Leader: We come together to reflect on God’s Love.
People: May we chase after it.
L: God’s Love -
P: May it grow within us.
L: God’s Love -
P: May it overflow.
L: God’s Love -
P: May nothing separate us from it.
L: Let us worship the God who is Love.
All: Amen.
Wednesday, July 1, 2026
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
VBS Sunday “Sermon”
VBS Sunday “Sermon”
Preached Sunday, June 28, 2026
I am going to start by assuring you that I am not preaching a full sermon today. It is a short message following our mini-Sunday VBS with the kids up front.
And, I want to ask you today, who first told you about Jesus? Maybe it was a mother or father, a Sunday School teacher, a pastor, a neighbor, a friend…who first told you about Jesus and helped you know God’s love for you?
I’d invite you to take a moment and either say a name aloud or share it with the person next to you.
We thank God for those people!
And now - who continued to tell you about Jesus? Who continued to make God’s love real for you? Again, perhaps a parent, grandparent, Sunday School teacher, school teacher, neighbor, friend, aunt, uncle…
Think of those people in your life who have continually told you about Jesus - through their words and or actions. Those people that have helped you, since the time you first heard about Jesus until now, continue in a loving relationship with Jesus. Think about those people. I am sure there are many. Because studies show that the longevity of faith in children and teens as they turn into adults is directly correlated to the number of adults in their lives who are spiritual mentors.
Various studies show that 8/10 young adults leave the faith of their childhood in their 20s. Gen Z, who are currently between the ages of 14 - 29, are the least religious generation, with 34% having no religious affiliation.
Statistics like this have caused researchers to ask - what helps make faith “stick” in the life of a child and young adult? The Fuller Youth Institute, which specializes in studies about faith development for children, teens, and young adults, says that it is directly related to the number of adults invested in the life, and faith life, of the child.
If a child has 5 adults, of various ages - multiple generations, who are invested in their life and their faith development, that child is more likely to retain and continue to grow in their faith as they reach adulthood.
Often in youth ministry we ask, what is the minimum number of adults we need to run this program? Volunteers can be hard to find and we don’t want to burn people out. Of course we follow Safe Sanctuaries so we always have at least two background checked volunteers with your children and youth…and this may look something like a ratio of one adult to every five kids. But as people who are committed to following out the Great Commission, and as people who committed to help let children know that God loves them, we really need to flip that ratio around - every child needs at least five adults in their life who they can trust, who care about them, and who help share God’s love with them. Faith development in children is not just the job of parents. It is not just the job of Youth Leaders and staff. It is the job of the whole church.
Our church is invested in being people, being adults, being a community, who invest in the lives and faith of children - and one another. We make these vows when we baptize a child - to love them and to teach them about Jesus. We share God’s love through childcare and Sunday School. Through youth group and children's choir. Through VBS. Through every Sunday - through the children’s moments and just being a community who includes children. I love that on any given Sunday, there is a good chance that we have ages 0 - 90 in this congregation. And we need each other.
Children and youth need us adults to invest in their lives, to get to know them, to care about them, to teach them about Jesus.
And as adults, we need these children and youth - to teach us about Jesus, to show us God’s love and joy through their actions and words, to help us know that whenever we welcome one of them into our midst, we welcome Jesus.
So today - think about the people who invested in your life and told you about Jesus. Maybe you can think of five people, maybe even more. Give thanks to God for them.
And then I want you to think about - who are the people and who are the children and youth that you are investing in, who you care about, who you pray about, who you share God’s love with…
Thank you for sharing God’s love with every generation.
Amen.
Preached Sunday, June 28, 2026
I am going to start by assuring you that I am not preaching a full sermon today. It is a short message following our mini-Sunday VBS with the kids up front.
And, I want to ask you today, who first told you about Jesus? Maybe it was a mother or father, a Sunday School teacher, a pastor, a neighbor, a friend…who first told you about Jesus and helped you know God’s love for you?
I’d invite you to take a moment and either say a name aloud or share it with the person next to you.
We thank God for those people!
And now - who continued to tell you about Jesus? Who continued to make God’s love real for you? Again, perhaps a parent, grandparent, Sunday School teacher, school teacher, neighbor, friend, aunt, uncle…
Think of those people in your life who have continually told you about Jesus - through their words and or actions. Those people that have helped you, since the time you first heard about Jesus until now, continue in a loving relationship with Jesus. Think about those people. I am sure there are many. Because studies show that the longevity of faith in children and teens as they turn into adults is directly correlated to the number of adults in their lives who are spiritual mentors.
Various studies show that 8/10 young adults leave the faith of their childhood in their 20s. Gen Z, who are currently between the ages of 14 - 29, are the least religious generation, with 34% having no religious affiliation.
Statistics like this have caused researchers to ask - what helps make faith “stick” in the life of a child and young adult? The Fuller Youth Institute, which specializes in studies about faith development for children, teens, and young adults, says that it is directly related to the number of adults invested in the life, and faith life, of the child.
If a child has 5 adults, of various ages - multiple generations, who are invested in their life and their faith development, that child is more likely to retain and continue to grow in their faith as they reach adulthood.
Often in youth ministry we ask, what is the minimum number of adults we need to run this program? Volunteers can be hard to find and we don’t want to burn people out. Of course we follow Safe Sanctuaries so we always have at least two background checked volunteers with your children and youth…and this may look something like a ratio of one adult to every five kids. But as people who are committed to following out the Great Commission, and as people who committed to help let children know that God loves them, we really need to flip that ratio around - every child needs at least five adults in their life who they can trust, who care about them, and who help share God’s love with them. Faith development in children is not just the job of parents. It is not just the job of Youth Leaders and staff. It is the job of the whole church.
Our church is invested in being people, being adults, being a community, who invest in the lives and faith of children - and one another. We make these vows when we baptize a child - to love them and to teach them about Jesus. We share God’s love through childcare and Sunday School. Through youth group and children's choir. Through VBS. Through every Sunday - through the children’s moments and just being a community who includes children. I love that on any given Sunday, there is a good chance that we have ages 0 - 90 in this congregation. And we need each other.
Children and youth need us adults to invest in their lives, to get to know them, to care about them, to teach them about Jesus.
And as adults, we need these children and youth - to teach us about Jesus, to show us God’s love and joy through their actions and words, to help us know that whenever we welcome one of them into our midst, we welcome Jesus.
So today - think about the people who invested in your life and told you about Jesus. Maybe you can think of five people, maybe even more. Give thanks to God for them.
And then I want you to think about - who are the people and who are the children and youth that you are investing in, who you care about, who you pray about, who you share God’s love with…
Thank you for sharing God’s love with every generation.
Amen.
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
"I Don't Like It" a sermon on Matthew 10:24-39
Matthew 10:24-39
“I Don’t Like It”
Preached Sunday, June 21, 2026
This is a terrible text for today. It is the assigned lectionary text from the Revised Common Lectionary which has been around for about thirty years - a collection of four texts a week (Old Testament, Psalm, Gospel, New Testament) that repeats on a three year rotation. Trust me, I did not seek out or purposefully choose a text for Father’s Day that says, “For I have come to set a man against his father…”
And I’ll be honest with you. I don’t like this text. Yes - a pastor can say that. A Christian can say that. This text comes to us from our Holy Scriptures, the Gospels no less, red letters from Jesus and - I don’t like it.
And I’ll be honest with you. I don’t like this text. Yes - a pastor can say that. A Christian can say that. This text comes to us from our Holy Scriptures, the Gospels no less, red letters from Jesus and - I don’t like it.
It doesn’t sound like the Jesus I know, love, and preach about.
It doesn’t sound like the same Jesus, the same God, who said “Love one another” or “God is Love.”
And so this makes me stop, pause and ask: What do we do with Scripture that we don’t like? How do we engage with texts that make us uncomfortable?
I am often tempted to ignore them. I will admit that I have chosen, in the past, to choose different Scriptures to focus on in preaching because the assigned text for the day was a doozy.
And this one is a doozy. At times, this choice may be a selfish one from me - that I don’t have the energy or the time to engage with the text in a way that is constructive. And still, not every text from the Bible works well in a sermon. Other texts can be parsed out better in Bible study or conversation. Regardless - my inert inclination is to ignore the texts I don’t like.
Others may take texts like this purely at face value. They may say something like, “The Bible says it. I believe. Period.” And it ends there. But - I also don’t think this is a healthy way to engage with Scripture. Because the Bible does contradict itself. Genesis 1 and 2 have different orders of creation. The history between Judges and Joshua are the same time period but have different versions of events. Some of the commands that the writers claim came from God in the Old Testament, directly contradict not only Jesus’s commands to love one another but the law passed on by God in the Old Testament. If we simply say, “The Bible says it. I believe it. Period.” We will actually end up doing our faith, our relationship with God, and the extremely complex book that is the Bible a disservice. We will tie ourselves in knots trying to erase contradictions. We will even find ourselves excusing behavior that is an affront to God simply because it is “Biblical.” Remember - not everything that is Biblical is Christ-like.
So if we don’t ignore the text. If we don’t just give it a blanket statement of uncritical acceptance - what do we do with it?
We wrestle with the text.
And so today, I was tempted to ignore this text, to pick something else to preach on - and instead, I have chosen for us to wrestle with it together.
First, let’s start with the foundation for wrestling with the Biblical text. The Biblical text welcomes wrestling, it welcomes questions, it welcomes us diving deep - Jacob wrestled with God and was rewarded for it, given the name of Israel. Thomas doubted and was able to touch Jesus. We too can come to know God better, to more closely encounter God, when we wrestle with Scripture.
This is evidenced in Scripture and it is a part of our tradition as United Methodists. United Methodists do not believe that Scripture is innerent - meaning that it is without error. We do, however, believe that as it says in our articles of faith, that the Bible holds everything necessary for salvation. And - The Bible was written by people interpreting God’s actions in the world. There are a myriad of genres in the Bible, vastly different culture concepts, and thousands of years of changing perspectives in the Bible, not to mention it was originally written in three different languages, none of which are Latin or Greek which is where a lot of modern English Bible translations come from. All of this is to say - we are called to wrestle with Scripture. And United Methodists have coined a term for the tools that we use to wrestle with and better understand Scripture and that is called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.
The Wesleyan Quadrilateral is often presented as a trapezoid where Scripture is the longest, bottom line and then the other lines are Reason, Tradition and Experience. It’s also often presented as a three-legged stool with Scripture being the seat and the legs that hold it up are reason, tradition, and experience. I prefer the example of colored lenses. We read Scripture through the colored lenses of reason, tradition, and experience - those lenses color how we understand and interpret Scripture which is not a bad thing. Because those lenses are always there for every single person whether we realize it or not. There is no such thing as an unbiased reading of Scripture. Instead we need to be aware of the factors that God is using to help God speak to us through Scripture and help make it relevant and applicable to our lives today.
Tradition is the long history of people of faith - from teachings, sermons, creeds, and hymns that have shaped, interpreted, and put our faith into practice. Experience is each and every one of our lived experiences as unique individuals in this world. Our genders, our ethnicities, our family structures, everything that’s ever happened to us - this is our experience of who we are and we cannot read Scripture without it influencing us. We can also learn from those who read Scripture and have different experiences than us. And then there is reason. Reason is our brain’s ability to think, question, and understand. To take into account science, logic, and the growing understanding of human knowledge and how God can use that to speak to us in new ways.
So yes - we wrestle with Scripture, aided by tradition, experience, and reason - so that - so that - we can better know God and be better followers of Jesus.
So whenever I approach the Biblical text - I use Jesus as the anchor of my faith and understanding. Jesus is God revealed to us. God sent Jesus so that we would better know and understand God - so that God would be revealed to us. And so whenever we engage Scripture we should always start with the embodiment of Jesus. And Jesus says that the core of the Gospel, the core of the Good News of God, is the two greatest commandments - to love God, and to love neighbor as self. All other Scripture should radiate out from that center.
Using Jesus and the two greatest commandments of the Gospel. Let's take God’s commandments in Joshua to kill every man, woman and child into account. How do we deal with texts like this that are so deeply contradictory to the life and Good News of Jesus? Many will say “well, that was the Old Testament God, not the New Testament God.” But the tradition of the church has long been considered it a heresy to divide our God into two different gods. We can use reason to see that although the text in Joshua says they killed every man, woman, and child…in Judges and Kings, we see people of the tribes they presumably killed still living in the land. So we can use reason to say there is something amiss in the text here. It doesn’t add up. And then we can use our experiences of the long scope of human history to know that there is nothing new under the sun and since the beginning of time, people have been claiming that God has sanctioned our tribalistic and violent endeavours - even though that is not the person of God. Most people today realize that the Crusades were not blessed by God. They were not a “holy” effort - they were politically motivated wars over resources and borders. Violence that was abhorrent to God was committed. And yet, if they took place during the time of Scripture, and the people leading these wars had written them into the text, they would have been written as ordained by God. People are always looking for God to bless their violence and nationalistic wars - but saying or writing it, even in a book that thousands of years later would be canonized, does not make it so. Taken together, we can say with confidence that the violence in the book of Joshua was not ordained by God and is not congruent with the person of Jesus that we follow.
Okay - I have been talking a lot about things other than our assigned text this morning in order to help us wrestle with the difficult words of Jesus we read this morning. So now let’s do a little bit of wrestling with that text.
This morning’s Gospel text is about being a disciple and Jesus is warning his disciples about what it will be like to follow him - it will not be all sunshine and roses. Jesus is not being prescriptive (that is say that being a follower of Jesus means that there SHOULD be familial strife) but he is being descriptive - saying that, at that moment in time, and throughout times in history, being a follower of Jesus will put you at odds with other allegiances - including familial ones.
This particular teaching to his disciples starts with an admonition that is repeated over and over in Scripture: Do not be afraid. “You will face hardship and be judged…don’t be afraid when this happens!” Don’t be afraid said over and over throughout Scripture, God is comforting and assuring us that no matter what we go through in this life, God will be there.
Jesus says, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” - I could give a whole sermon just on the Greek words used for "destroy" and “hell” here which are not direct Greek-English translations, I think this is important to understand when wrestling with the text, we are dealing with different languages, translations, etc - and even scholars don’t always agree on the best English word to use in translation…but this sermon is long enough as it is. But the text always has more that we can explore and wrestle with.
And, basically, what Jesus is telling the disciples is again, “do not fear” - no matter what other people can do to you, no matter how being a follower of Jesus affects your other relationships, God holds your soul in the palm of God’s hands.
Jesus stresses this point again in the next couple of verses: “are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
And now we come to: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword.” Yikes.
Many have taken this verse as an excuse for Christian violence which is a complete misunderstanding or even an abuse of Jesus’s words - Jesus, who we call the Prince of Peace, who told us to turn the other cheek, who told us to love our enemies and bless those who persecute us, who told Peter to put away the sword and said that those who live by the sword die by the sword… No, those who want to use the name of our God to commit violence against fellow human beings created by God will always find justification - even if it means misunderstanding and misrepresenting who Jesus is. So using the other red letters of Jesus and our reasoning here, we can know that Jesus means a metaphorical sword, not a physical one.
Jesus is not telling us to commit violence, instead Jesus is saying that choosing to follow Jesus can cause strife in our world and relationships - in fact following Jesus may be the sword that cuts relational ties for us.
Which brings us to the next verses which are just perfect for Father’s Day:
“For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and one's foes will be members of one's own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
Jesus is not encouraging familial strife. He was talking to his disciples who were experiencing familial strife because of their decision to follow Jesus.
It doesn’t sound like the same Jesus, the same God, who said “Love one another” or “God is Love.”
And so this makes me stop, pause and ask: What do we do with Scripture that we don’t like? How do we engage with texts that make us uncomfortable?
I am often tempted to ignore them. I will admit that I have chosen, in the past, to choose different Scriptures to focus on in preaching because the assigned text for the day was a doozy.
And this one is a doozy. At times, this choice may be a selfish one from me - that I don’t have the energy or the time to engage with the text in a way that is constructive. And still, not every text from the Bible works well in a sermon. Other texts can be parsed out better in Bible study or conversation. Regardless - my inert inclination is to ignore the texts I don’t like.
Others may take texts like this purely at face value. They may say something like, “The Bible says it. I believe. Period.” And it ends there. But - I also don’t think this is a healthy way to engage with Scripture. Because the Bible does contradict itself. Genesis 1 and 2 have different orders of creation. The history between Judges and Joshua are the same time period but have different versions of events. Some of the commands that the writers claim came from God in the Old Testament, directly contradict not only Jesus’s commands to love one another but the law passed on by God in the Old Testament. If we simply say, “The Bible says it. I believe it. Period.” We will actually end up doing our faith, our relationship with God, and the extremely complex book that is the Bible a disservice. We will tie ourselves in knots trying to erase contradictions. We will even find ourselves excusing behavior that is an affront to God simply because it is “Biblical.” Remember - not everything that is Biblical is Christ-like.
So if we don’t ignore the text. If we don’t just give it a blanket statement of uncritical acceptance - what do we do with it?
We wrestle with the text.
And so today, I was tempted to ignore this text, to pick something else to preach on - and instead, I have chosen for us to wrestle with it together.
First, let’s start with the foundation for wrestling with the Biblical text. The Biblical text welcomes wrestling, it welcomes questions, it welcomes us diving deep - Jacob wrestled with God and was rewarded for it, given the name of Israel. Thomas doubted and was able to touch Jesus. We too can come to know God better, to more closely encounter God, when we wrestle with Scripture.
This is evidenced in Scripture and it is a part of our tradition as United Methodists. United Methodists do not believe that Scripture is innerent - meaning that it is without error. We do, however, believe that as it says in our articles of faith, that the Bible holds everything necessary for salvation. And - The Bible was written by people interpreting God’s actions in the world. There are a myriad of genres in the Bible, vastly different culture concepts, and thousands of years of changing perspectives in the Bible, not to mention it was originally written in three different languages, none of which are Latin or Greek which is where a lot of modern English Bible translations come from. All of this is to say - we are called to wrestle with Scripture. And United Methodists have coined a term for the tools that we use to wrestle with and better understand Scripture and that is called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.
The Wesleyan Quadrilateral is often presented as a trapezoid where Scripture is the longest, bottom line and then the other lines are Reason, Tradition and Experience. It’s also often presented as a three-legged stool with Scripture being the seat and the legs that hold it up are reason, tradition, and experience. I prefer the example of colored lenses. We read Scripture through the colored lenses of reason, tradition, and experience - those lenses color how we understand and interpret Scripture which is not a bad thing. Because those lenses are always there for every single person whether we realize it or not. There is no such thing as an unbiased reading of Scripture. Instead we need to be aware of the factors that God is using to help God speak to us through Scripture and help make it relevant and applicable to our lives today.
