Sermons
This video and the text below are from January 26, 2020. The video is also on our ChatsworthUCC Facebook page, where you can see previous sermons.
“The Ministry of Our Church”
Rev. Bill Freeman
January 26, 2020
The Congregational Church of Chatsworth
Before I begin, I want to thank you all for being here today. When I look at you, I see the ministers of the church, because that’s what you are, you are the ministers of this church. You do the ministry of this church. And that’s what I want to talk with you about today – The Ministry of Our Church.
What do we mean by ministry? Well, the dictionary says that ministry is serving others. So, does that mean that a waiter and a waitress are ministers? Maybe. I think if they do it with a smile on their face. Hopefully we do ministry with a smile on our face. But what is ministry? Somebody said to the Dalai Lama that he’s going to go to hell because he’s not a Christian. The Dalai Lama said, “Well, what is hell?” The Dalai Lama was told that hell is a place of eternal punishment, where people go forever and ever and they suffer. The Dalai Lama said, “Good, then I’m glad to go to hell, because I can help people through their suffering.” You don’t have to be a Christian to be a minister. The Dalai Lama, I think, proves that.
You don’t have to be a member of the church to be a minister. Somebody asked Pope Francis whether atheists will go to heaven. Pope Francis says, “Well, if they do good, then I’ll see them in heaven.” My goodness! I can’t think of another pope, maybe Pope John XXIII, who would say that atheists, or non-Catholics period, would go to heaven. So, you don’t have to be a member of the church, according to the pope, to go to heaven, and that’s why Pope Francis is my favorite pope.
You don’t have to be a member of this church to do ministry. Patrick is not a member of this church. But I think Patrick does as much, if not more, ministry than anybody in this church. He ministers to us with music. He ministers at the food pantry, helping out there, picking up food from Ralph’s and other places. So, you don’t have to be a member of this church to do ministry. Anybody can do ministry! And that is the ministry of our church.
What does Jesus say about ministry? According to the gospel of Matthew, Matthew 25 – now I realize that I quote that quite a bit, but I think it’s one of the most important passages in the Bible. Jesus says, “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me. Just as you did it for the least of these, who are members of my family, you did it to me.” That’s ministry. And that’s what we do.
Jesus said, “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.” That’s what we do in our food pantry! I’m told we gave out dozens and dozens of boxes of food yesterday, I think ninety-some. And served over 200 people, giving them food and drink. That’s the ministry of our church. They are part of our church – the food pantry is part of our church. That’s the ministry of our church.
When we leave here today, we’ll go to the multi-purpose room and enjoy lunch. Not just for the people in this church. But for people in the community. I passed out flyers yesterday at the food pantry, inviting people to come for a free meal at eleven o’clock. I said you could also come to church at ten o’clock, but you don’t have to, to get a meal. That’s the ministry of our church, and people come. When we go to the homeless encampments, I passed out flyers a week ago, inviting people to come. People come to our church for food. Hopefully, the food that they hear in church, that’s part of the ministry of our church, but also the food that they get after church, and we do it every Sunday. And we do it really big around the holidays! The Sunday before Christmas Patrick got us a prime rib! We had prime rib for dinner the Sunday before Christmas! We have ham on Easter Sunday. And other things for those who don’t eat pork. We have hot dogs and all the stuff that you have for a cookout, we have cookouts the Sunday before Memorial Day, the Sunday around the fourth of July, the Sunday before Labor Day. Then, the Sunday before Thanksgiving we have a big turkey dinner, thanks to Patrick again. Patrick, as I mentioned before, is probably one of the most ministerial people in this church. That’s the ministry of our church.
Jesus said, “I was hungry and thirsty, and you gave me food and drink,” and that’s what we do.
Jesus said, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” This church does a fabulous job, I think, of welcoming the stranger. Kathleen puts together a little goodie bag that she gives to first time visitors. I notice we have a first-time visitor, who I am sure will get a little goodie bag before the hour is over. That’s what we do. We welcome people into this church. Somebody told me a week or so ago that she really appreciated the little goodie bag that she gets. I looked in there and there’s candy and a little fruit snacks and they’re still in there. I didn’t take them! That’s what this church does. It welcomes people into this church because it’s the right thing to do and also because Jesus told us to do that.
Jesus said, “I was naked, and you gave me clothing,” and we do that. We have coats and blankets and different things that we give out to people. That’s what we do as a part of the ministry of our church.
