“The Good News…Is So Good It Catches Us By Surprise” a sermon on John 2:1-11 & Matthew 13:31-32

John 2:1-11
Matthew 13:31-32
“The Good News…Is So Good It Catches Us By Surprise”
Preached Sunday, February 22, 2026

A wedding feast is a very strange place to be for this first Sunday in Lent.

Normally we start the season of Lent in the desert - where Jesus goes for forty days to fast, pray, and face temptation. Our season of Lent is modeled after these forty days - a season of fasting, praying, and wrestling with our temptations - especially those things that keep us from love of God and love of neighbor as self. Now - every year I say, Lent is not just about giving up chocolate. It is not a diet. It is a spiritual discipline of seeking to walk closer to God and fasting from things that take your time, energy, or gifts away from that which is life- and love- giving. So if one does decide to fast from something like chocolate, soda pops, or meat - when there is a desire for that thing, the desire should remind us to turn to God in prayer - re-orient our attention from the things of this world to the things of above.

The primary purpose of these next six weeks before Easter is to prepare ourselves to receive the Good News of Easter - the Good News of the Resurrection of Christ. And yet, so often, Lent gets a bad rap. It becomes the season of self-flaggelation, of dour faces, and somber attitudes. Now - repenting of that which holds us back from Love of God and Love of Neighbor as self can be really hard work. In order to do that, we have to do deep reflection. We may even need to uproot, cast out, or exorcize habits, routines, or attitudes that have become deeply a part of us. This is hard work.

It does not have to be somber work. Or even if it does illicit feelings of sadness and grief, those feelings can intermingle with the joy of connecting more deeply with God. For ultimately, the journey of Lent is one steeped in the Good News of the Gospel.

The word “Gospel” means “Good News.” It is the Good News of Great Joy for all people that the angels proclaimed at the birth of Jesus. And I don’t think that in order to receive the Good News of Great Joy for all people that is Easter, we need to starve ourselves of Good News of Great Joy for six weeks. In fact, I have found that so often joy multiples joy. We hear Good News - we experience something wonderful and life changing - and we cannot wait to share it with someone! Good News is not meant to be kept to one’s self - it is meant to be shared, it is meant to be cause for celebration.

And so this Lent - we are taking a different approach to this season. One that I have never taken before and so we will be on this Good News Lenten journey together. Because our world is parched from a lack of Good News. From a lack of the Good News of the Gospel. From a lack of Good News of great joy for all people. Not only is a lot of what we hear not Good News - some of it is outright bad news and I am just not talking about the headlines of the day, I am talking about the words and actions of people who claim to know Jesus but don’t represent that Good News for all people or who present a “Gospel” that is limited or oppressive rather than expansive and liberating.

And so this Lent we are going to root ourselves in the core tenets of the Goodness of the Gospel. Our sermon series is entitled “Tell Me Something Good: Grounding Ourselves in the Good News This Lent.” We are going to come to the feast table of Communion every week and talk endlessly about how Good the Good News of the Gospel is, so that when we reach the Good News of the Resurrection on Easter, our joy is multiplied more than we can yet even anticipate.

And so - for those in the pews who are parched for Good News, for those in the streets who have not heard a Good Gospel, for those in the world who are crying out for living water to quench their thirst - we are not starting this Lent in a dry, arid desert - we are starting at a wedding feast.

The Gospel of John actually doesn’t have Jesus going into the wilderness. He is baptized, calls a couple of disciples, and then goes to a party. Weddings back then weren’t too different from Youngstown weddings now. There were no cookie tables. But there were tables overflowing with food and desserts. There was no DJ but there was live music. There was no Cha-Cha Slide but there was dancing. There was laughter. There was joy. There was celebration of love and community and a new family formed. And there was, it seems, an open bar. We do Jesus a dis-service if we picture him as standing outside this jubilant party rather than in it. Perhaps he was laughing with friends. Perhaps he was busting a move on the dance floor. Perhaps he was relishing in the spread of food. And it is here - that his mother comes and tells him - the wine is running out. This party is about to go downhill. It will end soon - and we had planned on it going well into the night! So Jesus, do something about it! The conversation Jesus had with his mom here has been interpreted many different ways - sassy, sincere, embarrassing, mischievous…maybe all of the above? And yet, Jesus did what his mother told him to do. Jesus tells them to fill six stone jars - each holding twenty to thirty gallons - and turn it all into wine. The equivalent of 1,000 bottles of wine! And so Jesus’s first public miracle was performed - a miracle that made the partying, the joy, the celebration continue. And even better than that - the water that Jesus turned into wine was the goooooood stuff. And so the party goers were surprised - they got better than they expected - and it multiplied their joy.

The Rev. Lizze McManus-Dail adds this interpretation to the wedding miracle:

“Behold: Jesus’ debut act of ministry. It’s not a healing, or an exorcism, or turning tables for justice. Jesus’ first act is to help ensure a party becomes the best party possible. It’s a total surprise. Because this… this is who Jesus is. Jesus doesn’t have to begin with defeating evil because he knows ultimately evil doesn’t stand a chance against a God who loves disco and his mother. Evil doesn’t stand a chance against a God who is not only not afraid of scarcity, but laughs in the face of it. Evil doesn’t stand a chance against a God who will never let an empty cistern or full tomb have the final word. Evil is predictable. But our God loves a surprise because God knows the plot twist is the same every time: God’s goodness will overflow. Every single time.”

