January 3
Scriptures: Numbers 22:21-31;
John 20: 24-31
Sermon Title: The Heroine’s Journey
(Somewhere over the Rainbow)
Theme: The Wizard of Oz is a book/movie about a little girl who takes a journey to a different world and returns a different person, able to see her old circumstances (and acquaintances) with new eyes. Our journey of faith is a process of seeing our “ordinary” reality through new eyes; like seeing all the colors of a rainbow in the “invisible” white light of the sun.

January 10
Scriptures: Ecclesiastes 4:13-16;
James 3:13-4:3
Sermon Title: Gazing behind the Curtin
(Wonderful?)
Theme: All of Oz stood in awe of the wonderful Wizard, until a little girl and her dog happened to pull back the curtain and saw the real man behind the mask. There is a deep anti-authoritarianism to The Wizard of Oz (and Wicked), encouraging us to look behind the appearances of our structures of power to see the flawed humans behind it, and develop the ability to make independent judgments based on the deeper wisdom that our faith offers.

January 17
Scriptures: Isaiah 1: 10-17; Mark 7:1-8
Sermon Title: Defying Gravity
Theme: Particularly in church life, we very quickly get ourselves locked into very narrow definitions of right and wrong. It is one of the reasons that the “Unchristian” survey found that young people’s most predominant impression of church-goers was that they (we!) were judgmental and moralistic. That’s an interesting point, given the fact that it is exactly that moralism that Jesus criticizes most vehemently in his own teaching, continually castigating the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. An ongoing theme in Oz (and particularly Wicked) is that our perceptions of goodness and wickedness are often profoundly wrong, and are often masks for far more complex realities. Many post-modern theologians argue that Jesus was far more interested in authenticity than right behavior.

January 24
Scriptures: Deuteronomy 34: 1-6;
Matthew 16: 13-23
Sermon Title: Dorothy Leadership
(Follow the Yellow Brick Road)
Theme: When many of us think of the qualities of a leader, we think of people who seem decisive and in control. We look to leaders for answers and for sorting out our problems. Dorothy (and Jesus!) model a different kind of leadership: it is leadership that is about forming community and about taking that community on a journey. Dorothy doesn’t have the answers, nor does she keep her little band from experiencing hardship, but she keeps them together as they travel towards their goal.

January 31
Scriptures: Jeremiah 1: 4-10; Acts 4: 1-22
Sermon Title: If I only had a Brain
(“The Wizard and I”?)

Theme: On her journey, Dorothy collects a group of misfits who are looking for the thing that each feels is lacking to make him whole. What becomes quickly obvious is that they each already possess the gifts that they’re looking for. Answering God’s call is often a process of claiming as our own the gifts that God has already given us.

Worship at Metropolitan
Sunday Mornings
9 am - Dayspring: A Worship Gathering
10:10 am - Coffee & Study Hour
11:15 a.m. - Traditional Worship

Worship at Wesley UMC
(5312 Connecticut Ave NW)
Sunday Mornings
11 a.m. - Worship

Worship at St. Luke's Campus
(3655 Calvert Street N.W.)
Sunday Mornings
11:30 a.m. - Worship

Saturday Worship at St. Luke's Campus
(3655 Calvert Street N.W.)
Saturday Evenings
5 p.m. - Worship
For more information, e-mail Rev. Jimmy Sherrod or click here. See our blog at www.xroadsdc.blogspot.com.