, well, wait. Next week we're going to talk about delight. We all know there are so many things going on in this world that we can't even fathom that we thought that many years ago, behavior like that had been pushed down, and the freedoms. Of everybody to be who they are, to be able to have free speech in this country and many others had been taken care of. There are many things we're still working on. Racism is actually becoming worse. Exclusion of people that believe differently than we believe, exclusion of people who may be immigrants and refugees. Actually, why I think about it.
Let's turn to the front of your bulletin, and there's a little statement in there called our open and affirming statement. And let us read this together. It is a very strong statement, but it is also a call for us to help all those who we welcome here to find a way to work with them and work with society, to pull them out of the oppressive behaviors of many. Will you join me? We, the members of the First Congregational Church of Rockport, are called upon to love each other as God loves us freely and unconditionally. Therefore, we covenant to become an open and affirming congregation, welcoming persons of every age, ability, gender, sexual orientation, race, gender identity, socioeconomic status, nationality, ethnicity and immigration status into full membership and participation in our community life and ministry. We embrace and support those who experience rejection and exile from spiritual community and commit ourselves to the struggle against injustice.
I know we're all aware of that, and I know that it's in our bulletin every week, but sometimes it's just good to say, especially that last part. We commit ourselves to the struggle against injustice. There are so many injustices going on in the world right now, in our community, in our country, that sometimes it's just hard to find a place to take a breath. Find a place of hope. But if we give up hope, how will we be able to do the work that we've said we're called to?
So we continue on this journey through lent, this journey of awe, of being purveyors of awe. And today we are talking about delight. I want to read once again that beautiful excerpt from Psalm thirty six that Jay read. How precious is your love. Whether creatures of heaven or children of earth, we all find refuge in the shadow of your wings. We feast on the bounty of your estate and drink from the stream of your delights. In you is the wellspring of life. And in your light we become enlightened.
And as Christina read to us. The gospel teaches us that light falls across borders, that the sun in its rotation brightens both sides of a wall, spilling through the spaces in our fences. And that's not just in our own community. That's throughout the created world.
Jesus, we are told throughout Scripture, especially the Gospels, but other scripture that Jesus delighted in many things. And one of them was the chance to sit down and have a meal with people. Anyone. From the very beginning of the Gospels, we hear of the wedding in Cana, where Jesus attends with his mother Mary. And we hear the part of the story most people remember is when they ran out of wine. Mary says, listen to my son. And Jesus turned the water into wine. Now, I had a professor once that said, now that's somebody who really likes to have a good time. I'm not sure because it doesn't. Well, immaterial. And then we go to the other end of Jesus's life on earth, where he meets in the upper room with his disciples, his closest friends, his family, to celebrate the Passover. And he says, I have been waiting to celebrate this with you. After his resurrection, there's that beautiful story. Two of them, the fish fry on the beach. And the road to Emmaus. Where two of the disciples are on a trip to Emmaus talking about what is going on. And Jesus appears, walking, says hi to them. They talk a little bit. They say, don't you know what's going on? Of course we know he does because he lived through it. And then as they get close to their home, as Jesus gets ready to say goodbye to them, they say, won't you stay and have a meal with us? And they sit down and Jesus opens their eyes and their hearts to the Gospels in all Scripture. And then he takes a loaf of bread and he breaks it, and they celebrate that holy meal together. And yet, when the two of them look up, Jesus is not there. But in the breaking of that bread, their eyes were open and they understand.
To me, every time you read one of those stories, whether it's the feeding of the five thousand or whether he just invites someone like a tax collector to come and sit with them and eat. It is a time where I believe he really delights in being with people and really delights in bringing people in from the margins of life, making them whole again through sharing a meal and bringing them back into community and teaching those who have pushed them out that this is what God really wants.
I share this with you. I don't think I've ever said this to anybody. It's nothing strange. But when I first started doing this type of work in Vermont, I had this vision. I had this vision of all these tables set out on a road or the field or the front lawn of the church I was serving in Vermont. It was known as the Floating Bridge Church because there was a floating bridge. And I just envisioned that and envision the community coming together. And sitting down for a meal. I think it was probably in the fall as we start to think of those things. And the vision just showed everybody who came bringing whatever their favorite dish was, whatever people had told them is, wow, that is the best dish I've ever tasted. And bringing that to share with people. The tables covered in all different colored cloth.