In the poem, “They’re Out of Wine” by The Rev. Sarah Speed, the miracle is framed in similar terms:

“I wonder if Jesus stopped dancing when he heard the news.
I wonder if he looked out over the crowd of happy people.
I wonder if he could see their joy poking through their fragility.
And I wonder if he knew, in that moment, that joy was holy,
that joy would sustain them, that joy was a form of resurrection,
so he turned water into wine and the dancing did not stop.”

Let’s take a moment now to pivot to our other Gospel lesson this morning - the parable of the mustard seed. Because just as the Good News is joyful as in the miracle at wedding in Cana - the Good News can also take us by surprise and be so much more than we ever imagined it could be. And perhaps we need something that isn’t a wine metaphor! And so we turn to the smallest of seeds.

A mustard seed was often considered a weed - it was unruly and took over much of the wanted vegetation around it. Unless you specifically wanted to grow it, it would be behove the gardener to pull it up before it took over the whole garden bed. And yet it grew - not only into a large shrub but into a tree! That gave shelter to the birds of the air - gave a safe home. And perhaps also a seasoning for cooking, a spice for medicine, and something for everyone to marvel at - the shrub that became a tree.

We can’t always see what joy God has in store for us buried under the dirt. What miracle is God working just below the surface, through a seed planted in the ground, or water poured into stone jars. It may be something that we never even could have imagined before - the best wine brought out last, a weedy shrub being turned into a magnificent and useful tree, something we have not yet ever imagined but God has imagined it for us and can’t wait to surprise us with it!

This is actually the root of the Gospel. Humanity really struggled to imagine a God who was inherently Good, who was inherently Loving, who cared for us not along our lines of human divisions of tribe or race but spanning to loving-kindness of all Creation! We see this struggle throughout Scripture. And so God said to humanity, to us: “Let me surprise you with Good News of Great Joy for all people! Let me show you what I am like and what I want for you!” And so God took on flesh and became Jesus - Jesus who danced at a wedding. Jesus who taught us about love. Jesus who took on the weight of the cross, who broke the chains of sin and Death over us - so that we would have the Joy of abundant living! So that we could be surprised over and over again by the depth of God’s love for us! So that we could be free from the weight of sin to dance freely!

This morning I want us to think about times in our lives when the Good News of the Gospel - Good News of great joy for all people took us, took you, by surprise!

The scan is clear - the cancer is gone.
The grant comes through and the project is fully funded.
You hold a friend’s newborn who just came home from the NICU.
You share a laugh with a friend, a fellow church member, another human being that reminds us that the world is not so bleak after all.
Or you laugh so hard you cry and you realize it’s been too long since you last felt like this.
You take a deep breath of spring air and it feels like you’re breathing for the first time.
You got the job!
The outpouring of cards and meals after a surgery is more than you ever anticipated.
In the summer time your tomato harvest is so abundant you are giving tomatoes to everyone you meet or perhaps you are ding-dong ditching neighbors with zucchini on their porch.
The new dog you adopted is filling your days with delight.
An afternoon with grandchildren has you feeling young again.

I honestly could go on and on and on and I hope multiple examples for your life - those moments big and small - are coming to your mind.

God wants us to find delight and joy in the lives we lead. They are gifts from God. They are signs of abundant life. They should point us back to God, the source of our joy.

When John Wesley first felt that God loved him, yes even him, he wrote that his heart was strangely warmed. Can you think of the first time - or even the second, third, or hundredth time you felt God’s love for you? Where you felt it in your heart? Where God’s abundant grace and love took you by surprise? I think God’s Love and Joy strangely warm our hearts and our lives. That surprising love is The Good News of the Gospel.

And maybe…maybe lately you are feeling disconnected from surprising joy. You are feeling disconnected from Good News. You are feeling disconnected from the Gospel. Perhaps you can’t remember the last time your heart was strangely warmed.

And that’s okay.

I mean…it’s not okay and it’s okay. It’s human and our world has the ability to numb us to joy, to blind us from the surprises of God, to obscure God’s abundant love for us. My prayer for you today and for this Lent is that we would ground ourselves from the Good News and satisfy our thirsty souls from drinking abundantly of the living water - of the Gospel - of the Goodness of God - and our hearts would be satisfied in Christ’s abundant joy and love. And we would dance.

Jesus danced.
Jesus performed a miracle that surprised all the wedding guests and multiplied the joy present.
The seed in the ground grew into something that no one ever imagined - and it brought God’s Goodnessto all of Creation.

May we dance.
May we share the Goodness of the Gospel with all we meet.
May the joy of the Gospel, the love of God, the Goodness of our faith - take us all by surprise this Lent.

Amen.

“The Good News Is…All Are Invited” a sermon on Luke 14:15-24

Luke 14:15-24
“The Good News Is…All Are Invited”
Preached Ash Wednesday, February 18, 2026

Today you are getting the soft launch of our new Sermon series. I’ll introduce the theme again on Sunday morning as we’ll have more people there…but that’s not holding us here tonight back from starting our Lenten journey of rooting ourselves in The Good News.

Our sermon series this Lent is entitled, “Tell Me Something Good: Grounding Ourselves in the Good News this Lent.”

Lent is often viewed through a negative lens. Yes, it’s a season of fasting, of repentance, of turning back to God. Traditionally, Lent was a time for new converts or those who needed to be welcomed back into the fold of the Church, to study and learn about the core tenants of the Christian faith. It is a season of focusing on the Gospel. And the Gospel inherently means, “Good News.”

