First Presbyterian Church Of San Anselmo

We consider the Parable of the Sower -- the seed, the soil, the sower -- and notice that the parable describes a generative process for a generative season.  God empowers us to create something new together by sowing seeds generously and generatively. Grace abounds!

On this Fourth of July weekend, we stand at the intersection of faith and public life and consider "freedom" -- both Biblical and Constitutional.  What we affirm with the Apostle Paul is this: Christ has set us free for the freedom of others and ourselves.

Exiled into the wilderness, Hagar raises her voice in lament against the powers of slavery and patriarchy. In the power of lament, we summon God into the pain of the world, and God summons us and the world to create something better and new.

As Sarah laughs at the news that she will have a child so late in life, we listen with her to the question: "Is anything too wonderful for God?"  We consider the events of this week -- Supreme Court decisions and Juneteenth celebrations -- and we wonder, with Sarah, at things that seem too wonderful even after long seasons of hope.

Made in the image of a creating God, we are invited to become a creating and re-creating community, together with each other and all creation.

The symbols of our faith journey remind us of God's presence in each chapter in life, and they call us into the future God has ready for us.

At Pentecost, the Spirit comes among the people, gathered together, empowering them to see the world plainly, to listen, to speak, to do, and to create with God the new world that is breaking forth, even now. This year, we listen to the Pentecost story in a world that is in flames from the systemic racism that has persisted in this country for far too long. Claiming the Spirit of Pentecost, we look plainly at the world and our role in it, we listen for voices silenced for far too long, and we commit to do the work that is ours to do.

In the closing sermon in our series "Life from Behind Closed Doors," we consider the breadth of ways that folks are living behind close doors during the COVID-a9 pandemic -- not only those who are sheltering, but also those who are incarcerated. During this Easter season we have found that, in Resurrection, God gives us life beyond every separation– life more powerful than any power in the world that keeps us apart.  What matters is how we use that life that we are given to find our wayto yet more life– every day – to create a world that offers more lifeto every human being in every circumstance.

This sermon considers possibilities for hunger action in this time of pandemic and sheltering, through the lens of our Easter theme: "Life from Behind Closed Doors." This week, we take up an Old Testament text in which Elisha and a widow seek miraculous provision in a time of scarcity, and what we find is this: In the face of dire need, God provides abundance in the collaborative power of community,“with love as the main ingredient.”

As we continue in our worship theme -- "Life from Behind Closed Doors" -- guest preacher Allie Utley takes us "behind closed doors" with Noah -- as Noah and family wait in the ark to be able to walk again on dry land.  The sermon names our waiting in this time of pandemic, our longing for what we miss most, and how worship is part of how we survive and thrive.

In Acts 2, we see a snapshot of what life in community was like for the early church -- as they gathered in homes, broke bread together, prayed, held everything in common, and sold what they had to give to those in need.  Stories like this give us a glimpse of who we have been, who we are, and who we hope to be.  In community, the Spirit of the Risen Christ empowers us to say YES to each new day, and with our AND to create something new with God and with each other. 

This sermon considers the resurrection of Tabitha, the clothes she made to care for a community of widows, the quilters of Gee's Bend, and those who are making masks for others in this time of pandemic.  In this quilting and this sewing, we see that God gathers us at her quilting table, and invites us into acts of tender mercy.

For centuries the disciple Thomas has been labeled "Doubting Thomas."  This sermon makes the case FOR Thomas.  Behind closed doors with Thomas and the disciples, what we see in Thomas is someone who -- like us -- is baffled by a bewildering world.  He voices his need for Jesus, and the Risen Christ responds.  In Resurrection, when we reach the limits of our understanding, Jesus takes our hand and says, “I'm still here.”

On Easter morning, we go with Mary to the tomb and encounter the Risen Christ.  And what we find there together is yet more life -- yet more life than we ever imagined -- yet more life to live right here, right now, and yet more life to live on into forever.

In the hosanna and hope of Palm Sunday and in the suffering and lament of Passion Sunday, we find Christ in the midst of the whole of life.  In communion -- a sacrament as old as our faith and lived anew today in this online worship space -- we experience "the real presence of Christ," embodied in us to bless the world God loves.

The story of Lazarus is a story about the healing presence of Christ embodied in community. In a world full of fear, illness, and death, Jesus stands in the midst of a grieving community, and together they stand against death and everything that does us harm.  In Christ's love, we call each other into life – Christ’s healing touch in our hands.

In times of epidemic and sheltering in place, we are thinking of new ways of living grounded in and enlivened by Prayer, Care, and Connection. This sermon focuses on prayer, offering specific suggestions as how we might pray in these hard times.  In prayer, God is inviting us to draw near– inviting us into conversation– inviting us into deeper relationship– inviting us into life. When we pray, we say yes to the conversation and yes to God's love.  In prayer, God is at work transforming us into living, embodied Words to bless the world God loves.

In a time of epidemic and social distancing, we look to the story of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the well, and how they create entirely new ways of being in relationship -- bridging and transcending separation.  As Jesus and the Samaritan Woman create this new way of being in relationship, they become for each other Living Water.  As we do the same, we are for each other, in the desert, a healing spring.

As we continue in our Lenten sermon series -- "In the Desert, a Healing Spring" -- this sermon turns to the text of John 3:16 for a healing word.  We unpack some of the cultural baggage that follows this familiar text, and specifically the harm that has come from an exclusionary reading.  We then look to the text and affirm that God so loves the whole world that God invites us into the healing life of Christ -- eternal life, right here, right now.

This sermon begins our Lenten series, "In the Desert, a Healing Spring."  Standing in Isaiah 58, we consider our own hurt, the harm we cause in the world, and God's healing power.  Healing is God’s love at work, in us and around us, moving us and the whole world toward wholeness.