“Connected to God: Everything is A Gift” a sermon on Deuteronomy 8:11-18 & John 15:1-8

Deuteronomy 8:11-18
John 15:1-8
“Connected to God: Everything is A Gift”
Preached Sunday, October 18, 2026

There is a joke that is something like, “How do you know if someone studied abroad in college?...They won’t stop telling you about it.” And well, I did study abroad in college. I studied at Kyoto Gaidai University for a semester. By many accounts, this was an amazing experience - a fun experience - a cool experience - a once in a lifetime experience - and one I am deeply grateful for. It was also for me, a Wilderness experience.

During those months abroad, I experienced deep homesickness. I knew in my head that I should be making the most of the incredible opportunity, but in my heart and my body, I had an ache that I couldn’t shake. I worried deeply about my family at home. I missed my husband - then boyfriend. For those who have experienced homesickness, it’s a longing to be somewhere else, somewhere comfortable, somewhere with those you love that lodges deep inside of you and fills you with worry and loneliness - a constant awareness that you are not where you believe you belong.

It is in this homesick wilderness that I looked for an oasis and I found it in the English speaking community at St. Agnes Anglican Church. And when I say I found it - I never would have found it if it had not been for the fellow exchange student, a Buddhist who spoke much better Japanese than me, that not only helped me find the church online but traveled to it with me that first day - and then killed an hour, waiting around outside the church, for service to be over - to make sure I knew the route back to the dorm. He obviously was uncomfortable with the church and had some baggage - but his kindness and generosity was a gift from God that led me to a community that connected me to God’s goodness and provision during a wilderness time in my life. Every week I gathered in community, every week I heard the Word of God, out of the mouth of the priest and the Scriptures and from the mouths of my fellow worshippers as we did conversation sermons, every week I received the bread and the cup, every week I was invited to coffee fellowship where the welcome and hospitality from the communion table was extended. During this wilderness time in my life, I learned a lot about myself, about God, and my dependence upon God - mainly that I needed God. I need community. I needed Holy Communion and the Scriptures. I needed kindness and generosity - from those who shared my beliefs and those who didn’t. That I was not meant to be a lone person. I was not meant to be independent. I was meant to live in community while abiding in and relying on God.

Whether you’ve experienced homesickness or studied abroad - this is something we can all admit we struggle with - the idea of being dependent on others and on God. Our culture celebrates independence that includes not being dependent on anyone but me, myself, and I. Take for example the American icon of the cowboy - the lone ranger, going from town to town - nothing but himself and his horse, not relying on anybody and saving the day. Or consider the phrase “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” - this is the idea - and I would say myth - of the self-made man. Who achieved success with absolutely no one’s help - which is often far from the truth, disregarding the many people and their gifts, who guide each person to where they are today.

To say, “I am dependent upon God and others” is often seen as a mark of shame in our country and culture - think of the insults we hurl at each other about handouts and the welfare state - or even how we often want people to prove they are “deserving” of help before they receive charity. We could learn much from Native American ideology, like this quote attributed to Chief Seattle: "Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect."

God did not create us to be independent beings - God created each of us as unique, special, and beloved - yes! And, that does not mean that we are meant to stand on our own. Our Triune God is Divine Relationship - God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit - in perfect relationship with one another - and God invites us into that relationship - as individuals and as an interconnected community.

Because the danger is - when we lose sight of our dependence on God or one another - we start to take the people who support us, the gifts of community, the presence of God, and the Goodness of God in our lives - we take it for granted. We lose sight of all that is a gift and thus not only lose sight of gratitude but miss how God acts in our lives, we become blind to God’s goodness, presence, and gifts. We may even falsely label the provision of God and the support of community as things that we ourselves have achieved - and this we can trick ourselves into thinking we owe nothing to God and to one another. Or, on the other hand, we may be in a wilderness season, and we are afraid to ask for help because we’re afraid of being seen as weak, in need, or reliant - and thus we miss out on the goodness of community and the chance to be blessed by another.

Which brings us to the wisdom from Deuteronomy this morning - don’t forget what God has done for you. The Israelites are on a threshold - they are moving from their wilderness wandering to the promised land.. Moses tells the people, when all is going well, when you no longer know hunger or need, when you are living in days of comfort, don’t forget what God did for you in the wilderness. “Then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness,experience of wandering the desert and moving into settled abundance in the promised land.” Moses is saying - don’t trick yourself into thinking that you got here all on your own. You didn’t pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You’re not self-made people. “Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’ But remember the Lord your God…” In essence, Moses is saying to the Israelites - don’t fool yourself, don’t lie to yourself - remember God and that all you have been given is a gift. For it is only out of recognizing that all we have is a gift from God that we can respond how God asks us to respond - to God and to one another, with gratitude, with generosity, with mutual dependence that weaves us together and forms community.

Now, always a disclaimer - this passage from Deuteronomy is not saying that wealth and faith in God are directly tied together. It is not what we call the Prosperity Gospel, a lie that says if we have the “right” faith then we will have wealth and health. Instead this is a recognition that none of us are without God’s gifts in our lives. Things like “ability, energy, opportunity, community, land, and wisdom are gifts before they become accomplishments.” As Wesleyans, we call this God’s prevenient grace. It means the grace that comes before - before we even know there is grace to be had. From the moment we first take breath - and even before - God is already and always at work in our lives - offering us love, offering us relationship, offering as grace, at work so we may be the incredible, unique, loving people that we each were created to be. No one stands alone in their gifts and accomplishments - God is always at work behind the scene whether we recognize it or not. This text calls us to humility, gratitude, and recognition of dependence upon God - even at times when all is well.

Now…I feel the need to pause here and ask. Is all well in our lives now? That’s a complicated question, isn’t it? We all have varying levels of need in our lives - need for healing or medical care. Need for groceries. Need for friendships and relationships. Need for safety and security. Need for… fill in the blank here. We also, by varying degrees, live lives of abundance - by simply the fact of the country we live in. That we have roofs over our heads. That many of us have cars that we drove here today. And so much more… We are all complex people with complex lives and needs. Seasons of wilderness and seasons of abundance are not always so clearly delineated. They overlap and intermix in shades of gray - that is just life.

Over the past year, a handful of people in our congregation attended workshops held by the East Ohio Conference called “Is Your Church Property a Blessing or a Burden?” The resounding answer for us is - yes! It’s both at the same time.

