This was a very helpful message; thank you. I'm eager to view the whole sermon when I'm home from work.
My wife didn't want to go to church on Sunday, because when she saw that one of the hymns selected was "It Is Well with My Soul" (written in response to the tragic deaths at sea of the author's family), she thought the message would be more in that vein. She wasn't up for it, and neither was I. As it turned out, the sermon touched on Lamentations (in the wake of a national disaster) and was more what this congregation needed to hear. The pastor also found a way to make the lectionary passage from Matthew 20--tying greatness in the kingdom of heaven to servanthood--work in a healing way.
But I knew that the study group I lead after church (African American women are the largest part of the group, which is interesting, considering that I'm an older white male) would want to unburden themselves a lot more about this, so I was trying to find a response that wasn't some "be at peace because God is in charge" pablum but also was more than just venting and spleen.
And I came back to a story I had learned years earlier.
The day after the French government surrendered to the Nazis in May 1940, a Protestant minister in the small town of Chambon-sur-Lignon in southeast France delivered a sermon on how they should respond. He told the congregation that, whenever they encountered orders and authorities that were contrary to the orders of the Gospel, the duty of Christians was to resist, relying on what he called "weapons of the Spirit."
Starting with the congregation, that is what the village did. They began providing shelter to French Jews (as well as Jews from Germany who had fled to France before the outbreak of the war). People took them into their homes and onto their farms and passed them off as relatives who had been displaced from other parts of the country.
As word quietly spread, many more Jews found their way to Chambon-sur-Lignon. The residents began operating an underground railroad to Switzerland. But before long there were several thousand Jews in this area where none had been before--as many Jews, in fact, as Christians. Catholics joined the Protestants in hiding them. People in the surrounding villages also joined what one writer called "a conspiracy of goodness."
Given the sheer numbers, it became nearly impossible to keep the conspiracy a secret. Before long, the local Vichy authorities--whose record in assisting the Nazis round up Jews was notorious--found out what was going on. They chose to look the other way.
Although Chambon-sur-Lignon was far away from fighting, a small contingent of German soldiers was in the area. Inevitably, they discovered the secret. They, too, chose not to report it to their superiors. In this way, the witness and resolve of the local people converted these enemies into co-collaborators for goodness.
Over the course of the 4-year occupation, the operation came close to being exposed several times. A few members of the local resistance were arrested for various reasons, tortured by the Gestapo, and killed. Among them was the Protestant pastor's brother. But not one of the 5,000 Jews who came to the area was betrayed into the hands of the Nazis.
In the 1980s a French filmmaker named Pierre Sauvage came to Chambon-sur-Lignon. He wanted to understand what had happened there and why. He had a personal reason for telling the story. He'd been born there in 1943, while his Jewish parents were under the protection of the locals.
When he began interviewing these simple farm people about why they had risked their own lives and the lives of the whole community (the Nazis practiced collective punishment against entire towns, like Oradour in France or Lidice in Czechoslovakia), he was startled by their answers. "It was the right thing to do," they said. Or: "These were our neighbors, and they needed our help."
You can find Sauvage's film, "Weapons of the Spirit," online. Very few Americans have heard of it. Maybe more will find it now.
That is the story I shared with the Sunday group. Especially now, I want to share it as widely as possible. Innocent people will be rounded up and put in camps for deportation. Families will be split and destroyed. Immigrants will be targeted as "vermin." Black students are already receiving messages that they are now plantation slaves. In my state, simply being pregnant carries a risk of death. We will need an overflow of that rarest of human qualities—moral courage—to resist the darkness.
Here's a link to a free streaming special of Weapons of the Spirit. You have to put in your email, first and last names to watch the whole thing. Inspiring film, especially appropriate for this moment.
There is nothing, that I enjoy more at this particular moment in time, than opening my email and seeing something from Kristin Du Mez. Always a message of hope and wisdom.
As I read the awful Project 2025, my first thought was, "Oh the American Taliban." I am blessed to have a wonderful Episcopal community in Eugene, OR (where Libbie Schrader was baptized BTW!) and it's a relief to know so many are speaking up and out. As a long time Christian author, I must be careful in my public life, but I also am heartened to know that so many editors and authors in CBA quietly push back against this American Taliban. I will resist and persist, thanks to you and all the bearers of truth.
