Sermons

The Psalmist tells us we belong to the God of Jacob. Jacob’s God is with us, and Jacob’s God is our strength and refuge. And because we belong to Jacob’s God, anything can happen children of God, anything can be!!!

We can’t spend our lives banking on representations of God. We must spend our lives believing in, and banking on the reality of God.  It is not the systems created to serve God that continually salvage, and resurrect, and recreate our lives and spirits. It is God that continually salvages, resurrects, and recreates our lives and spirits.  And when our faith in institutions is stronger than our faith in God, our judgement becomes muddied, and our future becomes veiled.

God invites us, Millbrook, into a kind of community that is not about the haves and the have-nots, but rather, a community about everyone having enough. When we love God, and we love neighbor as we love ourselves, we not only follow the example of our beloved saints, but we help bring about that day when God’s enough-ness will trump Caesar’s scarcity.

Today’s text is not an endorsement for the tax collector over the Pharisee.  Today’s text is a commentary on systems that prevent us from living full and happy lives, systems that prevent us from living into our created purpose: to be children of God!!!

We wrestle to understand the complexities of our God. We show a determination to be God’s people (though admittedly, we have our good days and bad days). God notices that determination. God notices our stubborn desire to live in covenant.  And God smiles. And God offers blessing. And even when we fail to live into God’s covenant, God remains our God. God offers us grace and love.  And it seems to me this process continues each time the sun rises and sets.   

When we come to praise our Maker, we proclaim that God is present in our lives.  When we come to praise our Maker, we proclaim that God matters. And when we come to praise our maker, we proclaim, however difficult it may sometimes be to admit, that a power much, much bigger than us is at work in the world. And that power is good and decent and pure and whole and EVERLASTING!!! And our every action should acknowledge such a power.