title: David and Goliath

themes: power-as-domination power-in-weakness responding-to-injustice pride confession-of-sin the-cross self-as-enemy

text:
**Scripture:** 1 Samuel 17:41-47; 1 Corinthians 1:23-25; 2 Corinthians 12:9-10; 1 Samuel 18:7; 1 Samuel 18:25-27
**Series:** 2021

> A sermon in the 'Songs of the Bible' series on 1 Samuel 17:41-47. After opening with the Texas A&M 12th-man story and a depiction of how untrained ancient soldiers really were, the preacher notes we usually identify with underdog David because of the power asymmetry all children feel. He flips the story: what if we are Goliath, the one wielding power to harm? Tracing the arc from Samson through David, Solomon, and the prideful kings into exile, he argues we are all part-David, part-Goliath, which is why we confess. The true power of David lies not in his skills but in his weakness, where God's power shows, just as the cross is weakness to the world yet the power that defeats the Goliath of death. He calls the congregation to be willing to be weak, to confess, and to forgive together.

**Illustrations:** texas-am-12th-man-e-king-gill, grandfather-john-huebel-aggie-1940, liam-neeson-taken-particular-skills, lieutenant-french-placeholder-etymology, samson-jewish-goliath, david-jerusalem-idf-six-day-war, david-two-hundred-foreskins-michal, teacher-quote-no-regrets-not-human

---

# July 18
## David and Goliath

The Philistine got closer and closer to David, and his shield-bearer was in front of him. When the Philistine looked David over, he sneered at David because he was just a boy; reddish brown and good-looking. The Philistine asked David, “Am I some sort of dog that you come at me with sticks?” And he cursed David by his gods. “Come here,” he said to David, “and I’ll feed your flesh to the wild birds and the wild animals!” But David told the Philistine, “You are coming against me with sword, spear, and scimitar, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel’s army, the one you’ve insulted. Today the Lord will hand you over to me. I will strike you down and cut off your head! Today I will feed your dead body and the dead bodies of the entire Philistine camp to the wild birds and the wild animals. Then the whole world will know that there is a God on Israel’s side. And all those gathered here will know that the Lord doesn’t save by means of sword and spear. The Lord owns this war, and he will hand all of you over to us.” 1 Samuel 17:41-47

Some of, you know that I grew up in College Station, Texas, where there is this small, higher educational institution. It shoots off cannons on Saturdays during a good year. Our house was a few blocks away from Kyle Field and I went to Aggie games all throughout childhood. My grandfather was an Aggie class of 1940. He was there when they won the national championship and the bonfire was a junk pile. My grandfather, John Huebel, was dropped off in the middle of the night at the train station and he didn't know where he was going in the dark. When the sun came up, he realized that he still had two more miles to walk to get to the university. Most Aggies you meet are really excited about A&M. A few Aggies are two percenters, but most are not. Many go to fish camp before school in order to enter into the story and glory of what it means to be an Aggie, as well, the different hand signals for games and who can stand and who can sit during which quarter and the importance of the 12th man, and the story of the 12th man, as well. It is a great story.

> On Jan. 2, 1922, the heavily outgunned Aggies were facing the top-ranked Centre College Praying Colonels on the gridiron in the Dixie Classic in Dallas. An Aggie by the name of E. King Gill, a squad player for Texas A&M’s football team, was up in the press box helping reporters identify players on the field below — and what was happening on the field wasn’t pretty.
>
> The Aggies found themselves plagued by injuries, with their reserves seemingly dwindling with every play. As Texas A&M Coach Dana X. Bible looked across his rapidly emptying bench, he suddenly remembered Gill’s presence in the stands. Bible waved Gill down to the sideline and told him to suit up. Gill ran under the bleachers and put on the uniform of injured running back Heine Weir, who had been knocked out of the game in the first quarter.
> Gill returned to the sideline, where he stood ready to play for the entirety of the game. When the last play was run, the Aggies found that they had pulled off one of the greatest upsets in college football history, winning the game 22-14.
> And Gill remained standing, the only player left on the team’s bench.

The idea is that anybody could be the 12th man. If you're willing and ready, coach could call you in. In some ways, this is how the story of David and Goliath has been read and taught. It is a familiar story. It is an easy story to teach. You may not be Goliath, or as big as Goliath, but you can be David. You can have the power of God.

My brothers and sisters, we are continuing our series on songs of the Bible that looks through the scriptures in a way guided and retold in music. There are a lot of explicit songs in the Bible, but it all can be turned into song. For God’s love for us is so great that we cannot help but sing.

Today, David and Goliath.

David was a boy, for sure. He was small compared to the other soldiers who were afraid of the big man, Goliath, but like Liam Neeson in the movie, Taken, David had a particular set of skills that helped him in this enterprise. As a shepherd, he was not afraid of lions and wolves. He had fought them off. He protected his flock without swords. He practiced and honed his craft, but, still, a fully armored warrior is a frightening thing. It's a scary thing. It should be. That's the whole point. Ancient armor was as much about scaring your enemy as protecting your insides. There weren't any regular armies in the ancient world, not until the Roman legions only a few hundred years before the birth of Christ. All the fighters in all the armies did other stuff the rest of their time. They were called for war when it was deemed necessary by the lords of the land, but they were farmers and craftsmen, first.
They weren't trained for battle beyond a few cursory instructions. Stick them with the pointy end, something like that. They weren't, for the most part, battle hardened. They weren't used to seeing metal in front of them aimed at their death. This is very, very different than it was for those of you who fought for our country. Going through basic training would have been an incredible luxury for soldiers of David’s time. Even a week of just getting used to all the rules, getting your body in shape, getting your mind in shape, learning to have unit identity, all these basic things that happen in modern military training. How to use your tools of war, how to meet objectives.
As well, there wasn't really an officer Corps in the ancient world. This is why folks were sitting around the tent talking about how scary Goliath looked. “He’s really big and scary. I don't want to fight him.” “I don't want to either.” There were so-called generals like Abner and others lifted up as heroes, but for the most part, they would have been the literal meaning of Lieutenant, which in French means place-holder. Lieu  means place, tenir, is to take or to hold. Lieutenant, Place-taker or place holder. Somebody needs to tell the poor fools where to go, so it might as well be you.
A few hundred years after the time of David, the Greeks and the Persians brought tactics and strategy to war in ways never seen before, then there is Alexander the Great and Hannibal and Scipio Africanus and Julius Caesar. But for the most part, soldiers in the Army of King Saul are just these dudes trying to survive. Dudes who are told that if they don't fight for this guy, they're going to be killed.
And if they do fight, they'll probably still be killed. Almost every injury was also a death sentence due to field medicine at the time. David was a boy who came to bring rations for his brothers and he had a certain set of skills. When others were afraid and did nothing, David stood for God and defeated the giant.
David and Goliath is a powerful story and a powerful song for children because there is this power asymmetry that everyone feels. All children feel it. For the child, there are always people bigger than you.
You know, to be a child is to come to grips with a deep power asymmetry, realizing that you are not as powerful as the people around you. All grownups are more powerful than you. Even when you get larger, there are people more powerful than you. Some of the challenge of adulthood is understanding and realizing your own limitations in that. No matter your profession, no matter your field, there are people more powerful than you in different ways.
I mean, you may be the richest person you know, but there are people who have other abilities or, they have youth, or they have other gifts or different things like that. The universe is not balanced. If someone you know is gifted in one thing, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are gifted in another.

We understand that there are David’s and that there are Goliaths and we often see ourselves more like David. We're drawn to the story because of these power asymmetries.

But there is another way to hear and understand the story of David and Goliath. Instead of the Davids, what if we are the Goliaths? It's one thing to hear the story and to be like, “yeah, I am like David and I can be powerful.” It's another thing to read this story and say, “oh my gosh, what if I am Goliath? Yes. What if I am the one with the power here? What if I am the one with the strength? What if I am using this power to harm others?”
The story of David and Goliath comes after the story of Samson in the book of Judges, Samson, who was a Nazarite, who was pledged to God to never cut his hair or drink, but was given amazing strength and, for example, was able to kill a thousand people with the jaw bone. of a donkey. Samson, in some ways, could be seen as the Jewish Goliath. He is eventually taken down by his pride. He has been given gifts by God, but he's too proud and blinded by them.
The story of David does not end in David and Goliath. David turns into a great strategist and a great general in his own right. People chant Saul has slain his thousands but David his ten thousands. David later captures Jerusalem from the Kidron Valley in the south, a feat that is not repeated until the IDF took the city from the same side in the Six Days War. After David and Goliath, Saul becomes jealous and tries to get David killed and so he gives him these impossible tasks in order to marry Saul's daughter, Mikel, Saul says that you need to cut off 100 foreskins of the enemy. And David cuts off 200 foreskins, and puts them in a bag, the most disgusting bag I can imagine, and gives them to Saul.
So weird stuff going on. Eventually, the pride of David ruins him. His son, Solomon, becomes king and does great things. Solomon builds the Temple, but the pride of Solomon ruins him, as well. And then, pretty much all of the heirs of Solomon are really bad. The books of Kings and second Chronicles are filled with Kings of Israel who who are filled with pride, who are Goliaths. Instead of sending another warrior to fight them, God sends prophets like Elijah, like Jeremiah and Isaiah. All of it ultimately ends in the exile to Babylon and Assyria.
Few of us are all Davids or all Goliaths. We all have moments of righteousness and moments of thirsts for power. This is one of the reasons why we practice the prayer of confession in our early service, and why we believe in the power of confession. We realize that mistakes will be made.