Like many pastors I struggled with my sermon this past Sunday, delivered in a church in North Georgia. The texts were two of the day's Scripture Readings: 1 Kings 17:8-16 (Elijah and the widow of Zarephath) and Mark 12:38-44 (the "poor widow" who gave her last penny to the temple treasury); the title "In God We Trust". My encouragement was the same as Pr. Vander Zee, that the New Israel, the Body of Christ trusts only in God and "nations" trust not in God but in power and control. I wish, however, that I had delivered the message as eloquently and clearly as Pr. Vander Zee. Thank you for sharing his message.
Thank you so much! My husband and I live in a Southern city. We attend a small evangelical church. Our pastor doesn't endorse Trump in his sermons, but that's mainly because he doesn't want to scare away any visitor who walk through our doors. When we're in Bible study or Sunday School, though, where it's just members, oh boy. He and our fellow congregants let loose. Back before Biden stepped down, our Sunday School was studying the book of Judges. The teacher went off about how the wicked judge we had just studied was just like Biden. Then the entire class chimed in about how evil Biden was and how glorious it would be when Trump came to power and made America a Christian nation again. It was so scary. I know it's a cliche, but I swear it was just like watching those old films of the Nazi rallies. If it weren't for the fact that my parents live here, I would get the heck out of this city and come live in yours so I could attend your church.
Lori, my heart breaks for you. It is hard enough to stomach when one lives in a place that cannot stand Donald Trump (his hometown, NYC) but for you to be surrounded by folks and a pastor who think he is close to the second coming is gutting. Your name btw means 'victorious spirit' (actually laurel wreath I think in Greek which was given to the winner of a race) so may you experience the strengthening of the HS as you walk through these days, my prayer for you and your. husband.
For those (like me) who can't reasonably keep up with the weekly doings of a church they're not attending, this YouTube channel appears to host an archive of Church of the Servant sermons:
I was disappointed that at my church (Episcopal, white, suburban, affluent) the prayers of the people concluded: "Help us, in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus Christ our Lord."
No mention at all about our call to protect the vulnerable or even comfort the terrified. Judging by conversations I had, I'd guess that a large proportion of the congregation voted for Harris and were dismayed by the outcome.
On Wednesday I'd spoken with a friend who is an immigration attorney. He was near tears, because, as he said, "All my people are going to be sent back home to die." On Friday I spoke with a young trans man at a store where I often shop. It was the first day he could face coming back to work. His second sentence was "I am going to die." On Saturday I spoke with the rector of my previous church, who said his two (adult) trans kids are convinced they are going to die. Yet my church prayed that we might respect one another.
Greatly appreciated this article. I would love to be set up for a livestream. Please post other great sermons as you get them. We need the Biblical truths.
Here’s a link to a sermon I heard by Dr. Sharon Jacob, guest pastor at “The Table” an opening and affirming UMC in Sacramento, CA. She offers a social justice interpretation of the parable of the talents. Life changing!
Since the election of 2016, COS has been an important place of refuge and spiritual healing for my family. Sermons like this help us to keep the faith, but so do the liturgies, prayers, and songs from the global church.
Can we reform Christian theology so that Christians actually vote in a Christlike manner? Is that even possible? Should we even try? I apologize. I'm trying to hope (my optimism is gone), but I'm feeling despondent. My wife, incidentally, addressed the election head on, and progressively, in her sermon.
Since so many are wanting links to access future sermons, I added the info in the text.
This was a very helpful message; thank you. I'm eager to view the whole sermon when I'm home from work.
My wife didn't want to go to church on Sunday, because when she saw that one of the hymns selected was "It Is Well with My Soul" (written in response to the tragic deaths at sea of the author's family), she thought the message would be more in that vein. She wasn't up for it, and neither was I. As it turned out, the sermon touched on Lamentations (in the wake of a national disaster) and was more what this congregation needed to hear. The pastor also found a way to make the lectionary passage from Matthew 20--tying greatness in the kingdom of heaven to servanthood--work in a healing way.
But I knew that the study group I lead after church (African American women are the largest part of the group, which is interesting, considering that I'm an older white male) would want to unburden themselves a lot more about this, so I was trying to find a response that wasn't some "be at peace because God is in charge" pablum but also was more than just venting and spleen.