Tradition is the long history of people of faith - from teachings, sermons, creeds, and hymns that have shaped, interpreted, and put our faith into practice. Experience is each and every one of our lived experiences as unique individuals in this world. Our genders, our ethnicities, our family structures, everything that’s ever happened to us - this is our experience of who we are and we cannot read Scripture without it influencing us. We can also learn from those who read Scripture and have different experiences than us. And then there is reason. Reason is our brain’s ability to think, question, and understand. To take into account science, logic, and the growing understanding of human knowledge and how God can use that to speak to us in new ways.
So yes - we wrestle with Scripture, aided by tradition, experience, and reason - so that - so that - we can better know God and be better followers of Jesus.
So whenever I approach the Biblical text - I use Jesus as the anchor of my faith and understanding. Jesus is God revealed to us. God sent Jesus so that we would better know and understand God - so that God would be revealed to us. And so whenever we engage Scripture we should always start with the embodiment of Jesus. And Jesus says that the core of the Gospel, the core of the Good News of God, is the two greatest commandments - to love God, and to love neighbor as self. All other Scripture should radiate out from that center.
Using Jesus and the two greatest commandments of the Gospel. Let's take God’s commandments in Joshua to kill every man, woman and child into account. How do we deal with texts like this that are so deeply contradictory to the life and Good News of Jesus? Many will say “well, that was the Old Testament God, not the New Testament God.” But the tradition of the church has long been considered it a heresy to divide our God into two different gods. We can use reason to see that although the text in Joshua says they killed every man, woman, and child…in Judges and Kings, we see people of the tribes they presumably killed still living in the land. So we can use reason to say there is something amiss in the text here. It doesn’t add up. And then we can use our experiences of the long scope of human history to know that there is nothing new under the sun and since the beginning of time, people have been claiming that God has sanctioned our tribalistic and violent endeavours - even though that is not the person of God. Most people today realize that the Crusades were not blessed by God. They were not a “holy” effort - they were politically motivated wars over resources and borders. Violence that was abhorrent to God was committed. And yet, if they took place during the time of Scripture, and the people leading these wars had written them into the text, they would have been written as ordained by God. People are always looking for God to bless their violence and nationalistic wars - but saying or writing it, even in a book that thousands of years later would be canonized, does not make it so. Taken together, we can say with confidence that the violence in the book of Joshua was not ordained by God and is not congruent with the person of Jesus that we follow.
Okay - I have been talking a lot about things other than our assigned text this morning in order to help us wrestle with the difficult words of Jesus we read this morning. So now let’s do a little bit of wrestling with that text.
This morning’s Gospel text is about being a disciple and Jesus is warning his disciples about what it will be like to follow him - it will not be all sunshine and roses. Jesus is not being prescriptive (that is say that being a follower of Jesus means that there SHOULD be familial strife) but he is being descriptive - saying that, at that moment in time, and throughout times in history, being a follower of Jesus will put you at odds with other allegiances - including familial ones.
This particular teaching to his disciples starts with an admonition that is repeated over and over in Scripture: Do not be afraid. “You will face hardship and be judged…don’t be afraid when this happens!” Don’t be afraid said over and over throughout Scripture, God is comforting and assuring us that no matter what we go through in this life, God will be there.
Jesus says, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” - I could give a whole sermon just on the Greek words used for "destroy" and “hell” here which are not direct Greek-English translations, I think this is important to understand when wrestling with the text, we are dealing with different languages, translations, etc - and even scholars don’t always agree on the best English word to use in translation…but this sermon is long enough as it is. But the text always has more that we can explore and wrestle with.
And, basically, what Jesus is telling the disciples is again, “do not fear” - no matter what other people can do to you, no matter how being a follower of Jesus affects your other relationships, God holds your soul in the palm of God’s hands.
Jesus stresses this point again in the next couple of verses: “are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
And now we come to: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword.” Yikes.
Many have taken this verse as an excuse for Christian violence which is a complete misunderstanding or even an abuse of Jesus’s words - Jesus, who we call the Prince of Peace, who told us to turn the other cheek, who told us to love our enemies and bless those who persecute us, who told Peter to put away the sword and said that those who live by the sword die by the sword… No, those who want to use the name of our God to commit violence against fellow human beings created by God will always find justification - even if it means misunderstanding and misrepresenting who Jesus is. So using the other red letters of Jesus and our reasoning here, we can know that Jesus means a metaphorical sword, not a physical one.
Jesus is not telling us to commit violence, instead Jesus is saying that choosing to follow Jesus can cause strife in our world and relationships - in fact following Jesus may be the sword that cuts relational ties for us.
Which brings us to the next verses which are just perfect for Father’s Day:
“For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and one's foes will be members of one's own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
Jesus is not encouraging familial strife. He was talking to his disciples who were experiencing familial strife because of their decision to follow Jesus.
People who are using this scripture to justify disowning LGBTQ children are again, misunderstanding or even abusing Jesus’s words. We must understand these words alongside Jesus’s commandments to love one another.
If your relationship with Jesus puts you at odds with those in your family or inner circle - you are not alone. Jesus’s disciples from the very beginning have experienced this. Don’t seek it out or be purposefully antagonist. Keep on offering love. Because even if your relationship with Jesus puts you at odds with another, Jesus tells us to love our enemies and above all, to choose love.
After all, in another controversial Scripture, Jesus says “who is my mother?” when his mother is right in front of him. But his mother was still at the foot of the cross and he asked John, the disciple whom he loved, to care for her.
Danny Zacharias is a New Testament professor and an Indigenous Christian. He said this when reflecting on these verses of familial strife and his own relationships with being both Indigenous and a Christian:
“Reading this as an Indigenous man, I cannot help but also think of Indigenous communities throughout much of the world, but especially here on Turtle Island (North America). The church has perpetuated much harm among my people, the First Nations of Canada. Christian theology demonized our culture. Christian teachings like the Doctrine of Discovery bolstered colonial conquest and dehumanization. Christian churches helped to run Indian Residential and Boarding schools, which sought to kill the Indian in the child. It should not be hard for people to understand why there is sometimes such outright hatred toward the Christian church within Indigenous communities.
And yet, the reality is that many Indigenous people are followers of the Jesus Way. And for us, the painful division is sometimes twofold: We are sometimes at odds with our Indigenous communities because of our devotion to Jesus, while simultaneously being at odds with the church because we are proud of who we are as Indigenous people and seek to follow God the way he has made us—something that is often deeply resisted within the wider church that desires more cultural hegemony.”
End quote.
This is a faithful and real life example of what Jesus meant when he said he comes to bring the sword -- being a Christian will put us at odds with those who don’t understand the teachings of Jesus and even those who say they preach Christ but don’t live out his love.
Jesus ends this teaching with these lines: “and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
In essence - anyone who wants to follow Jesus and also wants power, wealth, or an easy way - they have to make a choice. To follow Jesus means to be crucified with Jesus, to follow Jesus means to lose one’s life, it means choosing love.
Choosing love -
even when relationships are fractured,
even when we’re navigating messy relationships,
even when you’re at odds with other people,
even when you lose power in this world.
Following Jesus is not the easy path, Jesus is letting his disciples know - “at times, it will be hard - do not be afraid, I am with you.”
So yeah, I don’t really like this text because of the way an uncritical reading of it lends itself to abuse and mis-use. I don't even really like it once I dive deep and wrestle with it because it's not an easy message! I wish Jesus could be less esoteric. I wish Jesus could speak more plainly. I wish Jesus always agreed with me… but if that was the case, God wouldn’t be God.
So when there is something we don’t like in the Bible, we don’t have to like it, and we are invited to wrestle with it, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll come to know God a little more for the wrestling.
Amen.
If your relationship with Jesus puts you at odds with those in your family or inner circle - you are not alone. Jesus’s disciples from the very beginning have experienced this. Don’t seek it out or be purposefully antagonist. Keep on offering love. Because even if your relationship with Jesus puts you at odds with another, Jesus tells us to love our enemies and above all, to choose love.
After all, in another controversial Scripture, Jesus says “who is my mother?” when his mother is right in front of him. But his mother was still at the foot of the cross and he asked John, the disciple whom he loved, to care for her.
Danny Zacharias is a New Testament professor and an Indigenous Christian. He said this when reflecting on these verses of familial strife and his own relationships with being both Indigenous and a Christian:
“Reading this as an Indigenous man, I cannot help but also think of Indigenous communities throughout much of the world, but especially here on Turtle Island (North America). The church has perpetuated much harm among my people, the First Nations of Canada. Christian theology demonized our culture. Christian teachings like the Doctrine of Discovery bolstered colonial conquest and dehumanization. Christian churches helped to run Indian Residential and Boarding schools, which sought to kill the Indian in the child. It should not be hard for people to understand why there is sometimes such outright hatred toward the Christian church within Indigenous communities.
And yet, the reality is that many Indigenous people are followers of the Jesus Way. And for us, the painful division is sometimes twofold: We are sometimes at odds with our Indigenous communities because of our devotion to Jesus, while simultaneously being at odds with the church because we are proud of who we are as Indigenous people and seek to follow God the way he has made us—something that is often deeply resisted within the wider church that desires more cultural hegemony.”
End quote.
This is a faithful and real life example of what Jesus meant when he said he comes to bring the sword -- being a Christian will put us at odds with those who don’t understand the teachings of Jesus and even those who say they preach Christ but don’t live out his love.
Jesus ends this teaching with these lines: “and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
In essence - anyone who wants to follow Jesus and also wants power, wealth, or an easy way - they have to make a choice. To follow Jesus means to be crucified with Jesus, to follow Jesus means to lose one’s life, it means choosing love.
Choosing love -
even when relationships are fractured,
even when we’re navigating messy relationships,
even when you’re at odds with other people,
even when you lose power in this world.
Following Jesus is not the easy path, Jesus is letting his disciples know - “at times, it will be hard - do not be afraid, I am with you.”
So yeah, I don’t really like this text because of the way an uncritical reading of it lends itself to abuse and mis-use. I don't even really like it once I dive deep and wrestle with it because it's not an easy message! I wish Jesus could be less esoteric. I wish Jesus could speak more plainly. I wish Jesus always agreed with me… but if that was the case, God wouldn’t be God.
So when there is something we don’t like in the Bible, we don’t have to like it, and we are invited to wrestle with it, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll come to know God a little more for the wrestling.
Amen.
Tuesday, June 9, 2026
Fourth of July/250 Years Hymn Sing
Fourth of July/250 Years Hymn Sing
This hymn sing is cross-posted on https://asingingpeople.blogspot.com/
It also includes a Native land recongition and this website can be used as a resource to personalize it for your geographical region: https://native-land.ca/
Introduction: Fourth of July in Church?
Colossians 1:15-20:
“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. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”
Introduction: Fourth of July in Church?
Colossians 1:15-20:
“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. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”
It is the weekend of Fourth of July, Independence Day, and the milestone of 250 years as a nation today in The United States of America.
The recognition of this day in churches is a controversial decision. There will be churches that are draped in flags, red, white, and blue and full of patriotic hymns and worship services who let this secular, national holiday pass without recognition as it is just that - a secular, non-religious day.
Right now, I believe it is more important than ever to take stock of our whole lives through the lens of our faith and following Jesus. This includes how we engage with and live within our country. Perhaps more than ever, there are many forces which seek to woo us away from Jesus as our primary source of identity, hope, trust, and salvation. Christian Nationalism, which co-opts Christian imagery and ideology to interweave it with political ideology, is one of those seductive heresies. Christian Nationalism places Christ and country as equal powers in our lives, or even country above Christ, distorting the Kingship of Christ. It erroneously places our hope in political power, or in our status of citizens of a Nation, rather than in the life of Jesus. It must cause us to pause anytime we hear of country and God in conversation with one another - does the conversation promote fear and a narrow definition of what it means to be an American and a Christain? Does it cause us to rely on a political candidate or party above Jesus? Or does it generate genuine love of our fellow compatriots, pride in our homeland, and a desire to serve one another in Christian love?
For us in this congregation at this moment, we are all probably Christians and we are all probably Americans and we cannot divorce the two identities from one another. When we claim Christ as Lord, we claim Christ’s lordship over all things in our lives. All relationships and all identities - including country.
This means we should reflect on what it means to be a Christian and an American. We should thank God for the blessings of our home land: the beautiful natural landscape and its resources, from Redwoods to grassy plains to Mountains and sea shores. We can thank God for the freedom of religion, protected in the Constitution that allows us and many to gather to freely worship without fear of persecution or arrest from our government. We can admit love for our homeland, all the people, gifts, and opportunities it has given us. We can celebrate this holiday and this anniversary.
We should also look at our country - in the past and the present - through the lens of Christ’s Lordship and the two greatest commandments so that we may better love and serve God and neighbor as we move into the future. We lament all the times we've gotten it wrong, when the imago Dei, the image of God in our neighbors, has been ignored or debased in the name of Country. We confess the times we've been or are complicit in systemic sins. We also look to the slow and steady arc of Justice and give thanks for all the strides we've made, for times when we have loved one another, for when we have been Christ for one another, and allowed our country to be a place where all people are free and all people are seen as beloved Children of God. When we get the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. right, echoing his words with our actions in his famous “I Have a Dream Speech,”: "When we allow freedom to ring... we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children—black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics—will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'"
And so, out of love of God, and love for our neighbor, which includes love of country, let us sing “America (My Country Tis of Thee),” UMH 697, vs. 1, 2, 4
Native & Indigenous Recognition
The recognition of this day in churches is a controversial decision. There will be churches that are draped in flags, red, white, and blue and full of patriotic hymns and worship services who let this secular, national holiday pass without recognition as it is just that - a secular, non-religious day.
Right now, I believe it is more important than ever to take stock of our whole lives through the lens of our faith and following Jesus. This includes how we engage with and live within our country. Perhaps more than ever, there are many forces which seek to woo us away from Jesus as our primary source of identity, hope, trust, and salvation. Christian Nationalism, which co-opts Christian imagery and ideology to interweave it with political ideology, is one of those seductive heresies. Christian Nationalism places Christ and country as equal powers in our lives, or even country above Christ, distorting the Kingship of Christ. It erroneously places our hope in political power, or in our status of citizens of a Nation, rather than in the life of Jesus. It must cause us to pause anytime we hear of country and God in conversation with one another - does the conversation promote fear and a narrow definition of what it means to be an American and a Christain? Does it cause us to rely on a political candidate or party above Jesus? Or does it generate genuine love of our fellow compatriots, pride in our homeland, and a desire to serve one another in Christian love?
For us in this congregation at this moment, we are all probably Christians and we are all probably Americans and we cannot divorce the two identities from one another. When we claim Christ as Lord, we claim Christ’s lordship over all things in our lives. All relationships and all identities - including country.
This means we should reflect on what it means to be a Christian and an American. We should thank God for the blessings of our home land: the beautiful natural landscape and its resources, from Redwoods to grassy plains to Mountains and sea shores. We can thank God for the freedom of religion, protected in the Constitution that allows us and many to gather to freely worship without fear of persecution or arrest from our government. We can admit love for our homeland, all the people, gifts, and opportunities it has given us. We can celebrate this holiday and this anniversary.
We should also look at our country - in the past and the present - through the lens of Christ’s Lordship and the two greatest commandments so that we may better love and serve God and neighbor as we move into the future. We lament all the times we've gotten it wrong, when the imago Dei, the image of God in our neighbors, has been ignored or debased in the name of Country. We confess the times we've been or are complicit in systemic sins. We also look to the slow and steady arc of Justice and give thanks for all the strides we've made, for times when we have loved one another, for when we have been Christ for one another, and allowed our country to be a place where all people are free and all people are seen as beloved Children of God. When we get the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. right, echoing his words with our actions in his famous “I Have a Dream Speech,”: "When we allow freedom to ring... we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children—black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics—will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'"
And so, out of love of God, and love for our neighbor, which includes love of country, let us sing “America (My Country Tis of Thee),” UMH 697, vs. 1, 2, 4
Native & Indigenous Recognition
Psalm 24:1-2: “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it, for he has founded it on the seas and established it on the rivers.”
The story of our nation cannot be told without recognizing the Indigenous peoples who were here before European settlers. The land our church sits on was originally lived on and stewarded by people from the Osage, Erie, and Kaskaskia nations. In fact, even the name of our county, Mahoning, comes from an Indigenous word meaning “salt lick.”
The relationship between European settlers and the Indigenous people in the land was complicated and fraught. So too was and is the Indigenous relationship with Christianity. Cultural genocide was committed to erase Indigineous culture and religion and Christainity was forced upon many native children. And still, to this day, many Native peoples are followers of Jesus.
The Trail of Tears, the forced annexation and movement of Indigenous people from their Native lands, is one of the great blots upon our nation. We recognize that people who confessed the name of Jesus committed this atrocity. We also recognize that non-Native Christians, out of great love of God and neighbor, walked in solidarity with their Native siblings on that dangerous journey. We also know that on that path, many Native peoples called out to Jesus in prayer and sung hymns to God along the way.
As we honor this momentous day in our country, we thank God for the people who came here before us and are still here. We pray for wisdom and hearts to love our neighbors and to continue to learn from them, including and especially our Indigenous neighbors.
Let us now listen to an Alleluia chorus sung in Cherokee. (Heleluyan, UMH 78)
The Moral Arc of the Universe
The story of our nation cannot be told without recognizing the Indigenous peoples who were here before European settlers. The land our church sits on was originally lived on and stewarded by people from the Osage, Erie, and Kaskaskia nations. In fact, even the name of our county, Mahoning, comes from an Indigenous word meaning “salt lick.”
The relationship between European settlers and the Indigenous people in the land was complicated and fraught. So too was and is the Indigenous relationship with Christianity. Cultural genocide was committed to erase Indigineous culture and religion and Christainity was forced upon many native children. And still, to this day, many Native peoples are followers of Jesus.
The Trail of Tears, the forced annexation and movement of Indigenous people from their Native lands, is one of the great blots upon our nation. We recognize that people who confessed the name of Jesus committed this atrocity. We also recognize that non-Native Christians, out of great love of God and neighbor, walked in solidarity with their Native siblings on that dangerous journey. We also know that on that path, many Native peoples called out to Jesus in prayer and sung hymns to God along the way.
As we honor this momentous day in our country, we thank God for the people who came here before us and are still here. We pray for wisdom and hearts to love our neighbors and to continue to learn from them, including and especially our Indigenous neighbors.
Let us now listen to an Alleluia chorus sung in Cherokee. (Heleluyan, UMH 78)
The Moral Arc of the Universe
Isaiah 58:6-10:
“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the straps 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;
your vindicator shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
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.”
19th Century abolitionist and minister, Theodore Parker, once said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
We can trace this moral arc through the history of our nation. Many of our country’s original rights and protections, including the right to vote, only applied to white men who owned land. From women to people of color, we have seen the expansion of rights and protections under the law these last 250 years. We celebrate every time the full humanity and voice of a beloved child of God is recognized.
