title: Living Hope

themes: christian-hope spiritual-discipline sanctification prayer generosity christian-community growth-in-holiness

text:
**Scripture:** Acts 2:42-47; Mark 12:41-44
**Series:** 2022

> Closing sermon in a series on hope, preached on Acts 2:42-47 where the post-Pentecost church lives out its hope through shared teaching, meals, prayer, generosity, and community. Using The Inner Game of Music's equation of performance as potential minus interference, the sermon argues that hope is not optimism but a practiced disposition rooted in who Jesus is. Like prayer, service, giving, and sharing, hope is a habit we grow into through the Holy Spirit, reducing the interference between ourselves and God. This growth is sanctification, moving toward completion (teleos), as God meets us where we are but does not leave us there.

**Illustrations:** inner-game-of-music, performance-equation, groggy-morning-pianist, aquinas-conditions-of-hope, riding-a-bicycle, falling-in-love-marriage, service-ministry-sites, widows-two-coins, kids-sharing-toys, back-to-school-620

---

# August 14
## Living Hope

“The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. All the believers were united and shared everything. They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them. Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity. They praised God and demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily to the community those who were being saved.” Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47

There's a book that came out in the seventies called, the Inner Game of Tennis. It was a best seller. I never read it. I don't play tennis, but it influenced a book I did read and, and do enjoy, is called the Inner Game of Music. It was written by Barry Green based very substantially on the Inner Game of Tennis. Barry Green is a Bassist like me, a classical Bassist. And he took the insights of the author and adapted it to music.
There are some similarities between someone playing tennis and someone playing music, especially when you are a soloist. Tennis is an individual event. And music is often an individual event. Tennis also has this concept of unforced errors that relates especially well to music performance. Many of us, myself included, can practice and can study and can know the music well, and then comes the recital and it’s just not all there. We get in our own head. It happens in most aspects of life. You get in your own head.
To help understand those moments we get in our head, The Inner Game of Tennis, they use this math equation: P=p-i. Which that means is performance equals potential minus interference. We have to work on our potential. We have to expand our potential. We have to increase our potential and make it be something that justifies the performance. As well, we have to limit the interference, the ways we get stuck in our own head with self doubt. In the Inner Game of Music, the author talks about this young pianist who likes to practice in the middle of the day, when she is wide awake, like the late morning, early afternoon, but she performs best in the early morning, just after waking up, when she's too groggy to really think about what she's doing. She is just reacting to it. She is just playing.

I think there's a fine line to make between properly thinking and overthinking, especially with faith, the meaning of life, ultimate things, etc. We shouldn't under think. For instance, if we come across something that challenges our faith, the goal is not to ignore the challenge or pretend like it's not there. Paul calls us to give an account of faith. Sometimes, however, we do overthink our own faith. We provide interference. Faith has not a performance like a tennis match or a concert recital, but there are aspects of potential and interference. And this is where hope comes in.

My friends, we are finishing our series on hope, looking at how this theological virtue can guide us in this world. We started off by defining what hope is. Then we spoke of how are hope is in Jesus and our future with God that is becoming present now. Finally, today we are going to think about living hope.
The best example of this is found in acts chapter two, right after Pentecost, the church is all together, sharing together, praying together, having meals together, they're living out their hope.
Remember hope is a hard word to define in specific and concrete ways. It's not just wishing for something nor is it generic optimism. Two weeks ago, we talked about Thomas Aquinas, the medieval philosopher, and his four conditions of hope: it must be something good, it must be in the future, it must be difficult to attain, but it also must be possible. These are helpful but insufficient, because our hope does’t rest on expert analysis but on the living God made flesh in Jesus Christ. And hope is not just an idea, but a way of life.

It's not just about being always being consciously aware of grace and God's presence. The life of faith is not a battle inside your mind to protect your mind-space from anything that would deviate from the norm. The life of faith, the life of hope, is what we do after receiving grace and understanding grace, what we do after we acknowledge Christ mercy towards us. There is interference we give to hope, like the musician or the tennis player, but with the Holy Spirit we can lesson that interference and grow in hope.
As we habituate hope, we turn hope into a habit. Something we don't have to consciously think about. A few Sundays ago, I mentioned how in the gospels hope is always a verb. We hope for something. In the letters of Paul and in the Book of Acts, they later concretize this verb, normalize it, so it's something that we can understand, but it is still something that we do.
It is living in light of our hope in Christ. This is what Jesus means by the kingdom of heaven is here. It's not far away and in the future. We can live this day in Christ’s kingdom by how we respond and habituate ourselves towards our neighbor, towards love, towards prayer.

In acts chapter two, when the church is all together, praying together, they don’t do these things just because everyone is already good at prayer. God doesn't call people who are already qualified. God qualifies the called. God offers space to grow in prayer.
Prayer is a habit. It is something you practice. You get good at prayer, like riding a bicycle. You can be bad at it, inexperienced at it. It can make you very uncomfortable, like sitting on a bike seat.
The first time you ride a bike is very uncomfortable. You can't just read a book about riding a bike. You have to get on there. And really you have to fall down a few times to really learn.
Prayer is also a relationship. When you are going on a date with someone. you don't know everything about them. Your relationship is different than it would be after 50 years of marriage. During that first real encounter, you can't do the things you will later do. You don't have the same inside jokes. You don’t have the same mannerisms, the same understanding of each other. Prayer is like falling in love. It is a habit. It is a practice. If you don't take time with your spouse to show love, to practice love, there's going to be harm in your relationship.
Service is a habit of giving up your time for another. It is a habit. It is a practice. It is something you can be bad at and that you can get better at. It is something that can be infused with God's grace.
If you've never been down to church under the bridge or gone out on the mobile loaves and fishes feeding run, or been to the rescue mission in marble falls or been on a partners in hope work site, or gone to San Antonio to Blueprint Ministries, the first time might be shocking. It's hard. What you do would be unfamiliar, but then when you come back again and again, it becomes familiar. You realize what you were doing and the importance of it. You get better of giving your time. It is easier to stop and help another person.
Generosity is a habit. Giving money to church is a habit. It is something you get used to. It is not something that comes naturally like, when Jesus talks about the woman who gives her two coins at the temple and how she does that out of joy and gives all that she has. How she gives more than the rich man who gives out of his abundance.
Because to give out of abundance is not a habit. It's just thinking, “Oh, I can do this. This doesn't affect me. It doesn't affect me to do this.” To give like the woman though she has affected. She no longer has those funds. They are not replaceable for her, but that is habit. The practice of giving opens up this possibility of generosity for her.
Sharing is a habit. When you're a kid sharing your toys is something you have to practice humans. Don't naturally share. There are a lot of ways the children are kindhearted and loving sharing. The favorite toy is usually not one of them. You have to practice sharing. You have to practice letting go of total control over the objects in our life. Realizing that when we share something, another person may break it or hurt it. And that the loss of that object as far less of a concern than the loss of relationship between the people in our lives, but with all of these, all of these practices that we see in acts two, what I hope we can understand and see this day in this series on hope is that hope itself is a practice.
Hope is a disposition. We are not naturally hopeful. There are not some people who are better at hope than others. There's a difference between hope and optimism. The optimist thinks things are going to turn out just because they think that way it is centered on themselves. The hopeful person hopes because of God, because of who Jesus is.
Now this is not to say that non-Christians can't have hope, but that the hope they have is a mark of God in their life, whether they realize it or not. God doesn't only work through the church. God is the Lord of all creation, all creation. All the world, not just the United States, all the universe, not just Texas.
School is about to start for our children, for our college students, for our teachers. The start of school is a transition in all of our lives, traffic patterns change. You do not want to be on 620 when the High School lets out. A lot of things change. For those of us out of school, it is easy to pretend that learning has stopped and that growth has stopped.
When Christ calls us, when we encounter the risen, Lord, God, doesn't call us to stay in the same place. God meets us where we are, but God does not let us stay there. We are called to grow in holiness. In churchy terms, that's called sanctification: becoming more holy again, not holy as like really boring and into casseroles. Holy as set apart for love in this world. Growing in holiness, moving on to completion, to being completely who God created us to be.

That's what the Greek word for perfection means, teleos. It's like completion, it's finished. It's not flawlessness. God calls us to seek and move towards completion in him. We do this through the activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The same spirit that was present on the day of Pentecost is present here with us and we can act, and we can receive that spirit.
We can act, we can grow. We can grow in our prayer life. We can grow in our study of scripture. We can grow in fasting. We can grow in service. We can grow in giving. We can grow in worship. We can grow in holiness together. We can let go of the interference between ourselves and God. We can let go of the interference between ourselves and love.
Letting Christ become greater. And our hearts can grow.
Hope is a practice believing more in who Jesus is than in the brokenness, around us. Believing more in Jesus than in our desire for control.
My brothers and sisters, this year, whether you go back to school or not, may you commit to growing, may you commit to furthering yourself. May you commit to practicing hope, practicing faith, practicing love, because of who Jesus is for you for us all.