This church building is a gift and a blessing - from those who came before us, who gave so much, to create this beautiful and meaningful space for a worshipping community for decades to come. You know - the oldest part of this church building is getting closer to 100 than not - 86 years old.
We who have been given this space have done well to make sure this space is also a gift to others. Yes, we have the sanctuary that holds a worshipping community, bound together by ties of love for God and for each other. We also have sought to expand the gift to our wider community, our neighbors:
Here people have found and maintained sobriety;
Here young leaders have been shaped by Scouting ministries;
Here people have found friendships after divorce and being widowed;
Here children have been cared for, taught their ABCs and 123s, and had God’s love shared with them;
Here a community has come together to practice their democratic right to vote;
Here adults have gathered to play cards, to dance, to know that life continues on;
Here concerts and recitals have been held, the gift of music widely shared;
Here those celebrating a new marriage, and those grieving a death, have found places to gather…
Here…so much has happened. Many of you know the stories better than me. We have sought to not just be a church building for only those who worship here - but a community space where many people may gather and find a safe and welcoming place to be.

And yet we also know that buildings can be a burden. There is always something wrong in a building this old - unstable bell towers, improperly installed roofs, water damaged organ pipes, etc, etc - but this is a sermon not a Trustee meeting agenda so I won’t go on.

The thing is - It can be both at the same time, a burden and a blessing. And so at this juncture in the life of the church, as we seek to balance the burden of upkeep with the gift of the blessing of the space - the questions we are asking now are: How do we utilize what we have, sustain the gift and blessing of this building…to expand our reach? To partner with more non-profits? To share space in our building? To be a blessing not just to those who claim membership in this worshipping community but all of our neighbors?

We don’t have all the answers yet - or even all the questions - but the conversation is leaning away from thinking we can support ourselves all by ourselves - and leaning towards extending the blessing, realizing we are stronger together, and the future is one that needs to be defined by even further partnerships. We need to become even more dependent - on God, on one another, on our wider community.

In our church and in our community, the seasons of wilderness and the seasons of abundant blessing…often overlap.

So let’s look back at Scripture again - if Moses in Deuteronomy calls us to remember God’s goodness towards us - Jesus in John calls us to remain in God’s goodness and by remaining in God’s goodness - bear fruit to be a continued blessing to one another. A branch does not bear fruit all on its own - it bears fruit by being connected to the vine - to which many branches are connected. Thus we must abide in the vine to bear fruit - abide is not a passive state for us. I would say it is viewing our presence with and within Christ as our true home, a deep sense of trust of God and God’s goodness, a dwelling in and upon God’s Word, God’s presence in our lives, a steady gratitude for the gifts of God. When we abide in God - we develop gratitude for God’s presence, God’s goodness, God’s gifts - and thus we bear fruit - fruit of gratitude, of generosity - fruit that we share with the whole community that we are interwoven with - branches connected to the same vine.

Together these two Scriptures remind us to look at how God has been good to us - and then cause ourselves to ask - and how can those blessings bear fruit for the love of God and love of neighbor as self? The answer is so often found in community and dependence - mutual support, sharing, generosity - all stemming from gratitude for God's gifts.

I’d like to invite you to continue to consider and live into this message over the next week - look for a moment each day to reflect - I personally like the time in which I am brushing my teeth in the evening - but you can pick a time that is right for you.

Every day “name [one to] three gifts you received but did not create: a relationship, ability, opportunity, moment of [grace or] mercy, or an experience of belonging.” Take a moment to reflect on the day, the week, or even your whole life and name them - and then ask yourself, in light of those gifts, “what is my next faithful response?” You don’t have to have the answer right then that very moment - or you might be stuck brushing your teeth forever - and - it does open ourselves up to asking the question of how we faithfully respond in light of all that we’ve received.

Because imagine a world - of even just a community, a congregation - where everyone knew that they were dependent on one another. Where we were not afraid to ask for help. Where we are not afraid to offer help. Where we are freed to be generous, to support one another, to lift one another up - and know that we too would be cared for and supported. Where joys are freely shared. Where burdens are mutually carried. And all of this is done grounded in the goodness of God who is present in every moment of our lives, offering us so much to be thankful for.

May it be so. Amen.

“Break the Cycle” a sermon on Matthew 21:33-46 & Philippians 3:4b-14

Matthew 21:33-46
Philippians 3:4b-14
“Break the Cycle”
Preached Sunday, October 4, 2026

Let’s jump right into it - this is one of those passages of Scripture that it feels unsettling to say “The Word of God for the people of God - Thanks be to God” after it. Thanks be to God for…that? For a disturbing passage that depicts violence that has been used to condone violence?

Because let’s get that right out of the way - this passage has been used - historically and even today - to promote a supersessionist theology that Christianity has replaced Judaism and that hate and violence against the Jewish people, as the rejectors of Christ (which is not entirely true) is justified.

Violence is never justified and especially not by Scripture, however it may be misused and abused to do so.

So let’s look at this passage and see what God has to say to us today about the cycles of violence that exist in our world.

The start of this chapter in Matthew involves Jesus flipping over the tables in the temple - angry that those there were taking advantage of the poor by overcharging for the needed sacrifices. This puts Jesus head to head with the religious leaders - they come to him and ask “By whose authority do you say and do these things?” And thus Jesus enters into some verbal sparring over John the Baptist and he tells them two parables. The second of which is this one that we call The Parable of the Wicked Tenants.

There was a landowner who had a vineyard - and he leased it to tenants. When it was time for the harvest, he sent three servants to collect the harvest - but the tenants beat one, stoned one, and killed one. The landowner decided to try again - he sent three servants to collect the harvest. But again, the tenants beat one, stoned one, and killed one. And so, at this point, the landowner decides to send his son - surely they will respect him!, he thinks - but the tenants see a chance to gain the son’s inheritance and kill the son as well.

Let’s talk about the traditional interpretation of this parable for a moment. The landowner is God. The vineyard, the Kingdom of God or the people of Israel. The tenants are the leaders of the Jewish people. The servants who are beaten, stoned, and killed are the prophets. The son that is killed - Jesus.

Jesus ends here in the telling of this parable and he turns to the religious leaders to whom he is telling this story too and he asks them to write the ending. He says, “When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” It is the religious leaders who say, “He will put the wretches to a miserable death” and give the land to other tenants who will give the landowner the harvest.

Now, Jesus continues here talking about the cornerstone that has been rejected but I want to keep our focus on the parable and the ending of the parable. The ending we are given - that the current tenants are killed and replaced - was never said by Jesus. Because that is not how God ends this story.

Given the traditional interpretation of the servants being the prophets and the son being Jesus - when Jesus is rejected and killed - how does God respond?