Jesus said, “I was sick, and you cared for me.” That’s what we do. A week and a half ago one of our members had surgery and I went to visit her in the hospital and when she came home. That’s what we do. She told me, “I don’t want people to see me. But you can come visit me.” I kind of chuckled and said, “What does that make me? Aren’t I a people?” She said, “No, you’re my pastor.” That’s funny, but that was one of the most humbling things anybody ever said to me as a pastor. That that’s how they see me, not as a person, but as a pastor. That’s what we do as part of the ministry of our church.
Jesus said, “I was in prison and you visited me.” Recently I visited someone, not in prison, but in jail. I learned that, at the Van Nuys jail, at least, people can’t go and see people on Sunday, but a pastor can visit somebody on Sunday in jail. And a lawyer and a bail bondsman, but I’m neither one of those. But that’s what we do. And we don’t do it judgmentally. Several years ago, I had the chance to interview Helen Prejean when I had a radio talk show. She said, “No one should be defined by their worst act.” That’s why we don’t judge people when we visit them in prison or in jail. We don’t give them judgment; we give them love. That’s part of the ministry of our church.
The prophet Micah said, “God has told you, oh mortal, what is good. And what does God require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with God.” That’s what we do as part of the ministry of our church.
What do we mean by justice and kindness? Let me give you an example. Archbishop Dom Helder Camara of Brazil said, “When I give people food, they call me a saint. When I ask why people don’t have food, they call me a communist.” Asking why people don’t have food, risking being called a communist, is part of the ministry of our church. It’s getting at, now just the symptom, when we do compassion, when we do kindness, that gets at the symptom, but when we get at the root of all this, the disease, that’s justice. That’s what we’re called to do, not just hand out food at the food pantry to some people who are homeless, but to find out why they are homeless, to support, as some people do in this church, a housing project in Chatsworth that probably a majority of the community doesn’t like. But we have to do what Jesus is calling us to do, which is supporting people who are unhoused. Speaking out in support of people who are unhoused.
The other day, I and others went as part of the homeless count and counted people who are homeless in our area. We saw people. One guy lying in a parking lot under a lamp. So, obviously, we counted him. Somebody with a big backpack. We’re not supposed to find out, not necessarily why they’re homeless, did they lose their job? It’s like when somebody goes to the hospital and they’ve suffered a heart attack. Doctors and nurses don’t sit around and say, “Well, why did that person have a heart attack? Did they eat too much red meat? Did they not exercise enough?” No! They treat the heart attack! We treat the homeless with our food pantry and we hear cries of help from the homeless, because that’s what we’re supposed to do.
Part of the ministry of this church is caring about the environment, which is why I’m so glad we’re getting solar panels in our parking lot and in our back lot. That will help, hopefully, in a small way, with global warming, which I no longer call “climate change.” I heard recently that “climate change’ is supposed to be less scary than “global warming.” It’s supposed to be less threatening, because we always have climate change – we go from fall to winter to spring to summer – the climate changes. So, what’s wrong with that? No, global warming is what I am going to say from now on because last year was the hottest year ever, the year before that was the hottest year ever, the year before that was the hottest year ever, and so on and so on. So, I’m glad we’re getting solar panels in our parking lot, that’s part of the ministry of our church.
Now Jesus was, as we all know, this meek and mild holy man. He said some things, you know, but didn’t raise a fuss. Until we come upon the passage where Jesus goes into the Temple and sees them selling animals and exchanging money. I think probably lending money at exorbitant rates. Probably the rate college kids pay for their loans. Jesus made a whip and whipped the animals out of the Temple and overturned the money-changers’ tables and said, “You’re making my Father’s house of prayer into a den of thieves!” Now probably if Jesus did that today, he’d be arrested. Oh, but wait a minute. A friend of mine who is a labor organizer, retired, said that, “When you mess with capitalism, you’re going to get in trouble.” What happened later that week after Jesus whipped the animals out of the Temple and overturned the money-changers’ tables? He was arrested, tried, convicted, and crucified. So, Jesus was not always this meek and mild holy man. He did things, I think as an example for us, that sometimes we might have to risk being arrested.