Let us pray,
Heavenly Father, giver of hope. May we rest in your hope this day, and may we act in your hope this day. Help us to not be stagnant in faith but active in love. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


site: sermons

title: Lost & Found: Found

author: Wilson Pruitt

church: bee-creek-umc

themes: god-seeks-the-lost salvation gods-love-for-the-world the-cross eternal-life bronze-serpent-typology

text:
**Scripture:** John 3:13-17; Numbers 21:8-9
**Series:** 2022

> A brief sermon outline closing the 'Lost & Found' series with the theme of being 'Found.' It centers on John 3:13-17, drawing on the typology of Moses lifting up the bronze serpent in the wilderness to interpret the Human One being lifted up so that all who believe have eternal life. The emphasis falls on God's love for the world and that the Son came to save rather than judge. The note includes a planned application connecting the message to the congregation's Barefoot Sunday and its ministries.

**Illustrations:** moses-bronze-serpent-wilderness, barefoot-sunday-ministries

---

# September 18
## Lost & Found: Found

No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Human One. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Human One be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. John 3:13-17

Connect to the barefoot Sunday with the ministries

method: authored, not translated

license_apparatus: CC BY-NC 4.0


title: Lost & Found: Lost

themes: god-seeks-the-lost original-sin grace-and-transformation non-judgment scripture-reading call-to-discipleship mercy

text:
**Scripture:** Luke 15:1-10
**Series:** 2022

> First in a Luke 15 'Lost & Found' series, this sermon opens by asking why we read the Bible at all, locating its value not in textual trivia but in the living presence of Christ encountered in worship. Turning to the parables of the lost sheep and lost coin, the pastor invites hearers to find themselves in the story, especially the obedient rule-followers who resent the shepherd's 'inefficient' pursuit of the one. Drawing on original sin (William Temple), the human reflex to judge (Liz Lemon, the speck in the neighbor's eye), and Bonhoeffer's claim that only Jesus' call truly frees us from ourselves, it insists grace is not mere affirmation but the shepherd who finds, frees, and carries us home. It closes with Buechner: the Gospel is bad news before good news, that we are sinners loved and bled for, here and now.

**Illustrations:** gideon-bibles-airbnb, bart-ehrman-fundamentalist-atheist, genesis-2-hebrew-wall, bee-loved-chapel-songs, george-the-sheep-moral-hazard, william-temple-original-sin, liz-lemon-speed-dating, buechner-bad-news-good-news, bonhoeffer-alcoholic-rich-man

---

# September 11
## Lost & Found: Lost

All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose someone among you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them. Wouldn’t he leave the other ninety-nine in the pasture and search for the lost one until he finds it? And when he finds it, he is thrilled and places it on his shoulders. When he arrives home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who changes both heart and life than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to change their hearts and lives.“Or what woman, if she owns ten silver coins and loses one of them, won’t light a lamp and sweep the house, searching her home carefully until she finds it? When she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, joy breaks out in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who changes both heart and life.” Luke 15:1-10

There are a lot of different ways to read the Bible. There are a lot of different people who read the Bible in different ways. But even before that, before you even get to like the literal sense of the words, of just the letters themselves (that is what litteral means) or the different allegories or interpretations and contexts, before you can get to that, you have to start with a prior question of why: why does it matter? Why should I read it?
The Bible does not have the same value for everyone. Most people in America encounter the Bible in hotel rooms than in their own home. One of the ironies of the rise of AirBNB and VRBOs is that the Gideons are no longer able to provide bibles to every place you stay. If you who grew up in the church, you may have a certain affinity for the Bible, or for portions of the Bible. Some grow up in communities where the Bible is used for condemnation more than anything else and so it becomes harder to seek God here. Some encounter Christ later in life and the strange new world of the Bible is this beautiful place.
Bible means book. The Bible contains a number of books and letters and histories and poems, genealogies, and apocalyptic. It was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek through the Holy Spirit with the pens of different people.
The Koran is a helpful comparison. The Koran has the same author and a similar syntax and vocabulary through out. The Bible does not. My Greek is much better than my Hebrew and when I studied in seminary, I got to the point where I could translate Genesis 1 fairly easily. But then I hit a wall at Genesis 2 because the vocabulary was almost completely different. Translations often soften those differences. I could give a bunch of other examples. Some people have a faith that is so weak that the moment you mention a curious textual issue in the Bible their faith falls apart. This is what happened to the Bible Scholar Bart Ehrman, who grew up in a fundamentalist background. Went to Moody Bible School, but then, in Graduate School, when he studied textual differences in the early New Testament manuscripts he lost his faith but kept his fundamentalism and became a fundamentalist atheist, publishing books about how Paul polluted the teachings of Jesus.
This why question: why read the bible, does not start in our home or in a small group, but in worship. The Bible exists today because of Christians sharing gospels and letters across ancient cities and villages, and the bishops writing and sharing about which letters were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and which letters were not.
So with this why question, since we are already in worship, we should start with an understanding of reading this book in worship, as Christians have done thousands of years. The Bible is not self-evident. There is this fancy word, perspicuity, that some have used to say that the Bible is obvious, but I think that is more a way of social control than encountering the living Lord, Jesus Christ, here.
We can teach the stories of the Bible to our children. I think that this is super important. Chapel with Bee Loved just started back and it is one of my favorite things I do. I wrote a bunch of songs about the Bible to try and open up for the little and the Pre-Kinders the imagination, power and importance of God’s actions in Scripture, to give them a memory that they will be able to come back to when they're older and connect with who God is. The stories are great.
I can teach about the Bible to adults. I can go through the very dry and didactic way, the different textual discrepancies between certain manuscripts, the new Testament, the old Testament, the difference between the Greek Septuagint and the Hebrew Masoretic Text, looking at some of the passages in Jeremiah that exists in Greek, that don't exist in Hebrew.
And yet, teaching you tons of data in trivia does not give the Bible value. Memorizing whole books or being excellent at Bible sword does not reveal God on its own, and that, ultimately, is the why.
The Bible is a gift of the presence of God to us. Jesus is here. The Holy Spirit moves through here. And we can read the same passage of scripture, the same passage in the gospels at one point in our life and get something out of it. Then, in a different season, we may have completely different interpretation, not a contradictory one, but a different one. God continues to speak through these words. Over the next two weeks, we are going to look at three famous parables from Luke 15, on the Lost and on the Found. This week, we are focusing on the lost.
All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose someone among you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them. Wouldn’t he leave the other ninety-nine in the pasture and search for the lost one until he finds it? And when he finds it, he is thrilled and places it on his shoulders. When he arrives home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who changes both heart and life than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to change their hearts and lives.“Or what woman, if she owns ten silver coins and loses one of them, won’t light a lamp and sweep the house, searching her home carefully until she finds it? When she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, joy breaks out in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who changes both heart and life.” Luke 15:1-10

A helpful tool to sometimes use with Bible stories is to see ourselves in the Story.
Who are you in this story? There are a number of possible characters. There is the passive audience in the temple. There are the Pharisees grumbling to Jesus about how he eats with sinners. There are the disciples of Jesus. There is Jesus himself. So we have an opportunity to relate ourselves to all of these people. Then we have the parable itself. With the first one, we have the shepherd, we have the sheep that come home, and then we have the sheep that was lost. We’ll hold here for moment
I've had moments in my life of being lost both in a metaphorical and a literal sense: metaphorical in being lost in a way that I felt directionless with my life, literal in the sense of being in the woods and not knowing where I was,.
Think about who you are in this story.
With any of the characters, one thing that is striking is incredible inefficiency of the people involved. The shepherd is super inefficient. He leaves the vast majority of his sheep to go find that one. There might've been some sheep that wandered off after he left them, as well. Most of us would be ecstatic with a return of 99 out of 100

This matters concerning where we see ourselves in this story. If we see ourselves as one of the sheep who came home when our master told us to, the shepherd heading off to find George the Sheep may not seem fair. Why is the shepherd spending so much time with George over there? He stuck his head in the brambles by the Creek. That's only going to teach him a bad lesson and he is going to do it again to get more attention from the shepherd. Economists might call that moral hazard. If someone thinks that they can get away with bad behavior, they're going to do it again. And again.
I think one of the ways, folks like me, who, more often than not, identify with the sheep who listened, who follow orders, follow the rules, we read a passage like this, and we may like the sentiment, “the lost will be found,” but we don't really want to dig too deeply into it. We don't want to look into what God is really doing here. When the verses before say that Jesus ate with sinners. We want to make sure that the sinners Jesus ate with are the good kind of sinners. We want to separate that out. You know, there are good sinners and there are bad sinners. Like there are sinners who are doing it for good reason. There are bad sinners who sin for bad reasons.
Jesus, though, doesn't qualify different kinds of being lost or different kinds of sinners. Sin is pretty much a binary category. There is one exception about the sin against the holy spirit, but other than that, sinning is kind of like pregnancy: you're either pregnant or your not. It is either sin or it is not.

