Jennie Churchman

We are spending this Season of Easter—this season of new life—focusing on healing the wounds from religious trauma.  What is religious trauma?  Last week I defined it as any theology, teaching, or practice that leads to alienation from God, self, and/or others. 

These wounds are long-lasting.  They have caused heart-breaking damage.  And they are everywhere.  I promise you, once you start looking, the scales will fall from your eyes and you will see these wounds and scars all around you. 

Religious trauma has caused rifts in friendships and families.  It has planted the seeds of shame deep within tender souls and has kept people from being at peace in their own skins.  It has kept people from knowing and internalizing the love of God.  Because what they have known and internalized instead is a god who says they can never be enough.  Never good enough, never worthy enough, never loveable enough.  Never, never, never enough. 

Some of these people wanted—and maybe even still want—to have a relationship with God.  They want to pray.  They want to delight in scripture.  They want to worship.  They want to be part of a Christian community.  They want to bear the name of Christ.  But even if they didn’t or don’t want these things, my question is:  what gives religious people the right to think we can do this kind of harm to any of God’s children? 

As I read Genesis 1:27, all of humankind has been created in God’s image.  Not just those we consider good enough.  Not just those who think like we think or look like we look or move through the world like we move.  And yet, Bible thump after Bible thump, sideways glance after sideways glance, tsk after tsk, the Church has perpetuated religious trauma.  We have said words and done deeds that have alienated—divided, estranged, severed—people from God, from themselves, and from others. 

Does this sound like Good News proclamation to you?  Step back.  Just for a minute.  Step back and ask yourself:  Does this sound like Good News proclamation to you?  Lord, have mercy.  It does not sound like Good News proclamation to me.

Something is wrong.  Something is awry.  Something is distorted. 

Jesus said, “You will recognize them by their fruits…Every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit” (Matthew 7:16-17, ESV).  I fear we have been bearing bad fruit.  But people, Jesus wants us to bear good fruit.  Jesus wants us to bring others to him—not alienate them, not estrange them (Luke 18:40).  Jesus calls his disciples (that means you and me) to move about the world doing healing work—not wounding work, not traumatizing work (Matthew 10:1).  Jesus asks us to feed his lambs and tend his sheep—not throw them to the wolves (John 20:15-16).  

Christians, this is a call to repentance.  This is a call to change.  That is why we are doing this “Healing Waters” series. Because I believe we have work to do, Christians. Healing work. Loving work. In the name of Jesus.

I’ll see you Sunday.

Jennie

P. S. Remember, we are having only one worship service this Sunday, April 30 beginning at 10:00 a.m.

Worship at 10:00 a.m.
On-site at 302 South Main Street       Eureka, Illinois
Online at eurekachristian.org/worship-online or facebook.com/eurekacc/live

Join us as we gather together for a Festival Worship service beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, April 30. It will be good to worship as one body!  Sunday School for all ages will be held at 9:00 a.m.

Based on feedback from the congregation requesting more combined worship services, the Worship Team decided to bring back ECC’s 5^th Sunday Festival Worship Services tradition.  Each time there is a 5^th Sunday throughout the rest of the year, we will have only one worship service beginning at 10:00 a.m.  Other 5^th Sunday Festival Services will be July 30, October 29, and December 31.  This is a pilot program for the remainder of the year.  At their fall quarterly Worship Team meeting, they will evaluate and make a decision about going forward with the 5^th Sunday Festival Services into 2024.

Our “Healing Waters” series on religious trauma begins this Sunday, April 23 and will run through Pentecost Sunday. What is religious trauma? Here’s a preview of Sunday’s sermon.

Religious trauma can include any theologies, teachings, or practices that lead to: a distorted image of God—God is vengeful, angry, violent, unappeasable, out to get you; a distorted image of self—I’m not good enough, I’m never good enough, I’m shameful, loathsome; a distorted image of others—those people, thank goodness I’m not like those people. Basically, I think about it like this: If a theology, teaching, or practice leads to alienation from God, self, or others, then there is something toxic about it. And there’s a good chance it can lead to some level of religious trauma.

