Rev. Don Erickson

This morning I wanted to focus on the current healthcare debate. The text we will focus on in discussing our topic this morning is one that has always intrigued me. It comes from Mark 12 but the same story is told in Luke and Matthew. It is the story of Jesus providing healthcare to a paralyzed man lowered down from a house’s roof.  Here is the story: When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home.  2  Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to them,  3  four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat.  4  They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus.  5  Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”...

For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father,     a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—   a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."    -  (Matthew 10:35-38) Jesus’ take on the family in Matthew 10 seems from an initial reading as rather harsh, doesn’t it? Remember hearing a lot about family values in our politics? Interestingly, you don’t hear as much about it anymore. I wonder why? But Jesus seems to be dismissing family values. In fact, he seems to be condemning family values. He seems out to destroy families. In the least, he seems out to divide families. What is this about? Well, let’s look a little deeper at what Jesus is really criticizing. It’s something he criticizes a lot in the gospels. Do you all know what a pyr...

Maybe the most pivotal moment in my life, the point in time that had the clearest before and after reality to it for me, came when I was in Seoul, South Korea. It was this time of year in 2005, in fact. I was a couple months into a 6 month long language fellowship studying Korean at Yonsei University. A professor of mine at Columbia University helped me obtain the paid fellowship. The plan was for me to bulk up on my Korean language skills in preparation for my upcoming applications to PhD study programs in Asian Religions with a focus on Korea. Doing research in primary languages is rather important for PhD work. But things were not going well. Despite a semester of Korean at Columbia and informal studies for more than a year, I simply wasn’t getting a feel for the language. And reading Korean, what I needed to be best at, proved most difficult. I could never get the hang of the subject object verb sentence structure. Instead of I am studying Korean language and it is hard. It is i...

Leviticus 19:33-34 If a stranger lives with you in your land, do not do wrong to him. You should act toward the stranger who lives among you as you would toward one born among you. Love him as you love yourself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. You’ve all seen the deeply, deeply tragic photo of the 4 year-old Syrian boy who drowned trying to flee that war-torn country with his family. His tiny, vulnerable frame on the sandy shore lifeless, waves ebbing and flowing – it is heartbreaking, soul-breaking. A child refugee in a family of refugees fleeing a madman and a mad war, a victim of humankind’s destructiveness. This image is an iconic reminder that, like some of our Universalist brothers and sisters teach, hell is here on earth. Especially in places like Syria. When I saw that photo, my breath was taken away for a few moments and then tears joined breaths' return. As I thought about all of it, and as I think about it now just a few weeks fr...

Memorial Day is tomorrow. We will remember those who sacrificed their lives in service to our country and to a cause greater than themselves, as well as to protect their brothers and sisters in arms. It is a day when we remember the fallen, those who died in wars and conflicts from the Revolutionary War some 250 years ago to our current war in Afghanistan – yes, that war still goes on. As Ward reminded me a couple times, Memorial Day is for soldiers who died in battle. Veterans Day is for all those who served either in wartime or peacetime. However, I would dare say that for those who served in military battle, a little piece of you dies there on that battle field. Some survive, others do not and those in battle experience this firsthand. How could this not be so? And for any soldier in battle, there is always that first clash with the gunfire, the smoke, the screams, the chaos, the fear – that first battle takes away the innocence that came before it. Innocence dies in war. So...

Thomas not only needed proof. He not only needed to believe what he was seeing. He needed to touch the obvious. He needed to experience with his sense of touch the truth of the matter – that this was Jesus risen right before him, alive despite crucifixion, alive despite death, alive despite the law of nature that says there is no coming back after death. I ponder our reading from the Gospel of John this morning. A day after Earth Day, a day after the March for Science, knowing Climate Change is real but hundreds of thousands of people, many if not most of them religious, doubt and deny the science. When approaching scripture, the tendency for the preacher is to find corollaries for today, to find easy ways to apply what the scripture says and the reality here and now.  Initially, the parallel between doubting Thomas who doubts what he senses with his eyes and needs to verify it with another sense, his sense of touch, and those who doubt the science when it comes to clim...

Before I begin, I should let you know that in keeping with the theme of this service, I wrote this reflection in pencil on paper first. Wendell Berry is famous for eschewing computers for the primitive pencil and paper. Unlike Berry, however, I did not ask my wife Holly to type and print it out. There are some places to which I am not willing to follow even Wendell Berry. Also in keeping with the Wendell Berry theme, who is a Baptist, I will be using the traditional Baptist three-point sermon format that I heard growing up. Dylan had a guitar, three chords, and the truth. I have scripture, three points, and the truth. Now, I will say no need to fear hellfire and brimstone. This is a pretty interfaith and farmer-friendly sermon J Anyway, here we go. This morning’s scripture comes from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, vs. 31-32. I use the Douay-Rheims Translation: "Another parable he proposed unto them, saying: The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, w...