In fact, he's a lot more binary and being lost. There's different levels of being lost. I think Jesus would admit to, we have a sense of being lost and not knowing the precise direction home as well as the sense of being lost and only having a general direction.
There's a theological concept called original sin, which isn't the most popular thing nowadays we don't want to talk about sins is probably the most. You've heard the word sin on a sermon while it's not a fun topic. Original sin seems really complicated and it's rude. Original sin is the tendency of our hearts to distort God's good creation and to turn our own hearts towards ourselves. It's depressing to think about mistakes and sin.  I don't want to think about my mistakes.
William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury during world war II, said that original sin is the only empirically proven doctrine. We see it in the hearts of people around us. We see it in our hearts. We see it institutions. We can't create an institution that does not tend towards pride and idolatry and self-destruction. There is no organization or nation or gathering of humans of any size which the human heart cannot distort for nefarious ends.

Again and again, humans try to save themselves apart from God. We create Babels. We create kingdoms. We seek to efficiently disperse God’s mercy ourselves. We just others before we judge ourselves. The speck in my neighbor’s eye is so obvious.

There is a scene in the old sitcom 30 Rock where the lead character, Liz Lemon, is going on a set of speed dates and she ruins all of them because she keeps on correcting her dates for most of the thirty seconds they have with each other. Her friend asks her why she feels the need to correct them, and her response is, “I can’t just let them be WRONG!”

It is easy to judge. And the same capacity to judge can be turned and distorted by sin just as easily. In our pride and in our judgment, we need to hear the voice of Jesus calling us back home.

If we don’t hear the call, we are stuck with ourselves where ever we go. If we don’t hear the call and try to follow Jesus, we are still lost.

God has extravagantly and inefficiently sought and called you to leave your sin and follow him. “Those called must get out of their situations, in which they cannot believe, into a situation in which faith can believe.” The call of Jesus dissolved all ties for the sake of the unique committment of Jesus Christ.

Mercy is not just affirmation. It’s good to feel affirmed by others, but that is not grace. Grace is the shepherd coming to us while we are lost and trapped, calling to us, setting us free, and then guiding us home. Jesus doesn’t save the lost sheep from the bush and then forget about him. Jesus brings him home.

As Frederick Buechner wrote, “The Gospel is bad news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror in a lather when he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is the tragedy. But is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for.”

Jesus is not just a coach or teacher who says, “I’ve been there before, I know what it is like.” Jesus is there, bleeding for you. Now. Here and now.

Let us pray.

“The alcoholic who gives up alcohol or the rich man who gives away his money are truly freed from alcohol and money, but not from themselves.”[^1]

“The point is to get into such a situation, so that faith is true faith and not self-deception.”[^2]

[^1]: Bonhoeffer 65.
[^2]: Bonhoeffer 67.


title: Maundy Thursday

themes: foot-washing holy-communion humility new-commandment incarnation open-table

text:
**Scripture:** John 13:1-10; Luke 22:14-20; John 13:34-35
**Series:** 2022

> A Maundy Thursday sermon weaving John 13 (foot washing, the new commandment) and Luke 22 (the institution of Communion). Wilson contrasts the low barrier of the open Communion table with the high barrier of foot washing to expose pride that runs both ways—too proud to serve, too proud to be served. He stresses the tactile, incarnational nature of both sacraments ('eat me, do this') and argues Jesus' mandatum is not a threat ('do this or go to hell') but an invitation to remembrance and love that frees us from the self-drawn lines limiting what we will and won't do.

**Illustrations:** lines-we-will-not-cross, wont-take-shoes-off, too-proud-unloading-groceries, will-i-go-to-hell-necessity

---

# Maundy Thursday

Before the Festival of Passover, Jesus knew that his time had come to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them fully.
Jesus and his disciples were sharing the evening meal. The devil had already provoked Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew the Father had given everything into his hands and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he got up from the table and took off his robes. Picking up a linen towel, he tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a washbasin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he was wearing. When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

John 13:1-10

When the time came, Jesus took his place at the table, and the apostles joined him. He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. I tell you, I won’t eat it until it is fulfilled in God’s kingdom.” After taking a cup and giving thanks, he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. I tell you that from now on I won’t drink from the fruit of the vine until God’s kingdom has come.” After taking the bread and giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup after the meal and said, “This cup is the new covenant by my blood, which is poured out for you.
Luke 22:14-20

Even when we don't admit them, we all have lines that we draw around our own behavior. We have things we're willing to do and things we're not willing to do. Through the community in which we are all in, through church, through our family, in all sorts of ways, there are things that I do. These are things that I don't do.
Often, when preachers talk about moral codes and ethics and things like this, it's about right and wrong and about don't murder, don't steal, don't commit adultery. It's the 10 commandments. We can bring those out. But today, tonight, the words of Jesus are not about sins or ethics as they are commonly understood. The words of Jesus are: do this in remembrance of me.
Communion is one of those practices that has a low barrier of entry. We give communion to those who seek it. Every Sunday, I say that this is not a United Methodist table. This is not this church’s table. This is Christ’s table.  All are welcome. Low barrier. Just come forward. I don’t give a quiz about metaphysics. I offer it freely.
Foot washing has a much higher barrier of entry. Some people are comfortable with it or have no personal image issues or care issues about their feet. For others, it is a line that they are not going to cross. There's a line, it is something they are not going to do.
And the irony is that sometimes it goes both directions. I may be comfortable washing your feet, but I'm not taking my shoes off for anyone. Not going to do it. You don’t have to do it. Though oddly, in faith contexts, necessity is quite stark. “If I don’t do this, will I go to hell? No. Then it is not for me.” Necessity presents the life of faith in a minimal with a focus on what I get out of it. Jesus doesn’t say do this or you’re going to hell. Do this in remembrance of me.

Foot washing is a symbol of humility. More than a symbol: it is an act of humility. It takes humility to get on your knees for another person, to help another person.
The sin of pride goes both ways. You can be too proud to ever get on your knees for another. You're not that kind of person. And you can be too proud to ever let anybody wash your feet. You can be too proud to ever ask for help when unloading the groceries and you can be too proud to go forward and offer help when you don't know how they will respond,.
The washing of someone’s feet is tactile. It is not a necessity but an opportunity to connect more with the God who is love who became flesh for us. The God who is love who washed his disciples feet with his hands. Jesus touched them. Then, at the lord’s table, Jesus offered himself in a tactile way so that we can touch him. Communion is tactile. You touch the bread. You taste the bread. You touch the juice. You taste it. Communion is not just about a nice snack In the morning or the evening. Communion is a weird thing to do.
It is a weird practice that only becomes a normalized if you've done it a lot. Why are we doing this?
Jesus says, this is my body here. My body for you, this bread Is not just bread. It is me and I give it to you. I am the son of man, I, the word made flesh. I, the second person of the Trinity who became flesh as a child, Lived your experience, suffered your worries, your hungers, your pains, was tempted as you are tempted, but did not fall.
This is me offered for you. Not just once. We're not done. Do this. Mandatum. Do this to remember me. Eat me. Consume me. I will be with you so that you will not be consumed by your pride, by your lust, by practices of destruction, by desires of the heart that lead astray.

Jesus offers a new commandment. A new mandatum. This is where Maundy Thursday comes from. A mandatum, a mandate, a commandment.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””
John 13:34-35 ESV

And the love Christ speaks of is not just a metaphor. It is concrete. It is tactile. And that means the lines we used to have about what we will or will not do no longer have power over us.

Eat me. Do this. My blood is here for you. Take it in your hands. Touch it, Not just this bread, but your savior,.
Not just this juice, but my love My all for you. If I give myself this way, what limits are left for you? You are free Taste and see the Lord is good. Do this in remembrance of me. Let us pray.

Loving God, you take good care of us in more ways than we know. Your personal love is reflected in the kindness of Jesus, who washed the feet of his disciples. May our congregation show your love to one another and our neighbors through practical deeds of mercy. Make us willing to get our hands dirty in assisting others. Help us to discover joy in giving our time and money. We ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ, who came not to be served but to serve. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: New Creation

themes: new-creation eternal-life holy-communion identity-in-christ gods-faithfulness great-commission transformed-desire

scripture: Revelation 21:1-7; Matthew 28:19-20

text:
**Scripture:** Revelation 21:1-7; Matthew 28:19-20
**Series:** 2022

> Preaching on Revelation 21:1-7, the sermon frames the new heaven and new earth as the 'Amen' of God—his faithful completion of creation in redemption—tied to the congregational Amen at communion. It argues our true identity rests not in what we make or do but in who we are in the God who is love, and that the just (not vengeful) God's kingdom is already present, fueling the Great Commission. Engaging Bernard Williams's 'Tedium of Immortality,' it distinguishes eternal life as redeemed and transformed desire from a boring endless continuation of the present, and closes by tying new life to the start of Lent.

**Illustrations:** planning-tools-evolution, williams-tedium-immortality, peanut-butter-jelly-decade, guests-never-leave, child-first-birthday-cake

---

# February 27
## New Creation

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne say, “Look! God’s dwelling is here with humankind. He will dwell with them, and they will be his peoples. God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. There will be no mourning, crying, or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look! I’m making all things new.” He also said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said to me, “All is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will freely give water from the life-giving spring. Those who emerge victorious will inherit these things. I will be their God, and they will be my sons and daughters. Revelation 21:1-7

As I have grown older, i have become much more of a planner. Earlier in my life, I didn’t plan many things because I didn’t have many things to plan. It seemed like a waste of time. I would do what I needed to do for school or my job, and then I would fill my with what happened to be available. When I was in seminary, I read.