And I came back to a story I had learned years earlier.
The day after the French government surrendered to the Nazis in May 1940, a Protestant minister in the small town of Chambon-sur-Lignon in southeast France delivered a sermon on how they should respond. He told the congregation that, whenever they encountered orders and authorities that were contrary to the orders of the Gospel, the duty of Christians was to resist, relying on what he called "weapons of the Spirit."
Starting with the congregation, that is what the village did. They began providing shelter to French Jews (as well as Jews from Germany who had fled to France before the outbreak of the war). People took them into their homes and onto their farms and passed them off as relatives who had been displaced from other parts of the country.
As word quietly spread, many more Jews found their way to Chambon-sur-Lignon. The residents began operating an underground railroad to Switzerland. But before long there were several thousand Jews in this area where none had been before--as many Jews, in fact, as Christians. Catholics joined the Protestants in hiding them. People in the surrounding villages also joined what one writer called "a conspiracy of goodness."
Given the sheer numbers, it became nearly impossible to keep the conspiracy a secret. Before long, the local Vichy authorities--whose record in assisting the Nazis round up Jews was notorious--found out what was going on. They chose to look the other way.
Although Chambon-sur-Lignon was far away from fighting, a small contingent of German soldiers was in the area. Inevitably, they discovered the secret. They, too, chose not to report it to their superiors. In this way, the witness and resolve of the local people converted these enemies into co-collaborators for goodness.
Over the course of the 4-year occupation, the operation came close to being exposed several times. A few members of the local resistance were arrested for various reasons, tortured by the Gestapo, and killed. Among them was the Protestant pastor's brother. But not one of the 5,000 Jews who came to the area was betrayed into the hands of the Nazis.
In the 1980s a French filmmaker named Pierre Sauvage came to Chambon-sur-Lignon. He wanted to understand what had happened there and why. He had a personal reason for telling the story. He'd been born there in 1943, while his Jewish parents were under the protection of the locals.
When he began interviewing these simple farm people about why they had risked their own lives and the lives of the whole community (the Nazis practiced collective punishment against entire towns, like Oradour in France or Lidice in Czechoslovakia), he was startled by their answers. "It was the right thing to do," they said. Or: "These were our neighbors, and they needed our help."
You can find Sauvage's film, "Weapons of the Spirit," online. Very few Americans have heard of it. Maybe more will find it now.
That is the story I shared with the Sunday group. Especially now, I want to share it as widely as possible. Innocent people will be rounded up and put in camps for deportation. Families will be split and destroyed. Immigrants will be targeted as "vermin." Black students are already receiving messages that they are now plantation slaves. In my state, simply being pregnant carries a risk of death. We will need an overflow of that rarest of human qualities—moral courage—to resist the darkness.
Here's a link to a free streaming special of Weapons of the Spirit. You have to put in your email, first and last names to watch the whole thing. Inspiring film, especially appropriate for this moment.
https://weaponsofthespirit.com/weapons-of-the-spirit-deportations
Thanks for more details on this story. It's briefly mentioned in my Social Psych text, so I highlight it for my students. I will look for the film!
There is nothing, that I enjoy more at this particular moment in time, than opening my email and seeing something from Kristin Du Mez. Always a message of hope and wisdom.
Very kind of you to say this. I always worry that I'm spamming people!
Your writing always speaks truth and hope, pointing us to the God of Love, mercy and justice. Please receive our gratitude 🙏🏼
As I read the awful Project 2025, my first thought was, "Oh the American Taliban." I am blessed to have a wonderful Episcopal community in Eugene, OR (where Libbie Schrader was baptized BTW!) and it's a relief to know so many are speaking up and out. As a long time Christian author, I must be careful in my public life, but I also am heartened to know that so many editors and authors in CBA quietly push back against this American Taliban. I will resist and persist, thanks to you and all the bearers of truth.