We are going to distort God's gifts in some way. It's going to happen. As a teacher of mine wrote, “Someone who has no regrets is someone not fully human and certainly someone not much formed as a Christian.” We can lie to ourselves about it or we can confront that reality. And the question is, what are we going to do about it? Just like the question is not if you're going to get knocked down in life, but how fast you'll get back up again. This life is going to knock us down. This life is going to give us challenges that are not as clear as David and Goliath. There will be enemies that are not as clear as the Philistines and people willing to make direct confrontations like that. This life is filled with ambiguity, with challenges below the surface. This life is filled with moments when we, ourselves, are our greatest enemy.
We need to remember that the power of David is not in his guile or his tricks as a shepherd or his experience with fighting lions and wolves. It is not his particular set of skills.
The power of David is in his weakness. Let me say that again. The power of David is in his weakness because in that very weakness, we see the power of God. In that willingness to be weak, we see the power of God. As Paul says, though I am weak, he is strong and I boast not in myself, but in the cross of Jesus Christ, it is foolishness to the Greeks. But to me, it is the power of God. The cross is a sign of weakness to the world. Jesus was arrested. He was beaten. He was mocked. He was killed in a crude way by cruel people, yet the Goliath of death was defeated.
My brothers and sisters, let us be willing to be weak together. Let us be willing to accept help together. Let us be willing to accept forgiveness together. Let us be willing to confront those moments when we actually are Goliath, or when we are David, let us not be proud, let us confess, let us forgive. Let us seek the love of God.

In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit.
Amen.


site: sermons

title: Do this!

author: Wilson Pruitt

church: bee-creek-umc

themes: holy-communion real-presence miracle-and-the-ordinary prayer-without-ceasing

scripture: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

text:
**Scripture:** 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
**Series:** 2021

> Concluding the 'One Weird Trick' series on World Communion Sunday, this sermon takes Paul's earliest account of the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) as the ultimate 'do this' that can change a life. Using George Mallory, Hillary, JFK, and climbing films as images of humanity's drive for the impossible, the preacher argues that the truly unclimbable mountain is the body and blood of Christ, offered freely at the table. He surveys the historical debates over communion (Aristotelian substance/accidents, the Ship of Theseus, transubstantiation at the Fourth Lateran Council, then Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, the 39 Articles, and Wesley's Duty of Constant Communion) before landing on his own maximalist conviction of Christ's real presence: the impossible becomes possible at the table, no fortune or Sherpas required.

**Illustrations:** mallory-everest-because-its-there, hillary-norgay-everest-summit, jfk-moon-race-speech, climbing-films-meru-free-solo, hannibal-elephants-alps, spilled-coffee-accident, altar-chair-substance-accident, ship-of-theseus, jesus-calls-us-oer-the-tumult

---

# October 3
## Do this!

“I received a tradition from the Lord, which I also handed on to you: on the night on which he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread. After giving thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this to remember me.” He did the same thing with the cup, after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Every time you drink it, do this to remember me.” Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you broadcast the death of the Lord until he comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 CEB

George Mallory was an English gentleman born in 1886. And to say he was an English Gentlemen is just to say that he was rich. He went to Winchester College and found there a love of mountaineering, which was a new phenomenon, a new practice. People didn't climb mountains for the fun of it before. You tried to go around mountains, to find the pass through the mountain. As Hannibal did with his elephants, when he invaded Rome from the north. Mallory was of a new generation that saw a goal in climbing mountains, a goal in doing things that had never been done before. He made three attempts on Everest. After one of the first attempts, he was asked, why are you doing this? Why are you trying to climb it? And he said, famously, “because it's there.” Mallory failed. He died on the mountain on the third attempt in 1924.
His body was found in 1999 by the Mountaineer Conrad Anker.
30 years after Mallory’s death, Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand, summited Everest for the first time with the Nepalese climber, Tenzing Norgay. Hillary repeated Mallory's line when asked why he did it: “because it's there. »A few years after that, John F. Kennedy gave his famous speech, launching the moon race, when he said, “we do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” Climbing Mount Everest, flying to the moon, achieving impossible goals, these are hard things.
This is part of why I love climbing movies. The amazing camera work of being so present, being on the precipice of a wall, I loved free solo and the Dawn wall. One of my favorites is Meru, by the same director who did free solo , Jimmy Chin, and he's a climber, as well. Conrad Akers who found Malory's body. Meru covers the first summit of a Himilayan mountain that had never been climbed before. It has a long ice climbing section followed by a 1,500 foot smooth granite wall, all at elevations over 20,000 ft. In 2008 they turn back 100 meters from the summit. In 2011, they try again. What's funny about these unclimbable mountains or unreachable stars and achieving the impossible is that the central act of the Christian faith, the Lord's table, is impossible. The body and blood of Christ, is an unclimbable mountain but it is offered, here, for us. Jesus us calls us to come and do this.
My friends, we are concluding our series on one weird trick. On ways that you can change your life by doing something simple that Jesus does. The first week, we looked at come and see how he responds to the disciples of John who come to him and are seeking him. The next week we honed in on the phrase, follow me and the importance of the direction of our life. The next week, we looked at drop your nets, how God offers us deeper purpose than we could ever imagine. Finally, this week, the one weird trick is do this. If you do this, it will change your life.
Christianity is based on a weird trick. We find it in the Gospels, but most clearly in the first letter to the Corinthians. The letters of Paul predate the gospels by a few years by most estimations. So the earliest account of communion is here.

There are a lot of ways we could take the words of Jesus in Paul.
There's a lot of ways that Christians have taken the words of Jesus here. One way is to take them as a pure metaphor or as a representation of something. “This is my body. This is kind of like my body. This is kind of like my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.” The focus is more on the remembering than the doing. In the Reformation, there were many debates over what goes on in communion. And throughout the middle ages, there were many debates about what goes on in communion. In 1215, at the the fourth Lateran council, the Catholic church declared the dogmatic understanding of communion with the language we now refer to it as transubstantiation. If you grew up Catholic, you were taught about this, whether you remember it or not is another story. What takes place a few years before 1215 is that we have all of Aristotle translated into Latin for the first time. They use the Aristotelian language of substance and accidents. An accident is something that is inessential. In English, an accident is usually an untended mistake. If I trip and spill your coffee, that is accidental to my care for you.
I don’t think you deserve to lose your coffee. It doesn’t represent us or our relationship. It isn’t pay back for anything. It was an accident. If you spilled my coffee because you didn’t like my sermon, it would no longer be an accident.

To think about it another way, the brown color of the wood in the altar is not essential to being an altar. We could repaint this altar. You could sand it down and put another finish on it and it would still be an altar. We could make it out of iron, it would still be an altar. The altar does not cease to be if you change these aspects. The same thing happens with the chairs that you are sitting on. You could change the color and it would still be a chair. You could take off the cushion. It would not be comfortable, but it would still be the chair. If you took off all the legs and the back, it loses something substantial to being a chair.
Conversations about things like accidents and Substance led, in the ancient world, to a number of debates about what is the substance of something. And there's a famous story in Heraclitus and Plato and Plutarch about the Ship of Theseus. Here is Plutarch’a version.

> The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned from Crete had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their places, insomuch that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same. — Plutarch, Theseus

So is it the same ship? What is essential to the ship? What is accidental to the ship.

So in 1215, this language of substance and accidents is used to describe what goes on during communion. And what happens in what Catholics call the sacrifice of the mass is that the accident of the bread and the wine remain the same, but the substance changes. And so it looks like bread and wine, but substantially, it is the body and blood of Jesus Christ. This is called transubstantiation.
Now, during the Reformation, there is pushback around this term, especially with Luther and Calvin and Zwingli and others.
Luther, who always remains the most Catholic of the Reformers, holds on to the real presence in communion, but says that the bread is both bread and Jesus, the wine is both wine and Jesus, it doesn't cease to be wine. Others have called this consubstantiation, though Luther himself would dispute this term. Luther also taught the ubiquity of Christ, that “the risen Christ was no longer subject to the limitations of space and time and had taken on the divine attribute of omnipresence.” This is how Luther could say that the Risen Christ was present on a thousand altars at the same time. John Calvin was the founder of Reformed theologies like Presbyterians and a lot of Baptist and non-denominational churches. Calvin denied ubiquity and transubstantiation by saying that “the substance of Christ’s humanity was not bones and sinews and veins, but the power and effect of his crucified and risen humanity for salvation. Christ is therefore substantially present wherever the power and effect of his life, death, and resurrection are present.”