We celebrate and thank God for all advocates who used their voices and lives to speak up for the rights, protection, and well-being of those on the margins. We thank God for all who stand up for justice and for the protection of the oppressed. We especially thank God for those who loose the bounds of injustice out of love for God - knowing that our God is a God who detests bondage and oppression and longs for all humans to be free. We thank our Exodus God for all who, like Moses, lead God’s people out of slavery and into abundance of life.
Slavery is the original sin of America, present at our founding, that we largely have still not wrestled with.
Enslaved people were often not allowed to have a Bible for themselves or were given a sanitized version of the Bible where stories of freedom and verses against slavery were removed. Many enslaved people rejected Christianity for the hateful religion of the master. Still many embraced the story of Moses, the story of Jesus, the story of a God who cared about injustice and who always acted to free the oppressed and to break any chains that kept people enslaved.
Enslaved workers in the in field would sing Spirituals like Wade in the Water to one another, hymns both about baptism and identity in Christ and coded messages of escape and the underground railroad.
Today we will sing, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” - this is often referred to as the “Black National Anthem.” It recounts the journey of the moral arc towards justice - thanking God for God’s faithfulness through it all.
May we, as Christians and Americans, repent for when we have failed to continue to work of Jesus in letting the oppressed go free, we repent even more for the times we have been complicit in oppression - and we pray that Jesus would use us, here today, to continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our world that loosen the bonds of injustice.
Let us sing, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” UMH 519 - and as we sing it, out of respect for those who view this as a National Anthem of sorts, I invite you to stand in body or spirit as we sing.
Towards a Day of Peace
Isaiah 9:5: “For to us a child is born,
a son will be given to us,
and the government will be upon His shoulder.
His Name will be called
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God
My Father of Eternity,
Prince of Peace.”
Two things can be true at once.
Today and every day we can honor and thank those who serve in our military, who protected and protect our country, who have brought freedom to and defeated tyrants in our country and over the world - yes, we thank those who served and serve and thank God for those whose vocation has been in military service.
Would those who have served or are serving, please stand for a moment of recognition.
That can be true - while we also pray and look toward the day when peace reigns as we worship Jesus who is the Prince of Peace. Not the peace of the sword but a lasting peace that knows no ends.
Because both these things are true I want to lift up two American hymns.
First: The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
This hymn was originally written by an abolitionist for Union troops during the Civil War after the hymnist, Julia Ward Howe, visited a Union campsite. The hymn uses military language to recount God’s work in this world. The line from the fourth verse echoes what has been the work and fate of many who have served our country in the military, “as he [Christ] has died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.”
In addition to being an anthem for troops through many wars, this song was also a rallying call for women suffragettes.
The other hymn I want to lift up is “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”
Let There Be Peace on Earth was written by a married couple, Sy Miller and Jill Jackson-Miller.
The song was introduced at a workshop in 1955 - this workshop was comprised of 180 teenagers of all different religions and races - maybe not so strange for us in 2026 but remember, this was 1955. And in singing the song together, walls and barriers were broken down.
Sy Miller shared about this hymn’s impact: “One summer evening in 1955, a group of 180 teenagers of all races and religions, meeting at a workshop high in the California mountains locked arms, formed a circle and sang a song of peace. They felt that singing the song, with its simple basic sentiment—‘Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me’—helped to create a climate for world peace and understanding.
…When they came down from the mountain, these inspired young people brought the song with them and started sharing it.”
This song was born out of the deep love God has for us - that then calls us and transforms us to be agents of peace in this world. Disciples of the Prince of Peace.
As we sing both these hymns today, may we thank God for the freedom we have and those who gave their lives in service of this country - and may we also strive towards Peace in the name of the Prince of Peace.
Let us sing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” UMH 717, vs 1 & 4, & “Let There Be Peace on Earth,” UMH 431
250 Years: To God be The Glory
Romans 16:25-27: “Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.”
All of the hymns we have sung today have come from the rich tradition of American hymnody. So, too, our last hymn of our Fourth of July hymn sing comes from Fanny Crosby, known as one of the greatest and most prolific American hymn writers.
We have only very briefly been able to look at the span of the history of our country and our identity as citizens of The United States, and, above all, first and foremost, as followers of Christ.
My prayer as we celebrate our Nation, this weekend, and any day the opportunity that is afforded to us, is that we would keep ourselves grounded in Christ and in prayer - in confession, in gratitude, and in earnest service to love all our neighbors, as our God calls us to do.
And for all that is good. For all that is holy. For all that is worthy of celebration. For this land that we inhabit - we lift up this final hymn in praise and gratitude:
Let us sing, “To God Be the Glory,” UMH 98
“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the straps 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;
your vindicator shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
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.”
19th Century abolitionist and minister, Theodore Parker, once said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
We can trace this moral arc through the history of our nation. Many of our country’s original rights and protections, including the right to vote, only applied to white men who owned land. From women to people of color, we have seen the expansion of rights and protections under the law these last 250 years. We celebrate every time the full humanity and voice of a beloved child of God is recognized.
We celebrate and thank God for all advocates who used their voices and lives to speak up for the rights, protection, and well-being of those on the margins. We thank God for all who stand up for justice and for the protection of the oppressed. We especially thank God for those who loose the bounds of injustice out of love for God - knowing that our God is a God who detests bondage and oppression and longs for all humans to be free. We thank our Exodus God for all who, like Moses, lead God’s people out of slavery and into abundance of life.
Slavery is the original sin of America, present at our founding, that we largely have still not wrestled with.
Enslaved people were often not allowed to have a Bible for themselves or were given a sanitized version of the Bible where stories of freedom and verses against slavery were removed. Many enslaved people rejected Christianity for the hateful religion of the master. Still many embraced the story of Moses, the story of Jesus, the story of a God who cared about injustice and who always acted to free the oppressed and to break any chains that kept people enslaved.
Enslaved workers in the in field would sing Spirituals like Wade in the Water to one another, hymns both about baptism and identity in Christ and coded messages of escape and the underground railroad.
Today we will sing, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” - this is often referred to as the “Black National Anthem.” It recounts the journey of the moral arc towards justice - thanking God for God’s faithfulness through it all.
May we, as Christians and Americans, repent for when we have failed to continue to work of Jesus in letting the oppressed go free, we repent even more for the times we have been complicit in oppression - and we pray that Jesus would use us, here today, to continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our world that loosen the bonds of injustice.
Let us sing, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” UMH 519 - and as we sing it, out of respect for those who view this as a National Anthem of sorts, I invite you to stand in body or spirit as we sing.
Towards a Day of Peace
Isaiah 9:5: “For to us a child is born,
a son will be given to us,
and the government will be upon His shoulder.
His Name will be called
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God
My Father of Eternity,
Prince of Peace.”
Two things can be true at once.
Today and every day we can honor and thank those who serve in our military, who protected and protect our country, who have brought freedom to and defeated tyrants in our country and over the world - yes, we thank those who served and serve and thank God for those whose vocation has been in military service.
Would those who have served or are serving, please stand for a moment of recognition.
That can be true - while we also pray and look toward the day when peace reigns as we worship Jesus who is the Prince of Peace. Not the peace of the sword but a lasting peace that knows no ends.
Because both these things are true I want to lift up two American hymns.
First: The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
This hymn was originally written by an abolitionist for Union troops during the Civil War after the hymnist, Julia Ward Howe, visited a Union campsite. The hymn uses military language to recount God’s work in this world. The line from the fourth verse echoes what has been the work and fate of many who have served our country in the military, “as he [Christ] has died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.”
In addition to being an anthem for troops through many wars, this song was also a rallying call for women suffragettes.
The other hymn I want to lift up is “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”
Let There Be Peace on Earth was written by a married couple, Sy Miller and Jill Jackson-Miller.
The song was introduced at a workshop in 1955 - this workshop was comprised of 180 teenagers of all different religions and races - maybe not so strange for us in 2026 but remember, this was 1955. And in singing the song together, walls and barriers were broken down.
Sy Miller shared about this hymn’s impact: “One summer evening in 1955, a group of 180 teenagers of all races and religions, meeting at a workshop high in the California mountains locked arms, formed a circle and sang a song of peace. They felt that singing the song, with its simple basic sentiment—‘Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me’—helped to create a climate for world peace and understanding.
…When they came down from the mountain, these inspired young people brought the song with them and started sharing it.”
This song was born out of the deep love God has for us - that then calls us and transforms us to be agents of peace in this world. Disciples of the Prince of Peace.
As we sing both these hymns today, may we thank God for the freedom we have and those who gave their lives in service of this country - and may we also strive towards Peace in the name of the Prince of Peace.
Let us sing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” UMH 717, vs 1 & 4, & “Let There Be Peace on Earth,” UMH 431
250 Years: To God be The Glory
Romans 16:25-27: “Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.”
All of the hymns we have sung today have come from the rich tradition of American hymnody. So, too, our last hymn of our Fourth of July hymn sing comes from Fanny Crosby, known as one of the greatest and most prolific American hymn writers.
We have only very briefly been able to look at the span of the history of our country and our identity as citizens of The United States, and, above all, first and foremost, as followers of Christ.
My prayer as we celebrate our Nation, this weekend, and any day the opportunity that is afforded to us, is that we would keep ourselves grounded in Christ and in prayer - in confession, in gratitude, and in earnest service to love all our neighbors, as our God calls us to do.
And for all that is good. For all that is holy. For all that is worthy of celebration. For this land that we inhabit - we lift up this final hymn in praise and gratitude:
Let us sing, “To God Be the Glory,” UMH 98
Monday, June 8, 2026
“Follow Me…To the Sick, The Grieving, The Outcast” a sermon on Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
“Follow Me…To the Sick, The Grieving, The Outcast”
Preached Sunday, June 7, 2026
“Follow me.”
Two words Jesus said to Matthew and Matthew got up and followed him.
I gotta wonder if there was some more dialogue in there. If someone came up to me and said, “Follow me.” I would have a lot of questions. Even if I knew the person, even if I had heard of this person, like Matthew had probably heard of Jesus, I still would have lots of questions - like…follow you where?
In the call story of John and Andrew, when Jesus called to them to follow him, they asked where he was staying and he said “Come and see.” And while we don’t have the dialogue between Jesus and Matthew I feel like, if he had been asked, “Follow you where? Follow you to what end? What does it mean to follow you?” Jesus would have answered “Come and see.” Because his immediate actions after inviting Matthew to follow him answer the questions of what it means to be a follower of Jesus - for Matthew and for us today.
I’m going to explain those actions - and - I’m going to go ahead and tell you what it means to be a follower of Jesus as shown to us in our passage of Matthew today. So you can see the theme throughout the different encounters in our Scripture today. Those encounters after inviting Matthew to follow him are:
1. Eating with tax collectors and sinners
2. Healing the hemorrhaging woman
3, Healing or resurrecting Jarius’s daughter (Jairus is named in Mark but not in Matthew)
To be a follower of Jesus means to follow Jesus to the last, the lost, and the least. To follow Jesus to the outcast, those deemed as “unclean” or “other,” to go to those who need the presence of Jesus in their lives - and in doing these things, disrupt the status quo.
Jesus invites Matthew to follow him and goes right to a dinner party where there were tax collectors and “sinners.” Eating with those who were often considered unworthy or not respectable is a hallmark of Jesus’s ministry. In the Gospel of Luke, he is even called a drunkard because of the amount of table fellowship he has and who he shares that table fellowship with.
The Pharisees ask - why do you eat with those people? Jesus answers, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick [do].” In the next couple of verses they ask Jesus about fasting and he tells them he is not putting old wine into new wine skins but doing a completely new thing.
What this means is Jesus is outright telling the Pharisees who would be considered the “respectable church people of the day” that he was going to be doing things in a new way. And that meant going to people who were considered being on the outskirts of society, those who really needed a physician - of body and/or soul.
The tax collectors and sinners were those who needed a physician for their souls. The very next encounter Jesus had was with the hemorrhaging woman who touched the cloak of Jesus to be healed.
This woman had been suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years. The Greek seems to imply that it is a bleeding or menstrual issue. An illness that not only would have been painful. An illness that not only took all her money to try and fix and just made it worse. But also an illness that would have made her ritually unclean - unfit for society - unable to touch others. An illness that would have affected her mentally and emotionally as well as physically - as anyone who has had a long-term illness knows. It’s never just the body - it’s all of you.
So, yes, she needed a physician. She needed Jesus. For her body - and also her soul as well. She needed the wholeness of healing.
She had heard about Jesus - but she didn’t presume she was worthy of his healing. She was not even permitted to touch him. She would make him unclean. She had spent the last twelve years of her life being estranged from others, being an outcast - in pain and made to feel less than. And still - she had faith, that if she could just...touch his clothes - it would be enough - she would be healed…
And so in the crowd, people pushing against each other every which way, a massive throng - she reached out...and touched Jesus - or really just his clothes. And instantly, knew she was healed. And Jesus turns to her and says, “Take heart - you have been healed.”
Just as eating with sinners and outcasts is a hallmark of Jesus’s ministry, so is healing. Jesus heals many people - and often - those who need physical healing, they also need healing in their souls and healing in their relationships within society, their place in community. Because of their sickness, they have been pushed to the side, ostracized, labeled as other or unworthy. And so Jesus offered this woman healing not just of her body but of her soul as well.
And then Jesus goes to the house of the girl who has died, at the bequest of her father. Of course, Jesus says she is just sleeping, but everyone else thinks she’s dead. And he tells her to get up, and she does. A healing has taken place. Life snatched from death - whether in death already or on the edge of it - and comfort brought to the mourning.
This girl, and all grieving her, needed a physician.
Just as eating with sinners and healing the sick are hallmarks of Jesus’s ministry so too is bringing Good News to the mourning - and, of course, resurrection.
Jesus preaches on the Sermon on the Mount that those who mourn will be blessed for they are comforted. Jesus weeps over Lazarus and with his mourning sisters. Jesus goes to the cross and to the grave and defeats the powers of Death.
Jesus goes to the places of no hope, the places where all seems lost - and to the people of no hope and to the people to whom all seems lost - and he brings healing and hope.
These are the immediate actions of Jesus after he invites Matthew to follow him: eating with the outcasts, healing the ostracized, and bringing healing and hope to a hopeless place. Actions that are repeated throughout his ministry. As Jesus showed all who followed him then and us through the ages what it means to be a follower of Jesus - to buck the status quo and to go to the last, the lost, the least, the outcast, the sick, the grieving. To go to those who need Jesus.
And so, I recognize today that I probably fall into the category of those who would be considered more like the Pharisees questioning Jesus - those “respectable church people” - as do most if not all of us in this room - so I have two questions for all of us today, including myself. Those questions are:
1. Do you need Jesus?
And
2. Will you follow Jesus to those who need him?
If we’re being really honest, these are hard questions. We want them to be simple questions. We want them to be obvious “Yes!” answers. And yet, when we live into the questions, they can become something we wrestle with.
When we think of those who need Jesus, do we think of ourselves? Or do we think of them, whoever them might be, everyone but you and people like you, the people whom Jesus would get flack for having a dinner party with.
Or. You might be at a place in your life where you are painfully aware that yes, you need Jesus. You or a loved one might need Jesus the Physician, healing in your life - body and/or soul. It is at life’s hardest moments, that we often come to the realization of our deep seated need for Jesus. The realization that comes from the depth of despair, from a hard to swallow diagnosis, in grief, in a season of loss or listlessness.
Realizing that we need Jesus is often a painful realization that comes to us at times when everything is not going well, when we or the ones we love are the ones in need of healing from Jesus.
And so, if we were being really honest and self-reflective, we may not want to admit that we need Jesus. Because we don’t want to be in those hard seasons of our lives. Or we are lucky enough to not be going through one of those soul-barring seasons. If everything is going well, we can trick ourselves into thinking that we don’t really need Jesus.
Frankly, we may not need or want Jesus if Jesus means disrupting the status quo, not having things our way, and realizing that we are not dependent on ourselves - and that needing Jesus, receiving Jesus, in and of itself, means following Jesus.
Following Jesus to those we might not want to go towards. Following Jesus to those we or society may deem unclean, those we may deem unworthy, those we may not deem “not like us.”
When we open ourselves up to needing Jesus, we inherently also go to those who are also in need of Jesus. This following of Jesus to the outcast, the sick, the grieving, the last, the lost and the least - This is not proselytizing. It is not going to someone and saying “you need Jesus, turn around, repent - and become like me” - because remember, we/you/I are all in need of Jesus too. We can’t proselytize and shame people into following Jesus. We can’t separate ourselves and the world into categories of people who need Jesus and people who don’t. This is not an us versus them. This is a recognition that all of us, including those of us in the pews, are in need of Christ’s love, are in need of Christ’s presence, are in need of Christ’s healing for our souls. We need the Great Physician.
And so, as those who have received and are receiving, the healing and loving presence of Jesus in our lives, we want to share this with others - people who may be different on the outside but inside are all the same, in need of love - sharing Christ’s love wherever we go. Wherever we follow Jesus to.
This can look like a lot of things.
It can look like intentionally forming a friendship with someone who is different from you and/or especially those who may be considered unwelcome or an outcast from those on the “respectable” side of society such as those on the margins due to their race, gender or sexual identity, immigration status, or more. To get to know a person simply as a fellow person.
It can look like a church hosting speakers from all parts of life and all areas of the community so that the church can learn empathy for those whose lives have been different.
It can look like a church having a free little pantry so they are always offering food to their hungry neighbors, no strings attached.
It can look like a church sponsoring a little league baseball team, showing up to cheer on the team, and getting to know their families - not in the hopes they will come and join their church, but simply to be a positive influence in their lives.
It can look like being a hospice volunteer or making a meal for a grieving family.
It can look like becoming more hospitable and welcoming to those on the margins - and becoming an advocate and ally with and for them.
All of these are examples of things that I know churches and Christians are currently doing as they seek to follow Jesus.
It can look like doing whatever it is that God has called you to do - as an individual and as a community - in humble service and love, knowing that we don’t bring Jesus to the last, the lost, and the least - Jesus is already there, we simply follow Jesus there, being his hands and feet.
Open yourself up to needing Jesus - for Jesus will come to you.
Open yourself up to following Jesus - for Jesus will use you to do a new thing.
We live in the messiness of this combination - needing Jesus and going to those who need Jesus on behalf of Jesus - to be clear, Jesus is already with them - and yet we are the hands and feet who actively share the love of Jesus.
And so, I am going to end with these two questions again:
1. Do you need Jesus?
2. Will you follow Jesus to those who need him?
May we answer - yes, and yes.
“Follow Me…To the Sick, The Grieving, The Outcast”
Preached Sunday, June 7, 2026
“Follow me.”
Two words Jesus said to Matthew and Matthew got up and followed him.
I gotta wonder if there was some more dialogue in there. If someone came up to me and said, “Follow me.” I would have a lot of questions. Even if I knew the person, even if I had heard of this person, like Matthew had probably heard of Jesus, I still would have lots of questions - like…follow you where?