The end to this story where the wicked tenants are killed and replaced is NOT the ending God in Jesus gives this story - it is the ending the religious leaders who have little imagination give to the ending. In fact, not just religious leaders, but as humans - this is the ending so many of us would give because it is near impossible for us to see beyond the cycles of violence that we are trapped in. We live in an eye for an eye world. Tit for tat. They hit us so we hit back harder. The human imagination struggles to imagine a world that does not continue the perpetuation of violence. We lament, it’s just the way of this world! We continue to bomb each other, go to war, carry out the death penalty, and are a people who wield death.

I think we’re trapped in these cycles of violence for a lot of reasons…one of those reasons is we are obsessed with protecting what is “ours” and with winning. That’s one of the things that is worth pointing out in this parable - the tenants are literally killing people over something that isn’t even theirs. And they kill the son thinking they will steal his inheritance…and that makes no sense, that’s not how inheritance works! But they viewed the land they lived on as theirs…and thus would “protect” it at all costs. And I am going to say something that sounds very much like a preacher today, and I know that, but hear me out:

Nothing is ours. Everything is God’s.

I know, I know. I know how that sounds. Like a preacher’s platitude. It’s so anticultural for us too. Capitalism tells us that what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours and don’t you dare touch what is mine. But Scripture tells us that the Earth and everything in it is the Lord’s. The whole world is the vineyard and we are just its tenants who are called to give everything to the landlord of the vineyard, everything to God.

I’m not saying we should sell all our possessions, give the money to the poor, and follow Jesus - although Jesus himself said as such to at least one person. What I am saying is we need to hold all that we think is “ours” more loosely. How many wars have been started over borders? How many wars have been started over the fight over natural resources? How many wars continue over generations of fighting over land? Gaza is a prime example of this. Generations and endless cycles of violence and so, so many children killed (In June the UN reported 22,000 Palestinian children killed and 44,000 injured in Gaza since October 2023) …at what point do we as humans break the endless cycle of violence? How long, O Lord, how long?

Many native people, including the Indigenous people in the US, had no concept of ownership of the land. We could not own the land - the land belonged to itself. The land and its resources belong to God. They are not ours to exploit, to use up, to fight over - they are ours to steward, to take care of, to share.

Our obsession with what is “ours” also takes place on smaller scales than international wars. How many neighbors have you heard who feud with each other over their property lines? How many stories have you heard from churches of different ministries or groups infighting with each other when they should be sharing a mutual mission?

In his book, “Not In It To Win It” by Pastor Andy Stanley, he says that American culture values winning above all else. Now, disclaimer, I haven’t read this book but my mother has multiple times and keeps on begging me to read it - I know you’re listening to my sermon online, Mom. He says this in particular comes out in our political system and it affects every area of our lives, including the Church and how we live as Christians. But Jesus shows us another way. Stanley says, “in an ancient culture that worships winning, the message of Jesus was considered weak. Offensive. Appalling. Something to be canceled. Violently if need be… But Jesus’s others-first value system appealed to many. Christians refused to abandon the sick. The adopted abandoned children. They extended compassion and generosity to people and groups who couldn’t or would not return the favor. They deemed women equal to men. Slaves were to be treated as brothers…” But first, we need to give up our endless desire to be right, to win, to own and protect what is “ours” - for nothing is ours - everything is God’s.

Paul says as much in our reading from Philippians today: “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.”

In order to gain Christ - we have to stop trying to win. Win the games of this world. Win the battles, win the war, protect what is ours - ideological or literal. In order to break the cycles of violence that have trapped us - we need to be able to let go of all that we hold on to too tightly and imagine another way, another outcome. We need God-sized imaginations.

Every week in the pastoral prayer I pray, “may minds turn from war to peace and may weapons be beaten into plowshares.” This is a direct reference to Isaiah - the day of the Lord when it is on earth as it is in heaven. Weapons, which are death wielding, are transformed into plowshares - farm equipment, something that literally creates food, that is life-giving. But to go from death-wielding to life-giving, especially in our world where we are trapped in the cycles of retribution, of war, of endless violence - it requires a holy imagination. An imagination that the religious leaders did not have that day when they said the wicked tenants would be killed and replaced. This is such a human answer - and probably a similar one to how most people in our world would answer today.

Thank God that the death of the tenants is not the ending God would write for this story. God’s imagination was and is bigger than that, bigger than our cycles violence. Because God did send prophets who were rejected, beaten, stoned, and killed. And then God sent God’s son, God’s self in Jesus, who was caught up in the cycles of violence in this world, rejected by those who he came to save, and on whom the state carried out the death penalty. If God was telling this story to us today - and we didn’t know the ending yet - and we were asked - what should God do? Our answer would look a lot like the religious leaders’ of Jesus’s day - get even, retaliate. Make them pay.

But that is not the ending God in Jesus chooses. When Jesus is rejected, tortured, and killed…God does not allow Death and Violence to have the final say.

Our God who in Ezekiel said, “Say to them: As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from their ways and live;” and in Isaiah said:
“He shall judge between the nations
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
neither shall they learn war any more”;
And in Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”

This God wrote a different ending than the one the religious leaders would have written, that humanity would have written - because our God has a holy and God sized imagination for a world that could be - and one day will be.

God’s ending was that when Jesus died on the cross, when Jesus went into the tomb, God broke the cycle of violence, God broke the cycle of Death - and Jesus rose from the dead. Violence did not have the final say. Death did not have the final say. Retribution did not have the final say - because instead of condemning those who killed Jesus - and instead of condemning us for our endless cycles of violence and our obsessions with winning and what’s “ours” - in the resurrection of Jesus, we are offered reconciliation over retribution. We are offered repentance over condemnation. We are offered peace over strife. We are offered life over death! We are offered another ending that we could not write for ourselves! We are offered a place in the Kingdom of God - a Kingdom of Peace that one day, thanks to God’s God sized imagination - we will have a place and a part in!

Before I end my sermon today - I want to give us some hope. Because we know the ending that God wrote, because God chose life over death, and because God has told us the ultimate ending - that one day Death will hold no sway over any of us, and all the earth, all creation will be redeemed and all people will live in peace with God and one another - because God showed us a new way, a different way, a way of peace in Jesus - we too can break the cycles of violence in our world today and chose a different way, a way of life, we too can write endings of peace.

This week is Nonviolence Week in the state of Ohio and the city of Youngstown. One of the goals of this week is to share the six principles of nonviolence and help people live into them. Martin Luther King’s 6 Principles of Nonviolence are as follows:

“1. Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
2. Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.
3. Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.
4. Nonviolence holds that voluntary suffering can educate and transform.
5. Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate.
6. Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice.”

