First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo

If you want to experience the glory of God, look to what Deacons do.

Jesus seeks us out and brings us to the table, saying, “I am among you as one who serves.”

God joins us in the circle of lament -- as we listen to the lament of the world, share our own, and move forward together into a world of healing.

In Christ, our work is to work for the freedom of all, so that individually and together we can become all we are created to be and do in the world.

Jesus invites all of us to a table of mutuality and justice, where the privileged give up our place at the table as we celebrate those who are finding theirs.

In Sabbath, Jesus embodies the rule of freedom – God’s liberating power at work healing the world.

God grieves the destruction we wreak on this Earth, but even in collapse, draws us into deeper connection and creative work.

On the night before he dies, Jesus embodies and suggests an answer to the question, “What does a good day look like for you?” – inviting us to live into what really matters.

Jesus invites us into a rhythm of a life centered and grounded in love – acting with compassion to meet the needs of the world, and resting in the presence of the God who welcomes us all.

What is the center of our faith?  Like Hannah, let us ground our faith in the love of a steadfast and trustworthy God.

God sends us a word of healing, not in our power and privilege, but in our shared vulnerability. 

Jesus sets at the center of our journey all that we need, and invites us to travel light.

In a world of power-over, the Good News lies in the agency and freedom that God gives us to live –  by the power of the Spirit – lives that work for freedom, for the common good, and for the well-being of all people. God gives us agency and freedom to work for the common good, within the context of the constitutional structures of nations.  

In freedom, the Spirit of Christ empowers us to live out lives of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.

In the power of the Risen Christ, Resurrection liberates bodies and lives. Resurrection breaks everything free, and then invites us to take the next step into this new life of liberation.

Like, Paul and Lydia and Ananias and Tabitha and the women at the river outside the city gates, and the widows in Joppa, we welcome each other in to the life of Resurrection.  In Christ, we experience Resurrection in depth of belonging – in hospitality and tender mercy – embodied in community – embodied in us.

In our baptism, we are baptized into community – into a family of all God’s children. In Christ, we are baptized into life with each other.  

In this Sunday's sermon, we venture into the world of Revelation. Enlivened and empowered by Resurrection, we experience the Risen Christ in fierce resistance and in tender mercy.

In breakfast on the shore with the Risen Christ, the disciples experience Resurrection in their bodies. They experience not only Jesus’ Resurrection, but their own.  (This homily followed an enactment of the Scripture, from the play "Fish Eyes.")

In worship, we heard the case for Thomas, who history has wrongly judged for doubting. To Thomas’s questions, the Risen Christ responds with the gracious offer of himself and of life. The case for Thomas is the case for us. 

In Resurrection, Jesus draws us into expansive life, and gives us a future we can live from.

If the stones shout out, what will they shout?  Will they shout praise, and protest, and lament? In the fullness of Holy Week, what we experience is Christ filled to the fullness of our humanity, as we are filled to the fullness of Christ’s.

As Mary anoints his feet, Jesus helps us become aware of what really matters in the present moment.