Douglass Blvd Christian Church

an open and affirming community of faith

2005 Douglass Blvd

(502) 452-2629

n open and affirming community where faith is questioned and formed, as relationships are made and upheld. 

The Unlikeliest Faces (Acts 16:9-15)

May 23, 2022  /  DBCC

The unlikeliest faces, out minding their own business, when the Holy Spirit shows up and things get interesting: God chases after the untouchables, women become central players in the gospel game, demons flee, prisoners are set free, and the powerful find humility.

And that’s the thing about the reign of God: it’s always in the midst of such implausible circumstances, in the presence of the unlikeliest faces that God is busy establishing a whole new world.

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Seeing with Different Eyes (Acts 11:1-18)

May 23, 2022  /  DBCC

Where is God moving in the community of faith today, threatening old patterns of belief?

What sorts of people is God busy inviting into our fellowship who make us uncomfortable?

The implications are troubling. But we can take comfort in the fact that it’s not our question. It’s God’s question, and like the good book says, “Who am I that I should hinder God?” I’m afraid of this text. But I’m also just as afraid of getting in the way of what God wants to do.

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Resurrection Moments (Acts 9:36-43)

May 09, 2022  /  DBCC

And that’s the thing: The world, as chaotic and torn as it is right now, needs a little resurrection—needs people like you and me to get up and bring new life to folks who feel like everybody else has given up on them.

LGBTQ kids are dying, waiting for someone to care about them. Traumatized refugees are languishing in camps, waiting for someone to notice them. Our Black neighbors are literally dying in jail, waiting for someone to realize that we seem to live in a system designed not to deliver but to thwart justice. Single parents are trapped in low-paying jobs, waiting for a few people to stand up with them and say that you can’t live on $7.25 an hour. Muslims, who live right next to us in fear, waiting for people like you and me to wrap our arms around them and treat them like siblings.

The Dangers of Not Keeping Your Mouth Shut (Acts 5:27-32)

April 25, 2022  /  DBCC

Whether or not Jesus was a political radical in the way we think of political radicals is irrelevant; the Romans believed he was a political revolutionary.

And they executed him like one.

And that’s the danger of not keeping your mouth shut about Jesus. Start talking about protecting the poor and the powerless, and people get twitchy.

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It’s about the Work (John 20:1-18)

April 25, 2022  /  DBCC

True freedom, as we find it in Jesus, can never be about ever more elaborate ways to justify selfishness—to say that we have responsibility only for ourselves and those we love.

True freedom for those who follow Jesus is being given the opportunity, no matter how much it costs, to love those whom Jesus loves.

But the thing is, we have to leave the empty tomb to do it. We remember it; we love it, but we see it as a place from which we’re sent out into the world—because that’s where the sick, and the hungry, and the imprisoned are. That’s where the work is. And that’s where Jesus is.

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Where Are the Poor? (John 12:1-8)

April 11, 2022  /  DBCC

Salving our consciences by looking away betrays Jesus and the world God is busy creating.

Shuffling the houseless off to someplace where the people can’t see them may be good for tourism, but it fails our community and vocation as Jesus-followers by making some of our neighbors expendable.

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A Tale of Power (Luke 19:28-40)

April 11, 2022  /  DBCC

In other words, unlike the kinds of rulers people are used to, who always seem to be using their power for themselves, Jesus’ use of power is always focused on the most exposed and exploited among us.

Jesus’ use of power builds up instead of dividing and tearing down.

Heals people rather than afflict them.

Sets them free instead of subjugating them.

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Which Is Better? (Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32)

March 27, 2022  /  DBCC

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In fact, the story’s not about us at all. We find out that if the father in this story is a stand-in for God, God’s not keeping score the way everybody else keeps score. In a culture where shame lessened everyone’s respect for you, God demonstrated God’s willingness to dive face-first into the slop to show us how much we’re loved.

But God’s also willing to risk humiliation to find the entitled older brother and listen to his whining about how—after all he’s done—he’s never got so much as a case of beer and a cheese ball for a party with his friends.

Think about it. God embraces humiliation to preserve a relationship with both the irresponsible brat and the entitled fussbudget.

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Going Home (Luke 13:1-9)

March 20, 2022  /  DBCC

In the old windswept world, people like Vladimir Putin invade the homes of others for their own gain. In the new world, refugees are the very people best situated to understand how much returning home is worth.

In the old desolate world, our worth is determined by the size of our bank accounts and the colleges we can get our children into. In the new world to which we long to return, our value is determined by God’s desire to bring us home.