Another great reformer, Ulrich Zwingli, gave the position of the Eucharist being a metaphor and a memorial. We are reminded of Jesus here.
The Methodist church emerged out of the church of England and in the original 39 articles of the church of England, one of the main articles is that there is no transubstantiation.
That being said, communion is super important to the the Church of England. Almost all Episcopal and Anglican church’s have communion weekly.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, recommends communion a lot. He doesn't recommend a particular theology of communion, but that we should do it. He has a sermon called The Duty of Constant Communion, where it basically says that we should have communion as often as we can, because first of all, Jesus tells us to do it here.
As well, Wesley says,

> A Second reason why every Christian should do this as often as he can, is, because the benefits of doing it are so great ...the forgiveness of our past sins and the present strengthening and refreshing of our souls. In this world we are never free from temptations. Whatever way of life we are in, whatever our condition be, whether we are sick or well, in trouble or at ease, the enemies of our souls are watching to lead us into sin. And too often they prevail over us. Now, when we are convinced of having sinned against God, what surer way have we of procuring pardon from him, than the "showing forth the Lord's death;" and beseeching him, for the sake of his Son's sufferings, to blot out all our sins

I personally come back to real presence. I don't use the categories of Aristotelian metaphysics like transubstantiation, but in communion, Jesus is really present, Jesus is really here. Jesus calls us from wherever we are in life to this table which gives life because the God of all creation is here.
If Jesus rose from the dead, Jesus can be fully here in the bread and in the wine. I have a maximalist view of the power of God here. Instead of trying to limit the supernatural that could take place, I try to open myself up to the reality of the supernatural all around me. The reality of God is present, especially at this table where Jesus says “Do this.” The Lord's table is an act of faith. Every time we come, it is a desire for transformation. Every time we come to the table, it is an encounter with the risen Jesus Christ, who died for us. Every time we come to the table, it is a mountain that is impossible to climb, it is a moon that is impossible to reach, but we don't need to pay a fortune to climb this mountain and blast off to this moon. We don't need a team of Sherpas to climb this mountain or invent the next Amazon to go to space. It is offered to us here and now with this one weird trick: do this. We can completely reorient our lives around the God who is revealed to be love. We can realize that the impossible is possible with God right here at this table.
That communion is not just a habit or custom or a Memorial or a metaphor, but the reality of the risen Lord, here, offered freely without price.

Today is World Communion Sunday. We celebrate the miracle of Christians coming together at the table. No matter the language or culture, Christ is present here.

You don’t need to fly to Nepal to scale impossible mountains. The impossible is possible here. You don’t need to charter the next Space X or Blue Origin flight to prove how awesome you are in going to space, the impossible is possible here. If Jesus can rise from the dead. If Jesus is present at this table, Jesus can change your life. The challenges we all face are little compared to the laws of physics and mortality.

Jesus has already won the victory, and
\Jesus calls us o'er the tumult
of our life's wild, restless sea;
day by day his sweet voice soundeth,
saying "Christian, follow me."

Saying Christian, Come and See, saying Christian, drop your nets, saying Christian: do this.
Here for you. I give myself for you. This is my body. This is my blood here for you. Take.  taste and see that the Lord is good.

Let us pray

Heavenly Father, we do so much to prove ourselves to others. Help us to realize that the greatest of mountains have already been conquered by your love, and instead of earning it, you offer yourself to us. May we accept your grace. May we accept your love. May we do what you ask so that we can receive you fully in our lives and share you fully in the world. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

method: authored, not translated

license_apparatus: CC BY-NC 4.0


title: Drop Your Nets

themes: call-to-discipleship vocation-and-calling identity-in-christ presence-of-god transformation spiritual-discipline

text:
**Scripture:** Mark 1:16-19; Psalm 27:1; Psalm 125:1; Psalm 46:1-3; Psalm 46:10
**Series:** 2021

> Part of the 'One Weird Trick' series on the life of Jesus, this sermon on Mark 1:16-19 (the call of the first disciples) names the 'trick' as 'drop your nets.' Drawing on his own story of trading a Supreme Court ambition for ministry after a conversion in Saltillo, Mexico, the preacher argues that laying down our nets means surrendering the identity we thought we needed without losing ourselves. Jesus calls fishermen to become fishers of people, going further into who they already are; God never takes away anything good, only the 'not loves' and destructive desires. Using Psalms 27, 125, and especially 46:10 ('be still'), explained via its Hebrew military root of a sheathed sword, the message reframes stillness as intentionality rather than passivity. The tools of faith such as prayer, worship, service, and community function like fishing nets that make following Jesus sustainable, and the invitation is to be our authentic selves now by letting go and receiving God's love.

**Illustrations:** college-station-supreme-court-saltillo-conversion, changing-major-economics-to-english-history, worldly-philosophers-book, handmade-ancient-fishing-nets, cabelas-academy-stores, be-still-sheathed-sword, marketing-feeling-inadequate, catching-fish-bare-hands-bear, casting-new-rod-first-time

---

# September 26
## Drop Your Nets

“Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets.”
Mark 1:16-19 ESV

I grew up in College Station, Texas, back when we had one high school: A&M Consolidated high school, class of 2001. Because there was one high school and it's a university town, a lot of my friends were fellow professors’ kids. My father was a college professor. Pretty much everyone in my friend group was either a professor's kid or a lawyer's kid. My friends went to schools all over the country, like Stanford and Harvard and Yale. And I went to UT with some other friends. That's where most of the students who didn't go to A&M went. And so, at UT, I majored in economics. The reason for that was that I had read a book about the history of economics called “the worldly philosophers” and economics seemed like a practical way to study philosophy.
My goal in life was to be a justice on the Supreme court and to have an island in the Potomac: my fortress of solitude. The Supreme Court, because that is where the power is held in this country and an island, because I thought islands were cool. The field of Law and Economics was a big trend back then and so I thought the major would help me. That was my goal in going to college and it did not turn out as I had expected. I had these deep ambitions of effecting the world, of transforming things. Then everything changed when I had an encounter with God on a hill outside of Saltillo, Mexico, and after that moment, I no longer had any ambitions to be on the Supreme Court. And yet, instead of getting smaller, I think that that encounter with God made my ambitions grow impossibly vast. Instead of seeking power for myself, for my ideology, I sought the power of God to be a part of transformation in this world. All it took was this one weird trick.
My friends, we're continuing our series on one weird trick on looking at the life of Jesus and holding onto the ways of transformation and simplicity offered to us in the life of Jesus. We started out, a few weeks ago talking about the one weird trick of Come and See, then the one weird trick of, follow me, and today is the one weird trick drop your nets.
It seems simple, right? But it represents something deep. Ancient fishing nets were painstakingly handmade. The thread was handmade. It was all by hand. You couldn't go to Cabbelas or Academy and get some nets. There were also corks and other bouant devices sometimes used, which were hand crafted as well.
It may have been a family net. If it was of a particularly high quality, it could last for more than a generation: it was a prized possession,.
A net gives you a way to catch fish more than one at a time. And that is a way to feed yourself and feed your family. The net is who you thought you needed to be for yourself and for your family. To lay down your nets is to begin a different kind of life. The one you could have never expected to live. If I don’t do what I always thought I had to do, who am I? This is a jarring notion for anyone.

### Psalms

When our expectations and world changes, we can feel unsafe or at risk. The Psalms offer us solace at all times but especially those times.

Like Psalm 27

> “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Psalm 27:1 ESV
Or Psalm 125

> “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.” Psalm 125:1 ESV

One of my favorite parts of the Bible is Psalm 46

> “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.  Psalm 46:1-3 ESV

Verse 10 of this Psalm has the line: be still and know that I am God. I love that line. Be still and know that I am God. being still is so hard today. It's so hard for me. I'm a doer. Being still seems so unproductive, so inefficient.
The root word that we translate as “be still” is a military term in Hebrew. The point is not to stop moving. It's not an absence of motion. The word is to keep your sword sheathed. It is when someone has their hand on the hilt of their sword, but does not strike. The stillness called for by the Psalmist is not passivity in the face of the world, but intentionality. God is not just saying no to something, but offering the greatest of yeses.