I want to share with you a story of nonviolence that is not new but is new to me. During the Liberian Civil War, while men were the primary people who carried out acts of violence and war, women (and children) were the ones who carried much of the impact of the violence of the war - as it so often happens. Many of these women had their children kidnapped - their sons drugged and forced to fight, to even kill their own families. Their daughters raped and trafficked to soldiers. Their husbands and fathers - brutally murdered in front of them. Many of these women decided they could no longer endure the violence and burden of war - they had to act without continuing the cycles of violence. They banded together and formed a coalition of mothers and women who used nonviolent tactics to bring about peace and end the war.

“In 2003, during the Second Liberian Civil War, Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace forced a meeting with President Charles Taylor and extracted a promise from him to attend peace talks in Ghana to negotiate with the rebels from Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy and Movement for Democracy in Liberia. A delegation of Liberian women went to Ghana to continue to apply pressure on the warring factions during the peace process.

Two hundred women surrounded the room, dressed in white, dominating the conversation. Any time the negotiators tried to leave, the women threatened to take off all of their clothes. Enclosed in the room with the women, the men would try to jump out of the windows to escape their talk. But the women persisted, staging a sit-in outside of the Presidential Palace. They blocked all the doors and windows and prevented anyone from leaving the peace talks without a resolution.” (Wikipedia)

Due to their nonviolent actions, a peace agreement was reached, ending a 14 year civil war.

Their story gives me goosebumps - and it gives me hope.

Lastly, today is World Communion Sunday. Today we recognize that this table we come to, this holy meal, this sacrament we share - is not ours. It is not Boardman UMC’s. It is not the United Methodist Church’s. It doesn’t belong to Christians in our country alone. This is a worldwide table that unites people of many identities, many nationalities, many ethnicities - and in this table, we can celebrate what makes each of us unique - but there is no “mine” and “yours” - there is no “winning” or “losing” - there is just shared identity as children of God. And Children of God are called to love one another. Children of God cannot come to this table and continue the cycles of violence against other children of God. And so the very act of coming to this table, when we take it seriously, is an act of breaking cycles of violence.

And so my prayer for us today and every day is that weapons would be beaten into plowshares, that we would count all as loss in Christ Jesus, that we could have holy and God sized imaginations, and write a different ending than the endings our world would write - may we break the cycles of violence and be a people of peace.

May it be so. Amen.

Write Your Own Creed Sermon

Write Your Own Creed Sermon
Preached Sunday, September 27, 2026

Today we are going to do something a little bit different - we are going to write our own creeds. The word creed comes from the Latin word credo which means, “I believe…” What do we believe as Christians, collectively and individually? Creeds help shape our faith.

From the earliest of times, people of faith have strived to articulate what they believe about God who is, at least in part, a Holy Mystery. We can never fully know God - and yet, to write down or to orally recite together what we believe about God helps not only unite people of faith by showing we believe together - it also helps pass on the faith to the next generation.

The Shema in Deuteronomy might be one of the earliest creeds we have in the Bible. And that is often quoted simply as “The Lord God is One.” Right after that short declaration of faith, the Scripture gives these instructions:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your being, and all your strength. These words that I am commanding you today must always be on your minds. Recite them to your children. Talk about them when you are sitting around your house and when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are getting up. Tie them on your hand as a sign. They should be on your forehead as a symbol. Write them on your house’s doorframes and on your city’s gates.”

This short affirmation of faith is meant to be passed down, generation to generation, to help the Jewish people know their God. Many have it on little scrolls outside their homes. And still many others recite it at least twice a day. This short creed becomes not just a statement about God, a fact in their heads, but a way of faith that shapes their whole life.

Both Scriptures we read today are also early affirmations of faith that the Scripture writers quoted. They weren’t just the words of the letter writer, but words of early liturgy or hymns, that the early church used in worship to teach one another about who God in Jesus is:

Colossians: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him.”

Philippians: “who, though he existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
assuming human likeness.”

We have 9 Creeds or Affirmations of Faith in our United Methodist Hymnal. The oldest one is the Nicene Creed which was the result of an Ecumenical Council and is generally accepted or adopted by most Christian denominations. The churches were struggling with Jesus’s relationship with God - they came down with “Begotten, not made” - meaning that Jesus and God were always one.

Let’s say that creed together now - turn to page 880 in your United Methodist Hymnal:

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,
Eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
Begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;
He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic* and apostolic church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen

The one that we are probably familiar with most is The Apostle’s Creed, in fact, I know you recited it last Sunday and perhaps like me, you grew up reciting it every Sunday. It has a lot in common with the Nicene Creed with some, what may seem like to us small, tweaks, but were important to the writers of the creed in expressing who Jesus is.

The rest of what we may call “Creeds” in our hymnal are technically affirmations of faith. The difference between a creed and an affirmation is approval by an Ecumenical Council over time. But that’s splitting hairs that, to be honest, I don’t care too much about. For our purposes, we are using creed and affirmation interchangeably.

So let’s look at an Affirmation of Faith together. Let’s look at A Statement of Faith of the United Church of Canada together, number 883 in your hymnal - let’s recite it:

We are not alone, we live in God’s world.
We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God’s presence,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.
We are not alone.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

One of the things I love about that statement, especially since it’s written in more modern language for us, so we can understand it better is…when we look at it, when we read it, say it - we know something about the people who wrote that and recite it - that God’s renewing power is important to them, that they are called to love and justice, and that God is always with them - with us.

And here’s another thing about the power of creeds when they are said in a church community… when we say them together, even if we struggle with one part of the creed, even if we have doubts about one statement of belief…there is another person in the congregation who is passionate about that same part, who is assured and positive about its truth in their faith and life. And, just perhaps, you are the one who is passionate about another part of that statement that your fellow worshipper struggles with. For example, growing up, I didn’t understand the line “the resurrection of the dead” from the Apostle’s Creed - I believed Jesus was resurrected but what was this universal resurrection? I said it for many years although I didn’t understand it - until that day when it was finally explained to me in a way that clicked, and funnily enough, it has become an integral part of my faith of which I am passionate about. When we say the creeds and affirmations together, it emphasizes the importance of Christian community and support, that we are stronger together, and that we carry one another through.

So today, I am going to invite each of us to consider writing our own creeds. What do you hold to believe about God, Jesus, the Spirit, and Christian faith and life? Some of you may remember all the way back to the last six weeks of summer when we did a “God is…” sermon series. That was a kind of six week long affirmation of faith. But today, you are invited to consider your own beliefs that you currently hold dear, that you are passionate about, that you have assurance of, that carry you through.

