Don't Go It Alone

Sermon for Sunday, March 1, 2026
Genesis 12:1-4a; Romans 4:1-5,13-17; John 3:1-17

As we continue through Lent and this sermon series on "Following Jesus Together," I want to look at the two main characters in our readings this morning and see what their examples might show us as we make our way – or maybe stumble our way – through this journey of faith.  I think what binds these stories together is the question of how to trust.

The first character is Abram, better known by the name God gives him a few chapters later, Abraham.  At the point where today’s reading begins, we know nothing about him.  The only backstory from the previous chapter is that Abram’s father takes his extended family from Ur in what’s now southern Iraq to Haran in what’s now southeastern Turkey.  There, out of the blue, the God of Israel summons Abram and says, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.   I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and, in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

Can you imagine being Abram in that moment?  He’s 75 years old, married to Sarai, with no children and no prospects, other than inheriting whatever he got when his ancient father died.  Abram’s not even a worshiper of Yahweh; there is no “people of Israel” worshiping Yahweh yet.  The Lord simply taps Abram on the shoulder and says, “You’re the one. Get going.”

And Abram goes.  He and Sarai pack up their livestock and the guys who tend the animals, and they set out for a land they’ve never seen before with nothing but a prayer.  We don’t hear anything about his motivation – his hopes, his fears, his reckless heart – and we don’t hear his conversation with Sarai, which must have been … lively.  Maybe it’s the absence of detail that makes Abram’s story such rich material for the apostle Paul to reflect on, when he writes about Abram’s trust two millennia later.  As we heard in the second reading today, Abram “‘believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’” (Romans 4:3). So, Abram goes down in spiritual history as the paragon of trust … or blind faith, depending on how you want to see it.

Our other character this morning is Nicodemus. From the perspective of the Gospel of John, we might see Nicodemus as the anti-Abram.  He’s a spiritual leader – a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish governing council of experts on the Law.  He’s a man of status and stature, someone people turn to for rulings and advice.  He’s the status quo, in the flesh.  But Nicodemus can see that God’s at work in this new rabbi, Jesus, who’s just turned over the merchants’ tables in the Temple to indict a system that puts profit ahead of people’s well-being.

Nicodemus probably can’t stand Jesus’ method, but he, too, sees the system is broken.  So, Nicodemus comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness to learn more.  Showing astonishing respect to someone who’s breaking all the rules, he says, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God” (John 3:2).  “Tell me what you’re up to.”  So, Jesus tells him it’s not enough to be born into the right community; God wants us be reborn spiritually, committing ourselves not just in law but in life.  Nicodemus just can’t wrap his head around it.  Like most of us, I think he wants faith to make sense before he’s willing to give his heart to it.

So, we have these two examples today, Abram and Nicodemus.  Abram may be Scripture’s great example of faithfulness, but to me his story has always seemed aspirational at best.  Most of us aren’t receiving flashes of insight so clear that we know it’s time to take our lives in a new direction.  Most of us are more like Nicodemus, and we could use some practical guidance in the art of trust.

Well, let’s start with what not to do, in terms of practicing trust; and at the top of that list is perhaps what tempts us most: going it alone, spiritually.  In our culture, we love the individual success story, whether it’s the Old West sheriff who takes down the bad guys, or the entrepreneur who bootstraps his way to wealth, or the prosperity-Gospel preacher who dishes out truth direct from the Divine.  Those stories are compelling … and, I’d say, tempting, in the sense that they teach us that only special people have the capacity, or the divine favor, to tap the pipeline to success.  And our stories of faith heroes like Abram can reinforce that narrative:  If I could just trust like he did, I’d see blessings like he saw.

But I think most of us are wired more like Nicodemus.  Now, Nicodemus has every reason to go it alone.  He’s the answer man – an elder, a Pharisee, a religious expert.  But Nicodemus is wise enough to know what he doesn’t know.  He can see that Jesus is channeling God, but it’s not happening the way it’s supposed to happen – through meticulous legal study and wise rulings from smart guys like him.  So, he goes to Jesus and does maybe the hardest thing in this journey of spiritual growth:  He admits he doesn’t get it.  “Look, Jesus, you say that we know God’s presence and power in our lives by being ‘born from above’ – what does that even mean?”  I love that.  Here’s the answer man becoming the student sitting at the true teacher’s feet.  Now, Jesus can’t give it to him all at once.  It’ll take 18 more chapters of John’s Gospel to begin to glimpse the mystery that being lifted up on a cross opens the door to eternal love.  But I hear Jesus saying to Nicodemus, “Hang in there.  Even when you don’t have the answers, trust that I do.  The longer you walk with me, the clearer Love becomes.”

Nicodemus shows up again in the Gospel story only twice more.  A few chapters later, when the people of Jerusalem are hanging on Jesus’ every word, the religious leaders send their police to arrest him.  Nicodemus speaks up against the other members of the council, wanting to give Jesus a hearing, at least.  All he gets is ridicule from the other experts. (John 7:45-52)

But one of them, at least, must have connected with the way Nicodemus saw Jesus in a different light – and that’s Joseph of Arimathea.  Now, Scripture doesn’t say anything about this directly, but I think Nicodemus must have found a spiritual companion in his fellow council member, Joseph (Mark 15:43).  If you recognize that name, Joseph of Arimathea, it’s from the crucifixion story.  Once Jesus dies on the cross, Joseph goes to Pilate and asks for the body.  And then, he and Nicodemus take the body, carefully prepare it for burial, and place it in Joseph’s family tomb. (John 19:38-42)  Why would Joseph and Nicodemus take on this awful job together? I like to think they must have been talking for a long time about this mysterious teacher from Galilee.  They both disagreed with the other religious leaders, who wanted to see this pesky Messiah dead.  I imagine Nicodemus and Joseph wrestling with Jesus’ story as it played out – witnessing his miracles, struggling with his teaching, finally making the connection between their tradition and this stranger from heaven.  Their spiritual friendship empowered them to hold their heads high, go stand before Pilate, and honor Jesus when nearly everyone else turned away.

