Sermon Ideas for Everything Must Change
Brian D. McLaren
I worked for 24 years as a pastor, and I always appreciated it when a book helped frame a sermon series. You may simply wish to use these ideas as prompts for a sermon series – or you may want to encourage groups and classes in your church to read the book as you preach from it.
One suggestion: don’t run out and preach this book the week after you read it. Let the book begin to move you into action, and then you’ll preach it less as ideas from a book and more as something that flows from your heart and soul. Perhaps the best approach would be to read the book, then get a number of your leaders reading it, then get small groups and classes reading it, and then preach it – with help from all the people who have been engaging with the content for some period of time.
The book is organized into eight parts which would make a good eight-week sermon series. Or each part could become a series of a messages in its own right.
PART 1. TWO PREOCCUPYING QUESTIONS
The first chapter talks about the importance of hope – which could connect to a sermon that contrasts two different kinds of hope practiced by Christians: one is the hope of “leaving behind” the earth and its problems for heaven. The other is the hope of God’s transformation of this planet. Chapters 2-4 seek to show unintended negative consequences of the former kind of hope, which is, sadly I think, probably prevalent in many of our churches these days.
To critique the “gospel of evacuation” approach, you may wish to read or re-tell the stories from East and South Africa which I include in these chapters, perhaps using scenes from the movie Hotel Rwanda to dramatize the problem. To dramatize the “gospel of transformation” approach, scenes from the movie Amazing Grace and the story of Wilberforce could be equally dramatic.
For ideas about preaching the kingdom of God as a message of transformation (not evacuation), see my book “The Secret Message of Jesus” and the “Sermon Ideas for Secret Message of Jesus” at www.brianmclaren.net. Jesus’ metaphors of salt (that penetrates food) and light (that penetrates darkness) and seeds (that penetrates soil) and nets (that penetrate water) offer images of penetration rather than evacuation (Matthew 5:13 ff; 13:1-52). And Jesus’ “downward mobility” in the incarnation (John 1:1-18) is our model for the downward mobility of incarnational living (Philippians 2:1-16).
You might also focus on Matthew 24:36-46. This passage is often used by supporters of the “left-behind” or “evacuation” gospel, but it actually undermines their view. You could point out the following:
1. The passage is framed by the image of Noah and the flood. Being “taken away” (24:39) is not being taken away to heaven by the rapture, as the supporters of “evacuation” say – it is being taken away by the flood of judgment. So, the goal is not to be the one taken away – it is to be the one left behind!
2. Being ready for judgment does not mean withdrawal from this world into a religious subculture – waiting to be evacuated, as is commonly practiced: being ready means being involved “giving food” to God’s servants. The point is intensified in the following chapter, where wise people prepare for the long haul and plan to keep their lights shining bright in the darkness (25:1-13); they use their gifts to advance God’s interests in the world (15:14-30); they show concern for “the least of these” (25:31-46).
Another theme that could become a strong sermon would be to contrast three kinds of confidence. Excessive confidence (this is the style of the Pharisees and religious leaders in Jesus’ day) could be illustrated powerfully through John 7:25 ff, John 8:12-59, and John 9:1-41 (culminating in “you claim you can see” –9:41). Their excessive confidence leads them to be willing to kill (8:1-31, which interrupts this section). At the opposite extreme is insufficient confidence – this is the unstable person (James 1:6-7, Ephesians 4:14) who hears but doesn’t act (Matthew 7:24 ff, 1 John 2:3-6, James 2:14 ff) or who has the right words but not the right action (Matthew 7:21-27).
The goal is “a proper confidence” – a term from Lesslie Newbigin – that describes faith that leads to action, trust that leads to obedience (John 13:12-17, which contrasts powerfully with Matthew 7:24 ff) and love that leads to action (John 14:12-21).
The key idea for a sermon on Part 1 would be to suggest that there are two very different understandings of the gospel afoot in our churches today: one is a gospel of evacuation and the other a gospel of transformation. One gospel says that God has given up on creation and plans to destroy it, extracting souls for a disembodied existence in heaven. The other gospel says that God is faithful to creation and is at work to heal it and save it from human sin, and promises that any sacrifice we make to be co-laborers with God in God’s saving and healing work will be amply rewarded in this life and the next. One gospel offers little hope for the earth and its inhabitants in history, and focuses their hope beyond this life only. The other gospel is good news for all people (Luke 2:10) offers hope for both this life and the life beyond.