Once I started looking, I saw the scars from religious trauma everywhere. It is pervasive, and I believe we must address it. Name it. Talk about it. Get it out into the light. Because when things stay bottled up, all they do is eat away at us or ricochet around and pummel us from the inside. When things stay in the shadowy dark, they become shrouded in secrecy or shame or both. And that begins to control us; that begins to consume us. None of this is healthy. None of this is life-giving. 

So I will name it. I will call it out. I will bring it into the light. Religious trauma is real and it has no place in the kingdom—the kindom—of God. Eureka Christian Church, I believe we are called to proclaim this Word to each other and to our larger community. Because there is a lot of hurt out there. I believe we are called to become a sanctuary, a safe place of healing and hope, for the survivors of religious trauma.

Church, it hurts my heart to know how very many people have been let down by our faith. How very many people feel betrayed, wounded and targeted by the church. Does this hurt your heart too? This should hurt our hearts to the point where we say, “Enough!  We will not be party to this trauma any longer. We will not let the good Christian name be tarnished by toxic theologies, teachings, or practices. We will use our voices to proclaim a life-giving Gospel. We will use our hands to do healing work. We will use our power to be a force for change. We will use our lives to make the Jesus we know known to the world.

I’ll see you Sunday.

Jennie

Worship at 8:15 and 10:30 a.m.
On-site at 302 South Main Street       Eureka, Illinois
Online at eurekachristian.org/worship-online or facebook.com/eurekacc/live

Come celebrate the resurrection with us on Easter Sunday, April 9! First Light Worship begins at 8:15 a.m., and Traditional Worship begins at 10:30 a.m. Both services will feature the “Flowering of the Cross” on our front lawn. Come experience the joy, hope, and life of the Risen Christ.

Worship at 8:15 and 10:30 a.m.
On-site at 302 South Main Street       Eureka, Illinois
Online at eurekachristian.org/worship-online or facebook.com/eurekacc/live

Eureka Christian Church invites you to a Stations of the Cross prayer experience between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 8.  This event is free and open to the public.

During this reimagined experience of the classic Stations of the Cross, you will move through eight prayer stations as you keep vigil with Jesus at the pivotal moments in his journey to the cross:

• Station One:  In the Garden
• Station Two:  Betrayal and Arrest
• Station Three:  Peter’s Denial
• Station Four:  At Trial
• Station Five:  Torment and Anguish
• Station Six:  Crucified
• Station Seven:  Last Breath
• Station Eight:  Laid in the Tomb

Eureka Christian Church is located at 302 South Main in Eureka, Illinois. 

Join us Easter Sunday, April 9 for a children’s egg hunt beginning at 9:30 a.m. on the front lawn. All children ages toddler through 4th grade are welcome. Bring your basket and join the fun!

We have come to the most significant week in the circle of the church year. From Palm Sunday through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to the empty tomb of Easter Day, we will journey with Jesus through the final moments of his life.

Join us.

April 2, Palm Sunday:  Palm parade in both services at 8:15 and 10:30 a.m.
April 6, Maundy Thursday:  Service at 7:00 p.m.
April 6-7, 24-Hour Prayer Vigil
April 7,  Good Friday:  Community service at noon at the Eureka Presbyterian Church.
April 8, Community Stations of the Cross in our Chapel from 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
April 9, Easter Sunday:  Worship at 8:15 and 10:30 a.m.  Children’s Easter Egg Hunt at 9:30 a.m.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday when we remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, welcomed by a cheering, palm-branch-waving crowd. In the sermon, I will be talking about Jesus’ crazy, risky love that carried him into Jerusalem that day. The same crazy, risky love he asks us to share. Here’s a preview.