Unless we’re Abram or some other spiritual superstar, we don’t do so well at trusting God on our own.  And, blessedly, I don’t think that’s what God has in mind.  So, what kinds of resources can help us learn to trust when the path’s not clear?  When we can’t even see the next step, much less the end of the journey, where can we turn?

For me, the power to trust comes from conversation partners – human and divine.  We find some of those partners in Scripture and other spiritual writing.  This is why it matters to read the Bible – not in the sense of meeting some dreary obligation, nor in the sense of looking for magic words to conjure up what we want from God, but in the sense of listening to the wisdom of our spiritual forebears who’ve already traveled the road we’re on.  That same truth holds about other spiritual guides, from ancient writers to today’s podcasters.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve felt lost and alone and then heard precisely what I needed to hear in that morning’s reading or podcast.

And then there are the conversation partners God gives us in the flesh.  This is the point of the Companion Groups we’re beginning, and for which more than a hundred of you have signed up – the chance to share how we experience God showing up, or not, in day-to-day life.  In addition, you can find opportunities for theological reflection nearly everywhere you look in the life of the church, formal and informal – in worship, and Bible studies, and prayer groups, and classes, and coffee-hour conversations, and spiritual direction, and coaching with your friendly local clergyperson.  Just to say this out loud:  People sometimes tell me they don’t want to bother the clergy for a spiritual conversation because we’re “so busy.”  Let me tell you, there are bothersome aspects of our jobs, but talking with you about finding God in your life is not one of them.  That’s why we’re here.  Let us share the joy of those life-giving conversations.

However it is that you’re wired to find connection, take God up on the offer.  If you do have an Abram moment and immediately trust in a word straight from the Almighty, more power to you.  For the rest of us, trust grows through listening to one divine voice after another – from Scripture, from conversations, from books, from podcasts, from prayer – maybe even from sermons (stranger things have happened).  When we listen that way – with a heart like Nicodemus, willing to keep at it even when we don’t understand – then we can trust that we’ll hear God speaking just what we need to hear.

Living the Way You're Made

Sermon for Ash Wednesday
Feb. 18, 2026

Well, it’s Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, so we face the perennial question: What should I give up or what should I take on? I do want to suggest a couple of ways to answer that question, but I want to come at it from a different direction than you might expect.

We know Lent is a time of “self-examination and repentance; … prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and … reading and meditating on God’s holy Word” (BCP 265). The prayer book tells us that. But why? What is it about us, and about our relationship with God, that our tradition wants us to look at? What’s the Church asking us to remember today?

For many of us, and maybe for Western Christianity in general, the answer tends to come from a negative place: Lent is here to remind us of our sinfulness, our brokenness, the ways we miss the mark. When we approach it that way, Lent becomes a time for corrective action to address our individual failings – a season for holy new-year’s resolutions. Maybe God will like me better if I shed a few pounds.

But hiding under that dim view of our nature is a perspective I think might be closer to God’s heart. Yes, absolutely, we miss the mark; and many of us are acutely aware of it – especially you who’ve come out or tuned in on a Wednesday for the fun of remembering that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Talk about preaching to the choir! But the reason we know we miss the mark is because of something else we know deeper down: that how Genesis describes us is also true, that you and I are made in the image and likeness of God (1:26). We wear the face of the One who created us, and our life is designed to reflect God’s own life.

Our Eastern Orthodox brothers and sisters understand this more easily than we do. From that side of the Christian tradition, the goal of human life is theosis – nothing less than becoming one with God. For us Westerners, who enjoy wallowing in our sinfulness, we might be willing to say union with God would be our heavenly goal. But the Orthodox tradition says that’s our work now. And how would we do such a thing? By being disciples of Jesus, conforming our way to his Way, because walking his path is how we learn to live a divine life.

So, what if we approached Lent more like that? Rather than seeing penitence as a way to atone for our sins – which, by the way, we can’t; and Jesus has already done it for us anyway – what if we saw Lent as a time to get back to the garden, to notice who we truly are and the extent to which our lives do, and don’t, reflect our divine nature?

How would we do that? Let me offer three resources – three tools to help you remember that you’re made in the image of God and then notice how you are, and aren’t, living into God’s likeness.

The first tool is our Lenten devotional booklet, which I’m hoping you’ve received in the mail. (If you haven’t, feel free to pick one up in the entryway.) It’s titled Five Minutes With God, Lent Edition; and the idea is just that: to set aside a little time daily to check in. For each day, you’ll find an excerpt from the readings we’ll hear in worship on the coming Sunday – so, for example, from now until this Sunday, the daily devotions sample from the readings for the first Sunday of Lent. Along with each reading is a rich question to help you apply that day’s snippet of Scripture to your own life. These questions give you something to contemplate as you sip that first cup of coffee in the morning, or take a walk, or work out, or get ready for bed. Plus, the daily Scripture helps you get ready to hear what God might be saying to you through the readings on Sunday, too.

The second tool is something you’ll find here on Sunday mornings through Lent – a sermon series titled, “Following Jesus Together.” The Gospel readings this Lent are some of the very best stories about Jesus: standing up to Satan in the wilderness, teaching the experts how to live by the Spirit, healing the Samaritan woman’s broken self-image, giving sight to a man born blind, and raising Lazarus from the dead. Not only do these stories help mark the path Jesus asks us to take, they also show us how to do it – which is, not by ourselves. When we try to travel alone, we’re more likely to get lost or stumble on the rocks along the path. But when we turn to those whom God puts alongside us, the way becomes much more clear … and more life-giving. So, this sermon series will help us find the path Jesus is giving us, see how we might be tempted to stray from it, and lean on others as we follow Jesus’ lead.

Then there’s the third resource for your journey, an opportunity that begins this Lent and will carry on though the months ahead. We’re starting something called Companion Groups – small groups of eight to 10 people gathering once a month to grow spiritually together. Now, you might hear that and think, “Why would I take on one more thing?” But it’s not a heavy lift. The idea is just to share with a few others what you’re noticing along this path you’re walking. Maybe some of the questions in the devotional guide really got you thinking. Maybe you heard something in a sermon that keeps coming back to you. Maybe a friend said something that helped you see yourself or your life in a new way. Or, maybe, you’re just not hearing much at all from God, and you’d like a little support along the way. It’s amazing what can happen over a drink and a snack, a little prayer, a little honesty, and the Holy Spirit to bring it all together.