PART 2: SUICIDAL SYSTEM
This section explains my understanding of the four global crises, pictured through three gears and a central drive shaft in the societal machine.
A sermon based on this section could work from the Old Testament as follows:
The three gears:
Prosperity System: Life in God’s creation as a garden (Gen 1-2) where we have work to do, gathering fruit – within limits – and later tilling the soil, which suggests bringing out unrealized capacities of God’s world. The fields of science and education are evoked by the naming of creatures (Gen 2), and soon the arts and crafts are also explored (Gen 4:21).
Security System: But people can abuse God’s creation – and abuse one another through murder, theft, slavery, and other forms of oppression – exemplified by Cain and Abel and the story of the Flood (Gen 4-6). So, in a world scarred by sin, people need to protect themselves from one another (Gen 14:1-16 captures this beautifully).
Equity System: The laws deal with practical matters to help God’s people live equitable lives. Deuteronomy 14-15 or Exodus 21-23 would provide an excellent sampling of the kinds of laws needed to preserve equity. “National health care” could also be seen as an equity issue in Leviticus 13-15.
The central drive shaft:
This is the importance of a good framing story – such as you find providing background for the Sabbath (Gen 2:2) and the ten commandments (Exodus 20:2) and all the calls in the Old Testament to remember what God has done. Leviticus 19:33-34 provide an important example of a proper use of a framing story: the fact that the Jewish people had been oppressed in Egypt was never used to legitimize revenge, but instead to increase compassion for people (the alien and stranger) who could be oppressed by the Jewish people.
The key point of a sermon on the societal system would be to explain the Good News of the Kingdom of God as the framing story God calls us to live by. This story tells us that God is king of everyone – a theme which could be powerfully traced through the Gospel of Luke: women and men (Luke 1:39-81), the rich and the poor (Luke 16), our friends and our enemies (Luke 6:27-36), the righteous and the sinners (Luke 15), the Jews and the Gentiles (Luke 7:1-10), humans and other living things (Luke 12:22 ff). So, God calls us to be reconciled with God and with everyone, and this reconciliation requires repentance (Luke 13:1-9) and happens through God’s forgiveness of us, which we extend to others (Luke 17:1-10). It calls us to discipleship – which is learning to live in the way of the kingdom.
PART 3: REFRAMING JESUS
This is in many ways the theological core of the book. In many settings, it would be wise to contrast two views of Jesus (from Chapter 10), but in other settings, it would be wiser simply to focus on the emerging view, leaving any critique of the conventional view implied only. Any critique of the conventional view should be done gently and respectfully, avoiding needless offense.
Resituating Jesus within his historical setting can be done with almost every passage of the gospel, because the details of the stories – the identity of the Pharisees or Sadducees or a Roman centurion or a Sidonian woman, for example – require us to give the social, historical, political, religious, and economic context. You might find this analogy helpful: imagine trying to explain Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address without any reference to the Civil War. That would be what we often do with Jesus’ words – we try to understand and apply them without understanding the overriding historical context of the Roman empire.
As for Scriptures to work from, Chapter 12 is overflowing with them, and Chapters 13 and 14 give several more passages a close reading. There would be a lot of sermon material to work with in these important chapters.
PART 4: REINTRODUCING JESUS:
This section does in a kind of high-altitude fly-over what the following sections will do in more detail: show how Jesus’ teachings relate to the framing stories and societal systems of his day and ours. There would be a lot of sermon material in the critique of our contemporary societal systems – much of which could be easily illustrated through films and popular music. (If you send in some suggestions via the blog section at deepshift.org, others can benefit from your discoveries.)
The key Biblical focus from this section would be the discussion of eschatology in Chapter 18, where I say, “Eschatology always wins.” My language of a “fake-me out first coming” may be too strong for some congregations to handle, but the issue needs to be made clear: if our understanding of the so-called Second Coming undermines or overturns the revelation of God in Christ through his actual coming, we have a serious theological problem. Central to this sermon would be drawing attention to the sword of Revelation 19:15 – which comes out of Jesus’ mouth. This is really one of the most important points of the book.
PART 5: SECURITY
Matthew’s story of the Canaanite woman and its context (Matthew 14-15) would be a powerful way to convey some of the key issues of this section. The Scriptures presented in Chapter 22 would all be ripe for exploration in a sermon on the security strategy of Jesus. Also very significant regarding Jesus’ way of peace would be to exposit John 18, as was done back in Chapter 14.
