Dave Buerstetta on striving to do justice and love others while walking humbly with God
The fourth and final Sunday of Advent happened the day before Christmas Eve.* So it was already a challenge to separate Sunday's message from one to give the next day. Add on the bonus level challenge of the same scripture reading as Christmas Eve (Luke 2:8-20)...and the result is one confused preacher. Fortunately, I had …
Continue reading ‘Everybody Move’: a sermon on Luke 2 & ‘Go Tell it on the Mountain’
If that title suggests to you that this sermon might be trying to do too much...well, I probably can't argue with you. It's probably not my best. Still, though, I thought the conclusion was actually pretty good. Poignant, even. I'm not sure my congregation agreed. Maybe it was too on the nose? (If so, just …
Continue reading ‘Time to Go!’: a sermon on Mary’s song, Joseph’s census, & ‘Children, Go’
To paraphrase one of our great musician-philosophers, “Infinite war, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!” But in the whole of human history, what has been more constant than war? Further, many of us were taught history, both of our country and of the world, through a series of wars. War seems to define us. …
Continue reading ‘Infinite War or Excelsior!?’ a sermon on Isaiah 36
Yesterday, a white supremacist, neo-Nazi walked into Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and murdered 11 people as they worshipped. This terrible, tragic, heart-breaking, hateful, and hate-filled act must be renounced -- especially by Christians. Our faith has for too long and too often been used to justify violent anti-Semitism. I hope resistance to such …
For most weeks this fall, we're following the Narrative Lectionary. Because the best narratives -- the best stories -- are powerful, moving, inspiring, and endlessly fascinating. (More on that in upcoming, non-sermon posts.) I usually chaff when the assigned readings skip over the difficult parts, so instead we read almost all of Exodus chapter 14. …
Our Ruth trilogy comes to an end this week as we look at the last two chapters of this fantastic and, as it turns out, fantastically relevant story. I feel like there is still so much to be said about the book of Ruth. Which, I suppose, is part of what makes it so great -- …
Genre matters. We know this. Almost instinctively, we know this. Genre helps determine what we expect from a story and how we understand that story. We read and react much differently to, say, an issue of National Geographic than we do to an issue of a superhero comic. Sometimes it only takes a few words …
Some day I will post something other than a sermon here. Really I will. I have a whole host of drafts and otherwise unfinished ideas. You'll see them...as soon as I access my inner Rocky Supinger. This past Sunday we kicked off a new sermon series on the book of Ruth -- by necessity, much …
Getting into good trouble by welcoming outsiders is the only faithful response to exclusion. That's my argument in this sermon, continuing the theme of the previous sermon by using John Lewis' beautiful phrase. Writing about my Acts 17 sermon, which took place the week before this one, I admitted I wasn't as bold as I …
Continue reading ‘Good Trouble around Asia Minor’: a sermon on Acts 18
In June, 2008, I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Representative John Lewis speak at a Sojourners conference in D.C. He is, it should go without saying, a real-life hero. A national treasure. An inspiration. Except, I'm ashamed to admit, at the time I didn't really know just how special he was, and thus I …
All That I Can't Leave Unsaid 