Perhaps like me, your soul is deeply longing for some Good News.

I think our world is deeply longing for Good News. And I think we all desperately need to hear the Good News of the Gospel. It is a tragedy of our current world that many non-churched people or folks who have left the Church, don’t see the Christian church spreading “Good” News - what they’re heard coming from the mouths of preachers or through the actions of people who confess Jesus with their mouths and deny him with their actions are anything but “good.” The Good News must be what the angels pronounced at the birth of Christ: “Good News of Great Joy for all people.” If it’s not that, it ain’t the Gospel.

I think people who already know Jesus and his Good News need to reconnect to the Goodness of the Gospel message too. In a world of so much “bad” - it’s all too easy to become disconnected from the core Goodness of the Gospel.

And so this Lent, we will focus on the Gospel. We will focus on news that is Good for all. We will repent of all that is not the Good News of the Gospel.

And so today we are going to perform two rituals to connect us to the Good News of the Gospel: the imposition of ashes and Holy Communion. Let’s talk about the meaning of each, the goodness inherent in them, and what practicing them together this Ash Wednesday has to say to us.

First: the imposition of ashes.

Throughout Scripture, ashes are used as a sign of repentance and humility. In the Old Testament they are regularly used to convey sorrow for one’s sins, a desire for forgiveness and return to right living with God. Part of humbling ourselves before God with the imposition of ashes, is recognizing our own mortality and relationship to God. The Divine Creator of the Universe formed us from dust - and when we die, our bodies are meant to be returned to the earth, decomposed, becoming one with the earth again - dirt, dust, ash. When our mortal bodies return to the ground, our eternal souls are in the presence of God, the one who created us and the one who is forever and ever our God.

I have always held that Ash Wednesday is one of the most counter-cultural traditions of the Church.

We live in a culture where humility is not seen as a virtue. We admire those and give positions of power to those who puff themselves up - who have endless wealth. Who get what they want and do whatever they want with little to no accountability. If we too could just do the impossible task of pulling ourselves up by our boot straps and become billionaires, we too could be like gods and so our culture tells us to puff ourselves up, to live large and in-charge, to move through this world with heavy footsteps as one determined to leave a mark of our own greatness.

We live in a world where we pretend that death and grief are not real. We hide death away - regulate it to hospital rooms where death is seen as the loss of a great fight, not a fate that eventually will meet us all. We embalm the dead bodies of loved ones, making them look as if they are just asleep and keeping their mortal forms from becoming one with the earth again. We expect people to mourn in private - especially after the funeral. And if it’s “too long” after to get over it, as if grief isn’t complicated and something we live with our whole lives after losing a loved one. And we don’t deal well with our own mortality - so often sticking our heads in the sand rather than dealing with eventual fate - whether that is our aging bodies or the fact that none of us are promised tomorrow.

A Christianity that seeks and admires worldly power, that is proud, that is focused on individual greatness is not the Good News of the Gospel.
A Christianity that hides away from death and grief, that pretends that we will live forever, that death will never touch us is not the Good News of the Gospel.

Ash Wednesday is deeply counter-cultural.

On Ash Wednesday we say we are not gods. We are not powerful. We are not great. One of the traditional readings for Ash Wednesday is from Psalm 22 that compares ourselves to worms before God. That might be too strong language for my tastes because each of us is beloved and special in the eyes of God. Each of us is called to love ourselves. We are to love God and neighbor as self - that means we need to love self too. That self-love though is a love that comes with a dose of humility. We are loved by God and held in the hands of God. The Creator of the Universe made us out of dust and to dust we shall return. We are mortal. Our time on earth is limited. We will die. And, we are not afraid of that death.

Henri Nouwen wrote this on accepting our deaths, “Death is such a mystery. Forcing us to ask ourselves - why do I live? How do I live? For whom do I live?
And also, am I prepared to die? Now? Later?...
…When you are no longer afraid of your own death, then you can live fully, freely and joyfully.”

And so Ash Wednesday causes us to pause and view our limited earthly lives in light of God’s eternal and Divine love for us. To move beyond fear of death to acceptance. That acceptance makes us ask questions: How are we to move through this world knowing that we are just passing through? How are we to live in this world knowing that God is ultimately in charge? How should we spend our precious days on this earth knowing that we will all stand before God - sooner or later - and we will be asked by the God who is Love how we loved God, loved neighbor, and loved self in this life?

This is what it means to put ashes on our foreheads. We are to repent from the norms of this world that would have us living in ways that are not loving, that are contrary to the Good News of the Gospel. This requires humility, it requires us grappling with our mortality, and it requires us - in light of those things, to commit to leading lives of Love - Love of God, love of neighbor, love of self. In our precious limited life spans, to choose a life rooted in love - this is the Good News of the Gospel presented to us on Ash Wednesday through the imposition of ashes.

The second ritual we are participating in today is Holy Communion.

There is so so so much Good News present in this holy ritual.

There is the Good News of Christ’s death and resurrection.
There is the Good News that through this meal we are empowered to be Christ to and for others.
There is the Good News that this table connects us to Christians in all times and places who participated or will participate in this meal.
There is the Good News that this table is just a foretaste of the heavenly banquet that we will all one day feast at.
There is the Good News that Christ is present in this meal through the Holy Spirit and participating in this meal is a guaranteed encounter with the Divine.

There is so much Good News in this meal - and the Good News I want to focus on right now is that all are invited.

