Sermons

When I hear today’s text, it makes me eager to listen for the chorus of creation. To find kinship in its myriads of created beings. To praise God in community. To see Christmas beyond the singular lens of humanity.

And there they find two new parents, each one not too far removed from being terrified themselves. And these mangy shepherds and exhausted parents, gaze at new life. In the birth of a child, they realize that God has given them (and you, and me, and EVERYONE!!!) space to become God’s people.

The Gospel of Luke is the story of people just like you and me, determining to get started. We meet Mary and Elizabeth in the early stages of pregnancy, the life event that is most representative of life’s wonderful chaos. Hope, joy, anxiety, fear, comfort, discomfort, hormones, tears, laughs, hugs…the emotions are varied and endless. In one another, Mary and Elizabeth find community and support, and even more importantly, a sense of joy and hope. In one another, they find the strength to live out their calling.

Thank God for stars. Because when we gaze at the stars, we are reminded, like the prophet, that we walk in God’s light. We literally walk in God’s light. And God’s light can transform everything we know into something beautiful, something peaceful, something worthy, something illumined, something divine.

I believe God faiths in our faithfulness. Whatever our expression of Millbrook may be in the future, however robust or minimal, frequent or infrequent, structured or fluid, as long as they are rooted in a spirit of kinship, they’re gonna be enough. They’re gonna be beautiful. They’re gonna wonderful. They’re not gonna be of this world. And that’s exactly how it should be.

I believe we can offer first aid to our neighbors without slinging AR15s on our shoulders. I believe we can be generous, sharing our abundance with our neighbors, and still have more than enough. I believe we can choose to forgo conveniences that harm the natural world in order preserve a better world for our children. I believe we can create spaces that honor every expression and representation of humanity rather than fortifying altars of homogenization.  I believe we can choose to collaborate rather than dominate, love rather than hate, build up rather than tear down, create rather than replicate. But most of all, I believe we can gather on our own Mount of Olives, in the presence of God and one another, and step out of the overwhelming shadow of Temple, and into the light, purpose, and possibilities of love. We can grasp God’s love. We can be God’s love.