The contrast between Dr. King’s approach and the approach of the other quoted leaders at the end of Chapter 22 could help congregations see two very different ways of applying the Scriptures to our contemporary situation. As that chapter suggests, I recommend avoiding getting paralyzed and polarized around old debates between pacifism and just war theory if possible, and try to lift the dialogue “above the line” (a phrase that will make sense to readers of A New Kind of Christian).
In times of war, it takes a lot of courage to deal with these passages. Only courageous, humble, and “prayed-up” preachers and teachers will be able to do so effectively, and even then, there will probably be bitter opposition because of the widespread and addictive “high” (or “warrior trance”) that war produces, as described in these chapters. One must be as wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove.
PART 6: PROSPERITY
It will be important, in preaching from this section, to carefully define theocapitalism so people know you are not attacking a more modest, non-absolutized capitalism. The structure of this section invites contrasting Law One of theocapitalism with Law One of Jesus’ teaching – and so could be either a four-part sermon, or four sermons – or more. The quotes and stories from Jesus – which fill Chapters 25 and 26 – would provide a lot of sermon material. Jesus had so much to say about wealth and its proper use – and this is absolutely essential teaching for wealthy Westerners in the 21st century!
This material could be developed into a retreat or class for business people in your congregation – again, if you develop it, please share it at the deepshift.org blog.
PART 7: EQUITY
Chapter 27 would obviously fit well in a Christmas season sermon (or just before or after Advent), with a performance of Jackson Browne’s “Rebel Jesus.” The information on the growing gap between rich and poor could also be useful when inviting people to give to special projects that will help the poor. (Please don’t use these for a building fund though!)
A well-known preacher and author recently criticized me by asserting that Jesus had no social agenda. I would hope that the Scriptures that fill Chapter 28 would set the record straight on that matter. Of special interest would be the explanation of stewards given in this chapter, and in Chapter 12. Also important in this chapter is the discussion of social or collective sin – a subject relatively few Christian seem to understand in our highly individualized age.
Much could be done by using Micah 6:8 as a framework for three sermons drawn from Jesus’ teaching – about walking humbly with God (which everybody agrees is good), about showing compassion (which more people are waking up to), and about doing justice (which relatively few seem to endorse).
The Bible has so much to say about poverty – and Jesus exemplifies this powerfully – that the seven categories for addressing poverty in Chapter 30 could be helpful in a sermon, when we say, “Yes, we want to help the poor, but how?” This kind of sermon could be especially good around the Christmas season, if we invite people to give to the poor either directly or indirectly, as explained in this chapter. With so much complaint (legitimate in too many cases) about “organized religion,” the idea of “religion organizing for the common good” could be useful for leadership groups, including denominational leaders.
PART 8: A REVOLUTION OF HOPE
In a sense, this section is a simple call to faith – to disbelieve one framing story and believe another. Jesus’ teaching about “faith that can move mountains” and his many post-healing affirmations of “your faith has saved you” would take on new meaning in this light (Matthew 17:20).
The “covert curriculum” discussion could help pastors talk about abortion as a symptom of a deeper issue, and show how that deeper issue is equally related to global climate change. This kind of category-crossing is especially important for pastors to do in an election year, when Christians can get sucked into partisan ideologies that divide and fill people with aggression and pride; in contrast, the message of the kingdom of God calls people to repent in humility and come together in reconciliation.
My decision to conclude the book with a call to faith rather than a call to action suggests, I hope, three things:
1. Without faith, our action won’t be sufficient or sustainable.
2. Required actions will vary based on context, but the faith issue is universal.
3. True faith will be expressed in action … and that action flows naturally when the faith issue is dealt with.
If you preach sermons flowing from this book, I hope you will invite people to faith – and then action. At brianmclaren.net and deepshift.org, we’ll be creating lots of venues for dialogue about hopeful action that flows from faith and love. I hope that we, inspired by faith, will all be inspired to encourage one another “to love and good works.”
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If we only had a song about…
I was recently asked the question below by a group of songwriters in England. Perhaps it would be helpful for others?
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If Only We Had a Song About …
Dear Songwriters –
As a pastor, author, speaker, and stumbling, bumbling Christian, I am so grateful for people like you who write songs. Your work influences people in their relationship with God at least as much, I think, as sermons do. Probably more!