In The United Methodist Church we practice an Open Table. That means we do not put hoops you have to jump through, barriers you have to climb over, in order to receive this sacrament. You do not have to be a United Methodist, you do not have to be a member of this church, you do not even have to be baptized in order to receive - all you have to want is to encounter our risen and loving Lord in the bread and the cup.

The invitation is truly for all - the question is, are we accepting it?

In this evening’s Gospel lesson we heard of a parable of a banquet feast where those invited did not accept the invitation - those who would have been on equal social standing with the host of the party make up excuses of other things to do. They will not be attending dinner. And so the invitation is extended - to the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. Those who would have been considered - and often still are considered - the last and the least. The invitations, however, do not stop there. After that, the host then tells his servant to go into the streets and compel anyone and everyone - any who will accept the invitation - to come in and feast.

So often our invitations to the tables we sit at look like the first round of invitations the host sent out - invitations to those of the same social standing or sphere. So often our tables are full of people who look, act, and think just like us. This is not the Good News of the Gospel.

The Good News of the Gospel is that the invitation is truly to all.

At the birth of Christ the angels proclaimed “Good News of Great Joy for all people.” That is echoed in this parable - all are invited to come and feast with Christ, all are invited into the Kingdom of heaven - all - and especially the last, the lost, and the least. This is the Good News of the Gospel. This is the Good News we are rooting ourselves in today.

And so it is at this point where you may ask, Pastor Allison, where is the overlap? How do these two rituals we are participating in today overlap for us? Where is their interaction of Good News? I want to lift up three brief but very Good intersections between the two rituals.

One - Ash Wednesday reminds us of our mortality. The table reminds us that this is but a foretaste of the heavenly banquet table. Even in the midst of our world where there is so much grief, death, and general hopelessness - there is hope. There is something more. Remembering our mortality is not all doom and gloom and sadness - remembering our mortality reminds us that the life after this one is a big party with a generous and lavish table overflowing with food, laughter, and joy.

Two - That heavenly banquet table is more diverse and more beautiful in its diversity than we could ever imagine. People of every race, ethnicity, culture, gender, age, ability, social status, etc, etc, etc are surrounding that banquet table. This is something to celebrate and it also should give us a dose of humility - that same humility we accept when we receive ashes. We need to remember that we are but one guest at a table where all are invited. It should make us pause and to consider how we treat and love our fellow guests. And even who we are inviting to feast with us at our earthly tables?

And finally, three - just as the act of receiving ashes is extremely counter-cultural in a world that values pride and power and hides from death and grief, inviting everyone to the table, and even eating at a table full of every diversity under the sun, is highly counter-cultural as well. In The Moral Teachings of Jesus, David P. Gushee writes: “It is as if Jesus is looking at every social gathering that he witnesses as a rehearsal for that great messianic banquet in the upside-down kingdom of God. And he suggests that we had better start thinking and acting in this same upside-down way if we wish to be ready for that day.” Ash Wednesday and indeed the whole season of Lent is a counter-cultural or upside down way of life. It is repenting of the ways of this world and following the ways of Jesus. It is rejecting the Bad News of the World - that which is Power and the lie of Earthly Immortality. It is rejecting the Bad News of the World which limits who receives an invitation to the table based on social status, ability, or a myriad of other divisions. It is rejecting all that is not the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is Good News of Great Joy for all people.

The Good News that we are but dust - and in being dust, are eternally cared for and loved by the Creator of the Universe who is the God of Love who formed us out of the dust.
The Good News that we are all invited to the table.
The Good News that all of us can humble ourselves and accept that invitation.

Today, this Ash Wednesday, let us embrace the Good News by humbling ourselves through the imposition of ashes to accept God’s invitation - to the banquet feast and to a life rooted in the Good News.

Amen.

"The Beloved" a sermon on Matthew 17:1-9

Matthew 17:1-9
“The Beloved”
Preached Sunday, February 15, 2026 

Who here likes to talk without being listened to?

Admittedly, some of us may like the sounds of our voices or to process things aloud, and yet, when we are talking to someone, we hope they would not just hear the sound of our voices but listen to our words as well. Although, anyone with a spouse, long-term partner, children, grandchildren, or siblings…actually, any human in relationship with other humans knows what it’s like to not be listened to when speaking.

We often talk about prayer as the act of not just speaking to God but listening too. Of course, if it can be hard for our spouse to listen to us - or our children or grandchildren who are distracted to pay attention to us - how much harder is it for us to discern the voice of God in our lives when that voice is not an audible voice but the nudges and leanings of the Spirit?

In fact, there are only 3 times in the Gospels where a voice from heaven speaks audibly. And only two of those are in the synoptic Gospels - what we call Matthew, Mark, and Luke whose narratives largely overlap while John is out here doing his own thing. So the two times that God speaks audibly as a voice from heaven in the synoptic Gospels are at Jesus’s Baptism and Jesus’s Transfiguration. Let’s look at both of those, from the Gospel of Matthew:

Jesus’s Baptism: “And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from the heavens said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’”

And the Transfiguration: “While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’”

If we were to make a venn diagram of these two statements from Heaven, there would be significant overlap. Especially the phrase, “This is my Son, the Beloved.”