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What’s Your Story Say About You? (Deuteronomy 26:1-13

March 13, 2022  /  DBCC

Consequently, The Great Man Theory of History should have been recast as The Great White Man Theory of History. But since everybody already took for granted that the only history worth telling would have white men as the central characters, being explicit about it was not only unnecessary, it was redundant.

So, when white people complain during February every year that there’s no “White History Month,” and I say, “Oh yes there is; it’s called ‘the rest of the calendar,’” I’m not just being a smart-aleck, I’m being painfully literal.

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Since We Have Such Hope (2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2)

March 13, 2022  /  DBCC

The wonderful thing about the popular version of Christianity is that it can be done with minimal inconvenience to one’s otherwise comfortable lifestyle. Much of it can be accomplished without ever making your back sore or getting your hands dirty.

The trouble is ... that doesn’t sound like the Jesus of the Gospels at all. Jesus, it turns out, is interested in establishing the reign of God; but that reign is first about the lives we live as we try to love others before it’s ever about suspending the living of our lives until after we’ve died.

It’s about what’s going on around us as much as it is about what’s going on inside us.

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The Heart of Desire (Luke 13:31-35)

March 13, 2022  /  DBCC

Unfortunately, what too many people mean by “freedom” is freedom from responsibility for anybody but myself and those I love. Freedom on this reading means something like, “You can’t tell me what to do. I can do whatever I want. Why? Because this is a free country.”

But, I mean, come on. That’s how children think, isn’t it? Freedom read this way amounts to an ever more elaborate rationalization of selfishness. Think about the issues you can pass through this lens. Healthcare, unemployment insurance, immigrants, state-sanctioned violence against Black people, houselessness, student loan debt, food insecurity. Think about the refugees from Ukraine who’re living their worst nightmares right now because of the selfishness of another fox, a Russian Herod whose desires always seem to center on himself.

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You’re Not the Boss of Me (Luke 6:27-38)

February 20, 2022  /  DBCC

You get to choose how you’ll view the world, to whom and what kind of attention you’ll give. Nobody is the boss of how you choose to act but you. No one can tell you what to do about the kind of love you offer to others.

The whole “you’re-not-the-boss-of-me” thing is always about power. But here’s the thing, you don’t have to give yours away.

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That’s What It Looks Like (Luke 6:17-26)

February 13, 2022  /  DBCC

Jesus says, "I’m talking about a cosmic rebalancing of the scales, where those who’ve had to hide who they are and whom they love will be welcomed and celebrated, where parents will no longer have to live in fear of their children being stopped by the police—just because they happen to have skin with a different color or worship in another way, where strangers and immigrants won’t have to endure the spite of the 'home team' and their children being ripped from their arms and thrown into cages, where women no longer have to be afraid that their gender will put them at greater risk for violence and exploitation, and where the people in power will no longer acquire and maintain that power on the backs of the poor and the voiceless.

“And all of this isn’t merely a hope for some world in the future … after you die. The vision I’m setting down is first of all for you, for this world … right here, right now.”

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The Deep Waters (Luke 5:1-11)

February 06, 2022  /  DBCC

No less for us, the promise of plenty in the new world God is creating isn’t available to us after we’ve checked out of the current world and its uncertainty and taken up residence in another more stable home. The promise of enough lives in the very heart of the chaos we find ourselves in right now. Jesus’ followers aren’t looking for deliverance out of this world but for directions into the very dark and grubby center of it. Put more simply, the future for us lies not in surviving the disorder of this world—with its pandemic panics, cultural battles, and economic uncertainties—but in doing a full-on belly-flop into the untamed mess at the beating heart of it.

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The Danger of Opening the Doors (Luke 4:21-30)

January 30, 2022  /  DBCC

Jesus goes home and kicks a hornet’s nest of hospitality and inclusion to all—one that won’t finally settle down until the powers and principalities, the folks at the top, finally get their way and push him over the cliff on Good Friday.

Apparently, in the reign of God that Jesus announces, that’s what love requires.

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In Bodily Form (Luke 3:15-17, 21-22)

January 29, 2022  /  DBCC

We’re called not just to point toward justice and peace but to be people who embody justice and peace.

We’re not just given the task of telling people about God’s grace and compassion; we’re given the responsibility of extending God’s grace and compassion to our neighbors—even the ones (perhaps especially the ones) with whom we wouldn’t be caught dead on a Saturday night.

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