So, if you’re looking for a Lenten discipline that means more than giving up chocolate, again, consider this season’s trio – the devotional guide, the sermon series, and a Companion Group. Or just do whatever you can among those options or from the practice you follow already. After all, Lent isn’t about proving anything – it’s not about testing your mettle or racking up points on God’s scoreboard. Lent is about realizing that you’ve been fashioned by the One who fashions all goodness, all beauty, all love. That’s who we are, at our core. And I think it would make God smile if we tried to live that way.

Your Life Brings God's Kingdom to Life

State-of-the-Parish Address
Matthew 4:12-23; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 (readings transferred one week because of weather)
Feb. 1, 2026

I need to let you know, so you don’t get distracted later:  This address will be a little longer than a usual sermon.  There’s a lot going on in the church and the world, so I’m giving myself six extra minutes. 

Jesus said, “Follow me” (Matt 4:19). So, let’s keep that in mind as we consider the state of our parish at the start of 2026.  Of course, what I’m supposed to say is, “The state of our parish is strong.”  In these addresses, the president, or the governor, or the rector always says that.  But I want to say something different because it’s more honest.  The state of our parish is … fine … at least for now.

You’ll see a lot of very good news in the annual report.  Outreach giving and service is downright inspiring: $103,000 given from the operating budget, another $105,000 in parishioners’ own gifts to our outreach partners, and 3,800 hours of service from you.  That’s crazy good.  Also in that category, we’re seeing more younger faces on Sundays and more little people running down the aisle to receive Communion.  The baristas have reached 10,000 hours of serving all sorts and conditions of community members over at HJ’s.  In terms of temporal affairs, we’ll be replacing our aging flat roofs and HVAC units this year with gifts outside the budget.  The effort is led by parishioner Frank Thompson, who has already led replacement of the parking lot and renovation of the undercroft – bless all those who are making this work possible.  And our number of pledging units is up, as is the number and proportion of increased pledges.  There’s a lot of good news.

And there are challenges.  Although the number of pledges is up, the amount pledged is $91,000 less than last year because a major giver died.  Also, we had a higher level of unfulfilled pledges in 2025 than usual – $110,000 pledged but not actually given.  Because of those unfulfilled pledges, we missed our revenue projection for 2025, which hasn’t happened in many years.

Now, this needn’t make you worry about staffing or outreach or utility bills in 2026.  We’re poised to do great ministry together this year.  As you’ll see in the budget presentation downstairs, we’ll be … fine.  But if we keep doing everything just the way we’ve been doing it, it won’t be long before “fine” means what its famous acronym stands for: frustrated, insecure, neurotic, and emotional.

I’d like to avoid that.  So, the leaders of your commissions related to resources – finance, stewardship, facilities, and endowment – are coming together this year to plan for a time when our current senior members and their generous pledges are no longer with us.  Watch for more about that as 2026 unfolds.

So, that’s the news from the land of temporal affairs.  How about the land of spiritual affairs?  That’s why the church is here, after all.  Our “core business” is to … hmmm … how would we frame that?  What are we here to produce?

Well, you could see our product as worship – preaching, music, prayer, and sacraments to connect us with God.  You could see our product as education – teaching people about God and God’s vision for the world.  You could see our product as outreach – being the hands and feet of Jesus to bless a hurting world.  You could see our product as fellowship – bringing the body of Christ together in love.  You could see our product as prophetic witness – speaking for God to the world around us.  We promise to do all those things in the Baptismal Covenant, our job description as Christians.

But I think our product is something different.  Our product is you.  What the Church is here to produce is disciples – people who follow Jesus Christ as their Lord.  The Church forms and equips disciples through all our ministries, all the ways the Baptismal Covenant frames the work of love.

So, forming followers of Jesus will be our focus this year, with a theme of Companions on the Way.  Why would we make that our theme?  Because a life of meaning and value and purpose – the life for which we yearn – that’s not a path we take alone.  It’s a path we take in community, growing in relationship with people who become our companions – a word that means, at its root, people who break bread together.  With our companions on the way, we find nothing less than the staff of life, the true Bread that came down from heaven – divine Love itself.

We find and journey with our companions in different ways, even in one person’s life.  It happens vertically, so to speak, in the one-on-one time we spend with God.  And it happens horizontally, too, in the relationships God empowers us to build – relationships across the dinner table with the people closest to us and relationships with friends we travel alongside.  All those paths move us toward heaven, now and later.

As I said, everything we do at church builds those vertical and horizontal companion relationships – worship, outreach, prayer, learning, welcoming others, having a party.  But to help us focus on going deeper with our companions, human and divine, we’re offering a couple of special resources this year.

One is a series of devotional guides.  The one for the Epiphany season is the start, but we’ll provide one for each season across this year.  And, beginning with Lent, the guides will be specific for each day, briefer, and easier to navigate – think of it as “five minutes with God.”  As you drink your first cup of coffee, or check in with your kids or grandkids, or decompress with your beloved at the end of the day, you can use this resource to reflect on something from the coming Sunday’s readings and see where a rich question will take you.

The other resource is something we’re calling Companion Groups.  Starting in Lent and continuing through the year, these small groups, eight to 10 people each, will gather once a month to connect with God and each other.  What will that look like?  A group might share something to eat and drink, check in about what’s bubbling in their lives, reflect on what they’ve been hearing in the season’s devotional guide, and come away amazed at how the Holy Spirit connects those dots.  If you’d like to be part of a group, you can sign up in the entryway or at the meeting downstairs, or you can sign up online.

What’s the point of the devotional guides and the small groups?  As you journey with your companions, human and divine, two miraculous things happen.  First, you grow deeper in love with God and the people around you, experiencing heaven not just later someday but in your life, right now.  And second, you begin to see how your extraordinary, ordinary life helps bring about God’s reign and rule of love.  How?  By being the person God’s made you to be – through the work you do, the choices you make, the actions you take, the good for which you stand.