Now, listen, I know some of you are putting way too much pressure on yourselves right now or thinking “I can’t do that.” Take the pressure off yourself. I would love it if you shared your written affirmation with me or with others in your life - but you absolutely do not have to do that. This can be for your eyes only. It also doesn’t have to be definitive. All of our faiths are a work in progress. If I wrote a statement twenty years ago, ten years ago, five years ago, or even last year - each year my creed would be different because my faith is constantly evolving and growing. Instead think about what you are currently leaning into about who God is and how you live out your faith. Notice what comes easy and what you struggle with. So there is no pressure to get things “right,” there is no pressure to write a definitive affirmation of faith for all time, there is no pressure to have flowery language or be a poet - simply be yourself. Each and every one of you has beliefs about God and faith. That’s why you’re here in the pews today.

Also, in an effort to make it easier on you, you all got a worksheet in your bulletin today that will walk you through it…

And in a moment here, we are going to have some “extra” special music. We’re going to take about ten minutes to start this work now with music ongoing. You don’t have to complete the work in this time, but it does give you a good start. If you need a writing implement, raise your hand and an usher will bring you one.

Let’s pray:

God, Jesus, Spirit,
We believe in you.
Help us now as we strive to search our hearts and articulate our faith.
May this not be a chore or an onerous task - but a revelation.
Speak to us through our own words.
Show yourself to us through our thoughts.
Move within our hearts and minds as we ever strive to know you - and as we attempt to put the holy mystery that is faith into words so that we would be able to grow in our faith and share it with others.
Amen.

Call to Worship for all Saints Day

Leader: Today we gather to remember and give thanks.
People: For those who let the light of God shine through them.
L: For those who taught us about God’s love.
P: For those who shared God’s love with us.
L: For those who loved God and neighbor as self.
P: For those saints in our lives who showed us how to do the same.
L: Today we gather and give thanks and say now in our hearts the names of those saints who come to mind:
(Pause)
L: Thanks be to God.
All: Amen.

Call to Worship Inspired by Philippians 3:4b-14 & Matthew 21:33-46

Leader: We gather today in worship in the hope that:
People: We would be shaped by Jesus.
L: In the vineyard:
P: May we produce fruit.
L: In the world:
P: May we break cycles of violence.
L: In our own circles:
P: May we stop fighting over what’s “ours.”
L: In all things:
P: May we know Christ and the power of his resurrection.
L: And so we gather today in worship in hope!
P: May we be one with Christ and with each other.
All: Amen.

“Jesus is Lord” a sermon on John:12-18 & John 14:6-10

John 14:6-10
A Paraphrase of John 12:12-18 by Meredith Miller
“Jesus is Lord”
Preached Sunday, September 6, 2026 

Today is the final Sunday in our “God Is…” sermon series. This series is based off the book “Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn’t Need to Heal From” by Meredith Miller which explores key attributes about God that children, or people of any age, need to know and trust about God so that we can have an abundant and life-long relationship with God. Thank you for journeying with me as we’ve worked through God is Good, Good is Powerful, God is Just, God is Joyful, and God is With-Us.

And now, I have a question for you - which God?

This may sound strange to our ears - especially asked here in a Christian church. But the question would not have been strange in the ancient world. When talking about God the question would not be “Do you believe in God?” but “What gods do you worship and what are they like?”

We see this spread throughout the Old Testament as Yahweh God, the God of the Israelites, is proving over and over that They are different from Ra, Molech, Baal, Asherah and others. More powerful, not bound by borders, not accepting of child sacrifice, a Good God who is Powerful, Just, Joyful, and With-Us. A God who is different from all those other gods and that makes this God worth following. The first commandment in the 10 Commandments is “Have No Other Gods Before Me” - not “I am the only God” but “Don’t put any others before me.”

Some people make distinctions between the “Old Testament God” and “The New Testament God.” At times they really seem like different gods, don’t they? How could the same God who told Joshua to murder all the residents in the land, including men, women, and children be the same God who told us to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and turn the other cheek?

Now, there is definitely some understanding of history and who gets to tell it at play here, also some historical and Biblical criticism that the historical events as portrayed to us in Judges & Joshua don’t align…and, I am going to tell you how I approach this struggle of Old verses New Testament God:

We, as in humanity, constantly get who God is wrong.

That’s been part of what we’ve talked about in this sermon series. We struggle with a God who is Good because we picture a God who delights in smiting us, sending us lighting bolts whenever we get something wrong. We struggle with a God who is Powerful because we think power is all about control and obedience. We struggle with a God who is Just because our world is so unjust and we grow comfortable with the oppression of others as a given, so God must be comfortable with it too. We struggle with a Joyful God because we think religion must be somber and serious. We struggle with a With-Us God because the noise of our world and lives has blocked so much of our ability to listen to God.

So too, did the Israelites struggle with knowing who God is. When all the other Gods accepted child sacrifice, why wouldn’t their God? When all the other Gods approved of the slaughtering of enemies and establishing nationalist and tribalistic borders, why wouldn’t their God? If all the other Gods had idols made out of them to be worshipped, why wouldn’t their God?

And so, the Hebrew people in the Old Testament, constantly got who our God was and is wrong. Their misunderstanding of God is reflected in the Biblical text - Human fallibility. We also see in the text, example after example, miracle after miracle, of God trying to show the people who their Yahweh God was and is.

And we, humanity, whether it was back in the times of the Old Testament or us here in 2026 - we constantly put other idols before God. And instead of wrestling with those things as idols, which means false god, it’s easier for us to tweak our understanding of who God is to make it so that God is okay with those things.

Meredith Miller says this about the idols of “money, power, sex, status, family, violence, nationalism, or tribalism”: “These idols are deeply connected to our current culture, using the conversations of the day to hide themselves in plain sight. These idols take the form of pervasive lies about who God is, lies that twist God’s character and deceive us about what God is like.”

I think one of the most pervasive lies about who God is in our world today is the heresy of Christian Nationalism which conflates God and Country as equals and makes Jesus a mascot for a certain country or empire versus Lord of all.

And so we ask - “Which God?” For there are many things and ideologies that are not of God, that people make into their God. They may even use Scripture to justify their idol - but the God they paint is not a God who is Good, Powerful, Just, Joyful, and With-Us.

And so, because over and over again, the people of God constantly got it wrong, they kept on trying to understand and know who God was and is but the idols and gods of the day kept on getting in the way, God sent God’s self in Jesus to be the ultimate revelation to us of who God is.

Jesus, the incarnation of God, begotten not made, God who took on flesh - this means Jesus was and is always God. Part of God. One with God. God loves us so much. God delights in us so much. God wants to be with us so much - that God became one of us. To come down to earth. To live as a human. To walk among us. To touch us. To speak to us. To hear us. To truly be one-of-us. God came in Jesus to us to be with us, because God wanted to be seen and known by us.