### Fishing for more than fish

Jesus asks the disciples to lay down their nets, but he doesn't ask them to forget who they are. They still remain themselves in following Jesus. In fact, they become more of themselves, not less. There is this great phrase “ Fishers of men” from the King James Version. I love it. But what I think is so important here is that there is a deep connection between what Peter and Andrew and James and John were doing before Jesus came walking along the sea, and then what Jesus has called them to do. There is a similarity between fishing for fish and fishing for people, there is a connection. Jesus isn't asking them to forget who they are, he is going to offer them a way to go further into who they are.
God will never ask you to change something about yourself that is good. I think this is important to say. I'm a preacher who likes to talk about change and transformation and new life and conversion and all these kinds of things. In all of that, God never wants to get rid of any of the good things in your life. The problem we have in this modern world is a confusion internally and externally about what is good for us and what is bad for us. It is a mass marketed confusion about who we think we should be, who society thinks we should be, and who God thinks we should be. A marketing tactic out there is to make you feel inadequate, like you need this thing in your life. If you don’t have this thing or this car or this body, you are not a real man or a real woman. That is a lie.
God never wants to take away anything good about our life. God wants to take away the things that are not good. God wants to take away all the not loves in our life. All of the destructive desires in our life.
When God asks us to drop our nets, it is so we can actually be ourselves. We don't need to pretend anymore. When I changed my major from economics to English and history in order to get ready for seminary, that transformation didn't change fundamentally who I was. What it did was help me to stop lying to myself about what kind of life i thought was a life worth living. I no longer thought that if I were not a Supreme court justice, I would be a failure. In fact, those external markers of validation became, over time, less and less important to me. I'm not perfect. I am still motivated by the expectations of others in some healthy ways, and in some unhealthy ways, and yet what God has done in my own life and what God has done in so many of your lives is to offer us purpose and opportunity to be our own authentic self now. Not in the future, not after we get married, not after we get a job, not after whatever the step is that we think will ultimately lead to validation, but now.
### Walking by the seashore
Jesus was walking by the seashore. He came upon Andrew and his brother, Simon. They put down their nets of yarn and picked up the nets of the Holy Spirit. Jesus comes to us in the midst of life and offers us new life. Jesus may be coming to you this day and offer a new life. Just like in fishing, in the life of Christ, there are tools we can use. Sure, you may be able to catch a fish with your hands like a bear, but that will be hard to live on. The tools of faith are prayer and worship, service and mercy, humility and kindness. These are like our fishing nets. We are not saved by them but they are offered freely in the church so that the struggles of following Jesus will not be so great as fishing with just your bare hands. When we first try to pray, it can seem awkward, like casting a new rod for the first time. But with practice, we can enter the rhythm of prayer and the rhythm of the life of God.

Fishing is also often better together. The tools of faith are tools of community. We hold each other up and encourage each other so that the big decisions in life don’t seem as big. God may be calling you to change careers, to move, or to serve a new ministry. Life changes don’t have to be total to be transformative. There is no competition about how much you can give up. God has already said yes to you. It all comes down to the encounter between you and God and how a yes to God can change your life.
The first step is, just like the Psalm says, to be still. Hold your sword. So often this day, when we are asked to change, we feel judgment and defensiveness. We want to defend who we have been. We want to defend the decisions we've made. Jesus says, be still. Lay down your nets. You are more than what you do. You are more than who you have been. You are more than the mistakes you have made. We can do this one weird trick, lay down your nets. Let go and receive the love of God. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we try and try to be better but so often we may feel we have fallen short. Let us lay down our nets. Let us lay down our mistakes. Let us lay down our control and receive your freedom. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: Easter Sunday: Works of Love

themes: resurrection works-of-love resurrection-appearances spiritual-discipline great-commission incarnation

text:
**Scripture:** John 20:1-18; Ezekiel 1:5-6
**Series:** 2021

> An Easter sermon on John 20:1-18 that frames the resurrection through the pattern of Mary Magdalene's going, seeing, listening, and telling at the empty tomb. The preacher contrasts Mary's faithful 'showing up' and persistence with Peter and John, who leave too soon, arguing that resurrection is embodied only when love is enacted and spoken. Drawing on his own courtship of his wife Alina and on Eavan Boland's poem 'Quarantine,' he claims that because Jesus rose, every instance of self-giving embodied love is a grace pointing to the God who became flesh and goes further toward us than we can imagine.

**Illustrations:** meeting-and-marrying-alina, teacher-never-know-who-you-marry, ezekiel-terrifying-angels, eavan-boland-quarantine

---

# Easter Sunday

 John 20:1-18

I did not expect to get married. That was not something that i was planning. I thought it might be cool if it happened, i did not think that it would happen. After living in Denver for a year, I moved back to Austin in 2009 and started connecting with some old friends who were working here. I had a good friend who has an associate pastor at First Methodist, Downtown, who was doing a book study, which I joined. A couple who was a part of the study, invited a colleague, who was a teacher in East Austin. She came to this one study and she was beautiful, smart, out of my league, beyond my comprehension. I thought, ‘that’s too good to be true, so I am just going to move on and not think about her.’

Then a few months later, that same friend set up a dinner party where Alina and I were the only two people who were not in a relationship or married. And there were assigned seats. And it seemed that the rest of the story is history. But of course, the rest is not history. There is a way in which I can tell this story of our marriage that fits all these boxes and fits all our assumptions yet does not reach the reality. What you have with the deep relationships in your life, and it may not be a spouse, it could be a friendship, what you have with those deep relationships is the embodiment of love, the enfleshedness of love.

I have a teacher who used to say that you never know the person you marry so you can never know if you marry the right person, because you don’t know who they are going to be in 20 years. And so deciding on marriage based on this predictive capability is a fool’s errand. Instead, what is necessary in a relationship (and this is not brilliant, earth-shaking stuff) is showing up every day.

I didn’t know what was going to happen after that first encounter with Alina. But through circumstance and encouragement, I kept showing up. Alina kept showing up.

The Reading for today comes from the end of the gospel of John. Mary from Magdala goes to the tomb of Jesus to clean his body but she finds the tomb empty. Yet she is not satisfied with that. Mary could have just gone on with her day, but she didn’t. So she goes and tells; she goes and announces. This is the first part of the good news. She goes and announces that the tomb is empty.

And then word gets to John and to Peter and they both come to see that the tomb is empty. And they come and Mary is still there. Peter and John leave, and Mary stays. She is looking for Jesus. She came because it was her duty to come. She showed up and no one else was there. She showed up when no one else was watching. She showed up not to get credit but because of who Jesus had been to her. Because of his love, she responded by embodying that love and coming to the tomb on the first day of the week, but she could not have been prepared for what happened next.

After the other disciples have figured out, ‘okay, something weird is going on’, Mary stays. Mary stays and weeps. The other guys are fine, they are moving on. Mary says that this is not right.

Then two angels came, two messengers of God are in the spot where Jesus had been. And normally, angels are these terrifying creatures. People are awestruck.

This is how the prophet Ezekiel describes angels “And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings...  (Ezekiel 1)

When angels come, it is a frightening situation. This is not just two dudes in white drifting down like a feather. They are frightening. So it is pretty astounding that Mary doesn’t run away from the angels. She is like, ‘whatever, I don’t care who you are. This day is already ruined.’ I don’t care if you are an angel. I don’t care if you are a bill collector. I don’t care if you are Caesar himself. Someone has taken my master from me and I don’t know what they have done with him. This sucks.’

And then she turns around, and it is Jesus standing there, but she does not recognize him. This person she loved and followed; she does not know him. After the resurrection, Jesus looks different. There is something different about him, and yet it is when Jesus speaks that Mary hears and understands. This is when the transformation happens. This is when Mary stops weeping. This is when Mary goes again to tell the good news, this is when Mary becomes the first evangelist.

So in this passage we have going, seeing, listening, and telling. Mary goes. Peter and John also go, but then they leave. Mary goes and sees, she sees that the tomb is empty, she sees the Angels, she sees Jesus. She could have left, she could have stopped there, but then she listens. She takes the time to listen. She could have stopped there and been satisfied with her special knowledge of God, but she does not stop even then. It is when she goes out and tells that she has embodied resurrection, resurrection opens up the possibility for love, total unsentimental giving of ourselves for others, and this response is daily.

Mary showed up not knowing what would happen. How many of us show up each day not knowing what is going to happen? But really, I think most of us are a lot more like Peter or like John. We will show up, but if nothing happens soon, we are heading back to our own business. We will give you a shot, but if you don’t entertain or excite us, we are out of here. They did not understand what had already happened. They didn’t go far enough because they didn’t think God could go that far.

We show up. We are here. And we want God to meet us here, but God has gone further toward us than we can imagine. And, like with Mary, Jesus has already been with us from before we were aware of his presence. We need to listen to him speaking to us. And the way God speaks is more like poetry than prose. When reading a poem, we have to wait with the poem. We can’t rush to the end.

My favorite poem is by this Irish poet, Eavan Boland. She had a series where she would read old newspaper articles from the 19th century and write poems about the articles. So this poem comes from that series. It is called Quarantine.