In the call story of John and Andrew, when Jesus called to them to follow him, they asked where he was staying and he said “Come and see.” And while we don’t have the dialogue between Jesus and Matthew I feel like, if he had been asked, “Follow you where? Follow you to what end? What does it mean to follow you?” Jesus would have answered “Come and see.” Because his immediate actions after inviting Matthew to follow him answer the questions of what it means to be a follower of Jesus - for Matthew and for us today.
I’m going to explain those actions - and - I’m going to go ahead and tell you what it means to be a follower of Jesus as shown to us in our passage of Matthew today. So you can see the theme throughout the different encounters in our Scripture today. Those encounters after inviting Matthew to follow him are:
1. Eating with tax collectors and sinners
2. Healing the hemorrhaging woman
3, Healing or resurrecting Jarius’s daughter (Jairus is named in Mark but not in Matthew)
To be a follower of Jesus means to follow Jesus to the last, the lost, and the least. To follow Jesus to the outcast, those deemed as “unclean” or “other,” to go to those who need the presence of Jesus in their lives - and in doing these things, disrupt the status quo.
Jesus invites Matthew to follow him and goes right to a dinner party where there were tax collectors and “sinners.” Eating with those who were often considered unworthy or not respectable is a hallmark of Jesus’s ministry. In the Gospel of Luke, he is even called a drunkard because of the amount of table fellowship he has and who he shares that table fellowship with.
The Pharisees ask - why do you eat with those people? Jesus answers, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick [do].” In the next couple of verses they ask Jesus about fasting and he tells them he is not putting old wine into new wine skins but doing a completely new thing.
What this means is Jesus is outright telling the Pharisees who would be considered the “respectable church people of the day” that he was going to be doing things in a new way. And that meant going to people who were considered being on the outskirts of society, those who really needed a physician - of body and/or soul.
The tax collectors and sinners were those who needed a physician for their souls. The very next encounter Jesus had was with the hemorrhaging woman who touched the cloak of Jesus to be healed.
This woman had been suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years. The Greek seems to imply that it is a bleeding or menstrual issue. An illness that not only would have been painful. An illness that not only took all her money to try and fix and just made it worse. But also an illness that would have made her ritually unclean - unfit for society - unable to touch others. An illness that would have affected her mentally and emotionally as well as physically - as anyone who has had a long-term illness knows. It’s never just the body - it’s all of you.
So, yes, she needed a physician. She needed Jesus. For her body - and also her soul as well. She needed the wholeness of healing.
She had heard about Jesus - but she didn’t presume she was worthy of his healing. She was not even permitted to touch him. She would make him unclean. She had spent the last twelve years of her life being estranged from others, being an outcast - in pain and made to feel less than. And still - she had faith, that if she could just...touch his clothes - it would be enough - she would be healed…
And so in the crowd, people pushing against each other every which way, a massive throng - she reached out...and touched Jesus - or really just his clothes. And instantly, knew she was healed. And Jesus turns to her and says, “Take heart - you have been healed.”
Just as eating with sinners and outcasts is a hallmark of Jesus’s ministry, so is healing. Jesus heals many people - and often - those who need physical healing, they also need healing in their souls and healing in their relationships within society, their place in community. Because of their sickness, they have been pushed to the side, ostracized, labeled as other or unworthy. And so Jesus offered this woman healing not just of her body but of her soul as well.
And then Jesus goes to the house of the girl who has died, at the bequest of her father. Of course, Jesus says she is just sleeping, but everyone else thinks she’s dead. And he tells her to get up, and she does. A healing has taken place. Life snatched from death - whether in death already or on the edge of it - and comfort brought to the mourning.
This girl, and all grieving her, needed a physician.
Just as eating with sinners and healing the sick are hallmarks of Jesus’s ministry so too is bringing Good News to the mourning - and, of course, resurrection.
Jesus preaches on the Sermon on the Mount that those who mourn will be blessed for they are comforted. Jesus weeps over Lazarus and with his mourning sisters. Jesus goes to the cross and to the grave and defeats the powers of Death.
Jesus goes to the places of no hope, the places where all seems lost - and to the people of no hope and to the people to whom all seems lost - and he brings healing and hope.
These are the immediate actions of Jesus after he invites Matthew to follow him: eating with the outcasts, healing the ostracized, and bringing healing and hope to a hopeless place. Actions that are repeated throughout his ministry. As Jesus showed all who followed him then and us through the ages what it means to be a follower of Jesus - to buck the status quo and to go to the last, the lost, the least, the outcast, the sick, the grieving. To go to those who need Jesus.
And so, I recognize today that I probably fall into the category of those who would be considered more like the Pharisees questioning Jesus - those “respectable church people” - as do most if not all of us in this room - so I have two questions for all of us today, including myself. Those questions are:
1. Do you need Jesus?
And
2. Will you follow Jesus to those who need him?
If we’re being really honest, these are hard questions. We want them to be simple questions. We want them to be obvious “Yes!” answers. And yet, when we live into the questions, they can become something we wrestle with.
When we think of those who need Jesus, do we think of ourselves? Or do we think of them, whoever them might be, everyone but you and people like you, the people whom Jesus would get flack for having a dinner party with.
Or. You might be at a place in your life where you are painfully aware that yes, you need Jesus. You or a loved one might need Jesus the Physician, healing in your life - body and/or soul. It is at life’s hardest moments, that we often come to the realization of our deep seated need for Jesus. The realization that comes from the depth of despair, from a hard to swallow diagnosis, in grief, in a season of loss or listlessness.
Realizing that we need Jesus is often a painful realization that comes to us at times when everything is not going well, when we or the ones we love are the ones in need of healing from Jesus.
And so, if we were being really honest and self-reflective, we may not want to admit that we need Jesus. Because we don’t want to be in those hard seasons of our lives. Or we are lucky enough to not be going through one of those soul-barring seasons. If everything is going well, we can trick ourselves into thinking that we don’t really need Jesus.
Frankly, we may not need or want Jesus if Jesus means disrupting the status quo, not having things our way, and realizing that we are not dependent on ourselves - and that needing Jesus, receiving Jesus, in and of itself, means following Jesus.
Following Jesus to those we might not want to go towards. Following Jesus to those we or society may deem unclean, those we may deem unworthy, those we may not deem “not like us.”
When we open ourselves up to needing Jesus, we inherently also go to those who are also in need of Jesus. This following of Jesus to the outcast, the sick, the grieving, the last, the lost and the least - This is not proselytizing. It is not going to someone and saying “you need Jesus, turn around, repent - and become like me” - because remember, we/you/I are all in need of Jesus too. We can’t proselytize and shame people into following Jesus. We can’t separate ourselves and the world into categories of people who need Jesus and people who don’t. This is not an us versus them. This is a recognition that all of us, including those of us in the pews, are in need of Christ’s love, are in need of Christ’s presence, are in need of Christ’s healing for our souls. We need the Great Physician.
And so, as those who have received and are receiving, the healing and loving presence of Jesus in our lives, we want to share this with others - people who may be different on the outside but inside are all the same, in need of love - sharing Christ’s love wherever we go. Wherever we follow Jesus to.
This can look like a lot of things.
It can look like intentionally forming a friendship with someone who is different from you and/or especially those who may be considered unwelcome or an outcast from those on the “respectable” side of society such as those on the margins due to their race, gender or sexual identity, immigration status, or more. To get to know a person simply as a fellow person.
It can look like a church hosting speakers from all parts of life and all areas of the community so that the church can learn empathy for those whose lives have been different.
It can look like a church having a free little pantry so they are always offering food to their hungry neighbors, no strings attached.
It can look like a church sponsoring a little league baseball team, showing up to cheer on the team, and getting to know their families - not in the hopes they will come and join their church, but simply to be a positive influence in their lives.
It can look like being a hospice volunteer or making a meal for a grieving family.
It can look like becoming more hospitable and welcoming to those on the margins - and becoming an advocate and ally with and for them.
All of these are examples of things that I know churches and Christians are currently doing as they seek to follow Jesus.
It can look like doing whatever it is that God has called you to do - as an individual and as a community - in humble service and love, knowing that we don’t bring Jesus to the last, the lost, and the least - Jesus is already there, we simply follow Jesus there, being his hands and feet.
Open yourself up to needing Jesus - for Jesus will come to you.
Open yourself up to following Jesus - for Jesus will use you to do a new thing.
We live in the messiness of this combination - needing Jesus and going to those who need Jesus on behalf of Jesus - to be clear, Jesus is already with them - and yet we are the hands and feet who actively share the love of Jesus.
And so, I am going to end with these two questions again:
1. Do you need Jesus?
2. Will you follow Jesus to those who need him?
May we answer - yes, and yes.
Amen.
Tuesday, May 26, 2026
“Flowing Water & Tongues of Fire” a Pentecost sermon on Acts 2:1-21 & John 7:37-39
Acts 2:1-21
John 7:37-39
“Flowing Water & Tongues of Fire”
Preached Sunday, May 24, 2026 (Pentecost)
Let’s talk about the Holy Spirit - a fitting day and time to do so, as we observe the day of Pentecost in the church where we remember and celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit - to the disciples on the day of Pentecost and to all of us through the ages.
The Holy Spirit is God. God who gave us God’s self in Jesus, also gave us God’s self in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the remaining presence of God within and around us, at work in our lives and in the world.
A note about my use of pronouns for God’s Spirit. The Greek word sophia and the Hebrew word ruach used for the Holy Spirit in the Bible are feminine words. We know that God does not have a gender as we talk about and understand gender and sex today. Jesus came in the form of a man - yes. And God and the Spirit both encompass all gender expressions and transcend above and beyond them. And yet we often use “he” or “him” to talk about the Godhead, especially as God as Father is a metaphor for God that Jesus used and finds great resonance with many followers of Christ. And yet, that can often contribute to the idea that God is male and can separate women from connecting to the Divine or seeing the Divine in themselves. All that being said, I will use the pronouns she/her when talking about the Holy Spirit in my sermon today.
And so let’s talk about the metaphors used to try and understand the Holy Spirit:
We’ll start with fire, as that is where the day of Pentecost normally takes us - the color red and tongues of flame. So let’s talk about fire.
Fire brings warmth, heat, and light.
Fire cooks food.
Fire can also be dangerous. While we have found ways to try and control fire we also know how it can readily get out of control - from a leaping spark, fires started among dry brush, and small flames turned into raging blazes.
Fires can be destructive forces - all of us know someone or know of someone who has lost their home due to a fire. All of us have watched forest fires on the news, praying for those in harm's way and those courageous people who fight them. We should pray specifically as states move into wildfire season this summer with drastic cuts to the forest service who fight those fires. We should also always pray for our local firefighters who respond and help many in our community.
Fires can also be beneficial to the environment - sometimes forests need controlled or small fires to clear out underbrush and even are a part of many native species' necessary life cycle. Sometimes we even do controlled burns for the health of a forest.
A fire can also be cleansing in order to start anew.
In a metaphorical sense, fire is our passion. It spurs us on. It motivates us.
The Holy Spirit is like fire.
Our Acts passage also describes the Holy Spirit coming like a great gust of wind. And in the beginning, in Genesis, we first encounter the Holy Spirit as ruach, this word that means wind, air, breath. So let’s talk about breath and wind.
Breath keeps us alive. We breathe without consciously thinking of it. In, and out, in and out.
John 7:37-39
“Flowing Water & Tongues of Fire”
Preached Sunday, May 24, 2026 (Pentecost)
Let’s talk about the Holy Spirit - a fitting day and time to do so, as we observe the day of Pentecost in the church where we remember and celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit - to the disciples on the day of Pentecost and to all of us through the ages.
The Holy Spirit is God. God who gave us God’s self in Jesus, also gave us God’s self in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the remaining presence of God within and around us, at work in our lives and in the world.
A note about my use of pronouns for God’s Spirit. The Greek word sophia and the Hebrew word ruach used for the Holy Spirit in the Bible are feminine words. We know that God does not have a gender as we talk about and understand gender and sex today. Jesus came in the form of a man - yes. And God and the Spirit both encompass all gender expressions and transcend above and beyond them. And yet we often use “he” or “him” to talk about the Godhead, especially as God as Father is a metaphor for God that Jesus used and finds great resonance with many followers of Christ. And yet, that can often contribute to the idea that God is male and can separate women from connecting to the Divine or seeing the Divine in themselves. All that being said, I will use the pronouns she/her when talking about the Holy Spirit in my sermon today.
And so let’s talk about the metaphors used to try and understand the Holy Spirit:
We’ll start with fire, as that is where the day of Pentecost normally takes us - the color red and tongues of flame. So let’s talk about fire.
Fire brings warmth, heat, and light.
Fire cooks food.
Fire can also be dangerous. While we have found ways to try and control fire we also know how it can readily get out of control - from a leaping spark, fires started among dry brush, and small flames turned into raging blazes.
Fires can be destructive forces - all of us know someone or know of someone who has lost their home due to a fire. All of us have watched forest fires on the news, praying for those in harm's way and those courageous people who fight them. We should pray specifically as states move into wildfire season this summer with drastic cuts to the forest service who fight those fires. We should also always pray for our local firefighters who respond and help many in our community.
Fires can also be beneficial to the environment - sometimes forests need controlled or small fires to clear out underbrush and even are a part of many native species' necessary life cycle. Sometimes we even do controlled burns for the health of a forest.
A fire can also be cleansing in order to start anew.
In a metaphorical sense, fire is our passion. It spurs us on. It motivates us.
The Holy Spirit is like fire.
Our Acts passage also describes the Holy Spirit coming like a great gust of wind. And in the beginning, in Genesis, we first encounter the Holy Spirit as ruach, this word that means wind, air, breath. So let’s talk about breath and wind.
Breath keeps us alive. We breathe without consciously thinking of it. In, and out, in and out.
Clean air is so important - for our health and the health of our planet.
We can focus on our breathing to regulate our nervous systems, calm our hearts and minds. Our breath is connected to so much more than just our lungs.
The wind offers a cooling breeze, it moves weather patterns, disperses seeds, carries birds through the air.
The wind can also come as a gale, a storm, a tornado - destructive and strong, uprooting trees and causing immense damage.
Wind, breath, air - unseen and yet so necessary and powerful.
Metaphorically wind is the unseen, powerful force that affects our lives.
The Holy Spirit is like breath and wind.
Another metaphor for the Holy Spirit that comes to us from John this morning is water. So let’s talk about water.
Water is necessary for life - our own personal lives and the life of our planet.
Our bodies are about 60% water and our planet is about 70%.
Water teems with life, water is where life started - in the evolution of life on our planet and in the water of a womb.
Water cleans, water renews, water causes growth.
Water is worth protecting and has often been in the news when drinking water is unsafe, Native lands are threatened, and new technology raises concerns of drying up reservoirs.
Water can also be a powerful force - dams generate massive amounts of energy. Water made the Grand Canyon through the natural process of erosion. Water shapes the very world we live in.
So too, floods and hurricanes are a concern - we pray for all those who have experienced loss due to their destructive forces.
Water can be the rain that waters the plants or the flood that wipes away homes and lives.
In a metaphorical sense, water is the very essence of life, it renews and restores, it parches our thirst - literal and spiritual.
The Holy Spirit is like water.
There are many, many other metaphors used to describe the Holy Spirit throughout Scripture. Today, we are focusing on these three - and what do they have in common? They are all necessary for life and also impossible to pin down and control. While we may have “tamed” aspects of wind, fire, and water - humans will never control them entirely, we will never fully pin them down. They will do what they will.
These metaphors are so apt for understanding the Spirit of God - for she is impossible to pin down. We will never fully understand her. We will never “tame” her so that the Spirit of God does just what we please, when we please, as we please. No, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is always trailblazing, expanding, and even destroying our notions of who God is and who God includes.
Both of our Scriptures we read today highlight that.
In the story of Pentecost, the Spirit comes like wind and fire and immediately expands the Gospel message to people of many different nations, ethnicities, languages, cultures. It is an explosion of inclusion. Much of the rest of the book of Acts and many of Paul’s letters deal with the cultural differences and misunderstandings that this act caused as Christians of Jewish and Gentile descents (and Gentile here is a very broad term for anyone who wasn’t Jewish - 14 different countries/areas were mentioned in Acts). This was unheard of, unthought of - and yet like a wind that knocks down barriers and a fire that cannot be controlled, the Spirit breaks down walls and sparks a fire that makes the followers of the Jesus movement so much more diverse, and beautiful.
In the Gospel of John today, it’s important to look at what Jesus was saying right before the verses we read. He is verbally sparring with the Pharisees and they ask, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?”
“The Greeks” here is used like Gentiles - anyone who wasn’t Jewish, anyone who wasn’t “like them.”
And then Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”
So basically Jesus is saying - it doesn’t matter who you are - Jew or Greek or Gentile - an us or a them - if you are thirsty, come to me and drink.
He doesn’t end there - Jesus says come to me and drink - AND the Spirit will cause water to flow out from YOUR hearts, out of the hearts of the followers of Jesus, a living stream, that will provide water for all who are thirsty.
This is the Holy Spirit working within our hearts and flowing out of our hearts. There are so, so many thirsty people in this world. People who are longing for community, for belonging, for acceptance, for peace, for love. The Holy Spirit, which is the very breath within us, can light a fire within our hearts, and flow out of us like a river, giving living water to those who are thirsty. Through us - through you - each and every one of you - you can be a river of living water to quench the thirst of those who are longing to know God. To know they are beloved children. To know they can have a community. To know that they are cared for by God and can walk through this world surrounded by people who share that unconditional, generous love of God with one another.
My prayer is that not only that the river of living water would flow out of each of our hearts, but that it would be a powerful river, a surge of power forming new paths, a wave that overcomes any barriers we have put up - that it would honor the wall-breaking Spirit of Pentecost and the every expanding energy of the Holy Spirit - that through us and the Spirit’s presence within us - everyone, and I mean, everyone would come to drink deeply of living water. Barriers of language, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, creed, and more would cease to exist - would burn away, would be blown away, would be washed away - that through the Spirit, all, truly all, would drink deeply.
How can we do this?
It’s as simple and as difficult as this:
1. Love God. Worship, pray, spend time in the Word.
2. Pray for God to offer opportunities for you to love your neighbor. Pray that God gives you eyes to view all people through the eyes of God, to see people as God sees them. You can practice this too. You can meditate on a stranger at the coffee shop, a figure on the news, someone you know who you have a strained relationship with, or even a person you harbor ill will against or an enemy. Meditate on them being a beloved child of God, ask God to help you see them as God sees them.
3. Listen to and learn from people who are different from you - in any category. Read books, listen to podcasts, have conversations - whatever it may be - with people who come from a different background or school of thought - all those barriers I mentioned before: language, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, creed, etc. This will help each of us better show love when we encounter one another. For there is no us or them, there are only people created and loved by God.