God wanted to show us, definitively in Jesus, who God was and is and will always be.

If we want to know who God is - we must look to Jesus.

Philip and Jesus had this conversation in the Gospel of John. We heard it read today. Philip has asked Jesus “How can we know the way?” Really that means, you either are what you say you are, God, the Messiah, our Savior - or a dangerous person who is gonna get us in trouble with Rome - how can we know how to follow you? Jesus replies, “If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

If you have seen Jesus. If you listen to his words. And look at his actions. God the Father, God the Creator of the Universe, God the Divine, will be revealed to you for they are one in the same.

These verses are not saying “believe in Jesus” as in - you’re in or you’re out depending on whether you confess that Jesus is God. What Jesus is saying here is, if you want to know who God is, what kind of God our God is, if you want to know if you can trust God, if you want to know if you can claim this God as your God - you only have to look at who I AM, for I am the Great I Am.

And so if you ask - Which God is it who is Good and Powerful and Just and Joyful and With-Us? The answer is, this God is Jesus, Jesus who is Lord, Jesus who is Lord of All.

There are so many stories in the Gospels that point to who Jesus and thus who God the Father was, is, and will always be.

This morning, we are looking at the Palm Sunday story, of Jesus’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem.

Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem was not the only parade happening that day. One was a parade of the empire and declaring that Caesar was King. And one was a peaceful protest, lifting up Jesus as King.

On one side of the city, Pilate rides into Jerusalem for Passover to squelch any uprisings that the Passover festivities may bring. He comes with military fanfare. He comes riding on a war horse, decked out in the symbols of the Empire. He comes with power and prestige and foreboding to remind the Judeans that Caesar is King and they are under his rule - so don’t go getting any ideas.

On the other side of town, Jesus and a whole lot of people were getting other ideas. Whereas Pilate entered at the main gate, Jesus came to the city through a back entrance. Whereas Pilate entered on a war horse, Jesus entered on a donkey. Whereas Pilate came to remind them that Caesar was King - Jesus rode in to shouts of, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord-- the King of Israel!" That is - Save us, the King of Israel! The shouts that Jesus was King - were shouts that Caesar was not.

That is one thing that this passage reveals to us about Jesus - that Jesus is King, and Caesar is not. Caesar was the King of the Day. Rome was the Empire of the Day. Now in 2026 we have Kings of the Day and Empires of the Day. But Jesus - Jesus is King for Eternity, The Kingdom of God will last beyond an empire. And it was a Kingdom of Love and Justice.

Moreover, in the battles between the Empires of this World and the Kingdom of God - and quick aside - I am going to define the Kingdom of God as Meredith Miller talks about it with young kids, and we talked about it in our God is Just sermon, the Kingdom of God is fully here on that that day when it is on earth as it is in heaven, “all the good and no bad, all the joy and no sad. It’s where everyone knows they are unconditionally loved, and they treat others well because they know they are too.” That day is already here in part and we experience the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God in our midsts because Jesus has already won. A king at war would ride in on a warhorse, as Pilate did. A God of peace, who had already won, who had already established a peaceful eternal kingdom, rides in on a donkey. Miller says, “God is the sort of king who relies neither on violence nor force to get God’s way, but rather one whose presence brings peace.”

It also shows us another contrast - Rome and Caesar use violence, force and power to achieve their aim. Jesus uses sacrifice. Jesus is Lord, Jesus is King - but the only crown that was ever placed upon his head was a crown of thorns. Jesus sacrifices himself for his people - Jesus brings victory through humility, not violence.

And out of that sacrifice, out of humility and death, Jesus brings life. Right before Jesus entered Jerusalem, he raised Lazarus from the dead. And it is in Jerusalem that he will die, rise again, and break the power of sin and death over us all - and I mean all. The power of empire is contained within borders and conquests. Jesus’s power, God’s power, God’s Kingdom, Jesus’s Lordship - knows no bounds and for is every corner of the earth, every nation, every peoples.

Which God? The God who is revealed in Jesus who is Lord of all.

And so now, as in every week of this sermon series, we will talk about faith practices, spiritual disciplines, that we can adopt to lean into this attribute of God - that Jesus is God revealed, and Lord of all.

And first, we have to admit that if Jesus is Lord, our idols aren’t - and even that we have idols. And we do. We all do. We turn to idols out of fear, out of a desire for security - idols promise us protection, prevention, provision. Idols promise us that everything will be all right as long as….

As long as we have enough money.
As long as we are smart enough.
As long as we follow this political party or leader.
As long as we have a gun.
As long as we are married.
As long as we….

Fill in the gap for your idol or idols. And yet, we are called to place our trust and faith in Jesus, not in idols.

Trusting in Jesus though is not a prevention strategy to stop bad things from happening to us or those we love. Miller says, “Those fears may indeed be realized, and yet they won’t consume us. As God has proved time and again in the stories of Scripture and in the lives of those who have put their trust in Jesus through the years, even when the worst happens, it will be okay, somehow, because of who God is. The God who is good, powerful, just, joyful, and with us is really and truly Lord. Jesus is Lord.”

And thus, all other things are not.

Identifying and naming the things that we are tempted to put our trust and hope in that are not Jesus, is in and of itself, a worthwhile - and hard - spiritual practice.

Another way we can lean into Jesus’s Lordship is celebrating Christmas and Easter - and I truly mean celebrating the Incarnation of God in Jesus and Jesus's resurrection. This isn’t a bash on Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. That can be a part of your family traditions if it’s right for your family. And, emphasizing the actions of God in these seasons and holidays, roots us to the two most powerful and important actions that our God ever took to reveal God’s self to us. Spend time in the Scriptures related to these stories, talk about them with the children in your life, limit the busyness and consumerism of the seasons and allow yourself to wonder and marvel at God’s loving and immense actions for us.

And as you are time in Scripture reading the stories of Christmas and Easter, spend time in Scripture regularly. But perhaps read it through different eyes - don’t read it with the eyes of “how should *I * act?” but instead “Who is God?” How is the God who is Good, who is revealed to us in Jesus, being made known to us through these Scriptures?

And speaking of studying the Bible and Jesus’s Lordship - starting this week, Wednesdays at 11am, a Bible study group here at the church is going to spend six weeks on a book called “Jesus is Lord” and wrestling with that and the Scriptures. You’re all invited.

And the last spiritual discipline I am going to offer up today, is to treat the beliefs of others with respect and curiosity. Whether the beliefs of those others is Christianity, a different religion, or no religion. In the Old Testament people would ask, “Which gods do you worship and what are they like?” Today, we often yell at one another about differences in religion and draw battle lines, metaphorical and literal, between ourselves and those of different faiths. When we treat others with respect and curiosity, we invite others to treat us in the same way. When we listen well to what others believe and why, we open the same door for us to share about what we believe and why - to share with our words and actions to reflect a God who is Good, Powerful, Just, Joyful, With-Us, and revealed in Jesus who is Lord to all the world.