> In the worst hour of the worst season
    of the worst year of a whole people
a man set out from the workhouse with his wife.
He was walking – they were both walking – north.

> She was sick with famine fever and could not keep up.
     He lifted her and put her on his back.
He walked like that west and west and north.
Until at nightfall under freezing stars they arrived.

> In the morning they were both found dead.
    Of cold. Of hunger. Of the toxins of a whole history.
But her feet were held against his breastbone.
The last heat of his flesh was his last gift to her.

> Let no love poem ever come to this threshold.
     There is no place here for the inexact
praise of the easy graces and sensuality of the body.
There is only time for this merciless inventory:

> Their death together in the winter of 1847.
      Also what they suffered. How they lived.
And what there is between a man and woman.
And in which darkness it can best be proved.

I read this as a poem of resurrection. Because Jesus rose from the dead, I can read this poem and see that the love this man had for his wife is not in vain. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, we should eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die, as Paul says. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, the man should have left his wife. She was sick, she was going to die, he could have lived. Each person for themselves, unless there is more to life than this. Unless God goes further toward us than we can imagine. And if this story is true. If this tomb is empty, and this Jesus is God, then the love of that couple is a grace that is not limited just to poetry or to history. It is a grace that points to God. Because each instance of embodied love points to the God who is love who became embodied in Jesus Christ. Who came from the far country to reside with us, abide with us, and to send us out.

Resurrection was not embodied by Mary until she spoke of it. She went to the tomb. It was her duty. She performed the duty of love. She did not leave when the men did. She stayed and weeped and then she looked for Jesus, she did not see him, but when she listened, she understood that he was risen indeed. And then she spoke of it. She shared of it. It was not a light to keep under her bushel. It was something to tell others about. Have you heard this?
- There is more to this life than eating and drinking and being merry.
- There is more to life than survival.
- There is more to living than not dying.
Jesus invites us to this embodied love, and if we follow like Mary, we realize God has already come down to be with us, to strengthen, forgive, encourage, embolden, to send us to speak of this amazing reality. Christ the Lord is risen this day.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.


title: Easter Sunrise Service

themes: resurrection victory-over-death harrowing-of-hell grace-not-merit passion-of-christ stewardship

text:
**Scripture:** Luke 24:1-12; 1 Corinthians 15:20; 1 Corinthians 15:55; Isaiah 14:9
**Series:** 2021

> An Easter Sunrise liturgy for Bee Creek UMC built around the resurrection account in Luke 24:1-12. The centerpiece is the full Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom (titled here the 'Easter Proclamation'), which proclaims Christ's victory over death and hell, the harrowing of hell, and grace extended equally to first-hour laborers and eleventh-hour latecomers. Framed by Passover-of-Christ greetings, the kindling of new fire, the hymn 'Christ the Lord Is Risen Today,' and a sending in the power of the resurrection.

**Illustrations:** chrysostom-paschal-homily, eleventh-hour-laborers, hell-overcome, new-fire-kindled

---

# Easter Sunrise Service

Grace and peace to you from Jesus Christ our Lord.
My brothers and sisters in Christ:
On this most holy morning
	in which Jesus Christ passed over from death to life,
We gather as the Church to watch and pray.
This is the Passover of Christ,
	in which we share in Christ’s victory over death.

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!
	All:  The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!
Alleluia!  Christ is risen!
	All:  The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
	All:  The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Let us Pray
God of life, Through Jesus Christ, You have bestowed upon the world the light of life. Sanctify this new fire, and grant that our hearts and minds may also be kindled with holy desire to shine forth with the brightness of Christ’s rising, that we may attain to the feast of the everlasting light; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

HYMN		Christ the Lord is Risen Today verses 1-3

GOSPEL					 Luke 24:1-12

Very early in the morning on the first day of the week, the women went to the tomb, bringing the fragrant spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. They didn’t know what to make of this. Suddenly, two men were standing beside them in gleaming bright clothing. The women were frightened and bowed their faces toward the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He isn’t here, but has been raised. Remember what he told you while he was still in Galilee, that the Human One must be handed over to sinners, be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words. When they returned from the tomb, they reported all these things to the eleven and all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. Their words struck the apostles as nonsense, and they didn’t believe the women. But Peter ran to the tomb. When he bent over to look inside, he saw only the linen cloth. Then he returned home, wondering what had happened.

EASTER PROCLAMATION

Are there any who are devout lovers of God? Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!

Are there any who are grateful servants? Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Are there any weary with fasting? Let them now receive their wages!

If any have toiled from the first hour, let them receive their due reward; If any have come after the third hour, let him with gratitude join in the Feast! And he that arrived after the sixth hour, let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss. And if any delayed until the ninth hour, let him not hesitate; but let him come too. And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour, let him not be afraid by reason of his delay. For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first. He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour, as well as to him that toiled from the first.

To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows. He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor. The deed He honors and the intention He commends. Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!

First and last alike receive your reward; rich and poor, rejoice together! Sober and slothful, celebrate the day! You that have kept the fast, and you that have not, rejoice today for the Table is richly laden!

Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one. Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith. Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed.

Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen from the grave.

Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free. He has destroyed it by enduring it. He destroyed Hell when He descended into it. He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.

Isaiah foretold this when he said, “You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below." Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with. It was in an uproar because it is mocked. It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed. It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated. It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.

Hell took a body, and discovered God. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.

O death, where is thy sting? O Hell, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!

Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead; for Christ having risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

TIME OF REFLECTION

HYMN verses 4-6

SENDING

We are sent forth in the power of Christ’s resurrection. Alleluia!
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all.  Amen.


title: Follow Me

themes: call-to-discipleship following-jesus humility servant-leadership spiritual-discipline transformation grace-not-merit

scripture: Matthew 4:18-20

text:
**Scripture:** Matthew 4:18-20
**Series:** 2021

> Preaching on Matthew 4:18-20, the sermon contrasts the world's models of leadership (Clausewitz, Augustus Caesar, CEO personality tests, self-help maxims like 'know thyself') with Jesus's simple call to ordinary fishermen: 'Follow me.' The 'one weird trick' is that life is not a competition; true discipleship requires humility and surrendering control, receiving grace all the way down rather than earning it. Following Jesus is not a one-time event but a daily, ongoing transformation. Using Matthew McConaughey's 'tie your shoes' running advice and his own morning routine, the pastor urges hearers to eliminate excuses and build daily rhythms of prayer and Scripture, learning from holy lives as Wesley taught, and to take the first step right where they are.

**Illustrations:** military-leadership-books, augustus-caesar-aeneid, nazareth-smallville, business-schools-personality-tests, delphi-know-thyself, fickle-holy-week-crowds, mcconaughey-tie-your-shoes, pastors-morning-routine, wesley-holy-life-stories, ceo-routine-articles, give-me-jesus-spiritual

---

# oct 6
## Follow Me

As Jesus walked alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, because they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” Right away, they left their nets and followed him. - Matthew 4:18-20

Up until about the last 50 years, most leadership books published were about the military, about generals or military strategists like Clausewitz or Napoleon and his marshals, Like Sun Tzu, and the book of five rings. This is what leadership consisted of: a set of axioms and ideas, about grabbing the initiative, about how a battle is won in the preparation, leading your men in to victory.
Jesus was born under the reign of Augustus Caesar. Augustus was the nephew of Julius Caesar. Augustus had defeated  the other claimants to authority in Rome after the death of his uncle. And in that process, he had built up an Imperial image of himself as a leader, as the leader, as the figure around which everything in the empire revolved. Augustus supported the poet Virgil in his authorship of the Aeniad, the story of the founding of Rome, that lifted up the figure of the emperor in its own way. The emperor was not a king. Rome didn’t have kings. The emperor was the leader of kings. The emperor ruled.
If Augustus Caesar was a leader, who was Jesus of Nazareth? Nazareth alone makes Jesus radically different than Augustus. It’s Jesus of Nazareth, not Jesus of Jerusalem, not Jesus of Athens or Jesus of Rome, Jesus of Nazareth, a backwater town that has no record outside the Bible before around 200 AD. Jesus of basically Smallville comes to this village, this beach by the sea of Galilee, also a region of not much importance; a place of small fishing villages, of subsistence life.
This is not where leaders are usually found. And he goes to the side of the lake shore and comes across two fishermen, not military geniuses, not guys who scored like CEOs on Myers-Briggs or other personality tests.They didn't go to the McCombs school or the booth school or the Wharton school. Jesus doesn't give them a test. He doesn’t ask for references. He doesn't offer a probationary period. He simply says, follow me.