As simple and difficult as this.
Take heart - the Spirit of God is fire, wind, and water. She moves through us, within us and - this is Good News - despite us. The Spirit of God will continue to move, continue to expand, continue to share the Gospel with more and more people - whether we get on board or not. And, God desires us to not only drink deeply of the living water, but allow the living water, allow the Spirit, to flow out of us.
This Pentecost, let us - as individuals, as a community, as a church - be a part of God’s expanding, uncontrollable, powerful, wonderful, beautiful work in this world.
May it be so. Amen.
We can focus on our breathing to regulate our nervous systems, calm our hearts and minds. Our breath is connected to so much more than just our lungs.
The wind offers a cooling breeze, it moves weather patterns, disperses seeds, carries birds through the air.
The wind can also come as a gale, a storm, a tornado - destructive and strong, uprooting trees and causing immense damage.
Wind, breath, air - unseen and yet so necessary and powerful.
Metaphorically wind is the unseen, powerful force that affects our lives.
The Holy Spirit is like breath and wind.
Another metaphor for the Holy Spirit that comes to us from John this morning is water. So let’s talk about water.
Water is necessary for life - our own personal lives and the life of our planet.
Our bodies are about 60% water and our planet is about 70%.
Water teems with life, water is where life started - in the evolution of life on our planet and in the water of a womb.
Water cleans, water renews, water causes growth.
Water is worth protecting and has often been in the news when drinking water is unsafe, Native lands are threatened, and new technology raises concerns of drying up reservoirs.
Water can also be a powerful force - dams generate massive amounts of energy. Water made the Grand Canyon through the natural process of erosion. Water shapes the very world we live in.
So too, floods and hurricanes are a concern - we pray for all those who have experienced loss due to their destructive forces.
Water can be the rain that waters the plants or the flood that wipes away homes and lives.
In a metaphorical sense, water is the very essence of life, it renews and restores, it parches our thirst - literal and spiritual.
The Holy Spirit is like water.
There are many, many other metaphors used to describe the Holy Spirit throughout Scripture. Today, we are focusing on these three - and what do they have in common? They are all necessary for life and also impossible to pin down and control. While we may have “tamed” aspects of wind, fire, and water - humans will never control them entirely, we will never fully pin them down. They will do what they will.
These metaphors are so apt for understanding the Spirit of God - for she is impossible to pin down. We will never fully understand her. We will never “tame” her so that the Spirit of God does just what we please, when we please, as we please. No, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is always trailblazing, expanding, and even destroying our notions of who God is and who God includes.
Both of our Scriptures we read today highlight that.
In the story of Pentecost, the Spirit comes like wind and fire and immediately expands the Gospel message to people of many different nations, ethnicities, languages, cultures. It is an explosion of inclusion. Much of the rest of the book of Acts and many of Paul’s letters deal with the cultural differences and misunderstandings that this act caused as Christians of Jewish and Gentile descents (and Gentile here is a very broad term for anyone who wasn’t Jewish - 14 different countries/areas were mentioned in Acts). This was unheard of, unthought of - and yet like a wind that knocks down barriers and a fire that cannot be controlled, the Spirit breaks down walls and sparks a fire that makes the followers of the Jesus movement so much more diverse, and beautiful.
In the Gospel of John today, it’s important to look at what Jesus was saying right before the verses we read. He is verbally sparring with the Pharisees and they ask, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?”
“The Greeks” here is used like Gentiles - anyone who wasn’t Jewish, anyone who wasn’t “like them.”
And then Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”
So basically Jesus is saying - it doesn’t matter who you are - Jew or Greek or Gentile - an us or a them - if you are thirsty, come to me and drink.
He doesn’t end there - Jesus says come to me and drink - AND the Spirit will cause water to flow out from YOUR hearts, out of the hearts of the followers of Jesus, a living stream, that will provide water for all who are thirsty.
This is the Holy Spirit working within our hearts and flowing out of our hearts. There are so, so many thirsty people in this world. People who are longing for community, for belonging, for acceptance, for peace, for love. The Holy Spirit, which is the very breath within us, can light a fire within our hearts, and flow out of us like a river, giving living water to those who are thirsty. Through us - through you - each and every one of you - you can be a river of living water to quench the thirst of those who are longing to know God. To know they are beloved children. To know they can have a community. To know that they are cared for by God and can walk through this world surrounded by people who share that unconditional, generous love of God with one another.
My prayer is that not only that the river of living water would flow out of each of our hearts, but that it would be a powerful river, a surge of power forming new paths, a wave that overcomes any barriers we have put up - that it would honor the wall-breaking Spirit of Pentecost and the every expanding energy of the Holy Spirit - that through us and the Spirit’s presence within us - everyone, and I mean, everyone would come to drink deeply of living water. Barriers of language, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, creed, and more would cease to exist - would burn away, would be blown away, would be washed away - that through the Spirit, all, truly all, would drink deeply.
How can we do this?
It’s as simple and as difficult as this:
1. Love God. Worship, pray, spend time in the Word.
2. Pray for God to offer opportunities for you to love your neighbor. Pray that God gives you eyes to view all people through the eyes of God, to see people as God sees them. You can practice this too. You can meditate on a stranger at the coffee shop, a figure on the news, someone you know who you have a strained relationship with, or even a person you harbor ill will against or an enemy. Meditate on them being a beloved child of God, ask God to help you see them as God sees them.
3. Listen to and learn from people who are different from you - in any category. Read books, listen to podcasts, have conversations - whatever it may be - with people who come from a different background or school of thought - all those barriers I mentioned before: language, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, creed, etc. This will help each of us better show love when we encounter one another. For there is no us or them, there are only people created and loved by God.
As simple and difficult as this.
Take heart - the Spirit of God is fire, wind, and water. She moves through us, within us and - this is Good News - despite us. The Spirit of God will continue to move, continue to expand, continue to share the Gospel with more and more people - whether we get on board or not. And, God desires us to not only drink deeply of the living water, but allow the living water, allow the Spirit, to flow out of us.
This Pentecost, let us - as individuals, as a community, as a church - be a part of God’s expanding, uncontrollable, powerful, wonderful, beautiful work in this world.
May it be so. Amen.
Tuesday, May 19, 2026
A Wesleyan/United Methodist Affirmation of Faith
Today we affirm and celebrate the Wesleyan aspects of our faith. Join me in this United Methodist affirmation:
We are a people of Grace - we believe that every action of God in this world is steeped in grace,
The grace that comes before we even know there is grace to be had, present from the very moment of our birth,
The grace that weds us to Jesus, our Lord and Savior,
The grace that molds us towards perfect love of God and neighbor.
We are a people of holiness - we believe that there is no holiness apart from social holiness.
How we love God is reflected in loving our neighbor.
How we love our neighbor is reflected in loving God.
We are a people of an Open Table -
All we called, all are invited, all are welcome.
We are a people who hear God speaking in many and nuanced ways -
God speaks through holy Scripture.
God speaks through the voice of reason and the voices of our tradition.
God speaks to us through our lived experiences - and even the experiences of our neighbors, the other, the friend, and the enemy.
We are a people with a method of faith - our hearts are strangely warmed and our hands and feet are carrying out the work of faith.
We are a people called United Methodists - and for that and all it means - we say,
Thanks be to God.
We are a people of Grace - we believe that every action of God in this world is steeped in grace,
The grace that comes before we even know there is grace to be had, present from the very moment of our birth,
The grace that weds us to Jesus, our Lord and Savior,
The grace that molds us towards perfect love of God and neighbor.
We are a people of holiness - we believe that there is no holiness apart from social holiness.
How we love God is reflected in loving our neighbor.
How we love our neighbor is reflected in loving God.
We are a people of an Open Table -
All we called, all are invited, all are welcome.
We are a people who hear God speaking in many and nuanced ways -
God speaks through holy Scripture.
God speaks through the voice of reason and the voices of our tradition.
God speaks to us through our lived experiences - and even the experiences of our neighbors, the other, the friend, and the enemy.
We are a people with a method of faith - our hearts are strangely warmed and our hands and feet are carrying out the work of faith.
We are a people called United Methodists - and for that and all it means - we say,
Thanks be to God.
Monday, May 18, 2026
“The Story Isn’t Over Yet” a sermon on Acts 1:1-11 & Luke 24:44-53
Acts 1:1-11
Luke 24:44-53
“The Story Isn’t Over Yet”
Preached Sunday, May 17, 2026 at Boardman United Methodist Church
I am a reader and I am primarily an audiobook listener. I put one earbud in and I can listen to my book while doing dishes, “watching” TV with my kid, or doing any fairly mindless activity. Sometimes, as I’m listening to the book, I think “wow. It sounds like the story is wrapping up. I must be near the end” - and then I look at my phone and I’m only like 60% through. And I go, “Oh no! What horrible thing is going to happen to the characters to keep that plot going that much longer?” I know I need to buckle in, because the story isn’t over yet.
It made me think, if we were listening to the story of Jesus on audiobook, paying no attention to the percentages - when would we think the story was going to end?
Perhaps we’d think the story would end at the Crucifixion. Many of the disciples certainly thought this was the end of the Jesus story. A heartbreaking, horrible ending. Nothing like they had hoped. Empire and Death had won, their hopes dashed. Time to pack up the bags and go home.
Of course, that wasn’t the end of the story.
Perhaps, if we were listening to the Jesus story, we’d think the Resurrection would be a good place for the story to end. End on a triumphant note! A happy ending! A miracle! That which was dead has come back to life! The story can end now.
Of course, that wasn’t the end of the story.
Perhaps the story would end with the Scriptures we heard today - the Ascension. In a plot structure this would be a good place to end a story - you’ve had the tension of the Crucifixion and death of Jesus, resolved in the climax of the Resurrection, and the nice wrap-up of the post-Resurrection appearances and the Ascension - Jesus has said goodbye and left the scene and the story can end. Many thought this was the end of the story.
Of course, that wasn’t the end of the story.
Thankfully, the story of Jesus and the story of God’s involvement in this world does not wrap up like a nice novel with a beginning, middle, and end. The story continues.
The Ascension, that is the Scriptures we read today of Jesus ascending into heaven following his Resurrection, is not the end of the story - in fact, it ushers the story into an in-between time, a liminal space. The time between the Ascension and Pentecost. The time between Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit (that’s next week’s story - spoiler alert!) and the time between Jesus and the rest of the story…
Because with God’s story, there is no end to the story.
Even the book of Revelation which comes at the end of the Bible is not the end to God’s story and those who read it as the end of all things are missing the point. Revelation 21 paints a picture of a new heaven and a new earth, when all things are re-made, made whole, made right. The end of the Bible is not an end at all, it is a beginning.
In fact, we are missing a whole lot of the story of God if we think the story of God is only what is contained within the pages of Scripture. Just because the Bible has been canonized does not mean that it is the full and complete picture of God. Our siblings in the Jewish faith understand this much better than us, having a rich history of what they call midrash. This is using study and Biblical imaginations to “fill in the gaps” of the Biblical narrative, imagining and uncovering the ways God has been and is at work in the world, even if it’s not written down.
We can learn this from our siblings in another Christian denomination as well. The United Church of Church (The UCC) has a denomination tagline “God is still speaking,” - and there is purposefully not a period at the end of that statement. It is not “God is still speaking PERIOD” - it is, “God is still speaking COMMA” - it leaves room for us to listen to the still-speaking God.
The UCC website says this about their belief that God is still speaking:
“If you think God’s not finished with you yet, guess what? God’s not even finished with God yet. God isn’t finished with you, or finished with the church or our world, or even letting us know more about God’s own compassion, justice, hope, and truth. If you are open, if you listen carefully, you’ll discover what God is saying to this generation at this time in history. There’s more good news to be heard!
This understanding of God’s ‘revelation’ is a central aspect of United Church of Christ faith. We believe that God was revealed in the past, but also in the present and the future. In the Bible, God was known through covenants with people and nations, through prophets and teachers, through conflicts and commandments, in visions and songs, and through the followers of Jesus and the church. God acted profoundly in the life and ministry, even in the death, of Christ. On Easter, God declared in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ‘I’ll never, never stop speaking. Alleluia!’ Throughout history, in moments of compassion, justice, and peace, in our worship, sacraments, prayer, seeking, action, and silence, God continues to speak.”
End quote.
God is still speaking. God is still at work. The story of God continues.
We would be remiss if we thought God paused the story at the end of Scripture until God’s return.
We would be remiss if we didn’t see the ways God is still working in this world
We would be remiss if we don’t see see ourselves as active participants and tellers of God’s continuing story in this world.
We are called to continue the story and be storytellers - we call this being disciples and being witnesses.
Today we are welcoming a new member to our church. In the membership vows we promise to participate faithfully in the ministries of the church through our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Whenever a new member joins, all of us renew this covenant together. Now, the thing is - your hymnals do not have the word “witness” in them - that word was added in 2008 and the printed hymnal is older than that. I am going to ask you today to try and remember that word in our vows - to say it even if it’s not written there. Witness implies both sharing the story of God with our words and with our whole lives - witness means all we do and say points back to the story of Jesus AND thus, continues the story of God in our world.
At Jesus’s ascension, he tells his disciples that they have been witnesses to his story - how God has been at work in the world. The telling from Luke says: “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
And then in Acts, Jesus tells them that they will be - future tense - witnesses. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
This is what it means for us today to be witnesses. It wasn’t just the disciples gathered on that hilltop some 2,000 years ago. It is for us to be witness too. To tell the story, to point to the story - and to be active participants in the ongoing story of God’s work in this world. A story that has no end. This is what we are called to be - storytellers, witnesses, disciples.
The story of God continues in this world - thanks be to God.
Luke 24:44-53
“The Story Isn’t Over Yet”
Preached Sunday, May 17, 2026 at Boardman United Methodist Church
I am a reader and I am primarily an audiobook listener. I put one earbud in and I can listen to my book while doing dishes, “watching” TV with my kid, or doing any fairly mindless activity. Sometimes, as I’m listening to the book, I think “wow. It sounds like the story is wrapping up. I must be near the end” - and then I look at my phone and I’m only like 60% through. And I go, “Oh no! What horrible thing is going to happen to the characters to keep that plot going that much longer?” I know I need to buckle in, because the story isn’t over yet.
It made me think, if we were listening to the story of Jesus on audiobook, paying no attention to the percentages - when would we think the story was going to end?
Perhaps we’d think the story would end at the Crucifixion. Many of the disciples certainly thought this was the end of the Jesus story. A heartbreaking, horrible ending. Nothing like they had hoped. Empire and Death had won, their hopes dashed. Time to pack up the bags and go home.
Of course, that wasn’t the end of the story.
Perhaps, if we were listening to the Jesus story, we’d think the Resurrection would be a good place for the story to end. End on a triumphant note! A happy ending! A miracle! That which was dead has come back to life! The story can end now.
Of course, that wasn’t the end of the story.
Perhaps the story would end with the Scriptures we heard today - the Ascension. In a plot structure this would be a good place to end a story - you’ve had the tension of the Crucifixion and death of Jesus, resolved in the climax of the Resurrection, and the nice wrap-up of the post-Resurrection appearances and the Ascension - Jesus has said goodbye and left the scene and the story can end. Many thought this was the end of the story.
Of course, that wasn’t the end of the story.
Thankfully, the story of Jesus and the story of God’s involvement in this world does not wrap up like a nice novel with a beginning, middle, and end. The story continues.
The Ascension, that is the Scriptures we read today of Jesus ascending into heaven following his Resurrection, is not the end of the story - in fact, it ushers the story into an in-between time, a liminal space. The time between the Ascension and Pentecost. The time between Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit (that’s next week’s story - spoiler alert!) and the time between Jesus and the rest of the story…
Because with God’s story, there is no end to the story.
Even the book of Revelation which comes at the end of the Bible is not the end to God’s story and those who read it as the end of all things are missing the point. Revelation 21 paints a picture of a new heaven and a new earth, when all things are re-made, made whole, made right. The end of the Bible is not an end at all, it is a beginning.
In fact, we are missing a whole lot of the story of God if we think the story of God is only what is contained within the pages of Scripture. Just because the Bible has been canonized does not mean that it is the full and complete picture of God. Our siblings in the Jewish faith understand this much better than us, having a rich history of what they call midrash. This is using study and Biblical imaginations to “fill in the gaps” of the Biblical narrative, imagining and uncovering the ways God has been and is at work in the world, even if it’s not written down.
We can learn this from our siblings in another Christian denomination as well. The United Church of Church (The UCC) has a denomination tagline “God is still speaking,” - and there is purposefully not a period at the end of that statement. It is not “God is still speaking PERIOD” - it is, “God is still speaking COMMA” - it leaves room for us to listen to the still-speaking God.
The UCC website says this about their belief that God is still speaking:
“If you think God’s not finished with you yet, guess what? God’s not even finished with God yet. God isn’t finished with you, or finished with the church or our world, or even letting us know more about God’s own compassion, justice, hope, and truth. If you are open, if you listen carefully, you’ll discover what God is saying to this generation at this time in history. There’s more good news to be heard!
This understanding of God’s ‘revelation’ is a central aspect of United Church of Christ faith. We believe that God was revealed in the past, but also in the present and the future. In the Bible, God was known through covenants with people and nations, through prophets and teachers, through conflicts and commandments, in visions and songs, and through the followers of Jesus and the church. God acted profoundly in the life and ministry, even in the death, of Christ. On Easter, God declared in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ‘I’ll never, never stop speaking. Alleluia!’ Throughout history, in moments of compassion, justice, and peace, in our worship, sacraments, prayer, seeking, action, and silence, God continues to speak.”
End quote.
God is still speaking. God is still at work. The story of God continues.
We would be remiss if we thought God paused the story at the end of Scripture until God’s return.
We would be remiss if we didn’t see the ways God is still working in this world
We would be remiss if we don’t see see ourselves as active participants and tellers of God’s continuing story in this world.
We are called to continue the story and be storytellers - we call this being disciples and being witnesses.
Today we are welcoming a new member to our church. In the membership vows we promise to participate faithfully in the ministries of the church through our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Whenever a new member joins, all of us renew this covenant together. Now, the thing is - your hymnals do not have the word “witness” in them - that word was added in 2008 and the printed hymnal is older than that. I am going to ask you today to try and remember that word in our vows - to say it even if it’s not written there. Witness implies both sharing the story of God with our words and with our whole lives - witness means all we do and say points back to the story of Jesus AND thus, continues the story of God in our world.
At Jesus’s ascension, he tells his disciples that they have been witnesses to his story - how God has been at work in the world. The telling from Luke says: “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
And then in Acts, Jesus tells them that they will be - future tense - witnesses. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
This is what it means for us today to be witnesses. It wasn’t just the disciples gathered on that hilltop some 2,000 years ago. It is for us to be witness too. To tell the story, to point to the story - and to be active participants in the ongoing story of God’s work in this world. A story that has no end. This is what we are called to be - storytellers, witnesses, disciples.