Now, most often, no one will notice.  At the Free Store two weeks ago, I watched a parishioner talking with a woman who’d come late and couldn’t get the warm gloves she needed.  So, this parishioner went and got her own gloves out of her coat and gave them to the woman, who never knew where they came from.  That’s the kingdom of God, in the flesh.  But sometimes, you’ll find yourself acting as God’s agent more publicly – in what you say to someone at work, in the insight you post, in the rally your attend, in the causes you support.  As the poet said, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”¹  The kingdom of God is not a church, or a nonprofit, or a political party, or a nation.  The kingdom of God is one person after another following Jesus instead of following the other voices that claim our allegiance – voices of power or wealth or privilege or affinity.

I believe that’s our primary work as the Church.  It may seem like our mission is to provide worship, or put on classes, or feed the poor, or offer fellowship, or raise money.  Instead, each of those things supports our true purpose, which is to help you grow as a follower of Jesus, live out his love across your life, and share it with others.  That’s the Church’s superpower in a world that wants us to think we’re irrelevant.  Your changed life brings God’s kingdom to life.

So, in terms of temporal and spiritual affairs, I believe we have good, healthy work ahead of us this year.  That’s also true about a third aspect of the state of our parish – our intersection with the political and social moment in which we’re living.  And here, the same truth holds:  Your changed life brings God’s kingdom to life.

We’re in a time when we’re being asked, or maybe told, to overturn some of our nation’s fundamental presumptions – how we treat one another and how we treat the rest of the world.  For many decades, certainly across my life, Americans have followed norms that restrained our personal and collective temptations.  We’re in a time now when those norms are slipping.  Not so long ago, I would have assured someone that the losing side in an American election wouldn’t consider overturning the result, and that leaders wouldn’t consider deploying the armed forces against protesting citizens, and that leaders wouldn’t consider ending bedrock alliances when allies don’t follow our demands.  These presumptions are different now than they were a few years ago.  You may like those changes, or you may abhor them, but changes are happening.

I know some of you are frustrated with me for not speaking and writing about all this more directly.  Recently, a parishioner wrote to me about what he described as the administration’s “growing brutality and lack of empathy for citizens.”  He said, “I think it’s time we, as a church, become much stronger in [our] messaging. If some parishioners have a problem with that, so be it – they can leave and find another place of worship. It’s time to get off the fence.”

You deserve to know how I see the Church’s role in these times when slipping norms are emboldening our leaders to change the way they treat those who oppose them.  So, here goes.

First: I don’t see “the Church” as me.  I lead this parish, and you hear my voice more than others; but I am not the parish.  You are.

Second: If you are the Church, then it matters how you see the world.  Now, I can’t prove this, but my gut tells me St. Andrew’s is a microcosm of our politics.  I’d bet my next paycheck that we’re 50/50 progressive and conservative.  Now, I don’t know whether that tracks precisely with supporting the president and not supporting the president, but I’ll bet it’s close.  So, if we’re 50/50 on nearly any given issue, even priest-math tells me I’ll annoy half of you with any perceived political stance I take.

And that raises the question:  So what?  True leaders speak the truth, right? – regardless of whom they annoy.  That’s the perspective of the parishioner who wrote to me recently.

Let me be transparent about this.  There’s a very practical reason not to alienate half of you:  If those of you who disagree with me write me off and stop listening, I’ve lost whatever opportunity I had to change your heart.  But here’s an even better reason not to alienate half of you:  We need each other.  That’s always been true, but oh my goodness is it true now.

Some of my best friends and closest partners here are people whose votes cancel mine in every election.  And over the past 20 years, I’ve learned more from them than I can begin to say.  Maybe they’ve grown a little knowing me, too.  Well, the same truth holds at the congregational level.  I’m not sure there’s any institution but the Church, and especially this church, that has the capacity to hold us together as the powers around us are tearing us apart.  We need each other to be here, Sunday after Sunday, to remind us that we need each other always, as companions on the way.

Now, does that mean it doesn’t matter what we believe or how we behave?  Far from it.  Instead, it means that what binds us together here, across our differences, is not our allegiance to, or our rejection of, a political figure and his movement.  What binds us together is our allegiance to Jesus Christ as our sovereign.

So, then, what does Jesus have to say to our parish and to our nation?

Let’s take it from the top.  A scribe asks Jesus what’s the most important commandment, and Jesus says:  Love God with everything you’ve got, and love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:37-39).  Full stop.

I think what that means is that everything we do must align with giving our allegiance to God alone and giving others the same care we’d give ourselves.  So, for those who want to claim that this is a Christian nation – not that we are Christian nationalists, for that is not who we are – but if we want to claim that our nation is guided by the God revealed in Jesus Christ, then we must follow God’s priorities – especially when God’s priorities challenge our own.  A Christian nation follows rules, norms, and boundaries beyond “I can do what I want.”  A Christian nation recognizes that God’s agenda defines the true national interest.  A Christian nation prioritizes raising up those who struggle the most.  A Christian nation has the strength to say, “We honor and serve even those who differ from us because they’re made in God’s image and likeness.”

So, in this challenging moment, what’s the Church for?  The Church is here to form you to follow Jesus in loving God and loving neighbor through every aspect of your life – family, work, finances, volunteerism, advocacy, voting.  If you look at the changes happening in our nation, and you can honestly say they represent what Jesus wants to see, then work and vote for them.  If you look at the changes happening in our nation, and you say Jesus opposes them, then work and vote against them.

But, for God’s sake, literally – if you disagree with me, or if you disagree with the person sitting next to you in the pew – whatever else you do, don’t leave.  That’s precisely what the forces of division want.  Instead, tell me that you disagree, and then let’s share the sacrament of a cup of coffee as companions on the way.

Our broken world says, “Join only with people who look and live and think and love like you.”  The good news of Jesus Christ says, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” (Matt 4:19) – these people and those people, people you like and people you don’t, people you agree with and people you can’t understand.  “Follow me,” Jesus says, “as your Companion on the way, and learn to live as I live.  Follow me,” Jesus says, “alongside these companions I give you, and with them build my kingdom of love.

“Follow me,” Jesus says.  For it’s in his love, and his love alone, that we are bound together.