Very few leadership books today talk about the importance of being a follower. They are about how to make a name for yourself. How to put yourself out there. Not how to be a follower.
Followers aren't self-starters; they're sheeple more than people. “I don't want to be a follower. I don't want to have to listen to anybody. I don't want anybody to tell me what to do or how to dress or what to say or what medicine to take or what to eat. I'm going to make up my own mind. Not going to be just another sheep or cattle like everyone else. All the bovines around me.”
Jesus doesn't come to fishermen along the sea of Galilee and say, “be independent. Think for yourself” He doesn't say, γνῶθι σεαυτόν, know thyself. The words of the Oracle of Delphi, the words that guided Greek philosophy from Heraclitis to Plato, to Aristotle, to the Stoics. Jesus says, “follow me! I will make you fishers of men. I will make you fish for something greater. Right now you're fishing for fish. You're fishing to support yourself. You can be a part of something greater. You are worthy of being a part of something greater, but you've got to lay down your nets. You've got to be willing to listen to someone other than yourself, you gotta be willing to not rest on your laurels. Laurels came from crowds and crowds can turn quickly.
As we see in the life of Jesus, as we see in holy week, the crowds cheering him on Palm Sunday, were jeering him and crying, “crucify him” on Maundy Thursday. We all like to think of ourselves as separate from the crowds. We are unique. They are the followers. We define ourselves as unique so it is hard to realize when we are the ones jeering the others, crying “crucify him.”
The one weird trick of Jesus is that our life is not a competition with others, even when we want it to be. Football games fade away, businesses rise and fall, property value rises and falls, we can build our treasure here on earth in a lot of different ways, none of them will last forever. We could freeze our brains or take all the supplements in the world and it won’t matter.

Jesus says something else; he says: Follow me.

The simplicity of the call of Jesus is its greatest challenge. You cannot get around it. Either you drop your nets or you don’t. Jesus doesn’t talk with fancy words or assumptions. He lays it bare before us.

To truly follow someone takes humility. It takes admitting that they may know something you don't know. Jesus comes to the disciples on the seashore and offers them a new way of life.
That is not based on who they have been or what they have done. It is not based on who their parents are or on their career prospects. It is grace all the way down. To receive grace fully means taking a step. Next week, we're going to talk about laying down our nets in particular and the challenge of laying down nets. Today, it is that step towards God, hearing the words of God, “follow me,” and admitting to ourselves that that is what we need to do.
God is calling us to be sheeple for Jesus. Now that doesn't mean that we're all going to look the exact same. The amazing thing about God's love and God's creativity is that we are not called to all act and look and do the same things. The body of Christ is a body of Christ. It's not all the same kinds of cells and organisms. Some people are called to be hands some feet, some eyes, some legs. We all need each other to be the body of Christ. God knows how we fit together. The point is not for the church to be a hyper efficient military unit, but to witness to the transformation of this world and that the transformation of this world starts right where we are in our own life.
That's what following Jesus is all about, it is about being willing to be transformed. The call of Jesus to the disciples on the seashore was not just a one-time event. This is how we often think of it. Jesus comes to meet you. You have this moment on Emmaus or a blueprint ministry youth event, or later in life or earlier in life, and you realize that God is real and God is true. And God has loved you and forgiven you and then you commit or recommit yourself to following Jesus. Being a follower, that is being someone who relinquishes control over your life, because you realize that God is in control anyway. And whatever control we claim for ourselves is a lie and foolishness.

So if you have had that moment, that is great. And I, I pray to God that you've had that moment. And if you haven't, I'd love to talk to you about that more if you're willing to. But if you have had that moment, God is not finished with you yet.
NHow we respond to the world in different ways. We relate to the world in different ways. And the transformation of God that occurs on that seashore or on that mountain top is aiming for a total transformation for all of us to be made new. We can’t assume the person we are today is who God has created us to be. We can’t assume that God is finished with you. If you think God is done with you, you are missing out, because God’s love and God’s call is not a one time thing, but an everyday thing. Waking up in the morning, every day, we decide who we're going to be.
I started running for the first time after college. Last week, I talked about how I went to the gym for the first time in college, but I started running more because it was just easier to run and I could do it without a fancy gym. You didn't need any equipment. You didn’t need to make an appointment. You didn't need to commute anywhere. I could just start running. But I would struggle to find a good time of day to do it. It took me a while to find a good time to do it. I remember visiting a friend's house and there was a Men's Health article about Matthew McConaughey, you know the ‘All right. All right. All right.’ And his advice about running was to tie your shoes. It still sticks with me. I found the original article online. He says, “It's that simple. You tie your shoes, man, you know you're gonna do it." And it was great for me because I realized if I could get out the door as soon as physically possible, I would run. But if I make it more challenging, I'm going to find a reason not to do it. I needed to eliminate as many excuses that I could possibly make. To do that, I had to realize that I was probably going to make an excuse, realize that it wasn't going to be super simple, that I had to struggle against myself, because my human instinct of not trying, of not working, of not doing things, was pretty strong. What also helps me is realizing, even in getting up in the morning, every time I get up, as soon as my alarm goes off, it will make the next day easier. Every morning I try to make tomorrow a better day.
Now I have a morning routine that I don't recommend for everybody. It has to do with a certain set of prayers and work outs and doing some language work to keep up with my languages, getting breakfast ready for my family. I like to be up early. Alina jokes with me that the latest ever slept was 8:45. And that was on the day I was born. I encourage you to find a pattern with your body and your Bible that lets you start each day with gratefulness. This is one of the reasons we give this book to our kids. The words here can change a life. They are old words but they are made fresh every we time we open ourselves up to listening to them.
How we choose to respond to God in our day to day life matters. And we can decide to follow Jesus. We can decide to look at our life and see what we are doing in connection to God's will for us, in connection to God's love for us, how we have been forgiven and loved and given purpose. We don't have to do it alone. We don't have to figure it out alone. We can look to other examples of great lives lived.
The early Methodist movement was filled with stories of holy lives. John Wesley would share them again and again and again, not his own life, but other people who had experienced grace and transformation. Not only to show how awesome God was, but to offer models of living a faithful life. Kind of like how Businessweek and FastCompany have articles all the time about the latest hot CEOs daily routine. Wesley wasn’t trying to increase efficiency in English factories but to transform lives. You don’t have to invent the wheel. Learning from others is not weakness. Who is someone you admire here? How do they start their day? Have you asked them? Give it a shot.
 The one weird trick God offers us this day is follow me. You don't have to figure it out today. Peter and Andrew did not know where Jesus was going but they knew they had to be there. You don't have to be a Caesar or an Alexander the great to be a faithful Christian. You don't have to move mountains on your own. Start right where you are. Start every morning you wake up. Find a rhythm for you that let’s you say in the words of the old spiritual, give me Jesus, let us pray.

Heavenly Father, you have made us for life and love. Help us to remember our source in you and that when follow, we become more ourselves. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: Fragments

themes: take-up-your-cross self-love scripture-interpretation call-to-discipleship cost-of-discipleship identity-in-christ

text:
**Scripture:** John 12:25

> A brief sermon fragment meditating on John 12:25. The pastor does a Greek word study showing the 'life' Jesus speaks of is psyche (the soul, the essence of who you are) rather than zao (mere biological living, root of our word 'zoo'), correcting a billboard on Highway 71 that misread the term. The point: the question is not whether you love being alive but whether you love being you—and loving yourself too much means losing yourself. He then applies it to the fishermen disciples, imagining that Jesus may have first called others (Fred and Larry) who clung to their nets and said no, asking whether we love what we have too much to follow.

**Illustrations:** psyche-vs-zao-greek-study, zao-modern-zoo, highway-71-billboard, fred-and-larry-refuse-call

---

# Fragments

He also says in John 12, Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” The word translated here as ‘life’ is psyche, which more often means soul. It is not life as in living, that is Zoo, Zao. Like are brothers and sisters in Christ on 71. Their billboard definition is not accurate to the Greek of the Bible or the ancient world. Zao just means to live like a monkey or mouse. Zao has the same root as our modern Zoo. A zoo is where living things are. Jesus in John 12 isn’t talking about that kind of life but the essence of who you are. That is what psyche means. If you love yourself too much, you will lose yourself. It is not do you love being alive, but do you love being you.

John 12 could be talking about the fisherman. Do you love what you have right now so much that you can’t put down your nets? What if Andrew and Peter were not the first people Jesus came to? What if Jesus came to some other folks, Fred and Larry, who said no. They said they think things are fine and they didn’t want to put down your nets.


title: Future Sermon Notes: On Thomas and Prayer

themes: doubt-and-faith resurrection the-wounds-of-christ lords-prayer prayer patristic-witness

text:
**Scripture:** John 20:24-29; Matthew 6:9-13
**Series:** 2021

> A collection of future sermon notes gathering two patristic quotations rather than a developed sermon. The first, from Gregory the Great, reflects on Doubting Thomas (John 20:24-29): God's mercy used the disbelieving disciple's touching of Christ's wounds to heal our own unbelief, making Thomas a witness to the resurrection. The second, from Augustine, concerns prayer and the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13): all the petitions of Scripture are contained in the Lord's Prayer, so in prayer we may use different words but not say different things.

