This sunday's sermon

 (If you go to Trinity, Milton, don't read this.)

May 15, 2022—“Just me talkin…”

OK, this is going to be more political than I usually get.

Lean back. Get comfortable. Relax.

This is “just me talkin’.”

It’s not doctrine or theology or the Episcopal church’s position.

It’s “just me talkin’.”

Got it? “Just me talkin’.”

Today’s lesson from Acts tells us about Peter talking about what is ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’.

That matters a lot to Muslims, Jews and those who are Hindu or Buddhist.  Not a lot for Christians.

Yet the Supreme Court and lots of states have decided that abortion in ‘unclean’.

They think abortion should be outlawed though it has been the law of our land for 50 years—longer than some of us have been alive.

Let me be clear: I don’t like abortion. It strikes me as a ‘waste’.

However, though I don’t like abortion, I hate—really HATE—any thing that takes away human rights, including the right to do what we want to our bodies.

That includes the ‘right to privacy’. What we do in private is our own business—not the government’s or the court’s.

If you want to smoke or drink alcohol, that’s your business, not the business of the government or the court, as long as you don’t drink and drive and put someone else’s rights in jeopardy. 

And what you do with your body is your right—really: YOUR RIGHT.

I’m a man, so I never had to think about abortion in my life. But I know this: women have that right—especially poor women, women of color, all women.

And if that right is taken away, we all—men and women, suffer.

We can’t abide our rights being eroded.

We can’t.

In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus again talks about “loving one another”.

That is his primary command.

That we ‘LOVE’ one another.

And to do that, we have to protect each other’s rights—always and in every way.

That’s what Love involves.

Enough politics.

 

The Psalm today is one of my favorites.

It is about ‘praising the Lord’.

There are only two other Psalms about 148. That’s appropriate since praising God is about the most important thing we can do.

Psalm 148 calls on ‘everything’ to praise God.

The sun and moon, the earth and sea monsters, all the elements—snow and hail, fire and wind—mountains and hill, fruit trees and cedars, wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds, Kings and Princes, young and old, young men and women, old and young together.

PRAISE GOD, all of creation!

That’s a good place to come down to.

Praising God.

We all should. We all should.

And by praising God we praise all he created—including ourselves.

We must praise God by praising ourselves.

And always protecting our rights.

Always protecting our rights.

Every person’s rights.

Every woman’s rights.

All of those rights.

Every single one of them.

Always and forever.

Always and forever.

Always and forever.

Shalom and Amen.