1.      From “Poem for South African Women” by June Jordan, presented at the United Nations, Aug. 9, 1978. Available at: https://www.junejordan.net/poem-for-south-african-women.html. Accessed Jan. 30, 2026. See article by Howell, Patrick A. “We Are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For.” Huffpost, April 18, 2017. Available at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/we-are-the-ones-we-have-been-waiting-for_b_58e785b9e4b0acd784ca5738. Accessed Jan. 30, 2025.

Are You as Human as I Am?

Sermon for Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026
Micah 6:1-8; Matthew 5:1-12
(Readings for Epiphany 4 switched with Epiphany 3)

Eight days ago, dozens of us joined dozens of folks from St. James Methodist to offer the Free Store, now a twice-a-year event where anyone can come for a hot meal and the chance to shop for things we all need.  At this time of year, that means warm coats, boots, gloves, hats, socks – the basics I take for granted.  It’s a tremendous thing to provide that hot meal and some essentials of life for 325 people on a cold morning.  But it’s a good thing for me, too – a chance for God to form my mind a little more fully into the mind of Christ.  Just recently, I realized my winter coat was ripping out after a decade’s use, so I pulled out my phone, ordered one online, and had it delivered to my door.  That’s my life.  And it’s good for me to remember it’s not the life of thousands of neighbors of mine.

In fact, I had a brief conversation with a young woman at the Free Store waiting for breakfast.  She asked about what was in the next room, where the clothes were – most important, did they have boots?  Now, this young woman had a disability in at least one of her legs, which made walking hard in any case.  And she stuck out her twisted ankle to show me what she was wearing that frigid morning – very old bedroom slippers.  She said, with masterful understatement, “I kinda need some new shoes.”  I told her we did have boots, and I silently prayed there were still some left at that point in the morning.

It’s good to remember that my life is not the life of thousands of neighbors of mine.  In fact, it’s not just good.  It’s holy.  To practice God’s justice, we have to see the other not as the other but as a child of God.

God’s justice … now there’s a rich concept.  We heard it in the first reading this morning, those famous words of the prophet Micah.  Let me set the stage a bit for this verse we see on T-shirts and yard signs so we can know what was on the prophet’s mind.

Micah looks around at the Kingdom of Judah about 700 BC, after the northern Kingdom of Israel had already fallen to the Assyrians, and Micah sees a clear throughline.  Both these Jewish kingdoms have failed to keep the covenant they’d made with Yahweh.  God freed them from the Egyptians, gave them this land, and asked the people for their exclusive loyalty.  Although the answer at first was a hearty “yes,” the people eventually said, “No, thanks.  We’ll worship you when it’s convenient, but there are lots of other cool gods out there, too.”

So, speaking for God, Micah plays the role of prosecutor and judge, making the case against the remaining Kingdom of Judah and basically saying, Justify yourself!  Through the prophet, God says, “What have I done to you?  In what have I wearied you?  Answer me!” (6:3)  Micah then imagines how the people would respond.  What is it God wants, anyway?  Burnt offerings of calves and rams?  Maybe child sacrifice, like some other cultures?  No, Micah exclaims.  God “has told you … what is good” – your allegiance, expressed in action.  “[W]hat does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (6:8)

There’s that word … justice.  What is it to “do justice”?  In our culture, we think of it as following and enforcing the law, and there’s truth in that.  Our “justice system,” on its best days, strives to accomplish that goal.  But God’s justice is broader than that.  God’s justice is what it looks like when we live out the social order God desires.  And what is that?  Well, it does include punishment for wrongdoing, but it doesn’t stop there.  God’s justice applies to all of human interaction.  It includes intentionally caring for the vulnerable rather than assuming it’s someone else’s responsibility.  It includes ensuring that resources are accessible to all – not necessarily that everyone has the same but that everyone has access to what they need.  It presumes that these conditions are the responsibility of the community, not compartmentalized as a function of religion or a government department – but that the community is responsible for the community’s wholeness and right relationship with God.  And why would God expect all this?  Because a right relationship with God would reflect God’s own nature, which is Love.¹  So, if justice is how we express divine Love, then maybe, at the end of the day, justice depends on how you regard the other.  And to regard the other righteously, in a way that reflects the Love that God is, then you actually have to see the other.

From Micah’s call to do justice, our readings take us to Jesus’ vision of justice lived out in a broken world.  The Beatitudes sketch the life of the disciple community, an alternative community – what “God’s empire” would look like in contrast to the Roman Empire.²  This series of nine blessings comes in two parts.  The first four raise up those who are disheartened – the folks who probably just want to give up because the Romans and the complicit religious authorities deplete their spirits, cause them grief, make them doubt their capacity, and make them yearn for a society that is in right relationship with God.  But in a culture that values wealth and power, God blesses those who are out of resources and out of options, a process that Jesus has begun.³  Then Jesus goes on to describe the way of life for his followers, in contrast to the Romans and the religious leaders.  It’s a life of practicing mercy, practicing right relationship, and making peace, despite the harsh consequences.  As one scholar says, “Persecution is inevitable when the powerful elite are challenged,” but “God rewards faithfulness.”⁴

So, how do we learn to live this way?  How do we learn to do justice – to practice mercy, right relationship, and peace?  I think it starts by seeing the other not as “them” but as “us.”  And, it turns out, we have a place to practice doing that six days a week.

Last Sunday, parishioner Craig Lundgren shared that our Brew Crew, the baristas who serve at HJ’s Café, have logged 10,000 hours welcoming all sorts and conditions of people for coffee.  Now, for the church as an organization, and for the baristas, and for Sarah Tepikian, our staff member at HJ’s, this is not easy.  We’ve had to put up signs at HJ’s saying you can’t lie down here or get into fights.  We’ve had to employ security, just as we do on this side of the street on Sunday mornings.  But a beautiful “both/and” happens there.  On any given day at HJ’s, you’ll find Trolley Trail bikers and hikers, members of community groups, and folks looking for a place to stay warm.  And on Fridays, we see maybe the best expression of the community that HJ’s invites when neighbors of all kinds gather to play music and drink coffee and sing together.  The tremendously cool thing is that no one at the church organized this.  It’s not a ministry.  It’s the Spirit’s work, an inbreaking of the reign and rule of God.  And when it happens, you see the other as being just a little bit more like you.