This doesn’t mean a covert way to convert people. This does mean that we get to reflect Jesus to all we meet.

And now, as we end this sermon, and this whole sermon series on God is… My prayer for all of us is - that all of us would spend our whole lives coming to know who God is. That we would never stop seeking to know God better. That we would come to trust God with our whole being, and that we would help lead children to know who God is and that they can trust God. And by leading others to know God, we ourselves would continue to grow in that journey as well. Holy God, may we know and trust you.

Amen.

“God Is With Us” a sermon on Exodus 13:17-22

Exodus 13:17-22
“God Is With Us”
Preached Sunday, August 30, 2026 at Boardman United Methodist Church

“The best of all, God is with us.”

These were the final dying words of John Wesley, theologian, preacher, and the founder of the Methodist movement. I am struck by the beauty and profundity of these dying words. To have “best of all, God is with us” on our lips and hearts at the moment we cross from this life into the next. It reflects a life filled with the experiences of God’s presence, a deep trust in God’s Goodness and in God’s Power over this life and the next.

Best of all - God is With Us!

As we continue our “God Is…” sermon series based off the book “Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn’t Need to Heal From” by Meredith Miller, where we talk about key attributes of God that children, and people of any age, need to know about God in order to trust God and have a lifelong, fruitful and abundant relationship with God. We’ve done God is Good, God is Powerful, God is Just, and God is Joyful.

And now we have come to, perhaps the best of all - God is With Us.

Many people spill a lot of ink and spend a lot of time arguing trying to prove the existence of God. I don’t think God’s existence can ever be scientifically proven. I don’t think there is ever any line of reasoning or logic that could convince someone to have faith in God. The best “proof” we have of God existing - is those experiences we can’t explain, where reason fails.

The experience of a With-Us God.
This isn’t quantitative. You can’t back it up with facts or point to newspaper headlines. It’s more anecdotal but once you have experienced it - you know it:
The peace that passes all understanding that washes over you.
The feeling of the Spiritual presence watching over you, holding you, wiping away tears, in your times of grief or fear.
The courage that seems to come from a source beyond you as you stand up for the oppressed or choose a more life giving path for yourself.
The person who experienced God walking with them towards healing or sobriety.
The experience of Divine joy that courses through your entire being.
The beauty that moves you to tears.
And more.

Sometimes these experiences are big and obvious - and sometimes there are what Meredith Miller describes as “quiet nearness” or “courage for the day.”

What experiences of God’s presence with you - God-With-Us - have you experienced?

Karl Rahner, a Jesuit priest and one of the most influential theologians of the 20th Century once said, “The Christian of the future will be a mystic or [they] will not exist at all.” How I interpret this quote is that, as cultural Christianity declines - and by cultural Christianity I mean the kind of faith that leads people to attend church because is the status quo and provides a measure of respectability in society but lacks a heartfelt conviction of the Divine - so as cultural Christianity declines, those Christians who remain are Christian because they have had an experience of God With Them.

Often when we think of a mystic, if you think of mysticism at all, you picture a shaman or guru who spends all their time on a secluded mountain top, communing with God. Maybe you think of the Christian saints like Teresa of Avila who had these intense out of body experiences or Hildegard of Bingen who heard heavenly music and saw heavenly images in her mind’s ears and eyes. They are certainly mystics but I want to simplify this definition and help you see that we all have the capacity to be mystics. Shannon K. Evans, Feminist Catholic Theologian, defines a mystic as, “someone who has experienced a glimpse of the eternal and chosen to pursue more.”

“Someone who has experienced a glimpse of the eternal and chosen to pursue more.” A glimpse of God with Us - that’s all it takes to change the trajectory of our lives and make us not just those who claim the name Christian - but people who spend their whole lives following the way of Jesus in the hope and trust that we will, again and again, continue to catch a glimpse of the eternal - and we will catch that glimpse, we will experience God, because - God-Is-With-Us.

And yet, many of us struggle with the idea of God being with us - perhaps because we expect God to come with trumpet sounds and a choir of angels versus in the still small voice. Perhaps because we live our lives consumed with endless tasks, productivity, and just…the noise of our world. Endless radio, ads, TV, news…we don’t learn to listen and to pay attention to the subtle but steady presence of God in our lives. Perhaps we struggle with God-With-Us because we have come to believe a form of deism - a faith that God exists but is far away from us and all creation, not involved in our lives - many of the Founding Fathers had this view of God. That God was real but distant and not interacting with us. To me, that would not be a God who is Good. Perhaps still, we struggle with “God With Us” because we do not feel worthy of God being with us. We have come from a culture of Christianity that often talks about sin as a separating force from God. Perhaps you have heard of the “bridge” metaphor of faith - where humanity is on one side of a great chasm that is sin - and God is on the other side. The cross acts as the bridge to bring us closer to God. While this metaphor highlights the importance of the cross as a means to enter into relationship with God, it wrongly illustrates that we are separate from God. We are never separated from God. God is always with us. When God created this world, God breathed the Holy Spirit into us. God is only ever as far away as our next breath. And nothing, not even our sin, separates us from God.

Genesis tells the story of sin entering the world through disobedience to God. There were consequences to that act of sin - but separation from God was not one of them. The first thing God does after that first sin, is God comes and looks for Adam and Eve, asks them what’s wrong, and personally sews clothes to cover them.

Theologian and writer, Cole Arthur Riley writes about this in the book “This Here Flesh.” She says:

“On the day the world began to die, God became a seamstress. This is the moment in the Bible that I wish we talked about more often. When Eve and Adam eat from the tree, and decay and despair begin to creep in, when they learn to hide from their own bodies, when they learn to hide from each other - no one ever told me the story of a God who kneels and makes clothes out of animal skin for them.

I remember many conversations about the doom and consequence imparted by God after humans ate from that tree. I learned of the curses, too, and could maybe even recite them. But no one ever told me of the tenderness of this moment...

When shame had replaced Eve's and Adam's dignity, God became a seamstress. He took the skin off of his creation to make something that would allow humans to stand in the presence of their maker and one another again.”