Like many pastors I struggled with my sermon this past Sunday, delivered in a church in North Georgia. The texts were two of the day's Scripture Readings: 1 Kings 17:8-16 (Elijah and the widow of Zarephath) and Mark 12:38-44 (the "poor widow" who gave her last penny to the temple treasury); the title "In God We Trust". My encouragement was the same as Pr. Vander Zee, that the New Israel, the Body of Christ trusts only in God and "nations" trust not in God but in power and control. I wish, however, that I had delivered the message as eloquently and clearly as Pr. Vander Zee. Thank you for sharing his message.
Thank you so much! My husband and I live in a Southern city. We attend a small evangelical church. Our pastor doesn't endorse Trump in his sermons, but that's mainly because he doesn't want to scare away any visitor who walk through our doors. When we're in Bible study or Sunday School, though, where it's just members, oh boy. He and our fellow congregants let loose. Back before Biden stepped down, our Sunday School was studying the book of Judges. The teacher went off about how the wicked judge we had just studied was just like Biden. Then the entire class chimed in about how evil Biden was and how glorious it would be when Trump came to power and made America a Christian nation again. It was so scary. I know it's a cliche, but I swear it was just like watching those old films of the Nazi rallies. If it weren't for the fact that my parents live here, I would get the heck out of this city and come live in yours so I could attend your church.
Lori, my heart breaks for you. It is hard enough to stomach when one lives in a place that cannot stand Donald Trump (his hometown, NYC) but for you to be surrounded by folks and a pastor who think he is close to the second coming is gutting. Your name btw means 'victorious spirit' (actually laurel wreath I think in Greek which was given to the winner of a race) so may you experience the strengthening of the HS as you walk through these days, my prayer for you and your. husband.
So sorry for you and the church members...
For those (like me) who can't reasonably keep up with the weekly doings of a church they're not attending, this YouTube channel appears to host an archive of Church of the Servant sermons:
https://www.youtube.com/@ChurchoftheServant
I was disappointed that at my church (Episcopal, white, suburban, affluent) the prayers of the people concluded: "Help us, in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus Christ our Lord."
No mention at all about our call to protect the vulnerable or even comfort the terrified. Judging by conversations I had, I'd guess that a large proportion of the congregation voted for Harris and were dismayed by the outcome.
On Wednesday I'd spoken with a friend who is an immigration attorney. He was near tears, because, as he said, "All my people are going to be sent back home to die." On Friday I spoke with a young trans man at a store where I often shop. It was the first day he could face coming back to work. His second sentence was "I am going to die." On Saturday I spoke with the rector of my previous church, who said his two (adult) trans kids are convinced they are going to die. Yet my church prayed that we might respect one another.
Greatly appreciated this article. I would love to be set up for a livestream. Please post other great sermons as you get them. We need the Biblical truths.
If you sign up for the mailing list at churchoftheservantcrc.org, you'll get links to the livestream.
Excellent! Thank you!
Here’s a link to a sermon I heard by Dr. Sharon Jacob, guest pastor at “The Table” an opening and affirming UMC in Sacramento, CA. She offers a social justice interpretation of the parable of the talents. Life changing!
https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthetableumc.org%2Fsermons%2Fparable-of-talents%2F&data=05%7C02%7Csbouma%40med.umich.edu%7Cf514d4f5aa684b15cbc508dcff46c836%7C1f41d613d3a14ead918d2a25b10de330%7C0%7C0%7C638665926680944501%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=f2HoB5UPHKBJIzc%2B8rigATf6AvBUwBZazVF8wt%2BAxZk%3D&reserved=0
I lost my first comment when I went back to restack. But this is excellent.
So nice to see where the focus is on Jesus. We are Jesus’ followers. Not followers of the world. We are followers of the Way and the Word.
Since the election of 2016, COS has been an important place of refuge and spiritual healing for my family. Sermons like this help us to keep the faith, but so do the liturgies, prayers, and songs from the global church.
Can we reform Christian theology so that Christians actually vote in a Christlike manner? Is that even possible? Should we even try? I apologize. I'm trying to hope (my optimism is gone), but I'm feeling despondent. My wife, incidentally, addressed the election head on, and progressively, in her sermon.
Can you please post the link to the livestream? This sermon is a breath of fresh air.
If you sign up for the mailing list at churchoftheservantcrc.org, you'll get links to the livestream.
If you need my email - beverlyville@ aol.com
You can sign up for the mailing list to receive links here https://www.churchoftheservantcrc.org/