First Presbyterian Church Of San Anselmo

Psalm 51 takes our lives seriously – the whole of our lives – in all of their complexity.  It acknowledges plainly for us:  The harm we do in the world is real, and so is the hurt that we know in our bodies and our lives – in bones that have been crushed, and hearts that have been broken.  On Ash Wednesday, we say these try things and lean into this truth: In the love and mercy we find in Jesus Christ, "Always, we begin again."

On Transfiguration Sunday, we journey up a high mountain with Peter, James, and John -- and experience with them an epiphany -- God made manifest in the midst of us.  This sermon considers the experience of wonder -- as the disciples experience the dazzling humanity of Jesus: "God is so very big – God’s love for us so vast – the world so much more than we could ever comprehend.  And God is near.  One writer puts it this way – what we find in Jesus and in each other is 'just as much of God as a hand can hold.'”

Standing in the midst of our climate emergency, this sermon enters the groaning of Romans 8 -- all creation groaning, our groaning, the Spirit praying with us in groans too deep for words.  In our groaning together, we experience a deeper sense of belonging, we hope, and we enter into God's work of world-healing.  We live as if the world we long for is already here -- a world that is healed and whole.

"What we experience with Elijah is this: God shows up in the sheer silence – in the sheer silence that underlies all of our noise.  Not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire – not (always) in big flashy moment – but in the sheer silence that is always with us – that underlies every moment of every day – in a small quiet whisper."

This Sunday, we observe Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, as we continue our Epiphany series -- "The Work of Wonder." This sermon considers the Amos text that Dr. King often quoted, "But let justice roll down like the waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream," and listens to how it announces God's steely determination to dismantle all systems of oppression. We then turn to the persistent systems of American racism, and trace how they flow from the US Constitution as originally written and historic resistance to every attempt to set it right. Then, we think some about how white Americans continue to benefit from those systems, and our responsibility to join the work of dismantling, with a move toward reparation and healing of the continuing harm.

This sermon continues our Epiphany theme – “The Work of Wonder” – as we consider this week how our lives and work connect to the broad expanse of God’s saving love throughout history, from the beginning of time, down through the generations.  Along the way, we consider sociologist Elise Boulding's notion of a "200-Year Present" -- our lives are held by and touch lives that span a 200-year present.  Listen to explore this a little further!

This sermon begins an Epiphany series -- "The Work of Wonder" -- as we explore together the ways that we experience a world so much bigger than us and are called to work with God for its well-being. This Sunday's sermon considers the story of the Magi who follow a star and find their way to an experience of the Christ -- and our curiosity as a gateway to epiphany.

This week we turn to the song that has inspired our Advent theme, "My Heart Shall Sing."  We look at the revolutionary words that Mary sings in her Magnificat (Luke 1:39-56). Then we think about why we sing, and consider how the songs that God gives us to sing set the whole world free. 

This sermon is the first in our Advent worship series -- "My Heart Shall Sing" -- inspired by Mary's Magnificat -- as we experience Advent's songs of hope, peace, joy, and love. This week's sermon considers the Song of Zechariah -- but first we think some about what Zechariah might have experienced in "The Silence Before the Song" -- as he sat in silence for nine months waiting with his wife Elizabeth for the birth of their son, John (the Baptist). As we listen with Zechariah, we hear this good news: In the coming of Christ, God saves us by God's tender mercy.

For Christ the King Sunday, we engage Luke 23:33-43, a glimpse of Jesus on the cross, and his conversation with one of those crucified with him.  This sermon considers (1) how, in our power and privilege, we should take care in how we claim that Christ is king; (2) how, for those whose backs are up against the wall, we affirm that Christ is king over every power in the world; and (3) how Christ the King, on the cross, enters even the deepest ditch of our suffering, and holds us close in the heart of God.

