Westmoreland Sermon Archive

May 27, 2012
Pentecost

Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-14, Acts 2:1-5

Rev. Dr. Bob Maddox
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Mark 16:9-20

Rev. Bob Maddox 

Rev. Gill has given us the classic and timeless rendering of the Easter story. That’s the one we know and love best.

Most scholars say the original book of Mark ended with verse nine as read this morning by Linda Maddox.

Some unknown editors edited the book at a later date. They did a cut and paste job on the text that has been handed down as part of the book since early second century. Parts of the added endings have caused confusion across the centuries especially before consensus hardened that these two endings are later, non-Markan additions.  Read the rest of this entry »

John 19:28

Good Friday Service at Metropolitan Memorial UMC

Rev. Bob Maddox

For three years in a row my wife and I have gone to Sahuarita, Arizona to work with the border ministry of the Good Shepherd United Church of Christ. That courageous and visionary congregation is at the hub of a huge network of churches and agencies committed to justice and humanitarian relief for migrants caught in the maw of that great and terrible Arizona desert. One really has to experience that monumentally ferocious problem to begin to get it.  A few days on the Arizona puts human faces on the nearly intractable immigration problem under our present national policies.

For years Good Shepherd Church has co-sponsored an annual border issues fair that brings together dozens of groups that work in the desert on the Arizona and Mexico border. For our three years we have heard heart-wrenching stories of migrants facing the known and unknown terrors of trekking the desert primarily at night. We hear stories of the way Latin American families scrimp and save to pay upwards of $2000.00 to coyotes, guides, who are supposed to lead the migrants through the miles of mountainous, cactus infested desert. More times than a few the coyotes steal the money and leave the struggling migrants literally high and dry. Women who attempt the crossing, we were told, are routinely told to begin birth control pills well in advance because they almost for sure will be raped. Three years ago a Harvard University professor, originally from El Paso, Texas, gave the gathering a historical perspective on the migratory phenomenon.  Last year the county medical examiner related the harrowing account of the hundreds of deaths in the desert from heat stroke, dehydrations, ruthless coyotes and venal drug cartels. He told us that from time to time so many unidentified bodies are found in the desert the county often has to rent refrigerated trucks to warehouse the deceased. Read the rest of this entry »