Since I've been here, I've pictured it out here on School Street from the top of school in main, right down to Broadway. Lines of tables. More than we have. So people would have to bring some. At first I envisioned one big line of tables going down the middle and I thought, wow, it's wide enough we can go two and inviting. not because we're saying we're sponsoring this, but inviting the community just to come together, not to try to increase our membership, not to try to increase the amount of money we bring in through members just to sit and have a meal and delight in that, but also delight in getting to know our neighbors.
Because as many churches and I'm exactly like those people. People say, well, what kind of church do you serve? I serve a community church. No, I serve a church that physically is in a community, but I do not know all the community around us. And I know some of you might, but I don't, and I'm sure a lot of us don't. And what we could offer them.
Jesus time to sit in delight with people was a great moment. And the way he did a lot of his ministry. We struggle to bring people to church. We say, bring a friend, bring a family member. But do we ever just sit down? Not in here, but just blow the windows open and the doors knock the walls down and invite everybody. This is a space that you're welcome in to use.
Someone said, well, that's really different than our history. We don't do those things. We're New Englanders. I said, yes, I know I'm a New Englander too. But think about it. Think about the relationships that we could grow with the people around us who we all live here.
Does anybody remember Snowmageddon twenty fifteen? In twenty fifteen, I met more of our neighbors here in town on High Street, where I live, than I had met since twenty twelve, and since then you couldn't see people. If you remember, you'd walk down Main Street and if you were on the sidewalk, which was shoveled, you couldn't see because there was at least six plus feet of snow. And yet I met more people, most with shovels in their hands.
Those of you who follow Facebook, this amazing thing happened. And I'm not a big Facebook user. I use it for my grandchildren because they're far away and that's the way they communicate. But this one aspect or this one Facebook group popped up. It's called Rock porters helping Rock porters. It's still there, I believe. And it was simply people in different communities in Rockport saying, hey, if you need some shoveling done, I've got a shovel. I'll come. And people would show up and talk. I remember getting to know some of the people that live across the street from us, out shoveling. I remember coming back to the church because they had a better shovel than I did, and going over and helping them. I remember people trying to walk their dogs. The dogs had nowhere to go and people shoveling spaces for them in somebody's yard or in front of a building. We had a little bit of a we have a walkway there, and the dogs used the walkway.
What a delight for me that winter was. Well, it was a tough winter. I think one hundred and twenty three inches. We got here in Rockport in three months. And it wasn't stuff that you could go snowshoe on because you couldn't get anywhere. Or even cross-country skiing. You could, but you'd sink. But it was still a delightful time. Because people were out there. And when you're shoveling, complaining about the snow or your delight in it.
We get to know people when we sit down, like Jesus did in his ministry, to share food, to break bread. Whether, as I said, it was a few people or it was five thousand, more likely fifteen thousand. What a delight. What a delight to be out somewhere with a huge crowd of people and you all sit down. You don't know anybody. You don't know where they come from. You know the people you're with. And all of a sudden baskets of food come. People are moved to share the food that they have carried with them using that culture. That's what they did in this culture.
Well, some of us do the same thing. Car snacks. Does anybody do car snacks? No. No one has children or children themselves. Well, I know that if my grandchildren are in the car with me, the first thing they ask Sarah and I is, what do you got for car snacks? So snacks. We keep granola bars, apples, pears. Never any chips or anything like that. It's probably when I'm driving. But when we were kids growing up, we would, actually, we'd all get Dramamine and sleep through everything. So I didn't know if we had car snacks, but, it is something that I have learned a lot of people have. And if we admit it, probably when we're driving long distances, we make sure we have water or something else to drink, but something to snack on. And even in those moments, those moments are great delight for me. Whether I'm meeting somebody in the community and I need to get out there and do more of that. But think about it.
Think about it around Thanksgiving, around Thanksgiving. It's a time when we all get together. It's probably one of the biggest celebrated holidays in this country. Think about if we align School Street with tables, even if we didn't ask permission to close the street off, because that's not always easy to do. But we know it happens sometimes. But even put them on the sidewalk. We have two sidewalks and just invited anybody from the neighborhood to come and sit down. Bring something to share. Bring friends. Bring family. Bring customers and just sit together and share a meal and delight in the joy of being with other people. Delight in the joy of getting to know them.
Now, through all this, there's always a hook to things. We meet more people. We make friendships, we learn, and then we have a community that's stronger and can do the work we are called to. To help people to be freed from oppression of all kinds. To work on the injustices that we see starting in our own community, whatever that might be. For me, and I'm sure for Jesus, why can't speak for Jesus? That would be a great delight, too. Amen.