**Illustrations:** gregory-great-doubting-thomas, augustine-lords-prayer-petitions

---

# Future sermon notes

## On Thomas

In a marvellous way God’s mercy arranged that the disbelieving disciple, in touching the wounds of his master’s body, should heal our wounds of disbelief. The disbelief of Thomas has done more for our faith than the faith of the other disciples. As he touches Christ and is won over to belief, every doubt is cast aside and our faith is strengthened. So the disciple who doubted, then felt Christ’s wounds, becomes a witness to the reality of the resurrection. - Gregory the Great

# Prayer

If you study every word of the petitions of Scripture, you will find, I think, nothing that is not contained and included in the Lord’s Prayer. When we pray, then, we may use different words to say the same things, but we may not say different things. - Augustine


title: Go to Sleep, Isaac

themes: trust-in-god miracle-and-the-ordinary rest-in-christ incarnation covenant-with-abraham presence-of-god receiving-grace

text:
**Scripture:** Genesis 21:1-7; 1 Kings 19:11-13; John 9:1-7; Matthew 11:28-30
**Series:** 2021

> Part of the 'Songs of the Bible' series, this sermon centers on the birth of Isaac (Genesis 21:1-7), the miracle child named 'laughter' born to aged Abraham and Sarah. Pruitt frames the Abrahamic covenant as a second act of creation and reflects on a lullaby he wrote ('Go to sleep, Isaac'), arguing that miracles have an ordinary aspect and that God's love is found not only in mountaintop moments and great leaps of faith but in the still small voice (1 Kings 19) and the tender rest of a child. The call is to trust like Abraham and Sarah, to receive faith as a gift rather than possess or earn it, and to rest in Christ whose yoke is easy and burden light.

**Illustrations:** lullaby-with-an-agenda, father-abraham-seven-sons, ten-men-for-a-synagogue, kierkegaard-swimmer-harness, blind-man-gets-a-job, faith-not-a-leaf-blower, swim-across-lake-travis

---

# June 20
## Go to sleep, Isaac, go to sleep dear.

The Lord was attentive to Sarah just as he had said, and the Lord carried out just what he had promised her. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham when he was old, at the very time God had told him. Abraham named his son—the one Sarah bore him—Isaac. Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old just as God had commanded him. Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born. Sarah said, “God has given me laughter. Everyone who hears about it will laugh with me.” She said, “Who could have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse sons? But now I’ve given birth to a son when he was old!” Genesis 21:1-7

Abram had given up on being a dad. There wasn't a father's day in ancient Mesopotamia. Abram had moved on from that expectation. He had a nephew, Lot, whom he expected would be his heir. He was wealthy, with à number of cattle and sheep and servants, but he didn't expect to be a dad. Then he receives a word from God. “Abram, I want to you to go from this place, take your family, go. For, I will make you the father of many. Look at the stars, your descendants will be greater than these. We don’t know what Abram was thinking when he looked out at the stars of the sky, maybe he thought that seems nice, or that seems like a lot of work. Maybe he thought he didn’t need all the stars in the sky, maybe just one or two would be nice.
My brothers and sisters, we are continuing our series on songs of the Bible that looks through the scriptures in a way guided and retold in music. There are a lot of explicit songs in the Bible, but it all can be turned into song. For God’s love for us is so great that we cannot help but sing.
Today, Go to sleep, Isaac.

There aren't many songs about Abraham. There's a song called Father Abraham had seven sons, seven sons had father Abraham. But that's not in the Bible. He didn't have seven sons. He had two, which is different than seven. He’s not really talked about in Children’s bibles. We usually move from Noah to Joseph and his brothers at the end of Genesis. There are not many songs about the sacrifice of Isaac, not many songs about Abraham's relationship with Hagar, his slave. These aren’t the stories that work well in a VBS. but there's no “rest of the story” without Abraham, Abraham and God's covenant with Abraham is more central to the identity of the Hebrew people than Adam and Eve or Noah.
Basically everything that comes before this, including creation and the Garden of Eden and Cain and Abel and Noah and Babel and all of that up until Genesis 12 is a prelude. Right here, when God makes covenant with Abraham: this is a second act of creation. With Abraham, God is creating God's people. God is creating God's chosen people from this one man and one woman. When God comes to Moses, God does not say, “I am the God of Adam and Noah, but I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenantal relationship starts here.

I honestly don't know if Abraham ever wanted to be a dad. Abraham doesn't show a lot of his emotion in the Bible. Abraham is merciful when the angel of the Lord is threatening to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham says, if there are only 10 righteous people, Lord, then you should not destroy it. This is actually one of the reasons why, for there to be a synagogue in Judaism, there must be 10 men. If there are only nine, it doesn't count.
Abraham is also kinda clever and tricky. He tells Pharaoh that Sarah is his sister. So that Pharaoh won't kill him and just take her as his wife. And now there's, I think there's some ways of interpreting it, that Sarah was his sister in a way, but still, in all of it, there are some virtues that we can find.
And, in Abraham, there are qualities he has that we can look up to. As well, there are qualities that we should not look up to. When we read the Bible. The point is not to replicate every action of the people in depicted. There is a lot of bad behavior, or more specifically, there is a lot of human behavior. We read the scriptures to see Jesus and to see God revealed in these places.

We can see ourselves in surprising places. We can see ourselves as Isaac, a child of blessing. Buy how do you respond to the unexpected? Like the radically unexpected. 95 year old women do not give birth. 99 year old men do not father them. Abraham and Sarah had lived full lives but God was not done with them.

They named their child laughter. Sarah and Abraham named their child laughter because of the joy he brought. It was a new joy, a surprising joy, an unexpected joy. The joy was not just found in the child but in the promise of God fulfilled in the child. Isaac. Laughter.

Isaac didn’t laugh all his life. He probably cried a lot. I wrote this song thinking of those moments of tears. Thinking of the moments when I wished a child would just sleep.

Lullabies are songs with agendas. The goal of it is to make someone fall asleep. When you have ever been around a newborn infant who is struggling to fall asleep, gosh, it'd be great with just sleep. What if I sang this song once?
What if I sing this song 6,000 times, that if you've ever rocked an infant child in your arms, you'd probably sung the same song. What feels like 6,000 times.
The lullaby has an agenda. It is trying to do something, go to sleep, go to sleep. People have been trying to help babies sleep as long as there have been babies. Before the baby bjorn and white noise, there were lullabies.

Go to sleep Isaac, go to sleep, dear, you’re our miracle baby, you’re an answer to prayer.

Even answers to prayer need to sleep. Miracles have an ordinary aspect to them. God chooses to use ordinary means. The man born blind in John 9 had to get a job now that he could see. Maybe his dad was a shepherd and he was able to look after the sheep. The lepers outside the city that Jesus healed were able to see there family again and went on living. Miracles don’t stop at the end of stories.

Laughing, crying, sleeping, playing, all these things we do as kids and we watch others do, takes place in the lives of the miraculous. God’s miraculous love is not just offered to us in burning bushes but and earthquakes.

We see this in the prophet Elijah. Elijah was running from wicked king Ahab and he didn’t know where to go, so an angel comes and gives him this message, we pick up at 1 kings 19:11

The Lord said, “Go out and stand at the mountain before the Lord. The Lord is passing by.” A very strong wind tore through the mountains and broke apart the stones before the Lord. But the Lord wasn’t in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake. But the Lord wasn’t in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake, there was a fire. But the Lord wasn’t in the fire. After the fire, there was a sound. Thin. Quiet. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his coat. He went out and stood at the cave’s entrance. A voice came to him and said, “Why are you here, Elijah?”

Sometimes this is translated as ‘still, small voice.’ God is not just in the earthquake and the storm and the mountaintop apparition. God is found and speaks to us in the still moments of life. In the moments between moments, but we have to listen. We have to pay attention. We have to trust.

Abraham and Sarah too, they trusted in God and so can you.

This is the heart of it. Abraham and Sarah trusted in God. In the very same way, we can trust in God today. You can trust like them. Trust in God is a willingness to be used for love in this world. And our desires and God’s desires may not overlap. Honestly, Sarah may not have been too excited to go through pregnancy as a 99 year old. I bet there were some complications.

We can imagine what they thought, but we can’t know it. Just like we can imagine what someone thinks when they take a step of faith like Abram and Sarai leaving their home to go to the promised land, but we don’t quite know.

We can each receive the new life God offers to us, but it may look different and feel different because each of us must take that next step. We can be taught facts about the faith, we can study up on Wikipedia, but at some point we need to live it and

I can describe the movement of faith, but i cannot make it for you. In learning to go through the motions of swimming, one can be suspended from the ceiling a harness and then presumably describe the movements, but one is not swimming. (Kierkegaard)

We can pray for our kids and teach them to swim. But someday, they have to do it on their own.