Some of you may know I was arrested several years ago in Holland Michigan. Apparently, I made the mistake of asking the City of Holland’s City Council to pass a gay rights ordinance. They voted 5 to 4 not to do it. They did this at the end of June several years ago. Well, on the 4th of July, I called a news conference and stood on the steps of City Hall and said that today we celebrate liberty and justice for all, but here in Holland there’s liberty and justice for only some, not all. People who are gay don’t have rights – they don’t have the right not to be fired from their job, they don’t have the right to live where they want to. I said that I was going to come to every City Council meeting and ask the council to reconsider their vote. And I did that. I was there every Wednesday night for a couple of months. Then one of the council member said, “You know, you gotta come up with something else. This ain’t workin’.” He was one of the “Yes” votes. I racked my brain for a couple of weeks, wondering “What am I going to do?” Now this was after the Occupy Wall Street thing. That was September, this was October, so I said, “I know! I will occupy City Hall!” So I sent out a news release saying I’m going to occupy City Hall until they pass a gay rights ordinance. So I went before the City Council and I told them that. I looked over and there was the police chief. Never a good thing if the police chief is there when you’re announcing you’re going to occupy City Hall. Well, they let me occupy City Hall for two hours before I was arrested. I posted bail of a hundred bucks and a year later I was convicted of trespassing, which I take to be civil disobedience. They called it trespassing. It’s on my record. It’s not a felony. It’s more than a misdemeanor, but I have to explain it away when I send my profile out to churches. One church that I sent my profile to, and they hired me, a search committee member said, “I want him because he was arrested.” So, it worked. Anyway, sometimes we have to risk being arrested in order to do justice.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” That’s what we do as ministers, we bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice. That’s what we’re supposed to do. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But we have to try. By the way, I recently heard from some friends of mine back in Holland Michigan. Apparently, they’ve got a new City Council, and even members of the old City Council now say they support a gay rights ordinance for Holland, Michigan. They’re going to vote on that soon. If it passes, I doubt they’ll fly me out for the ceremony, but sometimes it works when you take a stand for justice.
So, my question to us is, what will we do to stand up for justice, to do kindness, because that’s part of the ministry of our church. I think it’s wonderful that Marcie is going to have an Outreach Committee where we can do things. I think she gave us an example – writing a letter to the powers that be to get them to stop caging children. So that would be a good thing. What will we do to work for justice, to bend that arc of the moral universe toward justice? Because that is the ministry of our church.
(This text was transcribed from the video sermon, which was presented without script or notes.)
Rev. Bill Freeman
January 26, 2020
The Congregational Church of Chatsworth
Before I begin, I want to thank you all for being here today. When I look at you, I see the ministers of the church, because that’s what you are, you are the ministers of this church. You do the ministry of this church. And that’s what I want to talk with you about today – The Ministry of Our Church.
What do we mean by ministry? Well, the dictionary says that ministry is serving others. So, does that mean that a waiter and a waitress are ministers? Maybe. I think if they do it with a smile on their face. Hopefully we do ministry with a smile on our face. But what is ministry? Somebody said to the Dalai Lama that he’s going to go to hell because he’s not a Christian. The Dalai Lama said, “Well, what is hell?” The Dalai Lama was told that hell is a place of eternal punishment, where people go forever and ever and they suffer. The Dalai Lama said, “Good, then I’m glad to go to hell, because I can help people through their suffering.” You don’t have to be a Christian to be a minister. The Dalai Lama, I think, proves that.
You don’t have to be a member of the church to be a minister. Somebody asked Pope Francis whether atheists will go to heaven. Pope Francis says, “Well, if they do good, then I’ll see them in heaven.” My goodness! I can’t think of another pope, maybe Pope John XXIII, who would say that atheists, or non-Catholics period, would go to heaven. So, you don’t have to be a member of the church, according to the pope, to go to heaven, and that’s why Pope Francis is my favorite pope.
You don’t have to be a member of this church to do ministry. Patrick is not a member of this church. But I think Patrick does as much, if not more, ministry than anybody in this church. He ministers to us with music. He ministers at the food pantry, helping out there, picking up food from Ralph’s and other places. So, you don’t have to be a member of this church to do ministry. Anybody can do ministry! And that is the ministry of our church.
What does Jesus say about ministry? According to the gospel of Matthew, Matthew 25 – now I realize that I quote that quite a bit, but I think it’s one of the most important passages in the Bible. Jesus says, “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me. Just as you did it for the least of these, who are members of my family, you did it to me.” That’s ministry. And that’s what we do.