What does it mean that in these very rare instances where it is recorded that the voice of God came from heaven, came from above - not words spoken by Jesus, not the rush of wind of the Holy Spirit, not that still small voice inside of us, not from an angel or messenger - but an unexplainable voice coming from God the Creator of the Universe - what does it say that in the two rare instances this happens in our Synoptic Gospels - that the voice of God calls Jesus, “Beloved”? To call someone beloved or “my beloved” is basically saying, “I love you.”

For God to express Love is inherent in the very nature of God’s self.

Our traditional language for the Trinity, our three-in-one God is, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” St. Augustine referred to the Trinity as, “the Lover, the Beloved, and the love which exists between them.” This stems from the statement in one of the most beautiful passages of Scripture that God is Love. 1 John 4:7-12: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.”

God is Love and this Love extends to our understanding of the Trinity. Richard Rohr defines the Trinity in his book, “The Divine Dance” like this:

“The fourth-century Cappadocian Fathers tried to communicate this notion of life as mutual participation by calling the Trinitarian flow a 'circle dance' (perichoresis) between the three. They were saying that whatever is going on in God is a flow that’s like a dance; and God is not just the dancer, God is the dance itself! The Incarnation is a movement—Jesus comes forth from the Father and the Holy Spirit to take us back with him into this eternal embrace, from which we first came (John 14:3). We are invited to join in the dance and have participatory knowledge of God through the Trinity.”

Let me state that a little more simply: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit are dancing together! And they’re not just dancing together - they ARE the dance. As the three persons of the Trinity dance together, you can no longer see any lines where they differ, they become a blur of unimaginable beauty, awe, and wonder.

Combined with Augustine’s definition of the Trinity as “the Lover, the Beloved, and the love which exists between them” we can understand The Trinity as a Divine Dance of Love. And when we Love - when we love God and when we love neighbor as self - we become participants in the Divine Dance of Love along with the God who is Love itself. Augustine is also attributed with saying, when teaching on the doctrine of the Trinity, “Lest you become discouraged, know that when you love, you know more about who God is than you could ever know with your intellect."

Perhaps we can now understand why God, in those rare moments in the Gospels when the God of Love, the Creator of the Universe, speaks in an audible voice - it is to call Jesus Beloved. Because there is no more important thing that God could call Jesus -- or even us.

Jesus is called many things in Scripture: Rabbi, Messiah, Anointed One, Saviour, Lamb Who Takes Away the Sins of the World, Emmanuel, The Good Shepherd, King of Kings, Prince of Peace, The Word, Lord…and many, many more.

Beloved may be one of the most important names that Jesus is called in Scripture - not only because this is the name that God the Father places on Jesus but because it tells us not only of Jesus’s identity but our identities in God’s eyes as well.

We were made in the image of God - the God who is “the Lover, the Beloved, and the love which exists between them.” Scripture tells us that we are children of God and joint heirs with Christ - part of our inheritance is the Love of God, the title of God’s Beloved.

Part of the miracle of the Transfiguration up on that mountaintop is it’s a moment where the layers of our earthly reality are pulled back and we see the heavenly reality of who Jesus is - God’s Beloved son, shining in glory.

It is at the moment where that voice from Heaven calls Jesus “son” and says, “listen to him.”

So my question to us today is - are we listening to the voice of God who is telling us that we too are beloved, loved by God? The voice is not coming out of the clouds and reverberating in our eardrums but there are other ways that the Holy Spirit is constantly telling us - “You are beloved.” Are we listening? Are our spirits attuned to listen to the voice of Love? God may be speaking to you through the people in your life who love you well. God may be speaking in your life through nudges towards kindness. God may be speaking in your life that comes in the outrage of injustice against fellow children of God. God may be speaking in your life of moments of peace. There is never a single moment of our lives where God is not speaking love to us.

I am going to say that again because I really truly believe this:

There is not a single moment of our lives where God is not speaking love to us.

The issue comes from us not listening.

Mother Theresa said, “God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer... Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”

I would define listening to God as an openness of heart. True listening comes from a place of receiving. So often we don’t truly listen to one another. We are simply waiting for our turn to talk. Our turn to make our point. Our turn to share our story or to win the argument. To listen means to open not just our ears but our hearts and minds as well. This takes practice in listening to our fellow human beings and certainly in listening to God - and listening for God through our world and our fellow human beings.

Are our hearts truly open, truly listening, ready and waiting to receive what God has to give to us? Wherever that message comes from.

Let us listen to the voice of Love. Let us listen to the voice of God that is calling us Beloved. Let us listen to the voice of God that is calling - our neighbors, our friends, and even our enemies - beloved as well. The God who is calling each and every person in this world “Beloved” - loved by God. We need to listen to that Love so that we can act on that Love.

When we attune our souls to constantly listen to the voice of God we may be surprised in all the numerous ways that God uses to speak Love into our souls. God has no limits - not even of what we would divide into camps of sacred versus secular. During the Super Bowl halftime show last week, it ended with a giant message on the screen: "The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

In a world where the message of hate, of othering, of diminishing the image of God inside of ourselves and one another, this is an important reminder. Love is stronger than hate. As Christians we believe that Love is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than the Grave. Love is more powerful than all for our God is Love itself - “the Lover, the Beloved, and the love which exists between them.”

And so - are we listening to Jesus, God’s Beloved?
Are we listening to the voice of Love?
Do we know our own Belovedness?
Do we love others as if they are beloved by God?
Are we participating in the Divine Dance of Love?

May we listen to Jesus.
May we listen to all the ways God speaks Love to us.
May we know our own belovedness.
May we love all like God loves.
May we be a part of God’s Divine Dance of Love.