In Luke 21:5-19, Jesus looks around at all the upheaval in the world, and says, "All this will open up for you the opportunity to testify." In today's sermon, we look at the upheaval in our world, the testimony we have heard (perhaps some even this week), and the power of the stories we tell and the lives we live to turn the world rightside up. 

Luke 20:27-38Sermon Theme: Jesus turns the world rightside-up by dismantling every type of "power-over" in the world, setting the whole world free.

Isaiah 43:18-21; Colossians 3:12-17:  Stephen Covey says, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.  In this farewell sermon by First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo's pastor of 14 1/2 years, Paul's advice to "clothe everything with clothe" is the main thing.  And one way the church can love our neighbors is by welcoming the "new thing" that God is doing.

Luke 16:1-13: The Parable of the Unjust Steward is confusing, but leaves no doubt that the rich owner, who has exploited the peasants through usury, is not the good guy.  In the Luke’s context, if you were rich, it meant you exploited others to get that way.  On the one hand, we might reasonably say that being rich isn’t bad, after all.  It’s exploitation that’s bad.  But it's very easy to ignore the ways our economic system and structures exploit people, and the planet God created.  What would Jesus do about climate disruption?  Luke’s Jesus consistently speaks up for the poor and marginalized.  He consistently calls the wealthy on the carpet.  "You cannot serve both God and Mammon," says Jesus.  So what would Jesus do about climate disruption?  Most importantly, what Jesus does in the Gospels is invite people to change the world by disbelieving, by no longer believing in the stories that we currently allow to shape our lives, the stories that end up destroying people and the planet.  Stories

Luke 15:1-10: In the Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin,  Jesus shows the scribes and Pharisees that we are all in the same boat: tax collectors, "sinners," scribes and Pharisees, and we are all represented by the one sheep that God relentlessly pursues.  God loves us all so much that God never stops trying to find us; God never gives up on us, and we are never to give up on each other.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Luke 14:25-33:  Jesus' dire warnings about the cost of discipleship reflect the cost of any and every choice we make in life that involves commitment.  Given that this is the same Jesus who said, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John !0:10), the emphasis of our faith should not be sacrifice and suffering but the joy of life lived as though God is the ruler of our hearts and minds here and now. Author Barbara  Ehrenreich was asked what she would give up to live in a more human world.  She answered, “I think we shouldn’t think of what we would give up to have a more human world; we should think of what we would gain.”

Romans 12:4-21: We celebrate Labor Day with three members of the First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo community, who share how they live out their faith in the workplace: The Rev. Christine Francisco, Activity Coordinator, NeuroRestorative; Patrick O’Connor, Director of Family Ministries, First Presbyterian Church; and Lisa Cosby, Public Utilities Regulatory Analyst, California Public Utilities Commission.

Lessons: Acts 1:6-9; Ephesians 4:1-6: This 6th of the Presbyterian "Great Ends of the Church" sums up the other five with, "Go, and let the world know about this."  Let the world know about Jesus' message that the reign of God is already present and active; it is here, available for those who see that everything is holy, everything and everyone is precious to God and belongs to God.  Let the world know about Jesus' radically different approach to power and authority.  Jesus didn’t use power or authority to impress or coerce.  He expressed his power in acts of service: restoring health, raising people to life, breaking down social taboos, providing for people’s needs – in other words, demonstrating the love, justice and goodness of God.  Let the world know about the love, justice and goodness of God.   

Lessons: Amos 5:21-24; Luke 4:14-21: The promotion of social righteousness means that Christians can and should take political action to advance the coming of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven, and it looks like this: the hungry are fed, the poor are lifted up, the naked are clothed, those caught in poverty – including the crime, poor health, lack of education and hopelessness that poverty engenders – are freed to live as God intends for us all to live.  The reason the promotion of social righteousness is one of the Great Ends of the Church is that a truly biblical faith demands it. Social  justice - concern for the poor, the condemnation of greed, welcoming the stranger and caring for the vulnerable - is one of the great and most frequent themes of the Bible.