Now I am responsible for a congregation. I have a family to help support. I don’t want to miss things. Sunday comes every week. In a year, there will still be a Sunday. It should not be a surprise.

I change planning strategies during different times. Ministry is one of those professions that has to be self-regulating. I could spend 50 hours a week on just my sermon, or I could spend it all on phone calls and visits, or organizational issues in the church, or on future planning.

I’ve used a productivity planner, bullet planner, atomic planner. I’ve had lists and goals and schedules. Now I carry around a little field notes book to jot down lists and thoughts. I will probably get tired of it next month and find another tool to plan with.

We plan around who we are. Around what our identity is. We make plans for our future. Plans for retirement. Plans based on the kind of person we think we are.

One of the aspects of Revelation that has drawn people to it is that they think that they get a plan of what their future with God can be. I think that there are images of what our future with God is, but it is not a plan like you can write down on a calendar.

Our future with God is like a city descending. Like a new heaven and a new earth. And that means that all the plans we have made up until now probably will not fit into the new city.

### Series Intro
The book of revelation is about our identity. What is the source of our identity. Is it Rome? Is it our job? Is it our family?

Through this series we have also been looking at different aspects of the communion. We have looked at the Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord Be with you, and also with you,  and Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.

Today we look at the congregational Amen. This doesn’t seem like much. It is only one word. It comes after what is called the Epectesis which is the calling on the Holy Spirit to be present with us. Different traditions share communion in different ways, but all of them have a liturgy. I’ve joked with some folks before that the churches that try to seem the most spontaneous demand the most control over what goes on in worship. They still have a liturgy. To worship is to have a liturgy, literally a work of the people. Something we do together. How do we end that time? How do we separate worship time for normal life time?

And then everybody says Amen. Everybody says ‘Amen’.

Amen is an assent to what is happening. It is confirmation of what has happened. New creation is the Amen of God. We participate in it when we say Amen during communion. The new heavens and the new earth descending represent God’s faithfulness to creation.

When the pastor says, Pour out your Holy Spirit,” and then when we all say, ‘Amen’, we are affirming God’s faithfulness to us in this meal. We are able to believe in God’s faithfulness because the God who is the Alpha is also the Omega. There is a continuity between creation and redemption.

As well, our starting point for the end of all things should be the justice of God. God is righteous and good and so the end of all things should be righteous and good. Though they are used in very different ways in English, righteousness and Justice are the same word in Greek and Latin. Diakosunai or iustitia.

The God who is just, not the God who is vengeful. Not a petty, arbitrary deity. The God who is just is the God who is love. The final word of Amen is a word from the mouth of Jesus Christ, the son of God, who became human and died for us to reconcile the world to God and shows us the meaning of love..

One of the easy ways to misunderstand the Book of Revelation is find a disconnect between it and the rest of the Bible. In fact, it is an exclamation point over all of the other books and all of creation history.

God is still faithful. The Alpha is the one who will be the Omega. Our final destiny is not just in the future: it is present here. That is the point of the Great Commission: the kingdom of heaven is here. Go forth and make new disciples.

The kingdom of heaven is not just some churchy discourse. It is a community where people actually love each other. With grace, we are trying to build that. We believe it is possible. A community where people care about each other, not because of their past, not because of what they can provide, not as objects for career advancement, not as complications for the best laid plans of mice man. Where we can talk about challenging things. Where we can dig a little deeper than the surface in our own lives and we think that this matters enough to share with other people. We rejoice with those who rejoice and we grieve with those who grieve.

Our final identity is not in what we make or do but in who we are. We live in a world where most people can’t see that. They have to prove themselves to their parents. They have to prove themselves to their friends. They have to prove themselves to the joneses and they are found wanting. So many people feel like they are not good enough, they are not smart enough, and gosh darn it, people don’t like them. It is hard. It is a hard world. This is true all over the world. At no place is life figured out.

The Great Commission is not go therefore and sign a bunch of people up, it isn’t a heavenly pyramid scheme, it is go make, disciples of the God who is love, that is students. People willing to change, receive mercy, and grow in love. To grow in love means admitting you still have to grow and you still have purpose in this world.

This is worth talking about. What is your purpose? What is your destiny? What is the most last thing? These are not impossible questions that we should avoid. At the end of the book of revelation, we get closer to the last thing. The most last thing, in fact. What is the last thing of the last things with God?

The most last thing is eternity with God. A party where you don’t get tired or bored or hungry. Imagine sustaining that. It is a party. It is a feast where the food doesn’t get old. It is a song and dance where all the annoying people are no longer annoying. There is no next thing to do. There is no worry about tomorrow. There is no crying or weeping or gnashing of teeth. There is life with each other and life with our Lord. Life at its most and best.

### Eternity
Our future is not the present age continued ad infinitum. The philosopher Bernard Williams wrote a paper subtitled ‘The Tedium of Immortality.’ He took as his assumption the basic understanding that eternity is a changeless continuation of our existence here. I don’t think he is stretching things to make this assumption. Heaven is like life now, minus some bad things. I get to fish and watch my shows but don’t have to go to the doctor. Sounds nice.

What Williams argues, though, is that it will be miserable. For example, if you had to eat the same thing for every meal, you may get sick of it. I had peanut butter and jelly for lunch for about a decade, which is a long ride, but I eventually ran out of taste for it and had to change. If eternity is changeless, then I wouldn’t be able to change the food and would eventually get sick of it. Same thing with people. There are a lot of people I love. There are not a lot of people I could healthily live with. I like when people visit but I also like when they go back to their home. If heaven is this continuation of life here where we all live together, guests would never leave.

The crux of the argument is that our desires fade and whenever they do, our enjoyment changes to displeasure. Bernard Williams’s arguments has to do with philosophical understandings of immortality. It is not based on Scripture. God doesn’t offer us an eternity of clouds and cherubs or stuff I like now and people I like now continued ad infinitum. We are offered new creation. A future life and world that is totally redeemed, including our desires. When Jesus says to John, “there will be no mourning, crying, or pain anymore,” he is explaining how those emotions will no longer be present because they won’t be possible. When he says, “To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment,” he is saying how our desires will be transformed because our desires will be totally fulfilled.

Everything we plan for and hope for is good in how it participates in God’s goodness, whether it be fishing or sewing or basketball or cooking. These moments of satisfaction are desirable because of the ways in which they participate in what God has done and is doing. Our eternal life with God cannot reduce into boredom because we will have access to the living water we always wanted anyway. It is like the child at their first birthday party who has cake for the first time and then goes crazy because it is the greatest moment they have ever experienced. That excitement and joy eternally taking place. Cake grows old, people age and change, but God’s love is forever.

Amazingly, what we are shown here at the end of Revelation and at the end of the bible is possible here. God is present in this way now. This is the impulse of mission. Life with God is not just a future reality but a present one. And that is something worth sharing. New life is possible now.

New life means you are not your regrets or mistakes. New life means you can change no matter who you are or where you’ve been. We say amen to the future that Christ offers us now.

### Lent
Lent begins this week. Lent is a season of preparation for Holy Week. It is a chance to slow down. It is a chance to look inward to see where you are with your life and with your soul. You will have chances to receive ashes on Wednesday as a sign of humility. May you find a new way to offer yourself to God this season.

### Conclusion
Let us say goodbye to habits of hurt and pain. Let us say amen to new life with God. Let us say goodbye to practices of selfishness and greed. Let us say amen to new life with God. Let us say goodbye to self-doubt and shame. Let us say amen to new life with God.

Let us pray,
Heavenly father, you offer us new life when we least deserve it. Help us not to seek only our future but to seek a holy life now. Help us to turn our hearts towards our neighbors and towards your love so that we can experience your new creation now. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: On the Third Day, He Rose Again

themes: bodily-resurrection apostles-creed lords-day-worship chronos-and-kairos church-membership dry-bones

text:
**Scripture:** Ezekiel 37:4-6; 1 Corinthians 15:3-6; Luke 24:5
**Series:** 2022

> An Advent sermon in a series on the Apostles' Creed, focused on the clause 'on the third day he rose again.' Wilson argues that the resurrection is bodily and time-bound, which is why Christians worship on Sunday—the eighth day, a little Easter and the first day of new creation. Drawing on Ezekiel's dry bones, 1 Corinthians 15, and Updike's Easter poem, he stresses the fleshly reality of the resurrection and contrasts Chronos (clock time) with Kairos (God's redeemed time). He then turns the angel's question—'Why do you look for the living among the dead?'—on declining, convenience-driven church attendance and membership vows reduced to dead obligation, calling the congregation to come to the Communion table willing to be changed and to proclaim Christ is risen.