May it be so. Amen.

“Finger Pointing & Yokes, Salt & Light” a sermon on Isaiah 58:1-12 & Matthew 5:13-20

Isaiah 58:1-12
Matthew 5:13-20
“Finger Pointing & Yokes, Salt & Light”
Preached Sunday, February 8, 2026

One of my favorite TV characters of all time is Leslie Knope from Parks & Rec. Leslie is known as an energetic go-getter with a deep passion for her work in the local government parks department. She is also known for her ridiculous, next-level, over-the-top compliments. Here are a couple compliments she gives to her best friend:

“You beautiful tropical fish.”
“You opalescent tree shark.”
“You’re a beautiful, talented, brilliant, powerful musk-ox."
“You poetic, noble land-mermaid.”
“You rainbow-infused space unicorn.”

Some of these compliments are, not just over the top, but kind of weird, right? Like…what does it mean to be an opalescent tree shark? But it’s a TV and so we laugh it off as cute, quirky nonsense.

When I read today’s Gospel reading, my mind went from Jesus to Leslie Knope. See, Jesus is giving us a weird “What does that even mean???” kind of compliment.

“You are the salt of the earth.”

Uhhh…thanks, Jesus? I think?

Now, “You are light” - that makes a little more sense to us. But what are these declarations that Jesus makes to his disciples and, through the ages, to us, that we are salt and light? Let’s look a little bit closer at them.

Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?”

Let’s think about salt. Salt compliments and brings forth other flavors in food. Salt is also a preserver. It quite literally…cannot lose its saltiness. If it wasn’t salty…it wouldn’t be salt. Now, we know through cooking that salt loses its saltiness, or a dish loses the taste of saltiness if it is overwhelmed with other flavors. If there are enough other things in the dish that cover up the saltiness.

But we’re not talking about cooking and food when Jesus says we are the salt of the world. We are talking about who God created us to be and living into those true authentic selves.

A book that I found deeply meaningful is, “Becoming Who You Are: Insights on the True Self from Thomas Merton and Other Saints” by James Martin. Allow me to give you a brief synopsis of some of the insights this book gives.

Thomas Merton, a renowned saint and writer in the Catholic Church, famously said, “For me to be a saint means to be myself…Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and discovering my true self.”

In other words, the more we are our true selves, the more holy we are. As Methodists we talk a lot about sanctification. That we are all on this journey towards Christian perfection - which means every day we strive to love God and neighbor better than we did the day before. And sometimes, we tend to think the more sanctified or holy someone is…the less of a personality they have. The point this book makes is that isn’t true - that each of us, at our core is, well…the salt of the earth, with our own unique flavor or personality that is not lost in the process of sanctification. Rather the more we love God and neighbor, the more our personalities, our true selves, who God created us to be, shines forth. The “holier” you are, the more you can…taste your inert saltiness.

Martin uses two saints as an example:

1 - St. Theresa of Lisieux who was a contemplative saint and spent all her days in a convent in worship and prayer and cleaning and gardening and what others would claim as menial tasks. And
2 - Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Workers movement and a staunch supporter of social justice and an activist.

Martin poses the question: was one of these women less holy than the other? No! Their own personality, their own salt of the earth saltiness, was seen through their unique ways that they were their true selves for God and neighbor.

Which brings us back around to how can salt lose its saltiness…if we in our inner core are salt of the earth because that is how God created us - how can we lose our saltiness? Just as salt in a dish can be overwhelmed by other flavors, we can be overwhelmed by false selves.

We all have false selves. Richard Rohr says, “Our false self is who we think we are. It is our mental self-image and social agreement, which most people spend their whole lives living up to - or down to.” Think of it like this - our false selves are wrapped around us like bandages wrapped around a mummy. We may have many layers of false self that we have to peel back to get to our true self, who God created us to be, salt of the earth. Now, Martin says, when he was writing a book about finding your true self, a friend said to him, “Well, that’s fine, but what happens if your true self is a horrible, lying, mean-spirited person?” A good question to ask! Maybe a question you are sitting in the pews thinking.

Martin’s answer was “that this would not be the person God created. In other words, to find his true self, the horrible, lying, mean-spirited person would have to uncover his true self - the good self that God created - from underneath all those layers of sinfulness. And I would suspect that the longer he has been living as a selfish person, the longer it might take for him to uncover his true self.”

Our reading from Isaiah shows us examples of people not being their true selves, shows us how we can get overwhelmed by other things and lose our saltiness. Our passage this morning talked about those who professed with their lips and their rituals a desire to get closer to God, but their actions showed them oppressing their workers and putting heavy burdens on others. They got into fights and quarreled and finger-pointed. Which is absolutely nothing like so many in our world today… I am sure you’re detecting some sarcasm.

Isaiah goes on to say this: “If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.”

When we not only don’t put oppressive burdens on others, but we actively work to remove those burdens from others, we are also lifting a burden - a layer of our false selves - from our own shoulders. When we liberate others, we liberate ourselves. This is the mentality of the Kin-dom of God. You may have heard it as the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.”

An example of liberating others that in turn liberates ourselves is doing anti-racism work. Racism is not just a Black or Person of Color problem. It oppresses and marginalizes People of Color and they bear the brunt of its violence and force. There is no denying that. And - as white people, racism also affects us negatively - it affects our souls. It warps us into who we were not meant to be, as all sin does. It obscures our true selves who God created us to be, adding a layer of false self, overpowering our saltiness. To do anti-racism work is to loose the bonds of injustice and undo the thongs of the yoke…for all. For People of Color, to remove the violence and scourge of racism. For white people, to remove the sin that infects our souls.