Practicing God’s contrast kingdom of mercy, right relationship, and peace – it’s the hardest work there is.  It isn’t sweetness and light; it’s messy, inconvenient, and disruptive.  Sometimes, it even spills out into the streets, as we saw on Friday.  In Minneapolis, thousands of Minnesotans turned out that day, in weather colder than ours, to express their outrage about the government’s tactics in apprehending people who may have broken immigration laws.  Now, some will argue that those people in the streets were just agitators looking to discredit the government and disrupt authority.  I’m sure you could find some people in Minneapolis who would fit that description.  But I know that thousands of others are like my friend Kathy, a priest who lives there.  She’s a few years older than I am – a mom and grandma who makes the best bars you’ll ever eat.  And she braved those frigid temperatures to stand for God’s justice.  Mtr. Kathy, and thousands more people with otherwise boring, normal lives, looked at the way their government is treating the other, and they saw a disconnect between God’s justice and the application of law.  

And then, yesterday, as the protests in Minneapolis continued, a confrontation turned deadly, with ICE agents using lethal force.  This second killing of a Minneapolis protester will continue to be analyzed deeply and, God willing, an investigation will reveal truth.  But, at the end of the day, people will believe what they see more than what they’re told.  In any event, I think it’s safe to say that othering can have even fatal consequences.

Interestingly, on the same Friday as the Minneapolis protest but half a country away, the 53^rd annual March for Life took place in Washington, where a very different crowd of protesters also saw a disconnect between God’s justice and the government’s policies.  Now, I don’t know anyone personally who went to the March for Life, but I imagine they’d consider abortion to be something that fails to care for the vulnerable and therefore denies the justice of God.  They look at a fetus, or even an embryo, and see a person.  Now, half of you hearing this will say they’re right, and half of you hearing this will say they’re wrong.  But, once again, justice comes down to personhood – on the topic of abortion, the question of personhood.  And if it’s a person there in front of you, the requirement for God’s justice pertains.

I certainly can’t solve the personhood question related to abortion, and I won’t try.  But I think it’s surprising that a core Christian principle may have been motivating protesters at both rallies on Friday: the call to stand in contrast to a culture that dehumanizes people made in the divine image and likeness.

What do we do with that?  My point isn’t whether the two rallies were morally equivalent.  My point is that we each have to ask ourselves, “Who’s the other to me?  Is that other as fully human as I am?”  If the answer is “yes,” then we have work to do to see that other the way God sees them: fully human, broken and beloved, and worthy of being taken just as seriously as we’d take any other child of God.

1.      Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 3, 1127.

2.      New International Study Bible, 1754 (note).

3.      Ibid.

4.      Ibid.

 

Look Up and Look Around

Sermon for Epiphany (transferred,) Jan. 11, 2026
Matthew 2:1-12

It probably won’t surprise you to know that, in college, I didn’t take a lot of science classes.  But I had to take a couple, and one I chose was astronomy.  In fairness, that was primarily because my girlfriend loved astronomy, and she was a lab assistant, and I knew an opportunity when I saw one.  I don’t remember much of the class content now, but it made me appreciate the grandeur of the skies, the beauty and wonder we encounter by looking up.

Even now, 40 years later, I can still find Orion and the Big Dipper and the North Star.  And as I walk in the dark of the early morning, I look for them, always.  But in the 40 years since my class, the beauty and wonder of the skies have been joined by an even deeper sense I get when I look up.  It’s Love.  When I step out into the early-morning darkness and see the moon and the stars greeting me, what I feel is Love, with a capital L.  That Love is God.  You know, depending on one’s mood and the happenings of our lives in a given season, the natural world can seem dark and foreboding, even violent and dangerous.  But, to me, what shines through the early-morning darkness is divine Love.  It’s an assurance that I’m not alone, regardless of what yesterday may have brought.  It’s not just that God is there; it’s that God is welcoming me, traveling with me, guiding me into what’s next.

It’s amazing what can come from looking up.

These “three kings” we’ve welcomed this morning – they were professional lookers-up.  As you probably know, they weren’t kings; the biblical text calls them magi, “wise men” in Greek.  They were the naturalists of their day – astrologers in a time when astrology and astronomy were one and the same, more scientists than fortune tellers.  They were most likely from Parthia, modern Iran and Iraq, east of Rome’s province of Judea – in fact, a land beyond Rome’s dominion.  For the Jews, it might as well have been the kingdom of Far Far Away.  These magi were probably court officials, scholars telling their king what the natural world said about the divine will and how a wise king should govern as a result.

The story tells us these magi from the east had seen something new and surprising in the sky – a star in the west, from their perspective, heralding the birth of a king who would fulfill the divine will in a whole new way.  Apparently, they knew enough of the lore of the Israelites to know the Jews were waiting for a king who would bring back the days of David and Solomon, defeating the Romans and ruling directly as God’s own viceroy, bringing the reign and rule of Love to the earth.  So the magi needed to see for themselves if they were right about the meaning of this sign in the sky.

So, they set out, following the new star.  We don’t get any details about their trip, but it wasn’t a quick jaunt.  They would have taken a trade route west, toward Judea – as Mtr. Jean said last week about the Holy Family, the magi, too, would have traveled in a caravan because wise men don’t try to go a thousand miles through the wilderness on their own.  It would have taken a few months to get from Parthia to Judea.  So, this was no impulsive sightseeing trip.  This was a pilgrimage, which by definition doesn’t just take you somewhere but changes you in the process.

As emissaries of their king, the magi made their first destination the palace of the local king, Herod.  Now, Herod was Caesar’s minion in Judea, the local mob boss, whose rule was as far from God’s way of Love as you can get.  Herod was a Jew ethnically, but following God wasn’t exactly the M.O. of this small man who built himself up by tearing others down, including killing his own heir when he felt threatened.  Even the Roman Emperor, Augustus, noted Herod’s taste for blood, saying it was better to be Herod’s pig than his son.¹

Herod listens as the magi ask about some baby who’s been born to be king of the Jews, and all Herod can hear is a threat.  He slyly asks the magi to go find the baby and bring word back so Herod can find him, too – and have him murdered.