**Illustrations:** southern-blue-laws, christmas-on-a-sunday, valley-of-dry-bones, updike-seven-stanzas-easter, chronos-vs-kairos, attendance-1-4-times-a-month, membership-vows-dead-works

---

# December 4

## On the third day, he rose again.

He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, Dry bones, hear the Lord’s word! The Lord God proclaims to these bones: I am about to put breath in you, and you will live again. I will put sinews on you, place flesh on you, and cover you with skin. When I put breath in you, and you come to life, you will know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel 37:4-6

Why do we worship on a Sunday? Christians celebrate on a Sunday, not a Saturday as Jews do the Sabbath. The sabbath, in the Jewish faith, is on the seventh day of the week. For Christians, they celebrate on the first day of the week.
The reason why we have a weekend in general is because the Sabbath is still Saturday for Christians. The Lord's day is Sunday. So you have two days: Sabbath and the Lord’s Day. Neither of them are very restful in the modern world. For many of us today, they're full of activities, escapes, family time, excursions, catching up on work around the house.
Honey do lists, all sorts of things. If you have children, weekends are filled with sports activities, Saturdays and Sundays, all day longs in different places.
For a long time, in the south especially, there were blue laws that limited which businesses could be open on Sunday. I think, in large part, this artificially inflated church attendance. A lot of people went to church because it was the only thing they could do.
This year, Christmas Day is on a Sunday. It happens every few years. A lot of churches cancel Christmas worship because of this. They say that Christmas is for family. I think Christmas is partially for family. My family has a number of wonderful Christmas traditions, but a Sunday is the Lord's Day because on the third day, Christ rose from the dead. The third day was Sunday.
In the Christian faith, it is not the first day of the week, it is the eighth day. It is the first day of new creation. This Sunday, and every Sunday, each is a little Easter, a little resurrection, a little reminder that the new creation of all things has begun in Jesus Christ. If we believe Jesus rose from the dead, we are living in a different world now.

### Series Intro

My friends, we are continuing our series on the apostles creed, that historic doctrinal statement of the faith. We are going to look at how the creed encapsulate scripture and offers it to us in a way that shows us what has been revealed from God about who God is, how the world is, why we are in need, how Jesus saves us, and what we should do about it.

Today, on the third day, he rose again.

This series is a in part a response to claims that the United Methodist Church is leaving Christian doctrine behind.  The doctrine of the church has not changed and cannot change. And there is no more central doctrine than the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The timing of resurrection matters, as does the fleshiness of it. Ezekiel 37 has this great image of the valley of dry bones and the Son of Man breathing out and the sinews of flesh coming back to the bones. This is the most detailed description of resurrection. Ezekiel shows the renewal of flesh and bone, not Spirit bubbles or souls floating above the surface.

The Bible doesn't talk a lot about disembodied souls, but it speaks of resurrected bodies. Jesus rose in the flesh. Lazarus rose in the flesh. Even Moses and Elijah at the transfiguration are bright and brilliant, they are not ghostly.

Each moment of resurrection takes time.
1 Corinthians 15 offers a beautiful summary of our faith that addresses the time. We can see a creedal pattern already present here.

> I passed on to you as most important what I also received: Christ died for our sins in line with the scriptures, he was buried, and he rose on the third day in line with the scriptures. He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve, and then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at once—most of them are still alive to this day, though some have died.”
1 Corinthians 15:3-6 CEB

The timing of the days matters. Not just because it was predicted in Scripture. Jesus was killed before the Sabbath on a Friday. If he had risen on the Sabbath, nobody would've witnessed it. Nobody would've been there there. The day after the sabbath was a normal day. An average day. The women go to the tomb to do their duty to Jesus. They find the tomb empty. An Angel there asks them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” It is a question that is still relevant for us today: Why do you look for the living among the dead? Worshiping on a Sunday as the gathered body of Christ is an opportunity to look for the living among the living. It is a chance to find God where God is among the living. We don't need to look for the living among the dead. He is not there.
The resurrection itself was bodily. It wasn't just in spirit. The New Testament has little time for spirits. It has little time for ghosts floating about as John Updike puts it in his Seven Stanzas on Easter.

>Make no mistake: if he rose at all/It was as His body;/If the cell’s dissolution did not reverse, the molecule reknit,/The amino acids rekindle,/The Church will fall.

He is risen is the eternal proclamation of the church in all seasons. He is risen is the proclamation of every Sunday. Christ has transformed every first day into an eighth day. Christ has transformed all our time from chronos into kairos. Chronos is linear time. Clock time. Chronos is the time of the schedule; the organizational man, the life hack for more efficiency and productivity. Kairos is the time of God. The redeemed time of flow and transformation. The time of falling in love. The time of the first cry of your child. The time of undeserved mercy.

Time moves slowly as a child and swiftly as an adult. Our routines and habits are good and beautiful, but they can make time pass in ways that seem too fast.

When we live for ourselves, we will forever be trapped in Chronos time. Resurrection offers us an opportunity to live in kairos time. We need not live for ourself anymore.
On the third day, when Jesus rises, the new creation of reality begins. It has happened. And you can be a part of this.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, offers us a stark choice about how to live in light of resurrection.
If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, let us eat, drink and be married for tomorrow we die. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead on the third day, what are we doing here? What is the point of any of this?
If he did rise, then everything is different. If Christ did rise from the dead, our lives are different.
Grace is freely offered to us through Christ. We are forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God. Let us stay reconciled by seeking Jesus.

You are loved and forgiven, my brothers and sisters, by the God who loved you so much. He came to earth and took your sins upon himself. He died for you. He went to the depths for you. On the third day, after he was truly dead, after he proclaimed eternal life in the midst of eternal death, he rose again.

So where are you going to look for him? Are you going to look for Jesus in the dry bones?
We are in the season of advent. A time of preparation for Christmas and the coming of Jesus. It is tempting to only look back for Jesus. To look at the past, at our memories and experiences and comfort level. And yet, why do you seek the living among the dead?

Church attendance is a fickle thing. It goes up and down. I've been a part of churches with rapid growth and then they plateau and then they descend.
A generation ago, regular church attendance was every Sunday unless you were out of town. Today, regular church attendance is 1.4 times a month. A lot of things get in the way. There are sports games or trips or family or the only time to catch up on the laundry. I never understand what the preacher is saying. I don’t prefer the music. I don’t want to get trapped in a conversation. I practice my faith outside of the walls.
There are a lot of reasons to not attend church. At its worst. Church attendance is a begrudging duty.

When people join the church, they pledge to support it by their prayers, their presence, their gifts, their servants and their story.

When I talk to people about joining the church, I always ask them what these words mean to them. It is always great. We make a promise to God and others to be present, but life changes. Patterns change. It gets harder. Like all the promises of membership: prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness, when they're seen solely as obligations, they slowly deaden over time. They turn into dry works. The very works that Paul spoke about as the dead works of the law. Instead of drawing us closer, they keep us from God. Church becomes a social obligation that we can take or leave as we see fit. Once Sunday becomes an obligation, it ceases to be a day of resurrection. It becomes another valley of dry bones.

And yet, what we  humans deaden, Christ redeems. If Jesus rose from the dead, everything is different, why do we look for the living among the dead? Why are we looking for God in places not from God?

When we look for convenience and comfort, when we look for homogeneity, and affirmation, it's like looking in a graveyard, but Christ is not there. When we stay away from church unless it is convenient, we are looking for the living among the dead. When we are more excited to receive than to give, we are looking for the living among the dead. When practicing our faith looks more cultural than sacrificial, we are looking for the living among the dead. When the Bible is used more to condemn others than to convict ourselves, we are looking for the living among the dead. Christ is not there.

Christ is here, at this table. If we are going to come to the table, we need to lay down our burdens and grudges. We need to lay down our bitterness and hobby horses. If we are not willing to be changed, we are not willing to proclaim, on this day, or any Sunday, Christ is risen indeed!

Let us pray,
Heavenly Father, thank you for your mercies in sharing with us the good news of Christ’s resurrection. Help us to live a resurrection life even now, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: Palm Sunday

themes: works-of-love means-of-grace holy-week-discomfort why-we-worship transformation methodist-identity

text:
**Scripture:** Luke 19:28-40
**Series:** 2022

> A Palm Sunday sermon on Luke 19:28-40 that uses the preacher's own story of losing and regaining the ability to run after ankle surgery to argue that love, like running, is a practice rather than a sentiment. The irony of Palm Sunday is that the crowds praise Jesus without knowing why, hoping he will do the work so they can keep their status quo. But the mirror of Holy Week confronts us with the need for change and love. Drawing on the Methodist means of grace, the sermon calls hearers to meet Jesus by praying, worshiping, and serving others during Holy Week's long road to Easter.