Of course, like sermons, our songs can influence people for better or worse. It seems to me we suffer from a consumerism in the “worship industry” (what a horrible term): people want us to deliver a certain feeling, and they often want certain clichés to massage them – not into alertness, but into a kind of somnolent passivity where they feel good again after a hard week. (I talk about this a bit more in a book I wrote with Tony Campolo, called “Adventures in Missing the Point.”)
Perhaps some of our problem is with the terms ‘worship songs” or “worship music” themselves. In Colossians 3, Paul talks about the value of singing to “teach and admonish one another.” Songs are there connected with letting Jesus’ own words live in our hearts. Perhaps we have become so fixated on overt worship that we’ve forgotten how to sing for other purposes – such as to teach and challenge one another with the word of Christ?
So, if only we had more songs that took the teachings of Jesus and set them to music that stayed in our hearts.
For example, we have a thousand songs about loving God, but how many songs do we have about loving our neighbors?
We have a thousand songs about God blessing us, but how many of our songs plead with God to bless the poor, the oppressed, the war-torn, the unloved? When we do have songs like this, they tend to use language like “the lost” and “the nations” which, I think, tend to create a kind of superiority in “us” versus “them” – the very opposite of what we need or (I hope) intend. Peter’s words in Acts 10:28, 34 tell us to be careful about our language. It’s easy for religious language – like racial language – to become polluted so that it is no longer gentle and respectful – as Peter also reminds us in I Peter 3:16.
Sometimes I think we’d be wise to have a moratorium on all Biblical language (enter his courts, praise his name, Zion, etc., etc.) – not so that we would become less Biblical, but so that we would be challenged to really think about what we’re saying instead of creating cliché trains of Biblical phrases that numb us like muzak or occupy us without nourishing us, like chewing gum. If we couldn’t use these shortcuts, how would we find ways to talk about God’s goodness, and especially God’s goodness in relation to people we consider “outsiders?” This whole area seems to me a subject so central to Jesus’ life and teaching that I often fear we have become a religion of the Pharisees and ceased to be followers of Jesus in deed (though we certainly say the “right” words a lot). Sorry, I’m ranting.
Anyway, songs that inspire us to see our neighbors with Christ-like eyes would be so helpful, so needed. Exerting ourselves in this direction will put us in touch with the whole prophetic thread of the Bible that is nearly always in dynamic tension with the priestly thread. While the priests exhort us to glorify the Lord (rightly, as they must), the prophets warn us that if we become so preoccupied with worship and piety that we forget about justice and compassion, God gets sick of our singing and sacrifices of praise.
I’m sure you’re already thinking about other areas – our need for songs of lament, songs of confession, songs which acknowledge how bad life feels at times, songs which acknowledge our doubt and failure as well as our faith and joy, songs which groan and moan as well as clap and dance. This may sound like “bad news” at first glance, but for strugglers (who isn’t?), it is so affirming and healing to have our “dark side” brought into the light, not left in secret.
And you’re probably already thinking about our need for songs of hope – not just for heaven after we die, but hope for human history, for the day when bombs and guns and tanks (swords and spears) are melted down and recast as playgrounds and park benches and toys for children (plowshares and pruning hooks). Singing a song like this sounds almost unpatriotic for an American, and perhaps for a Brit as well, living as we do in countries quite proud of their military power these days. Perhaps that’s exactly why songs like this aren’t being written … but should be. These kinds of songs will be at odds with the 19th-century eschatologies that still reign in so many of our churches, but sooner or later, somebody has to rock the eschatological boat, don’t you think, and get us looking farther back and farther ahead – finding hope for history, not just beyond history?
On a related note, you’re probably also thinking about our need for songs which question our reigning systematic theologies, which always run the risk of creating conceptual idols. The psalmists, like all artists (including the prophets), and like the Lord himself, frequently use dangerous language to help us see where our systematic theologies have become walls rather than windows, where they have succeeded in removing mystery rather than conveying it – with disastrous spiritual results. This deconstruction/reconstruction calls for real skill, real talent, real sensitivity to the Spirit of God … along with some old-fashioned courage, I would think.
I also write songs and inflict them on people from time to time, occasionally with some blessing I hope. So I know how hard it is to write songs that not only bless people but stretch them, challenge them, teach and admonish them. Better days will come, I believe, when we take on these harder challenges.