Jesus said, “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.” That’s what we do in our food pantry! I’m told we gave out dozens and dozens of boxes of food yesterday, I think ninety-some. And served over 200 people, giving them food and drink. That’s the ministry of our church. They are part of our church – the food pantry is part of our church. That’s the ministry of our church.
When we leave here today, we’ll go to the multi-purpose room and enjoy lunch. Not just for the people in this church. But for people in the community. I passed out flyers yesterday at the food pantry, inviting people to come for a free meal at eleven o’clock. I said you could also come to church at ten o’clock, but you don’t have to, to get a meal. That’s the ministry of our church, and people come. When we go to the homeless encampments, I passed out flyers a week ago, inviting people to come. People come to our church for food. Hopefully, the food that they hear in church, that’s part of the ministry of our church, but also the food that they get after church, and we do it every Sunday. And we do it really big around the holidays! The Sunday before Christmas Patrick got us a prime rib! We had prime rib for dinner the Sunday before Christmas! We have ham on Easter Sunday. And other things for those who don’t eat pork. We have hot dogs and all the stuff that you have for a cookout, we have cookouts the Sunday before Memorial Day, the Sunday around the fourth of July, the Sunday before Labor Day. Then, the Sunday before Thanksgiving we have a big turkey dinner, thanks to Patrick again. Patrick, as I mentioned before, is probably one of the most ministerial people in this church. That’s the ministry of our church.
Jesus said, “I was hungry and thirsty, and you gave me food and drink,” and that’s what we do.
Jesus said, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” This church does a fabulous job, I think, of welcoming the stranger. Kathleen puts together a little goodie bag that she gives to first time visitors. I notice we have a first-time visitor, who I am sure will get a little goodie bag before the hour is over. That’s what we do. We welcome people into this church. Somebody told me a week or so ago that she really appreciated the little goodie bag that she gets. I looked in there and there’s candy and a little fruit snacks and they’re still in there. I didn’t take them! That’s what this church does. It welcomes people into this church because it’s the right thing to do and also because Jesus told us to do that.
Jesus said, “I was naked, and you gave me clothing,” and we do that. We have coats and blankets and different things that we give out to people. That’s what we do as a part of the ministry of our church.
Jesus said, “I was sick, and you cared for me.” That’s what we do. A week and a half ago one of our members had surgery and I went to visit her in the hospital and when she came home. That’s what we do. She told me, “I don’t want people to see me. But you can come visit me.” I kind of chuckled and said, “What does that make me? Aren’t I a people?” She said, “No, you’re my pastor.” That’s funny, but that was one of the most humbling things anybody ever said to me as a pastor. That that’s how they see me, not as a person, but as a pastor. That’s what we do as part of the ministry of our church.
Jesus said, “I was in prison and you visited me.” Recently I visited someone, not in prison, but in jail. I learned that, at the Van Nuys jail, at least, people can’t go and see people on Sunday, but a pastor can visit somebody on Sunday in jail. And a lawyer and a bail bondsman, but I’m neither one of those. But that’s what we do. And we don’t do it judgmentally. Several years ago, I had the chance to interview Helen Prejean when I had a radio talk show. She said, “No one should be defined by their worst act.” That’s why we don’t judge people when we visit them in prison or in jail. We don’t give them judgment; we give them love. That’s part of the ministry of our church.
The prophet Micah said, “God has told you, oh mortal, what is good. And what does God require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with God.” That’s what we do as part of the ministry of our church.
What do we mean by justice and kindness? Let me give you an example. Archbishop Dom Helder Camara of Brazil said, “When I give people food, they call me a saint. When I ask why people don’t have food, they call me a communist.” Asking why people don’t have food, risking being called a communist, is part of the ministry of our church. It’s getting at, now just the symptom, when we do compassion, when we do kindness, that gets at the symptom, but when we get at the root of all this, the disease, that’s justice. That’s what we’re called to do, not just hand out food at the food pantry to some people who are homeless, but to find out why they are homeless, to support, as some people do in this church, a housing project in Chatsworth that probably a majority of the community doesn’t like. But we have to do what Jesus is calling us to do, which is supporting people who are unhoused. Speaking out in support of people who are unhoused.