**Illustrations:** running-after-ankle-surgery, painting-room-organizing-closet, crowd-singing-hosanna, mallory-everest-because-its-there, iron-man-superhero-juice, love-like-riding-bike, running-hills-lakeway, leo-the-great-incarnation, andrew-of-crete-garments

---

# April 10
## Palm Sunday

“After Jesus said this, he continued on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. As Jesus came to Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he gave two disciples a task. He said, “Go into the village over there. When you enter it, you will find tied up there a colt that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say, ‘Its master needs it.’” Those who had been sent found it exactly as he had said. As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They replied, “Its master needs it.” They brought it to Jesus, threw their clothes on the colt, and lifted Jesus onto it. As Jesus rode along, they spread their clothes on the road. As Jesus approached the road leading down from the Mount of Olives, the whole throng of his disciples began rejoicing. They praised God with a loud voice because of all the mighty things they had seen. They said, “Blessings on the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens.” Some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, scold your disciples! Tell them to stop!” He answered, “I tell you, if they were silent, the stones would shout.””
Luke 19:28-40 CEB

I started running again in January. It wasn't a new year's resolution. It seems like it would've been, given the time of year. I think I laced up my shoes again on January 3rd. It had more to do with COVID, with getting COVID and then wanting to respond. It was something I could safely do and push myself to do once I felt better in that kind of interregnum between feeling good and no longer being contagious, so I started running.
I ran a lot in my twenties. I ran a few marathons. I had gone through different training regimens with them and I really enjoyed it. Running was a very important aspect of my prayer life. It let me settle my soul a lot through the challenging times in my twenties.
When I met Alina, I was still running. We ran together when we were dating, but my, my left ankle started to hurt. It had nothing to do with her. Before I met her, as a single guy in his twenties, I didn't think doctors were necessary. I didn't go to doctor’s. I didn't have any real reason to take care of myself long-term because I had no like long-term responsibilities in that sense. I ran. I climbed mountains solo. I lived for the moment I could have. But after meeting Alina, we fell in love and wanted to have a family, and I had to come to the realization that I needed to start taking care of myself. And so I needed to start realizing that if I have a continuous pain and it keeps on hurting, I should probably address it.
Eventually, I saw a doctor who proscribed some physical therapy that didn't work. I got an MRI and referred to a surgeon. And the surgeon did what surgeons do: he cut on my ankle. After the procedure, he told me that they ended up finding a non-malignant bone tumor. And I remember in my post-op interview. This surgeon did not have very good bed manner.
Alina was with me and got pretty, pretty frustrated at him. The doctor said, “you’ll never run again. Maybe you should ride your bike, but just don't don't think about running. It's always going to hurt. Most of your cartilage is gone In your ankle. I tried to help it grow back. It doesn't look like it worked.”
That was it. Dominic was six months old I couldn’t stand for eight weeks of recovery. It has been physically challenging for me, off and on, over the last 10 years. From time to time, I would try to start running again. I could go a few miles and it would be fine. When I pushed myself a little bit, having no cartilage in my ankle made the recovery much harder. And my prayer life suffered because I couldn’t replace what I had been doing on the road. I couldn't do the things I used to do.
And then this last January, I decided to try it again. I gave myself a schedule, I made a spreadsheet. I got on a plan. And somehow This time it stuck. I'm not pain free, but the pain is modest and controllable. And it is a choice That I am making. I am trying to prepare for a half marathon coming up to see if I can do it one more time, because finishing a race is a celebration.

Today is Palm Sunday. It is a festival, a celebration. We are having a party today. That's a big aspect of the beginning of holy week.
It is a festival. If it seems like Lent has been going on a long time, it is actually over now. We're not in Lent anymore. We're in a different season. It is good to feast, to relax a little bit, to celebrate, to lean back in your chair. You just made it. The children waived the palms down the aisles. The eggs are ready to be found.
We are celebrating the journey that got us here. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus turns his face towards Jerusalem pretty early, around Luke 9, which isn’t even halfway through the book. In everything after that, there is this steady build up and preparation for the entrance into Jerusalem. Jesus turned his face towards Jerusalem, and now he is there. And there's cheering. People are laying the garments down. There's a prophecy about a Colt or a donkey that they found, and he is riding on it as a Victor in the war. A long road brought him to this place, but the journey is not finished.
It is a great feeling to accomplish something, anything. One of the great things about painting a room is that you can look at it and be like, “wow, that is different. I did that.” You organize your closet and you can immediately see a difference. Finishing a marathon is a great feeling. It doesn't matter how fast I went. It's like, I did that. I finished. People cheer you on and it feels great. It’s work to get there, but it feels great.

Jesus made it to Jerusalem. He did that. The people cheered him on. We can celebrate something amazing that has taken place, but the journey is not over. Jesus didn't have to train for his journey to Jerusalem as I'm training for a half-marathon. Jesus didn’t have a set schedule. He didn't have a leg day. He didn’t have hill sprits.
He trained, for sure, but the long road to Jerusalem was about us as much as it was about him. It was about the disciples as much as it was about him. He had to prepare us for what was going to take place, and still they didn't get it.
Palm Sunday is ironic, but the irony of Palm Sunday is not solely found in the reality that the same people praising Jesus this day are going to yell, crucify him At the end of the week.
The irony is that they don't know what they're praising him for.
The irony of so much of the Christian life is found in those moments. When we don't know what we're praising Jesus for. The power of the crowds is effective. You're in a group of people and they're all singing the same song. It feels great to sing the same song together. Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna

It sounds cool. Hosanna. It gives me a good feeling in my chest. I would probably join along. Or Maybe you have a fond memory of church. Maybe being in church makes you feel good about yourself and the decisions in your life.
Knowing why we do things is a lot harder than it seems. It's not just about church or Palm Sunday. Why do we do anything? Why do people exercise? There are a lot of reasons. Why do people run ultra-marathons? I don't know. Those people are idiots and love pain.
As Mallory said, upon being asked why he rented a claim that would Everest, “because it's there.”
We usually don’t have a single reason to do anything. There are always numerous motivations. Some people make decisions with lists and analysis, others with their gut, nobody wants to say they are doing something because other people are, but it can be the case.

The irony of the crowds praising Jesus is not just about what we're going to do. That is, it isn’t just about Good Friday. It really comes down to what we don't want to do, What we're not willing To do. And that Is change. And that Is love. We change what we want to change. We love whom we want to love.
We praise Jesus. We sing Hosanna for the one who's gonna do all the work for us so that we can keep the status quo of our lives. But the mirror Of Holy Week, in which we stare back at our own lives, must tell us that the status quo cannot go on forever. The paths we are currently on do not all end with resurrection. And it is a long road from Palm Sunday to Easter. The love revealed in Jesus Christ confronts us wherever we are. Love is not just an idea. It's not just a fun feeling in your belly. It is a habit. It is like riding a bike. It is like long distance running. Love is not a sentiment. It is a practice. It is something you do. If you don't do it, you get bad at it.
When I started running again, I was only going a mile and a half, two miles, and I was doing them around Lakeway, which has a number of hills, even beyond the Hills. They got me. I had not practiced. Running hills doesn’t come naturally. I did some speed runs on a hill last week and my metamobilism wasn’t ready for it.
It takes practice to run. It takes practice to love as Jesus loves. It takes practice to love your enemies. It takes practice to forgive the unforgivable. And this practice is not a competition. Ours is not to compete with the people around us, but to see how far we can go because of who God is for us.

> Beyond our grasp, he chose to come within our grasp. Existing before time began, he began to exist at a moment in time. Lord of the universe, he hid his infinite glory and took the nature of a servant. Incapable of suffering as God, he did not refuse to be a man, capable of suffering. Immortal, he chose to be subject to the laws of death. [^1]

We don't love to prove ourselves to others, but because God first loved us. You are forgiven. Even if you came here for not the best reason today, you are forgiven and you are loved. So what are you going to do about it?
Bee Creek comes out of the Methodist tradition. And The best aspect of the Methodist tradition for me, is the way it connects a profound faith with a life of action. God meets us where we are, but God does not leave us there. Doesn't come down to you in the pits of despair and say, you're all good. And then voilà, You get a big shot Of superhero juice. And you're like in an iron man suit and you can do whatever you want. No, God meets you where you are, but God doesn’t keep you there. And he walks with you. So you are stronger. God stays with you, so you're faster. And then God compels you to look around and see who else is in a pit right now, who is in a pit like the one you used to be in? To whom can you go over in the power of the holy spirit to lift them up.
We call these the means of grace. There are some we can do by ourselves: prayer, studying the scriptures, Fasting, Not being controlled by our body. There are some we can do with others. Worship Communion, holy conferencing, which has gathered together as Christians and talking about what matters, How is it with your soul?
As well, there are some we can do for others: feeding the hungry clothing, the naked. These things aren’t charity as a separate thing. They aren’t ways to feel better about ourselves, but ways to see Jesus and meet Jesus. If you feel like you are forgiven and you have a new possibility of life, God is offering you a way to meet Jesus here and now, not just in the future. Here and now.
If you're not doing anything for others, you're not doing anything for yourself. You're not taking care of yourself. If you're not doing anything for others, if you're not spending time seeking those who are hurting, you are atrophying your heart of love, and it is going to be harder and harder to lace up your shoes again and go out.

During this holy week, may you have time to pray. May you have time to discern. May you have time to look at the mirror about ask yourselves how your soul is. What you need to do to respond to God's grace right now. We're here. We're in Jerusalem, but there's a long road to go. Thanks be to God. The the road is not so lonely. Christ walked that road for us. We are together.

> So let us spread before his feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in his grace, or rather, clothed completely in him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him.[^2]

Take the time this week, to call a friend, have a coffee, share about what you can do to live your life more in line with Jesus. How can you meet Jesus more? How can you let go of false expectations more? You are a beloved child of God. You have what it takes, because God is with you.