Grateful for the invitation to converse with you –
Brian McLaren
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This Good Earth
Brian D. McLaren
I grew up going to church, and frankly, as a boy I didn’t like it. I didn’t like getting dressed up as we had to do back in those days. I didn’t like my clip-on tie (remember those?), my stiff white shirt, the shiny black shoes that I couldn’t get dirty. I didn’t like having to sit still or be quiet or not run or listen to long sermons that almost never held my attention for even one squirmy minute. Later, in spite of my distaste for church, I did come to love God, which may be a miracle of sorts considering what young boys are put through in the name of piety.
But I do have one memory of something close to joy from my childhood in church. Two memories, actually, and they are closely related. One was singing the hymn “Fairest Lord Jesus,” and especially the lines, “Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands, robed in the blooming garb of spring. Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer, who makes the woeful heart to sing.” I wasn’t sure what a woeful heart was, although it didn’t sound good, but I was sure about meadows and woodlands because I had, from my earliest childhood, a love for the outdoors and all living things that could be found there.
The other memory is connected to another hymn, “How Great Thou Art”: “When through the woods and forest glades I wander, and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees, when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur, and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze….” Again, woods, forests, birds, mountains, brooks, and breezes spoke a language my boy’s heart understood, and I so remember taking a deep breath to belt out the chorus that followed this verse: Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to Thee: How great thou art, how great thou art!”
Many of us, I think, feel that a forest is the original sanctuary, that wading in a stream is the primal baptism, that climbing a mountain is the best pilgrimage, that picking wild blackberries and drinking from a natural spring are a trans-denominational form of communion, and that listening to the song of a wood thrush or the approach of a thunderstorm is the kind of natural preaching without which no human preaching has any traction.
Years later, when to my surprise I became a pastor, I tried to bring this love of God’s wild places and living creatures more deeply into public worship. Sadly, there were too few resources available. So over the years I began writing some, including the following litany, a spoken word with a simple sung response:
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
In the beginning, you created the heavens and the earth, and you said that all creation was filled with goodness, beginning with the goodness of light. We thank you, Lord, for sun and moon and stars, for sunrises and clear days and bright, moonlit nights. We also thank you, Lord, for the gift of night – for time to rest, to sleep, to dream. And so we sing …
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
We thank you, Lord, for continents in their slow journeys, for mountains that rise and rains that erode them grain by grain to the sea. For prairies and rolling hills, for beaches and deserts, for woodlands and glaciers, for rainforests and tundra, we thank you, for all are filled with goodness. And we thank you, Lord, for springs and streams, for marshes and estuaries, for rivers and bays, for seas and the great oceans. For the precious gifts of soil and water and air, without which we could not live, we thank you, Lord. And so we sing …
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
We thank you for the wonder of life, Lord, for the grandeur hidden in a single living cell, for the marvel of DNA, for the amazing processes of respiration, digestion, reproduction, growth, and adaptation. How amazing are your creatures, Lord – the field mouse that hides in tall grasses, the gray whale that rises in the ocean, the swallows that soar and dive above the surface of a still pond, the tiny red eft that lives so quietly in the forest, the salmon that fight currents to return to the stream of its origin, the gorillas and elephants and giraffes, the butterflies and dragonflies and ants, for beloved dogs and cats and other creatures who become part of our lives. We thank you for these companions, and so we sing …
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
But Lord, we cannot only thank you. We must also confess to you our sin in failing to honor and care for your beautiful and good creation. How many precious and irreplaceable species have gone extinct because of our greedy rush to make money, our ignorant slowness to understand the intricate balance of your works, our prideful and careless desire to act, not as stewards of your world, but as its heartless slavemasters and selfish tyrants. Air, soil, and water show ugly symptoms of our own inner pollution; they suffer because of the greed, arrogance, lust, ignorance, and hate that pollute our hearts and cultures. We are sorry, Creator, for our offenses to your creation, and we wish to stop polluting, defacing, and destroying your world; instead, we wish to care for, protect, love, preserve, and appreciate your beautiful and manifold works, and so we sing …
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
We thank you, God, for speaking to our world through Jesus. He told us that just as you care for every sparrow, you care for us. He reminded us that you give the wildflowers their natural beauty, and you wish to clothe us with beauty in a similar way. He taught us that wisdom is hidden in the growth of the smallest seed, in the turning of seasons, in every corner of your amazing creation. He taught us to see every creature as beloved by you, God our Father, and he called us to live with your love pulsing in our hearts. So let us learn to see and love this good earth as Jesus did, and to care for it, and enjoy it, and rejoice in it, so the earth may indeed be full of the glory of the Lord as the water covers the sea. And so we sing …
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
And we sing again …
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
And we sing again.
