Sermon: Gathered to Be Sent, Expanding the Sacred
From Colonial Projects to Technofascism, we are called to follow a Brown Palestinian Jew, Named Jesus
Dear Substack Community: Below is my sermon for today. I’m discerning whether I should create an audio file of it, so you can listen to the sermon, or if the written version is fine for folks. If there are strong opinions, let me know your thoughts!
Also, Lent is on its way and I’m thinking about how to celebrate these 40 days in preparation for Easter. I have some ideas about rooting down into contemplation. Keep watch for a Lenten series.
March 2, 2025 Sermon: Gathered to Be Sent, Expanding the Sacred
Scripture: Acts 2:42-47 (The Early Church) & Matthew 28:16-20 (The Great Commission)
The story we have before us today has been used in a way that has negatively impacted the Church. The Great Commission was taken literally and empires were created in the name of Christianity. Christianity has become a stumbling block in the West. The acceleration of White Christian Nationalism has now bubbled up in such a serious manner that we need to talk frankly about what it means to be gathered in order to be sent.
We have to be wise right now. We need to take seriously that Jesus’ call to make disciples was a practice of one to one relationships. It was not in mega churches nor was it popular work to be doing. But, fisherman and tax collectors came together to be shaped by the Jesus narrative.
Disparate people from all walks of life came together, leaned in to listen, and began to be reshaped by the stories they were hearing.
When we acknowledge that perception doesn’t create reality, we can begin to make a way out of no way, which is what seems like our current reality.
People perceive others are militant or angry or introverted or what have you, but we know that perception doesn’t create reality.
We know we need curiosity to make the kinds of changes that need to be made on a social and cultural level.
Wisdom begins in wonder.” -Socrates
When is the last time you wondered out loud? I wonder out loud all the time, and it gets me in trouble!
Curiosity is wonder in action, and the presence of curiosity is essential to changing any story your imagination creates or the underlying narratives that engage your imagination.
I find that we struggle with curiosity these days. We rely on the chaos around us and we lose ourselves and our curiosity about each other.
We are rapidly entering a new fold of Global Citizenry. It’s called Technofascism.
We are leaving the Information Age and entering the age of imagination. This age of imagination requires wisdom. Future economies are already present with us.
I. Introduction: Holding the Both/And of Sacred Gathering
There is a temptation to think of sacred gathering as a refuge—a place where we step away from the world to find peace. And it is.
There is also a temptation to think that sacred gathering only matters if it leads us outward—that what happens here is only meaningful if it transforms what happens “out there.” And that’s true too.
But these are not two different things. They are part of the same rhythm.
Howard Thurman, who pastored an interfaith, interracial church, knew this well. He called the church a place of “centered down” renewal, but also a launching point for justice. He wrote:
“There must be the quietness of the moment, a pause, a breath that refreshes and restores.”
But he also wrote:
“Do not ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.”
This is the rhythm of Sunday, of church, of Christian life itself:
• We gather to be restored.
• We are sent to widen the sacred.
Last week, I shared Wendell Berry and the importance of place for him. He was a writer who left NYC for his farm in Kentucky where he worked the land and also wrote. He inspires me to become a writer in the woods while getting to know the land, the histories that keep this land a live.
Western NY is alive is possibilities, but we have lost our curiosity about place. Wendell Berry reminds us:
“There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.”
If that is true, then what we do here is not separate from the world—it is meant to reshape it, restore it, reclaim it as sacred.
II. Gathered to Be Sent—Sacred Community as Preparation
The early church in Acts 2 devoted themselves to breaking bread, praying together, and learning the way of Christ together. But their community was not a fortress—it was a launching pad.
Jesus himself modeled this:
• He gathered people around him—teaching them, breaking bread with them, loving them.
• And then he sent them out—to heal, to preach, to open the doors wider.
James Baldwin understood this too. He saw community not just as a place of rest but as a place of empowerment for the work ahead. He wrote:
“Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.” (Giovanni’s Room)
We do not come here just to rest; we come here to be changed. To remember who we are. To find strength for the road ahead.
III. Expanding the Sacred—Who is Missing from the Table?
If we are gathered to be sent, then the question becomes: Sent to whom?
Jesus’ Great Commission (Matthew 28) tells the disciples to go to all nations—not just their own people, not just those who already believe, but to expand the sacred circle.
This text has been used to colonized the world and has become imbricated with Western Globalization, and thus the very truths of the Great Commission are compromised, which means that the church is also compromised.
How do we acknowledge that Christianity has been used in ways that have created harm and see that what Jesus was asking us all to do was to recognize each other’s humanity?
Do we have the courage to say to one another: “I see you.”?
Can we imagine telling someone in this room the most vulnerable thing about us? Do we dare let others into our lives in such a way that we are all changed? This is what the New Testament calls metanoia. It means to turn around; to change direction. It is actually a military term, so it signals a sharp turn in a different direction. Jesus uses this term to signal that we each need to turn toward the Great Spirit who abides in us. We need to be more focussed right now. We need to be attuned to one another in deep and meaningful ways. We need a community composed of radical difference that endeavors to share life with one another in a meaningful way. Another word for the is intimacy. We need each other right now more than ever in my lifetime. I’m 48 years old. We need to get back to tending our gardens with our neighbors. Womanist Theology teaches us about that.
The Christian faith is a paradox. How do we hold paradox right now in the face of Globalized Technofascism?
How do we endeavor to repair harm when our shared realities are in conflict with one another? How do we talk about our current reality when our differences that we each bring are destabilizing the certainty we thought we knew?
Howard Thurman, as a Black man pastoring an interracial and interfaith church, knew the challenge of creating sacred space across difference. He understood that expanding the sacred requires risk, vulnerability, and love. He once wrote:
“The movement of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men and women often calls them to act against the spirit of their time or causes them to anticipate a spirit which is yet in the making.”
To expand the sacred, we may have to move against the spirit of our time—against exclusion, fear, and the temptation to make our church only for those who are already comfortable here.
IV. The Both/And of Sacred Gathering—The Work Before Us
Sacred gathering cannot be an escape from the world, nor can sacred sending be a way of avoiding the need for deep belonging and transformation within.
• We gather because we need renewal, because we need each other.
• We go out because the sacred is meant to be shared, widened, expanded.
Wendell Berry’s challenge is for us:
“What I stand for is what I stand on.”
What do we stand on as a church? Is this a place that gathers people in and sends them out? Is this a place that sees sacredness not just inside these walls but in the streets, in the margins, in the places the world has tried to desecrate?
V. Conclusion: The Challenge of Sacred Rhythm
The road to Emmaus reminds us that sacredness is often found when we break bread together. This is why I cook for people and share meals with people. We recognize each other in the vulnerabilities of eating and sharing with one another. These are practices that we need to recover, so that we can survive the world beyond these walls, which means putting down our devices and actually building relationships with each other. The Great Commission reminds us that sacredness is meant to be carried outward. May we endeavor to do just that!
So may we be a people who:
• Gather deeply.
• Go boldly.
• Expand the sacred wherever we are sent.
And in doing so, may we reclaim what was always holy to begin with.
Amen.