God does not abandon us in our sin, our poor choices, our shame and self-imposed exile, God comes to us and sews us clothes. God comes to us and is always extending an invitation for us to be in relationship with God. As United Methodists we call this prevenient grace - the grace that comes before we even know that there is grace to be had. From the moment we are born, God is whispering love into our ears, into our souls, inviting us to be in relationship with God. God is always with us, even when we are sinning, even when we are missing the mark, choosing actions that fail to love God and love neighbor as self - God is still with us. Psalm 139 declares that there is no where we could go, even down into the depths of Sheol, that is, the early Jewish understanding of the afterlife, that God would not be there.

Last week when we talked about “God is Joyful” I said we so often misunderstand what God was doing in the act of the Incarnation, that is, taking on flesh in Jesus to be among us. I’m going to repeat myself with a little more embellishment added on because it bears being said again:

God wanted to take on flesh, and enter into this world in the form of Jesus, because God loves us. Because God delights in us. Because God takes Joy in us. Because God wants to be with us and for us to know that God is with us. God wants Goodness, Love, and Joy for us. The angels at the birth of Jesus proclaimed Good News of Great Joy! Remember that Scripture says that Jesus shall be called “Emmanuel” - that literally means “God-With-Us.” Taking on flesh, becoming incarnate, Jesus coming to us was not some cosmic chore. God didn’t give a deep sigh and say, “I guess you’re making me come down there.” The incarnation was not Jesus as the driver of the car and we the misbehaving kids in the back seat. The incarnation wasn’t God pulling over to reprimand us. God sent Jesus because we needed help, yes. God sent Jesus because we couldn’t save ourselves, yes. God sent Jesus because we kept on missing the point of who God was and is, yes. AND. God wanted to be among us. Jesus came because God wanted to be seen by humanity. To be among God’s good creation. To delight and find joy in this earth and in each other alongside of us, WITH us… Jesus gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit, and Joy is evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives, because God never wants to be far away from us. God delights in us SO MUCH, that God finds it an absolute JOY, to be with us.

God taking on flesh in Jesus is a giant affirmation of God’s desire to be with us - and God has the power to always be with us. A reminder that Romans 8 tells us that nothing can separate us from the Love - that is the very presence - of God: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We often look at the New Testament as evidence of God’s presence with us - and I’d like to turn now to Exodus and the paraphrase we read in worship today of the Israelites in the desert. God was with the Hebrew people as they were freed from slavery in Egypt. God went ahead of them as a visible pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. It always stayed in front of them - guiding the way. Until, that is, it moved behind them to block the armies of Pharoah and offer protection. God was ahead of them, God was behind them, God surrounded them, God was with them.

This story reminds me of the beautiful prayer of Saint Patrick:

“Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.”

The story of God as the pillar of cloud and fire also reminds us that God is with us in all places - in safety and in danger, in gardens and in the desert, in all lands. In the time of the Israelities, gods were very localized. They often belonged to a specific tribe or nation on a specific place of land. That god’s power extended to the borders of the nation it was a part of and not beyond it. Not so with Yahweh God who transcends borders and travels with God’s people wherever they are. It is a reminder to be careful to not classify which nations of our age are Christian or not - God pays no attention to borders and will break down and transcend any barrier to always be with God’s people.

God’s presence is with them - it leads them - through the desert, yes. And God’s presence continues to lead us today as we listen to how Jesus wants us to live and make decisions for our lives based on those teachings. God’s presence also reshapes the Hebrew people. They are no longer enslaved and controlled - now they are God’s people. How will they live as such? How will the way they live honor God and neighbor? God is with them, really and truly with them, present with them - so how will they live in light of this? And so God gives them the Law in the desert so they may live as a holy people. God’s presence continues to re-shape us today. If someone encounters the presence of God in their lives, and they are not changed, I am not sure it is really God that they encountered. God’s change isn’t about control but about shaping ourselves to live lives that better love God and love neighbor as self. This is not all sunshine and roses, for often we have to prune or release those self-serving notions and tribalistic tendencies which keep us from fully loving as God loves. And yet - if we truly believe and know that God is with us, if we have encountered glimpses of the Divine, how does that change how we live our day to day?

So let’s talk now about spiritual disciplines, practices that we can adopt for our lives to help make us aware of God’s presence with us.

One such practice is to listen to the birds.

I have the Merlin Bird ID app on my phone. I know I’ve talked to some of you who use it as well. It was created by Cornell University and when you open it, it uses your phone’s microphone and location to help identify the kinds of birds that are chirping around you. In our day and age, so many of us have lost the ability to not only differentiate one species of bird from another but to even listen to the birds at all. They become background noise for us - and we don’t listen. Intentionally listening to the birds, and marking them for the unique and special species that God created them to be, helps us hone our listening skill to - not only delight in God’s diverse and beautiful creation - but to just listen in general and to pay attention, to pay attention to the natural world, God’s creation, which is so often a medium through which God speaks to us and makes the Spirit’s presence known to us.

Another spiritual practice to connect us to God’s presence is setting up a ritual of prayer. This may be a specific prayer prayed at the same time every day. It may be a specific place we go to when we long to feel God’s presence. Either way, it is the intentionality of saying the words, or going to a specific place, that opens our souls up to the awareness of God. Maybe you pray a prayer every day as your kid gets on the school bus. Maybe you have a certain bench on a walking path or in a garden where you go and sit to open yourself up to God. Whatever it is, intentionality and an expectation to encounter God, helps us be open to the encounters of the Divine that are always happening in our lives - taking ordinary moments and seeing God’s presence in them.

Or perhaps you wear a reminder of God’s presence with you. Many of you wear cross necklaces - let that weight around your neck remind you of God’s presence. Let it not just be another piece of jewelry but a tangible reminder of our With-Us God. For others it may not be jewelry but a tattoo, a wooden cross in a pocket, or a tiny Jesus figurine on a car dashboard.

And my last suggestion today is to adopt the Prayer of the Examen - attributed to Ignatius spirituality, it is a prayer that helps us reflect back over our days, over our lives, to see God’s presence in hindsight that, over time, opens our awareness of God with us in the presence. There are a lot of different ways to pray the examen - I’d invite you to simply google it. A short, and easy way to begin praying it is, at the end of your day, or perhaps the start, look back over the day and see where God was present - whether noticed in the moment or not. Thank God for those moments. Look back over the day and see where you fell short - where you messed up, missed the mark, got it wrong. Ask God for forgiveness and to help you do better. And then look forward to what lies ahead - ask God to make God’s self known to you as you navigate it.

God is With Us - God is Always with Us. And we can open ourselves up to being more aware of God’s presence with us. I started this sermon by quoting John Wesley’s dying words - “Best of all, God is With Us.” I’d like to end this sermon affirming that together, I will say “Best of all” and together we will respond “God is with us.”

Best of all
God is with us.

Best of all
God is with us.

Best of all
God is with us.

Amen.