Let us pray,
Heavenly father, thank you for meeting us here. That you for journeying all the way to the cross. Help us to celebrate with you but also to walk with you in the journey of love, even when no one is watching. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[^1]: Leo the Great
[^2]: Andrew of Crete


title: Privilege

themes: privilege-and-entitlement sabbath works-of-love church-membership faithfulness-amid-trials love-of-neighbor

text:
**Scripture:** Luke 13:10-17
**Series:** 2022

> Launching the 'In the World' series, this sermon reads Jesus' Sabbath healing of the bent-over woman (Luke 13:10-17) as a challenge to religious privilege. Using examples like country-club membership, greenwashing, and his coined 'cross-washing' and 'Sabbath-washing,' the pastor argues that faith is never an excuse to get out of loving people. Christians are called not to entitlement but to humility, self-sacrifice, and inconvenient love of even their least lovable neighbors, echoing Dorothy Day's line that we love God only as much as the person we love the least.

**Illustrations:** membership-body-not-club, revoked-visitor-card, global-poverty-juxtaposition, greenwashing, cross-washing, sabbath-washing, cool-kids-and-band-geeks, dorothy-day-love-the-least

---

# August 21
## Privilege

“Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. A woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and couldn’t stand up straight. When he saw her, Jesus called her to him and said, “Woman, you are set free from your sickness.” He placed his hands on her and she straightened up at once and praised God. The synagogue leader, incensed that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, responded, “There are six days during which work is permitted. Come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath day.” The Lord replied, “Hypocrites! Don’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from its stall and lead it out to get a drink? Then isn’t it necessary that this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for eighteen long years, be set free from her bondage on the Sabbath day?” When he said these things, all his opponents were put to shame, but all those in the crowd rejoiced at all the extraordinary things he was doing.”
Luke 13:10-17 CEB

I always get super excited when we are able to baptize people: babies, children, grownups, anybody. I get super excited when people are able to join the church. And usually before joining Bee Creek, I like to have a conversation with folks beforehand to make sure they have some idea what they are getting into: If they can make it to a new member lunch, it's like with a group of people then if not, it's kind of one-on-one and that's, that's fine too. And I like to talk about what membership means. And for me, it's a membership like you're a member of a body, not a member of a club: like you're a hand, a foot, an ear.
Most of the time, when we think of members, we think of members of a club like a country club. You have certain privileges as a member of, you know, Barton Creek Lakeside or the Hills of Stonehouse Vineyard, you know you can get a round of golf. You can go to member only events.
There are other privileges involved. There are some responsibilities, but there are privileges that you get.

With the church, when you become a member, you get mostly responsibilities. During the membership conversations I say, “now your visitor card has been revoked. You really need to start welcoming people.”
One time, a person asked, “What are the perks of membership in the church?” I said there weren’t any, because there aren’t any as the world sees it. From a worldly perspective, church membership seems like a burden. We ask you to show up on Sundays and worship God. We ask you to serve outside of that during the month. We ask you to tithe. All these are burdens according to the world but they are perks according to God. Generosity is a perk. It really is. It's a joy to be generous towards God. Giving to the church is not a membership fee but a response to God’s amazing love. A lot of people don't see it that way. It is hard to see it that way unless you go through that journey of faith.

Talking about privileges, though, is a very tricky thing. Nowadays, it is a very politically charged topic with a lot of opinions on a lot of sides. However, when we read the gospels, Jesus doesn't avoid politically charged topics. To be in the world for Jesus is not to avoid controversy, but to live a life of love.

My friends, we're starting a new sermon series called In the World, looking at how we can live in the world but not be of the world.
That's it, it's very focused. This is a topic central to the life of Jesus; central to the message of the good news of Jesus Christ, to the message of the gospels. We’re talking about privilege through the lens of this passage from Luke 13.

Jesus breaks the Sabbath according to the understanding of the day. The Sabbath is in the 10 commandments. Jesus disagrees with prior teachings on the Sabbath. Jesus helps us to see and understand the true meaning of Sabbath and challenges our privilege in the midst of it. I want us to focus on this. And so I want you to let go of the way that privilege is used in the world. Let go of the way it's used in country clubs or business clubs or frequent flyer clubs and just hone in right here on this story.

Jesus heals a woman in the temple on the Sabbath and a lot of people are offended. That is work and it should be done. In another passage, Jesus quotes Scripture about David’s soldiers working on the sabbath during war. Here, though, Jesus relates healing a woman sick for years to untying a donkey. He is not comparing her to an animal. He is comparing his action of healing with their action of untying an animal to lead it to water. He is freeing her for new life.

The explicit reason why the experts say they are offended is because Jesus doesn't follow the Sabbath: he heals on the sabbath: he works on the sabbath. The true reason, the implicit reason why they're offended is because Jesus’s actions put their own life of faith into question. They thought they were in the privileged position of being able to pick and choose when they should love and who they should love. Jesus challenges both of these notions. The Sabbath is not an excuse to get out of loving people. Faith is not an excuse to get out of loving people. The privilege of faith is not that you get to imagine you are a good person no matter what you do or don’t do.
Christianity, however it’s presented in the world, is not an excuse to get out of loving people. When we use it as an excuse, we are in fact denying that we have any faith at all.

One of the clearest ways that we can see this is by looking at our lives as compared to people around the world. For instance, in different measures of global poverty, of malnutrition, of child poverty around the world, the challenges people face around the world, when we compare our own lives and existence, this juxtaposition can give us an understanding of the blessings and benefits of our own position here and now. The way that there are Christians around the world who are persecuted for their faith, they don't have a chance to use Christianity as an excuse to get out of loving people, because the very name of Jesus puts them in danger.

There's a way that corporations can act environmental without actually changing any of their policies. It’s called greenwashing. There is a way that Christians can act in public: I call this cross-washing. I’m going to put the cross on things. I'm gonna wear Christian shirts, listen to Christian radio. I'm going to go through the motions. And this would get me out of actually having to confront my own heart and my own sin. This gets me out of loving my neighbor.
If I do the things society expects Christians to do, then I'm good. I get the benefit of faith. I get the privileges of faith, but I don't actually have to love people who annoy me. I don't have to walk an extra mile in another person's shoes. I can go ahead and judge them. In the time of Jesus, there were folks following the law that I would call Sabbath washing.
“I may not be super faithful, but I keep this habit. This thing I do and you don't. You may be the prophet of God. You may be the mechiach, the anointed one of God, but you are not keeping Sabbath. You may heal people from the dead. You may heal people born blind. You may heal lepers, but I'll follow sabbath, So therefore I am superior to you.
Cross-washing can also lead to a posture of arrogance and entitlement in the church. Why aren't people coming? What's the big deal? Why aren’t people coming back to church? Why aren't my kids going to church? Why aren’t my neighbors going to church? What's going on? What's their problem.
Jesus didn't really have a posture of entitlement. He didn’t assume that things were going to work out for him.
He went and sought people where they were. He said, “I did not come to save the righteous, but the lost of the tribe of Israel.” His ministry was not to people who thought they had figured it out, but to the people who were desperate enough to be willing to turn their lives around. And if we are not desperate for Jesus, if we're not desperate for the Lord, there's going to be a barrier built up between ourselves and God.
Jesus does not come and preach a posture of entitlement or privilege, but humility and self-sacrifice. God is calling us to take a step of faith to love at a time when it is inconvenient.
Our encouragement this day, as well, should be that no matter who you are or what you have done, you are worthy of love. You are loved by God. Whether you are a student in the cool kids group or the weirdos and band geeks, you are worthy of love. God sees you and includes you. We can’t rest with acceptance forever. But especially on hard and lonely days, we can rest in God’s love. We can remember that God loves us when we don’t deserve it so we can love others when they don’t deserve it.

My brothers and sisters, I think that this is our call this day: to love in inconvenient ways and in inconvenient times, because the love of Christ, the true love of Christ is a challenge in this world.
If we're not challenged in the ways that we love people, we are not stretching ourselves and pushing ourselves. We're building a bubble. We're cross-washing ourselves in order to claim that we have it all figured out. And in so doing, to keep ourselves from grace, to keep ourselves from Christ's incredible mercy. We are using God’s law to get out of following God’s command to love our neighbors. This is what the pharisees did with Sabbath, and Jesus cut right through that.
And so this day, my brothers and sisters, may you go into the world like Jesus, may you go into the world, willing to love in an inconvenient time, willing to be called out for it. Dorothy Day said, “I only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.” It would be easier if I could love God without loving my neighbors, but that would be a different religion all together. And God doesn’t call us to love our neighbors on our terms, but on theirs. If we only love on our terms and we think that is enough, we are not following Jesus. And not just out neighbors, God calls us to love our least lovable neighbors.

Are we willing to let go of worldly privilege and entitlement and assumptions about who you should love. The greatest privilege is found in receiving grace and living the life God created you to live. A life of love. A life of nothing but love. I want to repeat Dorothy Day’s words one more time: “I only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.”

Are you willing to let God speak to you in a new way and call you to do something brave.

Let us pray.