The story of God continues in this world - thanks be to God.
Amen.
Monday, May 11, 2026
“Faith & Falling in Love” a sermon on John 14:15-21
John 14:15-21
“Faith & Falling in Love”
Preached Sunday, May 10, 2026 at Boardman United Methodist Church
“Faith & Falling in Love”
Preached Sunday, May 10, 2026 at Boardman United Methodist Church
At the risk of sounding sappy this morning, I am going to start my sermon with these queries:
What is it like to fall in love? Throughout your life, how have you fallen in love? What events, what encounters, what experiences have led you to falling in love?
As preparation for this week’s sermon, I asked my husband how he realized he had fallen in love with me. I asked myself the same question of me falling in love with him: and I realized that falling in love comes from a series of encounters. From meeting someone, laughing with them, getting to know them, confiding in them, crying with them, trusting them...It was all these experiences that led me to falling in love.
What is it like to fall in love? Throughout your life, how have you fallen in love? What events, what encounters, what experiences have led you to falling in love?
As preparation for this week’s sermon, I asked my husband how he realized he had fallen in love with me. I asked myself the same question of me falling in love with him: and I realized that falling in love comes from a series of encounters. From meeting someone, laughing with them, getting to know them, confiding in them, crying with them, trusting them...It was all these experiences that led me to falling in love.
And, of course, not all love is romantic love. As children we often come to love our parents because of the love shown to us, the care we receive, the safety we feel -- and then as adult children of adult parents, we can come to love them all over again in old and new ways. I know when I became a mother, I got to experience falling in love with my child. From just the thought of this tiny human in my womb, giving to her of my body, holding and caring for the most precious thing as a newborn - and then the joy of loving them as their personality develops. And the deep deep humbling love that comes from knowing you are this person’s safe place. As an aside, I know Mother’s Day is a day of joy for many - and also a very complicated day for many more. My prayer for each person here today is that they may experience love as a safe place - whether that is the love between a mother and a child, a spouse, a friend, and/or the ultimate love of God as a safe place.
Friendships are formed in love - through many of the same encounters that form romantic love - through sharing, laughing, crying, and trusting. Community is formed in love. When I became a pastor, I was told my main job when I was sent to a congregation was to love the people - love the people and everything else would follow. Plus, as the Bible says, love covers a multitude of errors. Of course, from my first day here to almost three years, the love can change from an abstract love to a more concrete thing - falling in love not just you in the general sense but you in the specific - between hands held, tears cried, laughs, confidences, prayers, meals shared - these encounters with each other, person to person, these help shape our love for each other.
We can trace these moments, these shared experiences, these encounters with another human being when we truly see them for who they are and it in turn is reciprocated - and we can almost re-trace falling in love. I say almost, because we all know that love also has a mystical component to it, something that we can’t quite put our finger on, something that is just beyond our grasp. For me, I would label that part as the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Which also brings me to another love, that for many of us, we don’t talk about enough, love of God. Love for God. But how do you talk about falling in love with God without sounding a little bit like a crazy person? And the truth is, you probably can’t. Because loving God is a little crazy - and mystical and beautiful. And just like our love for other people is built on genuine encounters with the other, so too is our love of God built on encounters with the Divine, with the Holy Spirit.
Craig Koester, a professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, says this about our Gospel reading today on love and the Holy Spirit:
“Coming to faith is analogous to falling in love. One cannot fall in love in the abstract. Love comes through an encounter with another person. The same is true of faith. If faith is a relationship with the living Christ and the living God who sent him, then faith can only come through an encounter with them. And the Spirit is the one who makes this presence known.”
Let’s take a closer look at this.
In this week’s Gospel reading from John, Jesus is introducing the disciples to the idea of the Holy Spirit. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth...you know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” Remember, this is a continuation of last week’s Gospel text that was part of what we call Jesus’s Farewell Discourse to his disciples. It is before his arrest and crucifixion and he is instructing his disciples one last time on this end of things.
This is a part of a longer passage in John 14 - today started at the 15th verse in the passage that’s really one speech. We have been off lectionary the last three weeks for our Fruit of the Spirit hymn sing so we are kinda jumping back in halfway through this passage. It’s like, as a reader, when a sequel comes out and you haven’t read the first book in a couple years so you need to go read a re-cap. So here’s the re-cap of what came before today’s Gospel reading:
So in the verses before this, Jesus is telling his disciples to not be afraid and to trust in him. He says, paraphrased, “If you know me (and you do know me!) then you know God who is the Father. You know who I am through my teachings, my words, my actions. You know that I preach love, forgiveness, mercy, repentance. And you know I model these things too - so you know what I’m about and you know what God is about -- so now, if you know me, you will do likewise so that others may come to know me through you.”
In summary: If you know Jesus, then you know God. If you love Jesus, then you love the Father, and if you love Jesus (and the Father), you will do as Jesus does. Perhaps these verses are what “WWJD” are based on - what would Jesus do? The answer is always love.
So now, in today’s reading, Jesus expands on that idea of knowing Jesus, knowing God, and doing as Jesus does. The question that this week’s Scripture seeks to answer is: How will people know Jesus through which people know the Father, when Jesus is no longer here on Earth, God as living flesh walking among us? How are we to love God, to fall in love with God, when we have no God to physically encounter?
And here is where Jesus says, don’t worry - because the Father is sending another Advocate, as Jesus was an Advocate for encountering and falling in love with God. In just two weeks we will celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost - that same Spirit who is among us today. And whoever knows the Spirit, knows Jesus, and whoever knows Jesus, knows God. For this is the mystery of Trinity, that they are One, that our God is Triune. So just a caveat - even though the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples at Pentecost - the Holy Spirit was not created at Pentecost. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer - the three Persons of the Trinity have always been in existence with one another, from before there was a beginning, from before there was time, God, Jesus, and the Spirit have all been present. Just as, in time, Jesus was given to us as a gift to know God, so too, in the course of history, the Spirit has been gifted to us so that we may continue to know and fall in love with God.
So who or what is the Spirit? How do we encounter the Spirit in our lives?
The Holy Spirit, like God and Jesus, is both knowable and unknowable. The Spirit though, has always seemed illusive, hard to grasp for many Christians. The Spirit is described as the wind, that which we can feel but cannot see. The Spirit is like our breath, that which is never far from us, fills us with life, sustains us. The Spirit is the flame which ignites within us a desire to know God. The Spirit is that force that we can’t quite put our finger on that interacts in our lives, in our relationships, when we fall in love. Any way we see or feel or sense God moving - in our lives, in our relationships, in the world -- THAT is the work of the Holy Spirit.
And so we may think - have I ever encountered God? And yes, you have. Think about those moments when you have felt peace. When you have felt God comforting you as you cried. When you have felt a surge of joy or thanksgiving that bubbled over into laughter or praise. When you found strength or patience you didn’t know you had. When you’ve had a realization that only could have come from beyond you. Think of all those moments where something beyond you has taken place in your life - that is the work of the Holy Spirit. Those are our encounters with the Holy Spirit and because the Holy Spirit is in perfect union with the Creator and the Son - those are encounters with God and with Jesus, too. And it is through those experiences, through those encounters, when we realize that it is the Spirit we are encountering, that we fall in love with God.
And Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
And remember that Jesus summarized all the law and prophet in two commandments:
One, to love God.
Two, to love neighbor as self.
And we see here how these commandments are circular. When we fall in love with God, we keep God’s commandments - God’s commandments are to love God and to love neighbor. And when we know the Spirit, and thus know Jesus, and thus know God, we are called to do as Jesus did, to spread mercy and forgiveness and love to others through caring for them, siding with the outcast, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and prisoner...basically, loving our neighbors. And it is through these acts of love that the Holy Spirit is at work, and thus we encounter God over and over again, and fall more deeply in love with God…
Yes, these commandments are circular! And at the center of that circle, what remains above all else: is love - and God wants us to encounter the Spirit, to know the Spirit, to know Jesus, to know the Father and fall more in love with God every day and then to live out that love through love of others.
So, at the risk of sounding sappy, I’d like to end my sermon by asking you to ask yourself this question:
How am I continuously falling in love with God?
Friendships are formed in love - through many of the same encounters that form romantic love - through sharing, laughing, crying, and trusting. Community is formed in love. When I became a pastor, I was told my main job when I was sent to a congregation was to love the people - love the people and everything else would follow. Plus, as the Bible says, love covers a multitude of errors. Of course, from my first day here to almost three years, the love can change from an abstract love to a more concrete thing - falling in love not just you in the general sense but you in the specific - between hands held, tears cried, laughs, confidences, prayers, meals shared - these encounters with each other, person to person, these help shape our love for each other.
We can trace these moments, these shared experiences, these encounters with another human being when we truly see them for who they are and it in turn is reciprocated - and we can almost re-trace falling in love. I say almost, because we all know that love also has a mystical component to it, something that we can’t quite put our finger on, something that is just beyond our grasp. For me, I would label that part as the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Which also brings me to another love, that for many of us, we don’t talk about enough, love of God. Love for God. But how do you talk about falling in love with God without sounding a little bit like a crazy person? And the truth is, you probably can’t. Because loving God is a little crazy - and mystical and beautiful. And just like our love for other people is built on genuine encounters with the other, so too is our love of God built on encounters with the Divine, with the Holy Spirit.
Craig Koester, a professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, says this about our Gospel reading today on love and the Holy Spirit:
“Coming to faith is analogous to falling in love. One cannot fall in love in the abstract. Love comes through an encounter with another person. The same is true of faith. If faith is a relationship with the living Christ and the living God who sent him, then faith can only come through an encounter with them. And the Spirit is the one who makes this presence known.”
Let’s take a closer look at this.
In this week’s Gospel reading from John, Jesus is introducing the disciples to the idea of the Holy Spirit. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth...you know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” Remember, this is a continuation of last week’s Gospel text that was part of what we call Jesus’s Farewell Discourse to his disciples. It is before his arrest and crucifixion and he is instructing his disciples one last time on this end of things.
This is a part of a longer passage in John 14 - today started at the 15th verse in the passage that’s really one speech. We have been off lectionary the last three weeks for our Fruit of the Spirit hymn sing so we are kinda jumping back in halfway through this passage. It’s like, as a reader, when a sequel comes out and you haven’t read the first book in a couple years so you need to go read a re-cap. So here’s the re-cap of what came before today’s Gospel reading:
So in the verses before this, Jesus is telling his disciples to not be afraid and to trust in him. He says, paraphrased, “If you know me (and you do know me!) then you know God who is the Father. You know who I am through my teachings, my words, my actions. You know that I preach love, forgiveness, mercy, repentance. And you know I model these things too - so you know what I’m about and you know what God is about -- so now, if you know me, you will do likewise so that others may come to know me through you.”
In summary: If you know Jesus, then you know God. If you love Jesus, then you love the Father, and if you love Jesus (and the Father), you will do as Jesus does. Perhaps these verses are what “WWJD” are based on - what would Jesus do? The answer is always love.
So now, in today’s reading, Jesus expands on that idea of knowing Jesus, knowing God, and doing as Jesus does. The question that this week’s Scripture seeks to answer is: How will people know Jesus through which people know the Father, when Jesus is no longer here on Earth, God as living flesh walking among us? How are we to love God, to fall in love with God, when we have no God to physically encounter?
And here is where Jesus says, don’t worry - because the Father is sending another Advocate, as Jesus was an Advocate for encountering and falling in love with God. In just two weeks we will celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost - that same Spirit who is among us today. And whoever knows the Spirit, knows Jesus, and whoever knows Jesus, knows God. For this is the mystery of Trinity, that they are One, that our God is Triune. So just a caveat - even though the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples at Pentecost - the Holy Spirit was not created at Pentecost. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer - the three Persons of the Trinity have always been in existence with one another, from before there was a beginning, from before there was time, God, Jesus, and the Spirit have all been present. Just as, in time, Jesus was given to us as a gift to know God, so too, in the course of history, the Spirit has been gifted to us so that we may continue to know and fall in love with God.
So who or what is the Spirit? How do we encounter the Spirit in our lives?
The Holy Spirit, like God and Jesus, is both knowable and unknowable. The Spirit though, has always seemed illusive, hard to grasp for many Christians. The Spirit is described as the wind, that which we can feel but cannot see. The Spirit is like our breath, that which is never far from us, fills us with life, sustains us. The Spirit is the flame which ignites within us a desire to know God. The Spirit is that force that we can’t quite put our finger on that interacts in our lives, in our relationships, when we fall in love. Any way we see or feel or sense God moving - in our lives, in our relationships, in the world -- THAT is the work of the Holy Spirit.
And so we may think - have I ever encountered God? And yes, you have. Think about those moments when you have felt peace. When you have felt God comforting you as you cried. When you have felt a surge of joy or thanksgiving that bubbled over into laughter or praise. When you found strength or patience you didn’t know you had. When you’ve had a realization that only could have come from beyond you. Think of all those moments where something beyond you has taken place in your life - that is the work of the Holy Spirit. Those are our encounters with the Holy Spirit and because the Holy Spirit is in perfect union with the Creator and the Son - those are encounters with God and with Jesus, too. And it is through those experiences, through those encounters, when we realize that it is the Spirit we are encountering, that we fall in love with God.
And Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
And remember that Jesus summarized all the law and prophet in two commandments:
One, to love God.
Two, to love neighbor as self.
And we see here how these commandments are circular. When we fall in love with God, we keep God’s commandments - God’s commandments are to love God and to love neighbor. And when we know the Spirit, and thus know Jesus, and thus know God, we are called to do as Jesus did, to spread mercy and forgiveness and love to others through caring for them, siding with the outcast, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and prisoner...basically, loving our neighbors. And it is through these acts of love that the Holy Spirit is at work, and thus we encounter God over and over again, and fall more deeply in love with God…
Yes, these commandments are circular! And at the center of that circle, what remains above all else: is love - and God wants us to encounter the Spirit, to know the Spirit, to know Jesus, to know the Father and fall more in love with God every day and then to live out that love through love of others.
So, at the risk of sounding sappy, I’d like to end my sermon by asking you to ask yourself this question:
How am I continuously falling in love with God?
May we all find ourselves with love at the center. Amen.
Thursday, April 30, 2026
Call to Worship for Pentecost based on Acts 2:1-21 & John 7:37-39
Leader: As we begin worship today, we cry out:
People: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
L: Within us, we ask the Spirit to touch us with holy fire.
P: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
L: For those who are thirsty, in the pews and outside the walls, we pray:
P: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
L: Holy Spirit, fill us with fire and make living water flow from our hearts.
P: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
All: Amen.
People: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
L: Within us, we ask the Spirit to touch us with holy fire.
P: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
L: For those who are thirsty, in the pews and outside the walls, we pray:
P: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
L: Holy Spirit, fill us with fire and make living water flow from our hearts.
P: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
All: Amen.
Call to Worship based on "Blessed Assurance"
Leader: Our God is a God of Yesterdays, Today, and Tomorrow.
People: Blessed Assurance! Jesus is Mine!
L: In our past we sang:
P: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
L: Today we sing:
P: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
L: Tomorrow we will sing:
P: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
L: In all times and places, the work of God continues and so we will never cease in our praise:
All: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Amen.
People: Blessed Assurance! Jesus is Mine!
L: In our past we sang:
P: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
L: Today we sing:
P: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
L: Tomorrow we will sing:
P: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
L: In all times and places, the work of God continues and so we will never cease in our praise:
All: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Amen.
Thursday, April 23, 2026
Call to Worship based on hymn, "I Love You, Lord"
Leader: We come together today to proclaim:
People: We love you, Lord!
L: We lift our voices in worship.
People: Rejoice, O My Soul!
L: King of all, take joy in our worship and praise.
P: May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.
All: Amen.
People: We love you, Lord!
L: We lift our voices in worship.
People: Rejoice, O My Soul!
L: King of all, take joy in our worship and praise.
P: May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.
All: Amen.
Sunday, April 5, 2026
“The Good News is…Alive in the World” an Easter sermon on Matthew 28:1-10
Matthew 28:1-10
“The Good News is…Alive in the World”
Preached Sunday, April 5, 2026 (Easter)
I love proclaiming the Good News of Easter. I love when I say, “Christ is Risen” and I hear over a hundred voices echoing back “Christ is Risen, Indeed!” So let’s proclaim the Good, Good News of the Gospel together this Easter morning:
Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen, Indeed!
This is the Good News of the Gospel! Christ is risen! Jesus is alive! Death does not have the final say! God offers us all an abundant, joyful, and Good News filled life!
We live in a world that is desperate for Good News. In the pews and in the world, we are a people parched, starving, in need of good news. There is a lot of bad news out there - even as I was writing this sermon, I saw multiple headlines that broke my heart - or would break my heart if I didn’t construct a wall around it to protect it from the endless awfulness of the world. Which is also not what God wants for us. I don’t need to belabor the bad news today - you all know what it is. Wars rage. Disasters happen. Children - and adults - die much too soon. People are mean to one another. We treat one another as less than the beloved children of God that each of us was created as. This is not the Good News of the Gospel.
We also need to acknowledge that sometimes what is packaged and sold as the Good News of Christ Jesus often fails to actually be “good” news - a “Gospel” that is exclusive, limiting, controlling, shaming, hateful is not the Good News of Jesus Christ.
And so over the past six weeks, during the course of the season of Lent, as a church we have been focusing on the Good, Good News of the Gospel. The word “Gospel” literally means “Good News” and it is as the angels proclaimed at the birth of Jesus, “Good News of Great Joy for all People!” If it’s not that, it ain’t the Gospel.
And so we have been focusing on the core of the Gospel message, to satiate our desperate thirst for Good News in our world. And today. Today is the day of ultimate Good News. Good, Good News of Great Joy for all people:
“The Good News is…Alive in the World”
Preached Sunday, April 5, 2026 (Easter)
I love proclaiming the Good News of Easter. I love when I say, “Christ is Risen” and I hear over a hundred voices echoing back “Christ is Risen, Indeed!” So let’s proclaim the Good, Good News of the Gospel together this Easter morning:
Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen, Indeed!
This is the Good News of the Gospel! Christ is risen! Jesus is alive! Death does not have the final say! God offers us all an abundant, joyful, and Good News filled life!
We live in a world that is desperate for Good News. In the pews and in the world, we are a people parched, starving, in need of good news. There is a lot of bad news out there - even as I was writing this sermon, I saw multiple headlines that broke my heart - or would break my heart if I didn’t construct a wall around it to protect it from the endless awfulness of the world. Which is also not what God wants for us. I don’t need to belabor the bad news today - you all know what it is. Wars rage. Disasters happen. Children - and adults - die much too soon. People are mean to one another. We treat one another as less than the beloved children of God that each of us was created as. This is not the Good News of the Gospel.