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
Amen.
During my twenty-four years as a pastor, I must confess, I grew to love being in church. I loved what happened when people gathered and slowed down together, opening their hearts to who and what matter most. I loved the hush of the eucharist, the mystery of prayer, the celebration of gratitude, the transparency of the confession of sin, the daring hope of the creeds, the momentous possibility of the benediction. Given the choice, I would hate to have to choose between a gathered community of people with sincere faith and a quiet walk “through the woods and forest glades.” In the end, I think each enriches the other. And at best, walking through the “fair meadows” and “fairer still woodlands” is an experience of prayer, just as gathering with the community of faith involves recalling and celebrating the beauty of God’s world. I’m glad we don’t have to choose either, but can joyfully receive both.
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Ten Commandments for Welcoming a New Pastor
I. Thou shalt not compare the old Pastor and the new Pastor, for the Lord thy God has made each person unique and wishes you to appreciate each original creation.
II. Thou shalt not expect everything to stay the same when the new Pastor arrives. Nor shalt thou resist change, nor assume that change is bad, but thou shalt trust that the Lord thy God isn’t finished with your church yet and is bringing change for your good and the good of your mission.
III. Thou shalt not make graven images of thine old grudges, nor shalt thou keep stale disappointments in the temple of thine heart, but thou shalt forgive and move on in the grace of the Lord thy God, for how can thou ask God for mercy unless thou give mercy from thine heart?
IV. Thou shalt not commit gossip, nor shalt thou fearfully complain, nor shalt thou listen to those who do, but instead thou shalt entreat them to adjust their attitudes and lighten up, for everything shall be alright, and in fact, shall turn out very well indeed – better than you can even imagine.
V. Thou shalt not commit nostalgia or say that the old days were better, for in so doing thou shalt make thy judgment come true. Be assured that the Lord thy God is not falling asleep at the wheel, but will be with thee and surprise thee with abundant blessings, more than thou canst contain or count.
VI. Thou shalt not factionalize nor create “us-them” divisions, but thou shalt unify with thy brothers and sisters even when they annoy or confuse you.
VII. Thou shalt not come to the new pastor with your demands, pressure, complaints, bad reports, manipulations, threats, agendas, unsolicited advice, or snide comments. But thou shalt say, “Welcome! How can we help you? We love you! We would like to increase our giving significantly. We’re praying for you and your family. Welcome to our community! We baked you some cookies!” And each week, thou shalt do so again and again until the new pastor begs you to stop.
VIII. Thou shalt increase thy giving, and not withhold thy tithe, but invest thy money and thine heart in the future of thy community of faith and mission.
IX. Thou shalt not come to thine old and former pastor with anything but praise for the new pastor, but thou mayest bring thy concerns to God in humble prayer, and if thou must, thou may also share concerns with the duly appointed leaders of the church.
X. Most important, thou shalt trust God, and stay connected to God, and draw strength from God, staying deeply rooted in the message of God’s grace. For God is good, and God will never leave you nor forsake you. You can count on that for sure!
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Confession of Faith 2
We believe in God the Father
Who created all that is
And gave our ancestors the dignity of freedom,
Which we abused and are abusing still.
God grieves over our evil
And calls us to his better way.
God loves the whole world,
And sent His Son, Jesus, to save, not to condemn.
We believe in Jesus Christ,
Born as God-with-us,
Who taught us in parables, who performed signs and wonders,
Who healed the sick, touched the unclean,
Received failures and welcomed them to his feast.
He trained common people as disciples and sent them into the world with his saving love.
He was betrayed, rejected, mocked, tortured, and crucified.
But he rose from death and is alive and with us always,
And lives in us, the hope of glory,
Indwelling and filling us through the Holy Spirit.
We believe in the Holy Spirit
Who unites us and gives us gifts so we can serve one another in love.
The Spirit transforms us to live in the way of Christ
And empowers us to make Christ known in gracious words and deeds of justice and compassion.
The Spirit bears fruit in us of love, joy, peace, and all sorts of goodness
And is at work in the world, moving like the wind.
The Holy Spirit invites us into the eternal dance of love:
Father, Son, and Spirit, mutually indwelling,
Moving for, with, in, and through creation,
Forever and forever.
Amen.
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