So, the magi, undeterred by evil, keep following the star toward Love.  They find Mary and Joseph in a house like anybody else’s, no palace at all.  They find the little toddler king, and they bring out their famous gifts that say, “Your own king may want you dead.  But in nations far away, when we look to you, we see the light of divine Love.”

And because they’re wise men, these royal emissaries heed the voice of Love in their dreams, going home by another way.  Herod, still scared enough to kill, decides to murder all the toddlers and babies of Bethlehem.  But the wise Joseph listens to his dreams, too, and the Holy Family flees as refugees.

What can we take from this story?  I think these wise travelers have at least two crucial insights to share with us today.

Here’s the first:  Look up.  Like I said, it makes a world of difference for me to start my day in the darkness looking up to find the light of Love.  Sometimes, the sky is stunning – the moon blazing full or a crescent, rocking just above the horizon.  There’s Orion the hunter welcoming me to set out for whatever this day’s hunt will bring.  And there’s the Big Dipper arcing through the sky and pointing to the North Star.  Looking up, I get my bearings again.  I remember, “Oh, right – regardless of what’s eating away at me, regardless of how tired I may be, regardless of the Herods who may be waiting down the road – oh, right, there’s Love, walking with me, again.”  Now, of course, sometimes the clouds mask it all.  Sometimes, you look up, and it’s simply darkness.  But that reminds us of something holy, too: that the Love who fashioned creation, and who died to give us life, and who walks alongside us every day – that Love is there, whether we see it or not.  The clouds can’t keep Love at bay.

So, the magi’s first insight:  Look up.  And their second?  Look around.

Now, we don’t know much for sure about these travelers from the east.  The story gives us few details, and history offers even fewer.  But we do know this much:  Magi is a plural noun. To represent the nations surrounding God’s chosen people, the story doesn’t give us a lone ranger.  It’s not some cowboy alone on his horse who brings gifts to the baby king.  It’s not a magus but magi – several wise people, traveling together across the wilderness.  We don’t know how many; the tradition tells us it’s three because three is a magic number – the perfect symbol of community, just right even to reflect the deeply relational nature of God.  So, the magi are a community of pilgrims aching to glimpse the divine; and, somehow, they know they can only do that together.  They know each other’s strengths and foibles.  They have each other’s backs.  They learn from each other’s wisdom.  They’re individuals, certainly, each with their own gifts and their own brokenness.  But they look around, and they see each other, and they know:  They’re at their best together.

So are we.  And this year, you’ll have the opportunity to experience that kind of community in a new way here at St. Andrew’s.  In Lent, we’ll be starting something we’re calling Companion Groups – small, monthly gatherings to help us grow in faith through intentional spiritual companionship.  And why would we do that?  Because the Christian life is meant to be lived together.  Spiritual maturity isn’t just about learning the Bible or prayers or theology; it’s about learning to walk with God and with one another.  And we do that best in safe, prayerful spaces where we can share our stories, listen to each other, reflect on life, and discover Christ walking alongside us.

Companion Groups give us a way to create that safe, prayerful space, and you can sign up for one today.  With a few other fellow travelers, you can connect, reflect, grow … and realize you don’t have to do this on your own.

You know, we are children of a culture that equips us very well to provide for ourselves.  Rugged individualism can be a great strength, in the right time and place.  But as a paradigm for life’s journey, it’s a way that leaves us vulnerable to the bad guys lurking behind the rocks.  Maybe even worse, that rugged individualism also can keep us from seeing heaven all around us.  If salvation is only about making it through this life so we can find eternal rest and reward later, then we’re missing heaven in the here and now.  Think about the old Appalachian spiritual, “Wayfaring Stranger”:

I’m just a poor wayfaring stranger
A-travelin’ through this world of woe.
But there’s no sickness, toil, nor danger
In that bright world to which I go.
I’m going there to see my mother,
I’m going there no more to roam.
I’m just a-goin’ over Jordan.
I’m just a-goin' over home.

That’s the theme song of the spirituality of rugged individualism – a lament that I know heaven’s out there somewhere, if I can just hang on long enough in this life to get there on my own.  But, as good as the heaven of chapter 2 will surely be, it’s not the beginning of our eternal life.  This life is – this life of looking up, and looking around, and knowing that divine Love walks alongside you every day.

1. https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/it-is-better-to-be-herods-pig-than-son

Jerry the Angel Finds the Good News

Sermon for Christmas Day, Dec. 25, 2025
John 1:1-14

This Gospel reading may not be what you were expecting for your Christmas story.  That came last night – the angels and the shepherds and the baby in the manger.  This morning, we get the story from a cosmic perspective: the Word of God made flesh and dwelling among us in glory.

In Anglo-Catholic congregations, there’s a tradition of offering this reading every Sunday.  It’s the “Last Gospel,” and it comes at the very end of the service, even after the final blessing.  You can’t miss the importance of God taking flesh among us if it’s the last thing you hear literally every time you worship.

So, the incarnation is important, but maybe it’s hard to know what we’re supposed to do with it.  How does this amazing mystery affect my life?

Well, it’s Christmas morning. So, rather than diving deep into a theology of the incarnation, how about a story?

 *  *  *

Jerry the Angel wasn’t much of an angel, really.  Every time he was on the edge of success, about to make a real difference for people, that’s when he managed to mess it up.  If you ever wondered how we found ourselves with concrete lawn ornaments and 24-hour news channels, you can blame that on bungled messages from Jerry the Angel.  It’s what angels do, after all – they deliver messages. 

Well, when you’re an angel who’s not so good at delivering messages, they assign you to the heavenly Office of Salvation Research.  Instead of sharing good news of great joy, these angels go out listening to people’s opinions and perceptions about God.  Maybe you didn’t know heaven has its own research department.  But the angels have to stay in touch with how we’re thinking so they can tell us Good News in a way we can understand it.  I mean, what would people think these days if an army of shining, flying soldiers suddenly hovered over them in the night, talking about a Messiah who’s come to save them?  It probably wouldn’t show God’s love nearly as well as a story on the evening news about an anonymous stranger handing out $100 bills.  Like God always says to the angels, you’ve got to tell the story in a way folks can hear it.

