First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo

As part of a sermon series about common questions concerning the Christian faith, this sermon takes a look at the way Christians have interpreted Scripture to assume some people are insiders with God while others are outsiders. Jesus practiced the neighborliness he preached, and shows us God loves the whole world, not just part of it; not just some people.

Lessons: John 1:1-14; Genesis 1:1-3. Today we welcome guest preacher Yolanda Norton, Assistant Professor of Old Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary. Ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Rev. Norton is completing her doctorate in the Graduate Department of Religion at Vanderbilt University.

We understand the Holy Spirit to be the way God inspires, fuels, encourages and challenges us, but where IS the Holy Spirit? In the third of our fall sermon series, "We All Have Questions," we explore the ways the Spirit works in, around, through and with us.

Lessons: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-26; Philippians 4:4-7. Given that praying "for something" raises so many philosophical, theological and logical questions, what is the purpose of prayer?

Lessons: Isaiah 55:8-13, 1 Corinthians 13:9-13: To kick off our fall sermon series on, "We All Have Questions," the two pastors of First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo share a dialogue about their own big faith questions.

Lesson: Luke 21:25-36. "Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord. Stand up; raise your heads. May it be so for you, and for me. Amen."

Lessons: Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Mark 12:28-34. "We are all God’s beloved children. God created us to need each other. God created us to love our neighbors, as ourselves."

Lesson: Revelation 21:1-6. "All are one in Thee, for all are Thine.” Thanks be to God for all the saints, past, present and future. Amen."

Lesson: Mark 10:46-52. "We have a Lord who is always ready to hear and heal, but who leaves us free to name our longing."

Lesson: Mark 10:35-45. "But God is calling you to some need, some need of which you may or may not be aware this morning. Look for it, find it, answer that call. Your life will be richer, more meaningful, more joy-filled. And a small corner of the world will be healed."

Lesson: Job 23. "Thanks be to God for communities to help us walk through dark valleys and painful silence; who help us cry out, who pray kumbaya with us, and who fill the loving gap when God is silent."

Lesson: Proverbs 31:10-31. "This morning’s passage in Proverbs hints that even when people’s expectations of marriage were entirely different from ours today, there was still this problem of unrealistic expectations."

Lessons: Song of Songs 2:8-13; 8:6-7. "Why is the Song of Songs in the Bible? Maybe it ended up here by mistake – by human mistake, anyway. But I am convinced that it is here because God knows we need it. We need it to remind us of the amazing gift of sexuality, and to remind us to treasure that gift, to use it faithfully, to use it to show and increase God’s love."

Lessons: 1 Kings 8:(1, 6, 10-11) 22-30, 41-43. "Solomon got one thing right: No sanctuary can contain God. And yet, we celebrate that God is here. Here in you, and here in me. Here, where we are called to gather, and here, where we are sent out to be signs of God’s mysterious and loving presence.

Lesson: 2 Samuel 18:5-15, 24-33.

Lesson: 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a. "Let us speak truths and listen to truths, for God’s grace extends to all. God rejoices when we repent. God desires us to be in relationship with Her and with each other. May we be so brave as to listen and to respond…together."

Lesson: 2 Samuel 11:1-15. "Practicing gratitude is an antidote to the arrogance that encourages power to corrupt. And power doesn’t corrupt everybody."

Lesson: 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19. "And I believe with all my heart that what God also wants for us is singing, laughing, and dancing. God gave us these gifts to connect, and to enjoy."

Lessons: 1 Samuel 18:1-9; 2 Samuel 1:17-27 . "We will give ourselves to the work of love that God commands in the world, and we will - with God's help - in our own embodied lives - prove - once and for all - and forever - our almost instinct, absolutely true: what WILL survive of us is love."

Lessons: 1 Samuel 17:1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49. "Eventually, we shall overcome because it is God who will prevail. With David, we say to this giant, “You come to us with hatred and discrimination and violence; but we come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts.”

Lessons: 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13. "As the Lord said to Samuel: “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

Lessons: 1 Samuel 8:4-20. "...God’s promises don’t cease when we make bad choices. God gives us the freedom to make choices, and that freedom comes with living with the consequences. But whatever we choose, God does not abandon us."

Lesson: Romans 8:(12-13)14-18. "Struggle and glory…we live it together as children of God."

Lessons: Acts 2:1-21. "And so here is the most important question of all: What, if anything, is getting in the way of our hearing the Spirit roar through this place, empowering us to catch the vision, and dream the dream?"