Jesus moved through the world acknowledging those everybody else cast aside. He touched the lepers. He ate with sinners. He stood up for them and defended them too. He interacted with the town pariahs. He recognized their humanity. Tended to their needs. He embodied hope and mercy and compassion wherever he went. He moved through the world bringing love, not condemnation. 

Jesus’ echoing, risky love was for the underdog, the downtrodden, the forgotten, the stigmatized, the disempowered, the persecuted, the judged. Jesus found that little piece of God inside every person and nurtured it, fanned it into a flame of worth and hope and life. 

This is our work too. If we’re going to call ourselves Disciples.

We say what needs to be said. We do what needs to be done. We stand up to those who take advantage of others, those abuse their power. And we stand up for those who have no power, those who have no voice. We take risks. We go boldly. We dare and dream and do. We open our ears and our stubborn, stubborn hearts to the urgent current of need crying out for justice right here, right now. “Hosanna, please!” they cry. “See us. Hear us. Acknowledge us. Be with us. Defend us.” 

Can we do these things, Disciples? Because if we can, we are bearing the fruit of the kingdom.

I’ll see you Sunday.

Jennie

Worship at 8:15 and 10:30 a.m.
On-site at 302 South Main Street       Eureka, Illinois
Online at eurekachristian.org/worship-online or facebook.com/eurekacc/live

In Sunday’s sermon, I will be preaching on the extraordinary raising of Lazarus from John 11. In case you’re not familiar with the story, here’s a quick recap.

Jesus gets word that one of his closest friends is ill. But by the time he arrives, his friend Lazarus has already died. Jesus asks to be taken to the tomb where they have laid the body, and then he says something shocking: “Take away the stone.” Nobody wants to take the away stone because Lazarus’ un-embalmed body has been in that tomb for four days, and you can imagine…well, some things are better left unsaid. Nevertheless, they do what Jesus asks. Then Jesus does something even more shocking. “Lazarus, come out!” he cries, and the dead man walks out of the tomb, still wrapped in his graveclothes. “Unbind him!” Jesus says at the end of the story, “Let him go.”

“Unbind him!  Let him go.” These are good words; they are mighty powerful words. Mighty enough to bring a dead man out of the tomb. Mighty enough to bring change and light, hope and life to us too. 

“Unbind him! Unbind her! Let them go!” Jesus says to you and to me. 

What has you bound? What has you confined? What has you wrapped so tight that all you can manage are tentative, stilted, shuffling steps when God wants us to leap and dance and shout with joy? Life is supposed to be filled with joy!

“I came that you might have life,” Jesus says, “and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Are you having abundant life? If your answer is no, then something has you bound. Something has you trapped.

Maybe it’s fear. Maybe it’s anxiety. Maybe it’s grief or anger, regrets or old wounds. Maybe it’s insecurity. Or a destructive, toxic relationship. Maybe it’s depression, stress, exhaustion, or addiction. Maybe it’s loneliness. Maybe it’s boredom. Maybe it’s a vision of your life that just doesn’t fit anymore.

Whatever it is, this is not what God intends for you or for me. Instead, God longs for us to be unbound, loosed from whatever it is that traps us, confines us, and keeps us from abundant life.

I’ll see you Sunday.

Jennie

Worship at 8:15 and 10:30 a.m.
On-site at 302 South Main Street       Eureka, Illinois
Online at eurekachristian.org/worship-online or facebook.com/eurekacc/live

Join us this Sunday, March 26 as we welcome the Eureka College Chorale and Chamber Ensemble to the Traditional Service. Their gift of music will truly be inspiring and uplifting. Worship begins at 10:30 a.m. This is a wonderful opportunity to invite friends and neighbors to join you for worship.

I’ll see you Sunday.

Jennie

Worship at 8:15 and 10:30 a.m.
On-site at 302 South Main Street       Eureka, Illinois
Online at eurekachristian.org/worship-online or facebook.com/eurekacc/live