Heavenly father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for meeting us where we are finding us in the world and sending us back into the world and your spirit come, holy spirit, come into this place. Remember us, fill us, forgive us, empower us and send us. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.


title: Rescue

themes: salvation already-and-not-yet salvation-by-grace jesus-is-lord purpose-of-the-church trust-in-god freedom-in-christ

scripture: Psalm 71:1-4; 1 Corinthians 13:12

text:
**Scripture:** Psalm 71:1-4; 1 Corinthians 13:12
**Series:** 2022

> The final sermon in a 'Survival' series argues that the whole point of survival is rescue: just as wilderness survival skills (Parris Island training, an Alaska crash, the rule of threes, heading downhill, signaling) are temporary means toward being rescued, the life of faith aims at being rescued by God. Using Psalm 71's plea for refuge, Pruitt insists we cannot rescue ourselves; God in Christ has already sought, found, loved, and saved us through the cross. The Christian life is lived in the gap between the already and the not-yet, which is precisely the purpose of the church (there is no church, Eucharist, or preaching in heaven). Taking refuge in God rather than our own power, and confessing Jesus as Lord (so Caesar and self are not), the body of Christ is called to announce and embody rescue, freedom, and belovedness in a broken world.

**Illustrations:** parris-island-survival-training, alaska-plane-crash-rescue, rule-of-threes-survival-adage, no-three-room-cabin-shelter, go-downhill-to-be-rescued, island-signaling-for-rescue, helicopter-boat-rescue, no-church-meetings-in-heaven

---

# July 17
## Rescue

I’ve taken refuge in you, Lord. Don’t let me ever be put to shame! Deliver me and rescue me by your righteousness! Bend your ear toward me and save me! Be my rock of refuge where I can always escape. You commanded that my life be saved because you are my rock and my fortress. My God, rescue me from the power of the wicked; rescue me from the grip of the wrongdoer and the oppressor. Psalm 71:1-4

There's always a reason why someone needs to survive in the wilderness. These reasons can be different, but there always has to be a point. There's no survival as such. If you are training to be a Marine and they send you to Parris island to survive for a week, that is the point you're trying to accomplish. If you are flying over Alaska and the plane crashes, you are trying to survive long enough to be rescued. The skills of survival fall into either one of these two camps: either there's an intentional attempt to practice skills under a timeframe, or there is an emergency situation. You get lost, something dramatic happens. With the emergency situation, usually there has to be some sort of trauma to instigate the need for survival, some kind of accident, some kind of injury.
You're not in the exact right frame of mind. That's normal life. This is why, when I began this series, I started with the lesson. Don't panic. The hardest time not to panic is the time when you have every reason and right to panic. If you're stuck in the wild because of a plane crash, it seems like that's a much more reasonable time to panic then if you are late to the airport or late to school or another reason. And yet it is in those moments that the skills of survival are best used. This is why we start with don't panic. And then you move on to the adage. You can live three hours without shelter, three days without water, three weeks without food. But all of that has to do with a goal of being rescued.
Survival skills aren't the same skills you would have if you wanted to be a hermit and go live in the woods. It's a different set of skills, you need a different level of bushcraft. Survival skills are for a limited timeframe with a goal of being rescued. That's why you don't want to build a three room cabin if you are making a shelter.
If you're trying to survive, you're seeking shelter, seeking safety, seeking water, seeking food for a limited amount of time. You are ultimately trying to be rescued.
Friends, we're finishing our series on survival. We have been looking at how to survive in the wild as well as how to survive in the wild and brokenness of this world. It began by talking about not panicking. Next about the need for shelter, how God calls us to offer shelter in this world as we seek shelter in survival. Then we spoke of the need to find water to live, and how there are good water sources and bad water sources, but that we are called as a church to offer living water and God in Jesus Christ offers us a spring of living water within us, but we have to go to that source again and again. We then spoke of food and the need to find food in the wild, but also how Jesus is the bread of life, the food from which we never hunger, finally rescue where we are today.
Because the point of surviving is to be rescued. Survival is not about the journey. It is about the destination. It is about getting there. A lot of journeys matter. Most of our day is spent in journeys of one kind or another. Journeys of shorter or longer lengths. School is a journey. Our jobs are journeys. Our marriages are journeys. Our vacations, our journeys are journeys. Our ultimate destination is to be with our God and our creator who loves us and offers himself for us. For that to happen, we need to be rescued.

The Psalms are full of calls for rescue and Thanksgiving for rescue. Psalm 71 is a great example.

> I’ve taken refuge in you, Lord. Don’t let me ever be put to shame! Deliver me and rescue me by your righteousness! Bend your ear toward me and save me! Be my rock of refuge where I can always escape.

The Bible as a whole is full of calls for rescue and Thanksgiving for rescue. all of salvation, all of Christianity, all the faith comes down to this. God created everything and saw that it was good. God created humans in the image of God, but humans turned away. Our love failed. Yet, God's love remained steadfast.
In the fullness of time, God sent his son Jesus Christ to be with us, to be born as a child, as a king, to live with us, to befriend us, to heal and teach us, but then, ultimately, to be willing to love us all the way to the cross and death on the cross, and in so doing defeating death and opening up the doors of life eternal for us.
In the wild, the way you look for rescue depends on where you are. If you're in a mountain or a desert or a field or a place where there may be other humans, even if they are miles away, but they are there. If you are in such a location, there are some things you should do. If you're on an island, there are other things you should do.
For instance, if you are in a mountainous or hilly terrain, one of the practices, you could do is to just start going down hill, find a way to get down hill. There are two reasons for this. One is to find people, because there are more people who live down hills than up them. The second is less obvious until you think about. You want to go to downhill because it takes less energy. If you're on an island, you want to figure some way of signaling or transportation. In either situation, the goal is not to spend all your energy on being rescue, but work in a specific way. Survival is often about conserving your energy. You don’t have an unlimited source of energy wherever you are in life, but especially when you are in a survival situation.
The life of faith, the things God shares with us to do, prayer, worship, service, these are not ways of being rescued. It can be easy to confuse them. We don’t love our neighbor to earn something from God or to get God to notice us. God has already sought us and found us right now. We are already loved and saved before we do anything. We cannot, in fact, do anything to rescue ourselves. There are no secret tricks. There isn’t a secret. The amazing reality is that God has already rescued us.
The question for us today is how to live in the gap between the already and the not yet. How do we live in this space where we are already forgiven, where we are already loved and yet where there is still this brokenness around us, where there are still people who don’t know God, where there are still these temptations and deceptions which pull us away. This distance between the already and the not yet is the whole point of the church.
If God called us into a new life that was fully apparent now, we would not need the church. That is, if all the questions had been answered, all the current concerns met, if we were no longer looking through a glass darkly, as Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 13, we would not need the church.
There is no church in heaven. There are no preachers. There is no Eucharist. There is no baptism. We are all revealed in Jesus Christ. In this way, the point of a preacher is to work myself out of a job. There are no preachers in heaven. There are no sermons. Life with God is not just this endless potluck or like church planning meeting. There are no church leadership meetings in heaven.
The work of the body of Christ in the here and now is for the work of rescue in the here and now. And for the work of noticing the rescue that has already taken place. The work of survival in the here and now is not the desperation of the wild, but for the illumination of those who are deceived about the realities of this world. And for those moments, when we ourselves are deceived about who is the Lord of all creation, if Jesus is Lord, that means Caesar is not.
If Jesus is Lord, that means I am not. My heart and my desires are not Lord overall. And there are things that I do and goods that I have that do not serve my Lord, but serve myself and that they are self-destructive, they are wrong. They lead away from God's rescue, but we are called together for the purpose of announcing this good news. We are called to take refuge in God, as the Psalmist says, not in our power and skill.
And we are called to live out our faith, to live it out in continuous conversion towards Jesus Christ. Doing the things of God, seeking the love of our neighbor, finding our greatest good, then our neighbor and not in ourselves of living, not for ourselves, but for others. We’re called to this continually because rescue has already come, the healer has come. The advocate has come.
The rescue of God does not look like the rescue of the world. The rescue of God does not always look like a helicopter rescue, like a boat rescue. Sometimes we see God's love and understand it. And then the hardest challenge that we ever face comes into our life. Having challenges in life does not point to an inadequacy of God. Faith is not about making our lives easier, but being true and honest and fulfilled look out is called us to, and that would be fine. Our truth, our mission, our call and the call of Jesus Christ.
When we are aligned as individuals, when we are aligned as a body of Christ, when we find a community that can hold us up when we are down, that can remind us of rescue when we feel lost, that can show us shelter from the storm, that can offer us living water. That can feed us the bread of life. Our journey is not over, but God sends us out to share that rescue, to share the scars of survival and to announce that God is here. Love is here.
My brothers and sisters, may you be free this day. May you be encouraged this day that you are already loved. God has rescued you and forgiven you to the deepest, darkest recesses of your soul. You have been seen all the way down. And God likes your soul. God likes you and who you are. You don't have to go through the motions anymore. You don't have to live the ways of destruction anymore. You are free and called to be a part of the body of Christ we call the church. Let us be a location of freedom, of rescue, of survival in this world, where God's name is proclaimed, god's truth is honored, god's glory is revealed.

Let us pray.
Heavenly father, thank you for rescuing us in the midst of despair and anguish. Thank you for rescuing us in the midst of joy. Thank you for showing us the truer joy, the truer happiness and blessedness that is found in following and serving you. Thank you for reminding us that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. In the name of the Father and the Song and the Holy Spirit. Amen.