The same is true for anything that keeps us from being who God created us to be - Salt of the Earth. Isaiah talks about pointing the finger and speaking evil. Any -ism or -phobia (racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc, etc) not only does violence against our neighbors but they harm the soul of the one who holds on to that act of othering and oppression, Any blame game, power struggle, or speaking evil of anything, these things obscure our true selves, they overpower our salt.

When you are your true self, who God created you to be - not only are you the salt of the earth - your light also shines before others.

In Matthew, Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

It is an echo of the prophet Isaiah: “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly…”

You are the salt of the earth.
You are the light of the world.

Just as Leslie Knope’s ridiculous compliments are meant to lift others up, I mean for this sermon today to be a sermon of encouragement because, here me on this:

You *are* *already* the salt of the earth.
You *are* *already* the light of the world.

God created you this way - this is who you are - your true self - at your core. Now - how you will live that out? That will depend on the unique you that God created you to be - AND, with confidence I can say, at your core, you have everything you need to be salt and to be light.

Every day we can work on removing layers of our false selves. Every day we can work on not letting our true selves get covered up, on not letting our saltiness be overwhelmed, on not hiding our light under a bushel - we do this by loving God and loving neighboring - knowing that when we show God’s love to our neighbors by removing their burdens, we also remove the yoke off our own shoulders. Every day we can work on this by letting our light shine - by living out our faith, through sharing God, through sharing love - in the unique and inert ways that God created us to do so.

Thomas Merton said “For me to be a saint means to be myself.”

And so today I say to you:
For you to be a saint means to be yourself.
Your true self is salt.
Your true self is light.

Let’s let ourselves be salty and shine - by loving God and loving neighbor.

Amen.

“A Healing God” a sermon on Matthew 4:12-23

Matthew 4:12-23
“A Healing God”

In my family, every single family member is guilty of telling convoluted stories. You start here and instead of going directly to the point you kind of weave your story around like this…. (Zig-zag finger around) ...and part of it is, every side story, every rabbit trail is connected in my mind - I know the path my brain is following even when the listener doesn’t!

And this week’s Gospel lesson may seem like one of my family’s stories. We have a lot going on - Jesus finding out news about John, some references to land regions, a quote from Isaiah, a call to repent, calling some disciples to follow him, and then Jesus traveling, preaching, and healing.

To the reader we hear this is at least four distinct stories:
The beginning with the land regions & Isaiah.
Jesus calling to repent
Jesus calling his disciples and
Jesus traveling, preaching, teaching and healing.

But the question is: What was the Gospel writer thinking as he wrote this story and why are these pieces tied together like this? What path of logic was his brain following? What’s connecting these different subjects that may seem like a rabbit trail to us?

I believe the thread that connects them all comes from story #4, the last part of this passage -and that is that we follow a healing God. And the other three threads are really examples of Jesus doing his work and ministry as a healing, life-giving God.

Now each part of this Scripture reading could be its own sermon...but let’s quickly work through and see what each section is saying about Jesus and God’s healing work in this world.

With John’s ministry coming to a close in Galilee, Jesus steps in to continue God’s work in that region and take it to the next level. “The territory of Zebulun and Naphtali” reference tribal lands that God had promised to the Israelites through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - we can read about these in the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua. And to the readers of Matthew, the names of these lands would have brought God’s covenant people and promises to mind. But even though John was doing ministry in these regions and now Jesus was, these regions were not in the hands of the Israelites - they were under imperial Roman rule.

Enter the Isaiah reference - this passage from Isaiah came from a time where the Kingdom of Judah was looking for salvation from Assyrian rule. In the midst of darkness, war and the threat of the oppressive rule of the Assyrians, there was a light - God’s promise to save the land and people from the Assyrian Empire.

Jesus is now that same light in the midst of darkness. His ministry is heralding that God wants to release people from the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire. This Scripture is declaring who Jesus is - Jesus is a Savior from oppressive regimes. Jesus is light and life in the midst of darkness and death.

And now, we have the next quick line “From that time Jesus began to proclaim ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” The Kingdom of Heaven is in contrast to the Kingdoms - the Assyrians and Romans of this world. And so we have to repent from any Kingdom we are following, any power that is of and in this world that is not God’s Kingdom - turn from anything that is death-wielding to that which is life-giving. This is what we pray for every week when we pray for weapons to be beaten into plowshares. To take that which gives death and turn it into that which tends life. There is so much in our world that is death-wielding and yet - when we look for it, when we participate in it - there is vibrant and abundant life there. For The Kingdom of Heaven is breaking into the world and God is active in this world - so what Kingdom are we actively seeking and following?

It is here that Peter and Andrew, James and John, are invited to follow Jesus - and they quickly answer the call. Fishermen did not live easy lives. The Roman Empire actually controlled all production from the lands and the sea and on top of their jobs being physically demanding, they were contracted and heavily taxed on every aspect of their livelihood. When Jesus shows up and offers them another way - they are quick to answer Jesus, to give up everything they knew, and to follow him. Sometimes we preachers have imagined a longer dialogue here or an inner struggle - but today I am struck by their quick response. When Jesus walks by on the shore - do you think in him they saw light shining in the darkness? I think they did. In Jesus, in his offer to make them fishers of people, they heard hope. They heard freedom. They heard a new way of living and being that offered wholeness. I think we desperately want to hear this see, see this, encounter this hope and new way in our world. And when it’s before you, you don’t hesitate. When you hear an offer like that, when you are given a gift like that, it is one you don’t hesitate to accept - you readily say yes - as the disciples readily followed Jesus.