We also need to acknowledge that sometimes what is packaged and sold as the Good News of Christ Jesus often fails to actually be “good” news - a “Gospel” that is exclusive, limiting, controlling, shaming, hateful is not the Good News of Jesus Christ.
And so over the past six weeks, during the course of the season of Lent, as a church we have been focusing on the Good, Good News of the Gospel. The word “Gospel” literally means “Good News” and it is as the angels proclaimed at the birth of Jesus, “Good News of Great Joy for all People!” If it’s not that, it ain’t the Gospel.
And so we have been focusing on the core of the Gospel message, to satiate our desperate thirst for Good News in our world. And today. Today is the day of ultimate Good News. Good, Good News of Great Joy for all people:
Jesus is alive!
Easter is here!
The Resurrection is real!
And so today as we proclaim the Good News of the Resurrection we should not just proclaim it but live it as well. And so we ask: How do we let this Good, Good News be alive in us? Alive in the world? Especially in a world that constantly tries to drown out, diminish, and obscure Good News with all the pain and hurt of the world?
Jenny Lawson is an author who writes and speaks very openly about her mental health struggles. She does so in a way that is often irreverent, hilarious, and relatable. In her newest book, “How To Be Okay When Nothing is Okay” she gives tips and tricks that she has found to function, be human, and stay alive when she is at her low points.
One of those tips and tricks is curating a joy list. She writes this:
“When depression creeps up on me, I am unable to find joy in things, but sometimes that’s because my depression makes me forget the things that bring me joy, and eventually I find myself stuck on the couch, unable to think about what I could do to help break out of it. So I’ve created a list of things that bring me joy or comfort that I continuously add to, and when I’m struggling, I go back to that list to remind myself of things that I can reintroduce to my life that made me happy. Sometimes a simple reminder that I’ve found joy before can be enough to convince me that I’ll soon find joy again.”
Her joy list in the book includes dressing her cat up, reading, singing loudly in the shower, microwavable kettle corn, and sitting in the sun. It made me think, what would be on my joy list? So I made one:
The sound of my children’s laughter
When the cherry trees are flowering
Marking off a book as finished on my reading app
The first sip of a matcha latte
A hug from a friend I haven’t seen in awhile
When I step outside after a long winter, and for the first time in months, I realize the birds are singing and that which was dormant inside of me comes to life again
That last one feels a lot like the Good News of Resurrection for me.
What would be on your joy list? What on that list feels like the Good News of Resurrection to you? Take just a moment and let a couple things come to your mind.
The next step as Christians, taking this from a great tool for mental health to a spiritual discipline of keeping the Good News of the Resurrection alive inside of us, is seeing the “things” on our joy lists not just as “things” but as gifts of joy from God in order to bring the Good News to our everyday lives.
Being a Christian means seeing all things through the lens of the Resurrection. The line between sacred and secular, the line between everyday and holy, disappears when we see all things that are life-giving as gifts from the God who is Life itself. Gifts from the God who broke the powers of sin and Death over us. Gifts from God who wishes abundant life for us.
Because we do live in a world where Death still sits on the throne and has power over us. We live in a world where there is grief, loss, tears, pain, bad news. And the Good News of the Gospel is that all the bad news won’t have the final say. Because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Death was defeated, and death is dying. We look to that day when Christ will return again to create a new heaven and a new earth, when Death will die the final death, Christ will reign, and we will share in eternal life. We look towards that day - and God offers us a foretaste of it now, whenever the Good, Good News is shared, whenever life flourishes, whenever we experience joy.
The Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dial puts it like this: “How can we trust resurrection when death is on the world’s throne? Because Jesus knows what we will always need to be reminded of: the good news is greater than any tyrant. The good news of God is more alive than anything that tries to kill God, more alive than anything that tries to kill the imago dei in all of us. Kings come and kings go, and we may tremble still—but God? God shakes the earth with power and might so tender and so fresh it can make a tomb bloom with new life.”
And so - let us make joy lists. Let’s also make Good News lists. Lists that proclaim the Good, Good News of the Gospel, Good News of Great Joy for all people! Perhaps our lists would look something like this:
“The Good News is…All Are Invited”
“The Good News is…So Good it Catches Us By Surprise"
“The Good News is… Great Love for God & Neighbor”
“The Good News is…Together, the Impossible is Possible”
“The Good News is…Protection & Care for the Vulnerable”
“The Good News is…Rooted in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness”
“The Good News is…Even Judas Gets His Feet Washed”
“The Good News…Revealed through Nonviolence”
“The Good News is…Alive in the World”
If you didn’t pick up on my little sermon Easter egg - those were all our Good News sermon titles in the season of Lent. We’ve been working on our Good, Good News lists all along.
And so, root yourself, ground yourself in the Good, Good News. Make the joy list. Make the Good News list.
The Gospel in Matthew is the “loudest” of all the Resurrection narratives - an earthquake, an angel descending from heaven before their eyes, his appearance like lightning, the guards shake and faint, there is great fear - and great joy - and running, and then…there is Jesus, alive and standing before them.
Let the Good News of Easter be loud in your life. Let the Good, Good News of Great Joy be alive in your life and in the world. Cultivate joy. Cultivate Good, Good News. In a world that so desperately needs the Good, Good News of the Gospel - be its amplifier. Offer a deep drink of life-giving joy to a world that is parched. Let your life be like birdsong after a long winter.
And with that, I want to leave you this morning with a poem by The Rev. Sarah Speed entitled, “Birdsong.”
“Every morning the sun rises,
majestic and steady.
She is greeted
in all her strength
with the joyous cacophony of birdsong.
I like to believe
this holy chorus
is the birds telling each other—
I’m here.
We made it through the night.
You’re not alone.
What good, good news.
I think the resurrection is a bit like that.
God is here.
We made it through the night.
We are not alone.
What good, good news.”
Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen, Indeed!
Amen.
Easter is here!
The Resurrection is real!
And so today as we proclaim the Good News of the Resurrection we should not just proclaim it but live it as well. And so we ask: How do we let this Good, Good News be alive in us? Alive in the world? Especially in a world that constantly tries to drown out, diminish, and obscure Good News with all the pain and hurt of the world?
Jenny Lawson is an author who writes and speaks very openly about her mental health struggles. She does so in a way that is often irreverent, hilarious, and relatable. In her newest book, “How To Be Okay When Nothing is Okay” she gives tips and tricks that she has found to function, be human, and stay alive when she is at her low points.
One of those tips and tricks is curating a joy list. She writes this:
“When depression creeps up on me, I am unable to find joy in things, but sometimes that’s because my depression makes me forget the things that bring me joy, and eventually I find myself stuck on the couch, unable to think about what I could do to help break out of it. So I’ve created a list of things that bring me joy or comfort that I continuously add to, and when I’m struggling, I go back to that list to remind myself of things that I can reintroduce to my life that made me happy. Sometimes a simple reminder that I’ve found joy before can be enough to convince me that I’ll soon find joy again.”
Her joy list in the book includes dressing her cat up, reading, singing loudly in the shower, microwavable kettle corn, and sitting in the sun. It made me think, what would be on my joy list? So I made one:
The sound of my children’s laughter
When the cherry trees are flowering
Marking off a book as finished on my reading app
The first sip of a matcha latte
A hug from a friend I haven’t seen in awhile
When I step outside after a long winter, and for the first time in months, I realize the birds are singing and that which was dormant inside of me comes to life again
That last one feels a lot like the Good News of Resurrection for me.
What would be on your joy list? What on that list feels like the Good News of Resurrection to you? Take just a moment and let a couple things come to your mind.
The next step as Christians, taking this from a great tool for mental health to a spiritual discipline of keeping the Good News of the Resurrection alive inside of us, is seeing the “things” on our joy lists not just as “things” but as gifts of joy from God in order to bring the Good News to our everyday lives.
Being a Christian means seeing all things through the lens of the Resurrection. The line between sacred and secular, the line between everyday and holy, disappears when we see all things that are life-giving as gifts from the God who is Life itself. Gifts from the God who broke the powers of sin and Death over us. Gifts from God who wishes abundant life for us.
Because we do live in a world where Death still sits on the throne and has power over us. We live in a world where there is grief, loss, tears, pain, bad news. And the Good News of the Gospel is that all the bad news won’t have the final say. Because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Death was defeated, and death is dying. We look to that day when Christ will return again to create a new heaven and a new earth, when Death will die the final death, Christ will reign, and we will share in eternal life. We look towards that day - and God offers us a foretaste of it now, whenever the Good, Good News is shared, whenever life flourishes, whenever we experience joy.
The Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dial puts it like this: “How can we trust resurrection when death is on the world’s throne? Because Jesus knows what we will always need to be reminded of: the good news is greater than any tyrant. The good news of God is more alive than anything that tries to kill God, more alive than anything that tries to kill the imago dei in all of us. Kings come and kings go, and we may tremble still—but God? God shakes the earth with power and might so tender and so fresh it can make a tomb bloom with new life.”
And so - let us make joy lists. Let’s also make Good News lists. Lists that proclaim the Good, Good News of the Gospel, Good News of Great Joy for all people! Perhaps our lists would look something like this:
“The Good News is…All Are Invited”
“The Good News is…So Good it Catches Us By Surprise"
“The Good News is… Great Love for God & Neighbor”
“The Good News is…Together, the Impossible is Possible”
“The Good News is…Protection & Care for the Vulnerable”
“The Good News is…Rooted in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness”
“The Good News is…Even Judas Gets His Feet Washed”
“The Good News…Revealed through Nonviolence”
“The Good News is…Alive in the World”
If you didn’t pick up on my little sermon Easter egg - those were all our Good News sermon titles in the season of Lent. We’ve been working on our Good, Good News lists all along.
And so, root yourself, ground yourself in the Good, Good News. Make the joy list. Make the Good News list.
The Gospel in Matthew is the “loudest” of all the Resurrection narratives - an earthquake, an angel descending from heaven before their eyes, his appearance like lightning, the guards shake and faint, there is great fear - and great joy - and running, and then…there is Jesus, alive and standing before them.
Let the Good News of Easter be loud in your life. Let the Good, Good News of Great Joy be alive in your life and in the world. Cultivate joy. Cultivate Good, Good News. In a world that so desperately needs the Good, Good News of the Gospel - be its amplifier. Offer a deep drink of life-giving joy to a world that is parched. Let your life be like birdsong after a long winter.
And with that, I want to leave you this morning with a poem by The Rev. Sarah Speed entitled, “Birdsong.”
“Every morning the sun rises,
majestic and steady.
She is greeted
in all her strength
with the joyous cacophony of birdsong.
I like to believe
this holy chorus
is the birds telling each other—
I’m here.
We made it through the night.
You’re not alone.
What good, good news.
I think the resurrection is a bit like that.
God is here.
We made it through the night.
We are not alone.
What good, good news.”
Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen, Indeed!
Amen.
Thursday, April 2, 2026
“The Good News Is…Even Judas Got His Feet Washed” a Maundy Thursday Sermon on John 13:1-35
John 13:1-35
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
“The Good News Is…Even Judas Got His Feet Washed”
Preached Thursday, April 2, 2026 (Maundy Thursday)
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
“The Good News Is…Even Judas Got His Feet Washed”
Preached Thursday, April 2, 2026 (Maundy Thursday)
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”
This is the Good News of this night - a night of love. A night of service. A night of water and towels. A night of bread and wine. A night of Good News.
And the part of the Good News we are focusing on tonight in our Maundy Thursday meditation, is that Jesus’s love, Jesus’s service of foot washing, and Jesus’s invitation to the first Lord’s Supper - included Judas. He was present for the foot washing. He was present for the institution of Holy Communion. And he was one of Jesus’s own - loved until the end.
Yes, even Judas. And that also allows us to say, “Yes, even him.” “Yes, even her.” “Yes, even the one I despise.” And, perhaps, “Yes, even me.”
I think, at our core, as humans, all we ever really want to know is that we are loved. Loved by the people who gave birth to us. Loved by our caretakers. Loved by friends. Loved by significant others. Loved by God. For most people, there is never enough assurance that we are loved enough. We are always seeking love and seeking proof and assurance of the love we have.
And the world warps our own self-image as one created in the image of God and called “very good” by that God, to a mess. To someone full of faults and mistakes. Even when we say, “I’m only human” - this is what we mean. We are sinful people prone to follow our worst natures, inklings, and desires. Even if we “aren’t that bad” - even if we are generally good people, we can still have low self-esteem, be our own worst critics, and see only the bad parts when we look at ourselves.
In the Poem, “Even Now,” The Rev. Sarah Speed, gets to the gist of this human desire to know we are loved:
We ask the question a million different times
over the course of lives.
Do you love me even now?
As children we ask this question
with eyes the size of saucers
and a quivering bottom lip.
In our teenage years,
we ask the question by pushing people away
and paying attention to who comes back.
As adults we ask the question by
extending the first invitation
and seeing who returns the kindness.
Over and over again we ask the world,
Do you love me even now?
The thing I’ve learned about God
is that, no matter what comes before “even now,”
the answer will always be yes.
End quote.
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”
Judas betrayed Jesus, ultimately setting up the dominoes to fall - for his death to his resurrection. In the Gospel tellings of this last night with his disciples, we see Jesus address Judas’s betrayal in various ways - and yet, he doesn’t say “this is my body, broken for you. My blood, shed for you. Except for you, Judas, you are beyond the pale - not worthy of grace and forgiveness.” And even as Jesus says, “Not all of you are clean” in tonight’s reading from John - Jesus had not yet named Judas a betrayer. He got down on his hands and knees before Judas, washed his feet, and showed him a service of love - yes, even him.
Ultimately, it was up to Judas as to whether he would accept the love, grace, forgiveness that Jesus was offering him. After all, Peter betrayed Jesus that very night as well. Denying him three times. - and yet, after his resurrection, Jesus meets Peter on the beach and allows him to accept forgiveness of himself, asking him three times, “Do you love me?” and allowing Peter to answer three times, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” Three declarations of love to counter act three denials of Jesus - opening room in Peter’s heart to accept the love and forgiveness that Jesus was offering him.
If we used our Biblical imaginations, we might imagine a future where, after his death and resurrection, Jesus met Judas and offered him the chance to repent. What would it have looked like to repent for Judas?
Unfortunately, we don’t know because Judas could not accept God’s forgiveness for him in this life. Perhaps, his thoughts mirror our thoughts in our darkest moment: “I am not worthy of love. I am not worthy of forgiveness.”
But. And. The Good News of the Gospel is that…Jesus was still offering that grace and forgiveness to Judas. He was offering him love and service through the washing of feet. He was offering him a place of belonging and participation in the salvific act of forgiveness through Holy Communion. It is as we say in our Communion liturgy, “When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.”
Jesus’s love for Judas was steadfast. God’s love for you is steadfast.
And the part of the Good News we are focusing on tonight in our Maundy Thursday meditation, is that Jesus’s love, Jesus’s service of foot washing, and Jesus’s invitation to the first Lord’s Supper - included Judas. He was present for the foot washing. He was present for the institution of Holy Communion. And he was one of Jesus’s own - loved until the end.
Yes, even Judas. And that also allows us to say, “Yes, even him.” “Yes, even her.” “Yes, even the one I despise.” And, perhaps, “Yes, even me.”
I think, at our core, as humans, all we ever really want to know is that we are loved. Loved by the people who gave birth to us. Loved by our caretakers. Loved by friends. Loved by significant others. Loved by God. For most people, there is never enough assurance that we are loved enough. We are always seeking love and seeking proof and assurance of the love we have.
And the world warps our own self-image as one created in the image of God and called “very good” by that God, to a mess. To someone full of faults and mistakes. Even when we say, “I’m only human” - this is what we mean. We are sinful people prone to follow our worst natures, inklings, and desires. Even if we “aren’t that bad” - even if we are generally good people, we can still have low self-esteem, be our own worst critics, and see only the bad parts when we look at ourselves.
In the Poem, “Even Now,” The Rev. Sarah Speed, gets to the gist of this human desire to know we are loved:
We ask the question a million different times
over the course of lives.
Do you love me even now?
As children we ask this question
with eyes the size of saucers
and a quivering bottom lip.
In our teenage years,
we ask the question by pushing people away
and paying attention to who comes back.
As adults we ask the question by
extending the first invitation
and seeing who returns the kindness.
Over and over again we ask the world,
Do you love me even now?
The thing I’ve learned about God
is that, no matter what comes before “even now,”
the answer will always be yes.
End quote.
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”
Judas betrayed Jesus, ultimately setting up the dominoes to fall - for his death to his resurrection. In the Gospel tellings of this last night with his disciples, we see Jesus address Judas’s betrayal in various ways - and yet, he doesn’t say “this is my body, broken for you. My blood, shed for you. Except for you, Judas, you are beyond the pale - not worthy of grace and forgiveness.” And even as Jesus says, “Not all of you are clean” in tonight’s reading from John - Jesus had not yet named Judas a betrayer. He got down on his hands and knees before Judas, washed his feet, and showed him a service of love - yes, even him.
Ultimately, it was up to Judas as to whether he would accept the love, grace, forgiveness that Jesus was offering him. After all, Peter betrayed Jesus that very night as well. Denying him three times. - and yet, after his resurrection, Jesus meets Peter on the beach and allows him to accept forgiveness of himself, asking him three times, “Do you love me?” and allowing Peter to answer three times, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” Three declarations of love to counter act three denials of Jesus - opening room in Peter’s heart to accept the love and forgiveness that Jesus was offering him.
If we used our Biblical imaginations, we might imagine a future where, after his death and resurrection, Jesus met Judas and offered him the chance to repent. What would it have looked like to repent for Judas?
Unfortunately, we don’t know because Judas could not accept God’s forgiveness for him in this life. Perhaps, his thoughts mirror our thoughts in our darkest moment: “I am not worthy of love. I am not worthy of forgiveness.”
But. And. The Good News of the Gospel is that…Jesus was still offering that grace and forgiveness to Judas. He was offering him love and service through the washing of feet. He was offering him a place of belonging and participation in the salvific act of forgiveness through Holy Communion. It is as we say in our Communion liturgy, “When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.”
Jesus’s love for Judas was steadfast. God’s love for you is steadfast.
There is nothing you can do to change God’s invitation to you to come to Jesus, to accept grace and love, and to be forgiven. The only thing keeping us from God’s love is ourselves. It is as CS Lewis said, the gates of hell are locked from the inside - or even that there are no gates, the only thing that could ever keep us from God is just…ourselves.
And this is hard news. For us. And it is also very very Good News for us. The invitation is here to accept God’s love. It’s wide open. It always will be - tonight and for forever.
I am going to end with one more poem by the Rev. Sarah Speed because it’s so good. It’s called “If You Hear Nothing Else, Then Hear This.”
You can make a fool of yourself.
You can bet on the wrong thing,
lose it all, unravel people’s trust.