Anyway, that was Jerry’s job – to go around talking to people about how they understand salvation.  What do they think the Good News is?  So, Jerry heard a lot of crazy stuff, frankly, especially at Christmas time – like those stories about Santa’s little henchmen, the elves, tiny spies who watch your every move.  In fact, this time of year usually left Jerry a little depressed.  “Just once,” he said, “I’d like to meet someone who really gets what the Good News is all about.”

So, it was late afternoon on Christmas Eve, and Jerry was on patrol.  His first stop was in a nice neighborhood – a huge, lovely home filled with guests for a holiday party.  Jerry walked down the long driveway to the front door and rang the bell.  A woman with a drink in her hand answered the door.

“Hello?” she said, dubiously.  “I’m sorry – do I know you?”

“No, ma’am,” Jerry said.  “I just want a moment of your time for a couple of quick questions.”

“Oh, not a survey!” the woman replied.  I have guests!”

“It will only take a minute, really,” Jerry said.  “In fact, I’ll cut it down to just one question.”

“All right,” the woman said, looking over her shoulder.  “Let’s get this over with.”

“OK,” Jerry said.  “What’s the Good News for you?”

“I’m sorry?” the woman asked.  “The good news about what?”

“It’s Christmas,” Jerry reminded her, “when the Word of God was made flesh and came among you.  It’s the reason you’re having a party, right?  So, what’s the Good News for you?”

“Oh, you’re one of those religious types,” the woman said, nodding her head knowingly.  “Well, then, I’d have to say the Good News for me is … um … let’s see.  I know:  God wants us to treat people nicely.  OK?”

“OK,” Jerry said.  “One vote for politeness.  Thanks for your time” – and the woman shut the door in Jerry’s face.  “So much for ‘nice,’” he thought.

From there, Jerry transported himself to a very poor neighborhood.  He came to a broken-down apartment building and passed through the locked door.  He walked up to the third floor and found a door with a laughing, plastic Santa face hung on it.  “Here’s someone who at least celebrates Christmas,” he thought.  “I’ll give this a try.”  And he knocked.

A teenaged boy answered the door.  Looking in, Jerry saw very little – not much furniture, nothing on the walls.  He could hear a TV in the corner. “Wha’cha want?” the young man asked.

“Hi there,” Jerry began, trying to sound positive.  “I just want a moment of your time for a couple of quick questions.”

“You gotta be kiddin’,” the young man said.  “Your takin’ a survey?  How’d you get in here, anyway?”

“It’ll only take a second,” Jerry said.  “How about just one question?”

“OK – shoot,” the young man said, looking back over his shoulder at the TV.

“It’s Christmas Eve, right?” Jerry asked.  “The night Jesus was born.  So, what’s the Good News for you?”

The young man looked back at Jerry, his eyes narrowing. “Oh, I know about Good News,” he said, bitterly.  “Good News is what they call it when the preacher says you’ll be happy if you just give God more money.  Good News is what they call it when you come to church and end up takin’ home nothin’ but empty words about how things’ll get better if you just pray harder.  Is that the Good News you had in mind?”

Jerry began to step back from the doorway.  “Thanks a lot for your time,” he said quickly, “and … um … have a merry … well, have a safe night.”

“OK,” Jerry thought, heading down the stairs.  “Folks can smell a lie a mile away.  So, the Good News has got to be real.”

From there, Jerry transported himself to the closest thing we have to a town square or Main Street in the year 2025, the place where the locals gather from miles around:  He went to Costco.  There, even on Christmas Eve, Jerry had his pick of hundreds of folks he might interview – people doing their Christmas shopping at the last minute or stocking up for the family’s visit.

Amid all the intense shoppers going this way and that, Jerry saw a little girl.  She was about 10, and her parents must have left her on her own for a bit while they hunted for her present.  Jerry decided she was the one to talk to.

“Hi, Honey,” he said softly.  “I want to ask you a couple of questions.  Is that OK?”

“Sure,” the little girl said.

“What’s your name?” Jerry asked.

“I’m Gabriella,” the little girl said.  “What’s your name?”

“I’m Jerry, and I wish I had a name as good and strong as yours.  It’s perfect for an angel.”

“Oh, I’m no angel,” Gabriella said.  “Just ask my parents.  So, what did you want to ask me?”

“Well,” Jerry began, “it’s Christmas Eve.  You’re not in church, or at your grandparents’ house, or opening presents with your family.  You’re here at Costco.  This is the night the angels appeared, announcing the Good News that Jesus was born.  Do you know what that Good News is?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Gabriella said.  “The Good News is right here in my cart.”

Jerry looked down and saw what the little girl had been shopping for: Stocking caps – lots of stocking caps.  There must have been 50 stocking caps in the little girl’s cart.  “Stocking caps?” Jerry asked.  “I don’t get it.  Where’s the Good News in a cart full of stocking caps?”

“Oh, it’s not about the caps exactly,” Gabriella said.  “The Good News comes when I take the caps to church later, and we give them away for people who don’t have a warm place to live.”  She looked down at her treasure and then looked back at Jerry.  She was beaming.  “I saved up my allowance.”

Bingo, Jerry thought.  Finally, he’d found a little messenger.  “So tell me why that’s Good News,” he said.

Gabriella looked at Jerry with a little sympathy, like maybe he wasn’t very smart.  “It’s easy,” she said, again.  “Jesus came into the world long ago, on a cold night like this.  Jesus is still in the world, on a cold night like this.  He’s there in all those people who don’t have a place to live, who can’t find any room at the inn.  He loves me just like God loves me – and he’s shivering out there in the cold.  So I need to help keep him warm, because I love him, too.”  She cocked her head and looked at Jerry.  “It’s not complicated.  Don’t you get it?”

Jerry smiled and remembered why he loved his job after all.  “Yes, I get it,” he said.  “Can I ask you a favor?”

“Sure,” Gabriella said.  “Do you want a stocking cap?”

“No,” Jerry said.  “I just want you to go and tell other people your story.” 

“I can do that,” she said, as she pushed her cart toward the check-out lane.  Jerry watched as she walked away, and suddenly he found himself listening to what was playing over the Costco loudspeakers: 

Hark! the herald angels sing
            glory to the newborn King!