And then, here’s how Matthew ties it all together:

“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.”

Jesus traveled through Roman controlled land and brought the Good News of another Kingdom, another way of being. A Kingdom of life, a Kingdom free from oppression, a kingdom of healing, a kingdom of wholeness. And this was a Kingdom that people so desperately needed to hear about. We may sometimes wonder why there is so much sickness in the Gospel stories? Why is Jesus healing everywhere he goes? Under the Roman Empire, 70-90% of the population lived in poverty which meant poor hygiene, high stress, dirty water, and food scarcity. These factors make for a petri dish of diseases. They also did not have the science and medical care that we have today. The people not only needed physical healing from their ailments -- they desperately needed hope and a new way to live. Living as a poor person under the Roman Empire basically guaranteed death at some point or another. Death like John the Baptist’s, his head on a platter for Herod. Death like Jesus’s, hung on a cross, considered an enemy of the state. Death from disease, from the strain of work, from poverty and hardship. So Jesus not only brought healing -- he brought the Good News -- that there is another Kingdom to follow. Another Kingdom that will eventually establish its full reign on Earth: not a Kingdom like the Roman Empire, but a Kingdom of Wholeness, of Life, of no more pain, death, or tears - the Kingdom of God.

It is this point - that Jesus is ushering in and inviting us into a new kind of Kingdom ruled by a Healing God - it is this point that all these stories, these seemingly rabbit trails, are pointing us toward, they are connected in showing us a light in the darkness; inviting us to turn from whatever is not life-giving; whatever power of this world, idol, or death-wielding way we are following - and readily follow Jesus and be participants in God’s Kingdom.

And today, I think we need this invitation and we need to answer its call just as much as the fishermen by the sea needed the invitation and needed to answer it. Just as much as those living with disease and every sickness needed healing.

We too need healing. We need healing from the empire we live in. From powers and systems that oppress, that divide us, that separate us, that profit off of our being scared, that profit off of us seeing our neighbors as our enemies, and that profit off of our pursuit for healing.

We need healing from broken relationships and broken homes. From addiction. From grudges. From abuse.

We need healing from disease and sickness, physical and mental, that hurts our bodies, our hearts, our minds.

We need healing in body, mind, and soul and the world we are living in needs healing. We are desperately looking for a light in the darkness to come and offer us deliverance.

And the Good News is...we do worship a healing God.

But, what does that mean? Does it mean we will be healed? Does it mean we can pray for healing? Does it mean we shouldn’t trust modern medicine and doctors? Will we be healed in this life? These are questions many are asking themselves as they wrestle with what it means that we worship a healing God.

These are my answers to that question and you may not find them satisfying.

“Does it mean we will be healed?” Maybe. We simply don’t know the future. We don’t know the way God acts. Sometimes healing doesn’t come in the form we expect either. We may be praying for healing of our bodies or the body of a loved one wracked my illness. The healing may come instead in the form of a mended relationship. Or the healing may come in the next life when we are fully in God’s presence without any pain.

“Can we pray for healing?” Yes, yes, yes. Healing of body, mind, and spirit. Prayers that we are in God’s hands - no matter the outcome. God wants us to talk to God though. To pour ourselves out. To talk, to listen, to be in God’s presence. Even just that act is a kind of healing.

“Should we trust modern medicine and doctors?” I believe God has many routes for miracles and God acts through modern medicine and doctors. We are often participating in folly too when we don’t see this as the way God acts in this world to help offer us wholeness and healing. Unfortunately even this system can cause corruption - for example, physical healing through medicine should not cause us financial distress that brings us into other situations that need God’s redemption.

What does it mean that we worship a healing God? It means that our God is a life-dealing God and wants life for us -- that God walks alongside us through every illness and every challenge. That our God who is “Emmanuel,” God with us, hurts with us and cries with us. And that our eternal hope and rest is in the promises of God, the promises of the Kingdom of heaven - that one day there will be a place of no sickness, pain, or death.

And until we reach that place - God is with us.

May it be so. Amen.

Call to Worship based on 2 Peter 1:16-21 & Matthew 17:1-9, Transfiguration Sunday

Leader: We come together to worship the God who is Love.
People: Who created the universe and knit us in our mother’s wombs with Love and out of Love.
L: We worship Jesus, God’s Beloved Son.
P: Who showed us how much we are loved by God.
L: We worship the Spirit, who proceeds from the Love of God the Father and Jesus the Beloved.
P: Who guides us in loving one another.
L: May we be transfigured and transformed by the Love of God.
All: Let us worship our Holy Triune God. Amen.

Call to Worship Based on Isaiah 58:1-12 & Matthew 5:13-20

Leader: Family of God, welcome to worship! God has a message for you today! Listen to it now: You are salt of the earth.
People: May I live as such.
L: You are a light on the hill.
P: May I live as such.
L: You are called to to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.
P: May I do as such.
L: You are called to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them and not to hide yourself from your own kin.
P: May I do as such.
L: May we all live as salt of the earth and lights upon a hill, our actions and whole lives reflecting God’s love.
All: May we live as God’s beloved. Amen.