New life in God is not a possession. It is new life. We cannot possess faith as we can a car or a calculator. We can give faith like a new leaf blower on Father’s Day. We can, instead, receive it like a song of love, even a lullaby. We can respond in ways that are to the world surprising. God’s love isn’t always about the next thing. Some times it may just be about going to sleep. We don’t have to swim across Lake Travis to prove God’s love. We don’t have to volunteer for all the things (though that might be nice). We don’t have to prove ourselves to God. Sometimes, the first movement of faith is to first rest in love before we do anything else. That is Grace offered freely.

God’s love is found not just on the mountaintops or the great moments and leaps of faith, but in the tender touch of a child or the tender silence of a prayer.

You are loved by God. You are the answer to a prayer of Jesus. You have been called by name to this place. You have been called from wherever you are from to here for a reason.

Christ calls us to rest in him. Christ calls us to lay our burdens down. We don’t need to hold the weight of the world. We don’t need to always imagine ourselves as Isaac or Sarah. No matter how old we are, we can be Isaac. We can receive the affection of God. We can rest in the arms of God. There will be time to stand up. There will be time to face the challenges of this world. There will be time, but you can also rest in the amazing reality that you are loved. You are forgiven.

Rest in Jesus. His yoke is easy, and his burden is light.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.


title: God Told Adam and Eve

themes: name-of-god image-of-god salvation-history the-name-of-jesus identity-in-christ creation-care

text:
**Scripture:** Genesis 2:19-20; Philippians 2:6-11; Exodus 3:14; John 3:16
**Series:** 2021

> Part of the 'Songs of the Bible' series, this sermon meditates on Genesis 2:19-20, where God brings the animals to Adam to be named, asking 'What's in a name?' via Juliet's balcony speech. Drawing on the diversity of words for 'dog' across languages, the pastor argues that naming is a God-given power and duty rooted in the imago Dei: to name is to relate and connect, not to control. God's own name is too holy to speak (Exodus 3:14), yet God exalts the name of Jesus above every name (Philippians 2:6-11). Adam is read as a type of Christ: where Adam named the animals, Christ has named each person beloved, mercy, love, child, not mistake. The point is not the letters but who stands behind the name, Christ who knew and loved us before our parents did. The call is to receive that name and share it with others, with an invitation to Pub Theology.

**Illustrations:** romeo-juliet-whats-in-a-name, dog-across-languages, viking-with-a-chihuahua, child-learning-to-speak-and-read, naming-our-children, kids-sing-the-song

---

# June 6
## God Told Adam and Eve

So the Lord God formed from the fertile land all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky and brought them to the human to see what he would name them. The human gave each living being its name. The human named all the livestock, all the birds in the sky, and all the wild animals. Genesis 2:19-20

> O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

Romeo:
> Aside Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?

Juliet:
> 'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
.

My friends, we're continuing the series on songs of the Bible that looks through the scriptures in a way guided and retold in music. There are a lot of explicit songs in the Bible, but it all can be turned into song. For God’s love for us is so great that we cannot help but sing.
Today we are looking at Adam and Eve in the Garden and the naming of all the animals. A moment ago, we heard the famous speech from Romeo and Juliet from the balcony. And now we have this question: what is a name? Because we have this moment early in the Bible, when God has created all the things and created animals and created the birds and the stars and created humans and made humans in God's image. Imago Dei, this is so central to how we understand our connection and relationship with God. We are not just slaves to God or puppets to God. Because we are made in the image of God, we can be friends with God; God desires to be with us.
Historically, we understand the image of God as our ability to contemplate God and the things of God. It is not our intelligence, not our IQ, not our memory, but the ability that anyone, no matter what age, no matter what ability we may have, can think about God and what is good and what is beautiful.
And so after this, after creating Adam and Eve, God gives them a purpose to name things. What language does Adam use? Adam was obviously communicating with God, but theologians and scholars have debated about this for centuries, rabbis have debated about this for centuries, whether it was Hebrew itself, proto-Hebrew, or a heavenly language of some sort.
I can’t solve that today, but it is still important to think about: what were the names that Adam gave? Now, we have names in different languages for different animals. A dog, for instance, Dog in English is different from the Greek word for dog ko-on. This is different than the Hebrew word, kelev and the French word, Chien, or  the Chinese word, Gou. All these different languages relate to our word in English, dog, but are still different and not the same.
Okay.
For instance, in German, the German word for dog, Hund, is the root of our English word hound, English is a Germanic French language, Hund translates into Dog, but they're not the exact same. When a lot of these languages began to develop, there weren't as many canine breeds as there are now.
And so there's a way that Hund refers to certain dogs, and that it doesn't refer to others because there was no concept of other dogs. For instance, the old Norse word for dog was Rakki. There was no concept of a Chihuahua in old Norse . Imagine a Viking with a Chihuahua. I don't know what they'd do with it. It probably would not be pretty,.
But being able to name and describe a reality is so powerful. When a child learns to speak and learns the names of things, it's just astonishing. And when they go through this stage of development where they just pick up words over and over again, it's phenomenal. When a child learns to read, it is miraculous because this whole world is opened up to them in way. And it's like, before that time, all they could experience was visual stimuli. And now in the world of their mind, their imagination is opened up at a completely different way because of these words, The early scriptures were most likely oral in nature. They were told. The stories were told in specific ways. They were transmitted and listened to. They were spoken of at the temple.
The names matter, the name of God matters. We don't name God. And the Bible does not give a name to God, but to the other creatures. God offers God's name to Moses. I am that I am, but the name of God is so holy, so set apart, that we are not supposed to ever say it. Some have said that the reason we don’t name God is that to name something is, in a sense, an act of control and if we could name God we would be God because we could control God. I don’t totally buy this argument. We named our kids, but we don’t control them.
And yet, what is in a name? Why does the name matter even if it is in a language that has been lost to us.
Why does it matter that animals have names? Why does it matter that God has a name? Why does it matter that Jesus has a name?
In Philippians 2, there's a song that Paul sings that many scholars believe was a hymn of the early church from even before Paul was writing.
“who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Philippians 2:6-11 ESV

At the name of Jesus, every knee bows. At the name of Jesus every tongue confesses. The name of Jesus matters.
Getting back to the song and Adam and Eve naming the animals, what we need to remember from this episode in creation is not the specific names that Adam used. We can can put in our names, like turtle and whale and rabbit. The point is in the naming, the point is in the language, the point is in the gift and the duty that we have in this world to remember that there is a purpose in how we see and understand the world. To name something is to relate to it, to connect to it. More than control, a name offers a relationship. To name a child is to offer it a way to relate to the world.
God offers us a duty as God offered it to Adam, to observe, to care for the world, to be stewards of the world. Not to treat creation as a tool for our own benefits, but as a blessing, as a gift from God .And to hold the name of Jesus above all of these other names. Adam functions in a unique way for Christians. Adam is not just the first human, or someone long ago or like the greatest of grandfathers. We read of Adam in light of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior. And so we see in him a type, a figure of Christ. In a way, Adam doesn't make sense until we see  and understand Christ.
With the realization that God so loved the world that he sent his only son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life, we see in Adam naming the animals a prefiguration of Christ calling each of us by name. Whereas Adam named the rabbits and the whales and the turtles, Christ has named you.
Yes, your parents named you, or you renamed yourself or the state of Texas knows you by one name, But deeper than that, Jesus has named you.
Your name is mercy. Your name is love. Your name is child. Your name is not mistake.

At the name of Jesus, we understand God’s love for us. Christ’s name is above all names because we find ourselves fully and truly in Christ’s name.
The point is not the five or six letters, but who is behind it. Because Christ is alive, because Christ has revealed himself to the world, through the scriptures, but also to us and our own places. We know that the names that we have been given represent something deeper than just an address on a form or a phrase in a computer. Your name means even more than the people who named you because before even your parents knew you, Christ knew you and loved you. Adam named the animals. Christ has done more. Christ has named you beloved of God.

When we read this story or sing this song, we remember Christ’s love for us. Kids like it when I sing it. It's funny. They pick it up pretty quickly. There's a delight when they get it, when they get the joke. I think as well, there's such a delight in our eyes when we get it, not the joke of a song, but the reality of Christ's love for us.
That aha.
If you haven’t felt that yet, I'd love to talk to you more about Christ's love for you. I'd love to hear of your own experiences with God, maybe your doubts about God. That’s what pub Theology will be about. A chance to ask questions and answer questions from positions of humility.
But that aha is offered because while Adam named the animals, Christ has named you. And more than that, Christ has named the others in this world. And our call as Christians is not just to accept what has been given to us, but to step out and share that promise, share that name above all names. To share the delight in being loved and forgiven. Christ has named you and you are loved.

In the name of the Father and the Son the Holy Spirit.
Amen.