You can laugh at a funeral,
curse in a church, say the wrong thing
at the wrong time, every time.
You can lose yourself in a bottle,
a relationship, a false sense of security.
You can uncover prejudice
and wrestle with the shame of it all.
You can withhold an apology,
blame it on someone else,
tell yourself it’s not your fault.
You can trade in love
for a bag of coins.
And even then,
even still,
even now,
Jesus will love you enough to
wash your feet.
If you hear nothing else in the gospel,
hear this.
End quote.
If you hear nothing else in the Gospel tonight hear this Good News: God’s love for you is steadfast.
And this is hard news. For us. And it is also very very Good News for us. The invitation is here to accept God’s love. It’s wide open. It always will be - tonight and for forever.
I am going to end with one more poem by the Rev. Sarah Speed because it’s so good. It’s called “If You Hear Nothing Else, Then Hear This.”
You can make a fool of yourself.
You can bet on the wrong thing,
lose it all, unravel people’s trust.
You can laugh at a funeral,
curse in a church, say the wrong thing
at the wrong time, every time.
You can lose yourself in a bottle,
a relationship, a false sense of security.
You can uncover prejudice
and wrestle with the shame of it all.
You can withhold an apology,
blame it on someone else,
tell yourself it’s not your fault.
You can trade in love
for a bag of coins.
And even then,
even still,
even now,
Jesus will love you enough to
wash your feet.
If you hear nothing else in the gospel,
hear this.
End quote.
If you hear nothing else in the Gospel tonight hear this Good News: God’s love for you is steadfast.
Amen.
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
“The Good News Is…Rooted in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness” a sermon on John 8:2-11 & Matthew 23:23
John 8:2-11
Matthew 23:23
“The Good News Is…Rooted in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness”
Preached Sunday, March 22, 2026
The end of Lent is in sight - next week begins Holy Week with Palm Sunday - and then two Sundays from now we will be proclaiming the Good News of the Resurrection together.
Matthew 23:23
“The Good News Is…Rooted in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness”
Preached Sunday, March 22, 2026
The end of Lent is in sight - next week begins Holy Week with Palm Sunday - and then two Sundays from now we will be proclaiming the Good News of the Resurrection together.
This Lent we have chosen to focus on the Good News of the Gospel. In a world that is so desperately in need of Good News - within the church pews and without - our sermon series is, “Tell Me Something Good: Rooting Ourselves in the Good News this Lent.” We are highlighting that the word “Gospel” literally means “Good News.” And the messages that God has to share with us are, as the angels proclaimed at the birth of Jesus, “Good News of Great Joy for all people.”
And yet - as we come nearer to Holy Week, we see Jesus butting heads with the religious elite involved in mob mentality. That same mob mentality that partners with the power of Empire will lead to Jesus’s death on Good Friday. Good Friday, as well as today’s Gospel reading from John, is meant to hold the mirror back up to us, causing us to cease our human practicies of mob mentality, scapegoating, and treating each other as less than fully human.
To Jesus, his situation at the beginning of this week’s Gospel is not good news. And it’s certainly not good news for the woman dragged before him. For a trap has been set for Jesus and the woman and her very life is the collateral damage that the mob is willing to sacrifice to catch Jesus in a trap.
There are several reasons to assume the men in the mob who bring this woman before Jesus do not actually care about her or upholding the law at all. Where was the man who she was supposedly caught in adultery with? Was it a set-up? Who betrayed her confidence? Was the “act” they caught her in even adultery or was it, as many feminist scholars have wondered, actually assault? Why drag her before Jesus at all, why involve him? How long had they kept her in their grasps before they found the opportune moment to make the biggest scene involving Jesus? No, they are certainly not recognizing her humanity, they mean for her to just be a pawn in a game, a scapegoat, collateral damage.
They waited until Jesus was teaching in the temple - and there were not only the accusers and the woman present, not only Jesus and the crowds listening to him teach present, but also Roman soldiers. According to scholar Kenneth E. Bailey, this area of the temple was regularly patrolled by Roman soldiers, keeping an eye out for unrest. So you can picture the scene - this woman and Jesus are literally between a rock and a hard place. The jaws of the trap are ready to close in on them. For the question they asked Jesus, “Now what do you say?” was a trick question with no right answer.
Sarah Bessey on her piece “The Woman Who Was Not Collateral Damage” put the trick question like this: “The religious leaders are pretty sure they have Jesus in the trap now because to their minds, he only has three options: 1) yes, let’s stone her - which runs afoul of the soldiers standing nearby, or 2) ‘alas, I wish we could stone this bad lady but we can’t because of our occupiers,’ which could be interpreted as not taking the law seriously or as cowardice and a betrayal in service of their occupiers or 3) forgive her and let her go, therefore showing his lack of respect for the law and discrediting him entirely. Bailey goes on to say that if Jesus decides to ‘carry out the law of Moses, he will be arrested. If he opts to set it aside, he will be discredited. What is it going to be: Moses or Rome? Either way he loses and his opponents win.’”
End quote.
And so, caught in a trap, Jesus bends down and begins to draw in the dirt. But they keep pestering him, asking him questions - not asking the woman questions, perhaps they were afraid she would share how they trapped, tricked, and betrayed her to be in this position - but no, for them, this isn’t about her, it’s about trapping Jesus. And so they keep on questioning him, “What do you say? What do you say? What do you say?” And so Jesus answers, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And he then bends down and continues to draw in the dirt.
There have been thousands of interpretations about what Jesus wrote in the dirt. Did he write the strictest interpretation of the law they were bringing before them and then wiping it away? Was he writing the portions of the law they were ignoring - like where were the witnesses? Where was the man? Was he writing the sins of the accusers? Reminding them that they are not without sin and thus cannot cast the first stone? Was he writing the names of the accusers? Was he simply doodling, not giving them the satisfaction of baiting him?
I have always liked the interpretation that he was writing the sins of the accusers or even their names. Because one by one, the crowd disperses until there is no one left to accuse the woman or stone her.
I like these two ideas of what Jesus was writing because they focus on the individuals that make up the crowd of accusers. It moves them from being part of a murderous scheming crowd, it moves them from mob violence, back to individuals who are known, loved, and forgiven by God.
Bessey says, “I find it interesting that Jesus refuses to let them remain part of an anonymous angry mob. He slows down the panic, demands, and the passionate exchanges by writing on the ground. That decision disarms them. And then, with his question - usually translated as ‘let him without sin cast the first stone’ - he transforms that mob into a crowd of people with faces and names. He essentially asks each person there to own up to what they are about to do. If you want to do this, buddy, do it with your full chest and your name attached. Let us see you do it.”
Because in our world today, just as it was 2000 years ago, it is easier to pass on judgement and condemnation when one’s individual identity is obscured. That is, we are seeing ourselves as part of a crowd - the accusers who meant to trap Jesus that day with a woman’s life on the line were viewing themselves as a part of a crowd, of a group. Mob mentality had taken over due to religion and us-versus-them mentality. This pattern continues today in political parties, religious sects, extremist groups, and anyone who has ever gotten in a fight online, their identity hidden behind a keyboard. When we stop viewing ourselves as individuals who are also in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness - and recipients of that mercy and forgiveness - we also stop viewing “the other” as individuals in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness, also beloved by God. It is “us-versus-them” / “right-versus-wrong” / “righteous-versus-unrighteous” / “The good guys versus the bad guys.” And thus whatever we do to one another is excusable.
We cannot extend mercy to one another. We cannot extend forgiveness to one another. We cannot strive for God’s justice in this world (which is nothing like our human systems of punishment) when we are too busy engaging in cultural wars and sorting everyone we meet into boxes of “good” and “bad.”
This is what Jesus means in his teaching from Matthew 23 today. Our verse was this:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.”
I like The Message paraphrase so I am going to share that here: “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?”
Mint, dill, and cumin grow in abundance. They are the little things. If anyone has accidently made the mistake of putting mint in the ground or in a large garden bed they know this. It takes over. So basically Jesus says they are paying attention to the little things - “nickel and diming” the law. “Oh you messed up here on this little tiny thing - you put a comma in the wrong place! And so you are condemed!” While ignoring the GOOD NEWS, the whole point of the law and how we are to treat one another in a way that is pleasing to God - with justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
So Jesus doesn’t play their games. He breaks up mob mentality, centering the humanity of each person in that mob of accusers until there were none left in the crowd to accuse. It is then that he turns to the woman, putting his full attention on her, and releases her from the trap that was laid, freeing her from being the collateral damage that she was intended to be. Just as he refused to let the accusers lose their individual identities in the mob, he now centers her personhood. I imagine he remains crouched down in the dirt, at her level, looks her in the eyes and says “You are not condemned - by them or by me.” I imagine he helps her stand - tall, upright - no longer crouched inward protecting herself, no stones will be thrown today. He then says, “Go and sin no more” which Bessey interprets as “be careful.”
She isn’t a pawn in a game. She isn’t what they accused her of. She is a beloved child of God, a recipient of God’s mercy, forgiveness, and justice.
We all are. This is the Good News of the Gospel - the Gospel that is Rooted in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness.
This is the Good News of the Gospel: God offers us unmerited, unearned mercy and forgiveness.
This is the Good News of the Gospel: we are called to extend mercy and forgiveness to others, modeling God’s reign of justice.
We do this when we center the humanity of each and every person in our lives and our world. When we consider our individual and collective actions, how we treat one another in our day to day lives on the micro scale and the laws and systems in place on the macro scale. The Good News of the Gospel should cause us to ask: “What is the most just, merciful, and faithful action?” Or even simply, “what would Jesus do?”
The thing is, mercy in our world is not easy. It makes no sense. The scales don’t balance. And that’s the point. If we were worthy of mercy based on human metrics, we would never receive it - or give it. It would be an eye for eye until the whole world was blind.
The Rev. Lizzie Dial-McManus says it like this, “Mercy—unmerited, inadvisably offered, and brimming with foolish hope—is the making of a Christ-follower…. And yet, mercy makes no sense. It is not logical, or equally beneficial. Mercy does not make us money or make us look good. But mercy is what makes us God’s own. The receiving and extending of mercy in the most awful and improbable of places is what makes me know that God is still at work in this world. Mercy is a practice of hoping and knowing that there is more than the thing that hurts us—more than the thing that haunts us.”
So hear this Good News - God is offering you mercy. God is offering you the invitation to do the faithful thing and extend mercy and forgiveness to your fellow beloved human beings, all of us known and named before God - no “us and them” no “others” - just people. Messed up people and yet known and loved by God - with the capacity to be known and loved by one another.
This is the Good News of the Gospel. There is no judgement. There is no stoning. The world’s justice is flipped on its head, no one gets what they deserve - but we do all get God’s love. Will we accept it and share it with one another?
Amen.
And yet - as we come nearer to Holy Week, we see Jesus butting heads with the religious elite involved in mob mentality. That same mob mentality that partners with the power of Empire will lead to Jesus’s death on Good Friday. Good Friday, as well as today’s Gospel reading from John, is meant to hold the mirror back up to us, causing us to cease our human practicies of mob mentality, scapegoating, and treating each other as less than fully human.
To Jesus, his situation at the beginning of this week’s Gospel is not good news. And it’s certainly not good news for the woman dragged before him. For a trap has been set for Jesus and the woman and her very life is the collateral damage that the mob is willing to sacrifice to catch Jesus in a trap.
There are several reasons to assume the men in the mob who bring this woman before Jesus do not actually care about her or upholding the law at all. Where was the man who she was supposedly caught in adultery with? Was it a set-up? Who betrayed her confidence? Was the “act” they caught her in even adultery or was it, as many feminist scholars have wondered, actually assault? Why drag her before Jesus at all, why involve him? How long had they kept her in their grasps before they found the opportune moment to make the biggest scene involving Jesus? No, they are certainly not recognizing her humanity, they mean for her to just be a pawn in a game, a scapegoat, collateral damage.
They waited until Jesus was teaching in the temple - and there were not only the accusers and the woman present, not only Jesus and the crowds listening to him teach present, but also Roman soldiers. According to scholar Kenneth E. Bailey, this area of the temple was regularly patrolled by Roman soldiers, keeping an eye out for unrest. So you can picture the scene - this woman and Jesus are literally between a rock and a hard place. The jaws of the trap are ready to close in on them. For the question they asked Jesus, “Now what do you say?” was a trick question with no right answer.
Sarah Bessey on her piece “The Woman Who Was Not Collateral Damage” put the trick question like this: “The religious leaders are pretty sure they have Jesus in the trap now because to their minds, he only has three options: 1) yes, let’s stone her - which runs afoul of the soldiers standing nearby, or 2) ‘alas, I wish we could stone this bad lady but we can’t because of our occupiers,’ which could be interpreted as not taking the law seriously or as cowardice and a betrayal in service of their occupiers or 3) forgive her and let her go, therefore showing his lack of respect for the law and discrediting him entirely. Bailey goes on to say that if Jesus decides to ‘carry out the law of Moses, he will be arrested. If he opts to set it aside, he will be discredited. What is it going to be: Moses or Rome? Either way he loses and his opponents win.’”
End quote.
And so, caught in a trap, Jesus bends down and begins to draw in the dirt. But they keep pestering him, asking him questions - not asking the woman questions, perhaps they were afraid she would share how they trapped, tricked, and betrayed her to be in this position - but no, for them, this isn’t about her, it’s about trapping Jesus. And so they keep on questioning him, “What do you say? What do you say? What do you say?” And so Jesus answers, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And he then bends down and continues to draw in the dirt.
There have been thousands of interpretations about what Jesus wrote in the dirt. Did he write the strictest interpretation of the law they were bringing before them and then wiping it away? Was he writing the portions of the law they were ignoring - like where were the witnesses? Where was the man? Was he writing the sins of the accusers? Reminding them that they are not without sin and thus cannot cast the first stone? Was he writing the names of the accusers? Was he simply doodling, not giving them the satisfaction of baiting him?
I have always liked the interpretation that he was writing the sins of the accusers or even their names. Because one by one, the crowd disperses until there is no one left to accuse the woman or stone her.
I like these two ideas of what Jesus was writing because they focus on the individuals that make up the crowd of accusers. It moves them from being part of a murderous scheming crowd, it moves them from mob violence, back to individuals who are known, loved, and forgiven by God.
Bessey says, “I find it interesting that Jesus refuses to let them remain part of an anonymous angry mob. He slows down the panic, demands, and the passionate exchanges by writing on the ground. That decision disarms them. And then, with his question - usually translated as ‘let him without sin cast the first stone’ - he transforms that mob into a crowd of people with faces and names. He essentially asks each person there to own up to what they are about to do. If you want to do this, buddy, do it with your full chest and your name attached. Let us see you do it.”
Because in our world today, just as it was 2000 years ago, it is easier to pass on judgement and condemnation when one’s individual identity is obscured. That is, we are seeing ourselves as part of a crowd - the accusers who meant to trap Jesus that day with a woman’s life on the line were viewing themselves as a part of a crowd, of a group. Mob mentality had taken over due to religion and us-versus-them mentality. This pattern continues today in political parties, religious sects, extremist groups, and anyone who has ever gotten in a fight online, their identity hidden behind a keyboard. When we stop viewing ourselves as individuals who are also in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness - and recipients of that mercy and forgiveness - we also stop viewing “the other” as individuals in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness, also beloved by God. It is “us-versus-them” / “right-versus-wrong” / “righteous-versus-unrighteous” / “The good guys versus the bad guys.” And thus whatever we do to one another is excusable.
We cannot extend mercy to one another. We cannot extend forgiveness to one another. We cannot strive for God’s justice in this world (which is nothing like our human systems of punishment) when we are too busy engaging in cultural wars and sorting everyone we meet into boxes of “good” and “bad.”
This is what Jesus means in his teaching from Matthew 23 today. Our verse was this:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.”
I like The Message paraphrase so I am going to share that here: “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?”
Mint, dill, and cumin grow in abundance. They are the little things. If anyone has accidently made the mistake of putting mint in the ground or in a large garden bed they know this. It takes over. So basically Jesus says they are paying attention to the little things - “nickel and diming” the law. “Oh you messed up here on this little tiny thing - you put a comma in the wrong place! And so you are condemed!” While ignoring the GOOD NEWS, the whole point of the law and how we are to treat one another in a way that is pleasing to God - with justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
So Jesus doesn’t play their games. He breaks up mob mentality, centering the humanity of each person in that mob of accusers until there were none left in the crowd to accuse. It is then that he turns to the woman, putting his full attention on her, and releases her from the trap that was laid, freeing her from being the collateral damage that she was intended to be. Just as he refused to let the accusers lose their individual identities in the mob, he now centers her personhood. I imagine he remains crouched down in the dirt, at her level, looks her in the eyes and says “You are not condemned - by them or by me.” I imagine he helps her stand - tall, upright - no longer crouched inward protecting herself, no stones will be thrown today. He then says, “Go and sin no more” which Bessey interprets as “be careful.”
She isn’t a pawn in a game. She isn’t what they accused her of. She is a beloved child of God, a recipient of God’s mercy, forgiveness, and justice.
We all are. This is the Good News of the Gospel - the Gospel that is Rooted in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness.
This is the Good News of the Gospel: God offers us unmerited, unearned mercy and forgiveness.
This is the Good News of the Gospel: we are called to extend mercy and forgiveness to others, modeling God’s reign of justice.
We do this when we center the humanity of each and every person in our lives and our world. When we consider our individual and collective actions, how we treat one another in our day to day lives on the micro scale and the laws and systems in place on the macro scale. The Good News of the Gospel should cause us to ask: “What is the most just, merciful, and faithful action?” Or even simply, “what would Jesus do?”
The thing is, mercy in our world is not easy. It makes no sense. The scales don’t balance. And that’s the point. If we were worthy of mercy based on human metrics, we would never receive it - or give it. It would be an eye for eye until the whole world was blind.
The Rev. Lizzie Dial-McManus says it like this, “Mercy—unmerited, inadvisably offered, and brimming with foolish hope—is the making of a Christ-follower…. And yet, mercy makes no sense. It is not logical, or equally beneficial. Mercy does not make us money or make us look good. But mercy is what makes us God’s own. The receiving and extending of mercy in the most awful and improbable of places is what makes me know that God is still at work in this world. Mercy is a practice of hoping and knowing that there is more than the thing that hurts us—more than the thing that haunts us.”
So hear this Good News - God is offering you mercy. God is offering you the invitation to do the faithful thing and extend mercy and forgiveness to your fellow beloved human beings, all of us known and named before God - no “us and them” no “others” - just people. Messed up people and yet known and loved by God - with the capacity to be known and loved by one another.
This is the Good News of the Gospel. There is no judgement. There is no stoning. The world’s justice is flipped on its head, no one gets what they deserve - but we do all get God’s love. Will we accept it and share it with one another?
Amen.
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