The other day, I and others went as part of the homeless count and counted people who are homeless in our area. We saw people. One guy lying in a parking lot under a lamp. So, obviously, we counted him. Somebody with a big backpack. We’re not supposed to find out, not necessarily why they’re homeless, did they lose their job? It’s like when somebody goes to the hospital and they’ve suffered a heart attack. Doctors and nurses don’t sit around and say, “Well, why did that person have a heart attack? Did they eat too much red meat? Did they not exercise enough?” No! They treat the heart attack! We treat the homeless with our food pantry and we hear cries of help from the homeless, because that’s what we’re supposed to do.
Part of the ministry of this church is caring about the environment, which is why I’m so glad we’re getting solar panels in our parking lot and in our back lot. That will help, hopefully, in a small way, with global warming, which I no longer call “climate change.” I heard recently that “climate change’ is supposed to be less scary than “global warming.” It’s supposed to be less threatening, because we always have climate change – we go from fall to winter to spring to summer – the climate changes. So, what’s wrong with that? No, global warming is what I am going to say from now on because last year was the hottest year ever, the year before that was the hottest year ever, the year before that was the hottest year ever, and so on and so on. So, I’m glad we’re getting solar panels in our parking lot, that’s part of the ministry of our church.
Now Jesus was, as we all know, this meek and mild holy man. He said some things, you know, but didn’t raise a fuss. Until we come upon the passage where Jesus goes into the Temple and sees them selling animals and exchanging money. I think probably lending money at exorbitant rates. Probably the rate college kids pay for their loans. Jesus made a whip and whipped the animals out of the Temple and overturned the money-changers’ tables and said, “You’re making my Father’s house of prayer into a den of thieves!” Now probably if Jesus did that today, he’d be arrested. Oh, but wait a minute. A friend of mine who is a labor organizer, retired, said that, “When you mess with capitalism, you’re going to get in trouble.” What happened later that week after Jesus whipped the animals out of the Temple and overturned the money-changers’ tables? He was arrested, tried, convicted, and crucified. So, Jesus was not always this meek and mild holy man. He did things, I think as an example for us, that sometimes we might have to risk being arrested.
Some of you may know I was arrested several years ago in Holland Michigan. Apparently, I made the mistake of asking the City of Holland’s City Council to pass a gay rights ordinance. They voted 5 to 4 not to do it. They did this at the end of June several years ago. Well, on the 4th of July, I called a news conference and stood on the steps of City Hall and said that today we celebrate liberty and justice for all, but here in Holland there’s liberty and justice for only some, not all. People who are gay don’t have rights – they don’t have the right not to be fired from their job, they don’t have the right to live where they want to. I said that I was going to come to every City Council meeting and ask the council to reconsider their vote. And I did that. I was there every Wednesday night for a couple of months. Then one of the council member said, “You know, you gotta come up with something else. This ain’t workin’.” He was one of the “Yes” votes. I racked my brain for a couple of weeks, wondering “What am I going to do?” Now this was after the Occupy Wall Street thing. That was September, this was October, so I said, “I know! I will occupy City Hall!” So I sent out a news release saying I’m going to occupy City Hall until they pass a gay rights ordinance. So I went before the City Council and I told them that. I looked over and there was the police chief. Never a good thing if the police chief is there when you’re announcing you’re going to occupy City Hall. Well, they let me occupy City Hall for two hours before I was arrested. I posted bail of a hundred bucks and a year later I was convicted of trespassing, which I take to be civil disobedience. They called it trespassing. It’s on my record. It’s not a felony. It’s more than a misdemeanor, but I have to explain it away when I send my profile out to churches. One church that I sent my profile to, and they hired me, a search committee member said, “I want him because he was arrested.” So, it worked. Anyway, sometimes we have to risk being arrested in order to do justice.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” That’s what we do as ministers, we bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice. That’s what we’re supposed to do. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But we have to try. By the way, I recently heard from some friends of mine back in Holland Michigan. Apparently, they’ve got a new City Council, and even members of the old City Council now say they support a gay rights ordinance for Holland, Michigan. They’re going to vote on that soon. If it passes, I doubt they’ll fly me out for the ceremony, but sometimes it works when you take a stand for justice.
So, my question to us is, what will we do to stand up for justice, to do kindness, because that’s part of the ministry of our church. I think it’s wonderful that Marcie is going to have an Outreach Committee where we can do things. I think she gave us an example – writing a letter to the powers that be to get them to stop caging children. So that would be a good thing. What will we do to work for justice, to bend that arc of the moral universe toward justice? Because that is the ministry of our church.
(This text was transcribed from the video sermon, which was presented without script or notes.)