God Meet Us Exactly Where We Are -- A Message for July 26, 2026

 

This morning, we read Harry Crossgrove’s favorite scripture: Ecclesiastes 3. Harry has a beautiful voice and loves to sing, and this scripture is familiar to us because it is part of a song made famous by the Byrds: “Turn! Turn! Turn! – To Everything There is a Season.”  This scripture is probably the most familiar portion of the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes. Although this book has traditionally been attributed to King Solomon, many English translations of the book begin with: “The words of Kohelet, a son of David, king in Jerusalem.” Scholars think Kohelet means “the teacher” and so many commentaries about this book refer to the author as “the teacher.”

Listen now to these familiar words as Harry reads Ecclesiastes Chapter three, verses one through fifteen:

The Scripture Lesson Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What do workers gain from their toil?

10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.

13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.

14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

15 Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.

Amen.

Let us pray….

The Message God Meets Us Exactly Where We Are

When I was in my mid-twenties, I had a few months to  prepare to leave St. Louis before I moved to Pennsylvania and began serving my first church as their pastor. One weekend afternoon, my mother and friend from high school, Jen, came along with me to Burlington Coat Factory to help me purchase clothing for my first professional job. We headed to the part of the story I was familiar with….the Juniors Department. And, I tried on a few things, but nothing looked right. Finally, my mother gently told me I was too old to wear Juniors clothing – the clothing was designed, and cut, for teenagers. I needed to head to the women’s department…..I wasn’t a junior anymore. 

So, that’s what we did….I picked out and tried on…and bought…clothing from the women’s department. And, that is what I wore to my first church when I served them as their pastor.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…including your season to wear Juniors clothing.

Our reading from Ecclesiastes is focused on how everything in life has a proper time – Each season of life has a beginning and an end and each season also has a purpose. As much as we want to have control over our lives, and the season of life we are in, only God has control over time.

The first part of our reading is the familiar poem we know from the song: 14 pairs of opposites. The pairs focus on the full spectrum of human experience – the pleasant, the painful and the ordinary. This scripture was probably written two-thousand four hundred years ago, yet it still describes universal themes and realities in our 21st century lives: we have all been born and we will all die; we will break things and build things; we will be healthy and we will be ill; we will learn and grow and we will forget; we will be sad and we will be joyful; we will have times when we shouldn’t speak and times when we shouldn’t be quiet. Each opposite is true – we will all experience these realities over the course of our lives – there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.

Sometimes, we try to fight the season we are in – we look back at our pasts and want to recreate them in our present. Sometimes, we linger or obsess over what used to be – we want to go backwards instead of forwards in time. We get nostalgic about how the world was during our childhood, or how great a romantic relationship was before a break up, or how wonderful a job was before we left it – even if we didn’t like the job while we were doing it. Sometimes, we spend a lot of energy dwelling on the past or on ‘what could have been.’

Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us that every season of life has an expiration date. And, we shouldn’t mourn or regret the season we have exit-ed. We are just in a different season now…for the time being. Each season has advantages and disadvantages.

God meets us in whichever season we are in. So, there is no point in trying to get over things prematurely or trying to hurry through a season. Sometimes, we see children trying to appear older than they are – a 6 year old who wants to dress like a teenager – a 14 year old who tries to look 21 with extra make-up or revealing clothing ... .they are so young they fail to realize how obvious their attempt to look older seems to adults. God wants us to savor the season we are in….to work to accept, and possibly find joy, in the season we are experiencing. There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.

We don’t know who the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes was – we just know he had a lot of questions about why we are alive and what the purpose of life is – what is the meaning of life. He seemed to think everything was cyclical – each person’s life will cycle through good times and bad times, times of joy and times of suffering until we reach the end of our days. He wrote that only God understands eternity…and God’s plan for us, for humanity is so intricate, so complicated, it is unfathomable for us lowly people. 

Some of the questions the Teacher, the writer of Ecclesiastes, asked were answered by Jesus Christ. In Ecclesiastes it says that each thing happens at its appointed time…In Galatians 4, Paul writes: “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”  Jesus’ arrival on earth came at the time appointed by God. Jesus came to earth to help us understand God’s plan for the world and how God wants us to treat other people.

The Teacher, the writer of Ecclesiastes, suggested that because we can’t control time, or the stage of life we are in, then we should “be happy and do good while we live.” Easier said than done. Jesus didn’t tell us our ultimate goal in life is just to “be happy.” Instead, Jesus gave us more clear guidelines – We are commanded to Love God and Love Other People, including strangers, as much as we love ourselves. We are called to love our enemies. We are called to forgive others and not to judge other people hypocritically. We are called to be humble and to work to reconcile with people with whom we have disagreements. Jesus told us that following him, and living out his teachings, would be difficult….we may face trials and persecution for being Christians…but that God loves and blesses us, and we must endeavor to bless and love others as much as we can.

Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us to be patient. We can’t change the past….we can’t recreate the past in the present. There is an order to life that we cannot control. But, we must endeavor to do all we can to serve God and live out the teachings of Jesus. 

John Westley, one of the founders of Methodism, said;
“Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.” 

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. Let us work to incorporate doing good, loving God, and helping other people into each and every season in our lives. 

May it be so, today and all days. Amen. 

Why We Walk Together -- A Message for July 19, 2026

 

This morning we turn to Deb Clewell’s favorite scripture, the 23rd Psalm. This short chapter of the Bible is probably the most memorized portion of scripture – even people who are not devout know it.

This Psalm is believed to be written by King David – in his childhood and teen years, he was a shepherd. Yet, when he was a king, he penned these words – he declared that God was the true shepherd, the true king, of God’s people.

Please say the words of the 23rd Psalm with me – we all probably have slightly different versions memorized. Just say it the way you know it….

The Scripture Lesson Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 

Amen.

Let us pray….

The Message Why We Walk Together

We are living through a weird time in American history, in world history. We are more connected to each other than ever before, and we simultaneously are more lonely than ever before. I can pick up the phone and talk to my friend in Switzerland at any point of the day or night, or even drive to the airport and hop on a plane and fly around the world to visit her, but I can go for weeks at a time without talking to my next door neighbors. Many of us are isolated and lonely.

In former times, people lived surrounded by family members. People lived in inter-generational households…children shared rooms with each other…aunts and uncles and cousins lived nearby. Whole extended families lived in the same neighborhoods or small towns – we all went to the same schools and churches. And, even if you weren’t actually related to your neighbors, people became almost like family with them. When you are sharing a bathroom with 12 people, it is hard to feel lonely…being lonely was uncommon.

But, now, things are different. Many people work from home. We have our own yards, our own cars, and locked doors to conceal our private struggles from other people. Everything looks good from the outside, but sometimes what is going on inside is a mess – a lonely mess.

Everyone in this room, and watching online, is either coming out of a dark valley, currently going through one, or will eventually enter one. Let me repeat that: Everyone in this room, and watching online, is either coming out of a dark valley, currently going through one, or will eventually enter one. Sometimes the dark valleys surprise us and are totally unexpected.…They often require a lot of endurance and patience. Part of being alive, of being human, is that we will face dark valleys…they are unfortunately universal.

(Pause)

Many of us have the King James Version of the 23rd Psalm memorized – that only fashioned thee, thou, thy languages, so we may not notice this…but, The first three verses of the 23rd Psalm are different from the final 5 verses ... .the grammar changes. In verses one through three, the writer of the Psalm, King David, talks about God as a “he.” David is describing how God works – describing him from a distance, in a more remote way. But, in verse 4, when the Psalmist enters a dark valley, he shifts to talking about God as “you.” In the dark times David stopped talking about God abstractly and shifted to God as a real presence in the Psalmist’s life – a You. God isn’t distant and far away, but is someone who we can speak to directly….have a real relationship with….know personally. God is someone who is right there in the dark valley with us.

When sheep walk through ravines and dark valleys, they don’t walk through them alone. They walk as a flock. They survive because they are part of a herd of sheep. The shepherds’ rod and staff are used to help the sheep – they are tools to keep them connected to the group and to pull them out of thickets away from harm. 

Like sheep, we need each other just like we need the good shepherd. Our church is not this building. Our church does not have a legitimate address. Our church is not this physical location. Instead, the people sitting in these pews are the church. The people who are tuning in from home are the church. Our church, Trinity Christian UCC, is the people who chose to be part of this community – we covenant with one another and our God to share the burdens of each other’s valleys. 

We are called to be the arms of our Good Shepherd for one another. When we shake each other’s hands, or give each other a hug, or even a fist-bump, we are the hands and arms of our Good Shepherd on earth. We figuratively pull each other out of the brambles – we figuratively prod each other along so that we stay part of the group. We help each other as we journey through the dark valleys and we face those valleys with each other. 

Sometimes, we are afraid to tell other people what is going on with us. We don’t want to be downers or we want to keep our personal dark valleys secret. But, we are here for each other.  We are called to pray for each other. We are here to drive each other to appointments or bring a hot dish over when our fellow brother or sister in Christ is too sad to cook…or too tired to cook. We are here to offer suggestions on job searches or offer support when our children are far away. We are committed to being here for each other when we wade through the darkest valleys…or crawl through the darkest valleys.

As people of faith, we can take comfort in our relationship with God. God is a YOU for us – when we pray, we can talk directly to God – we don’t need anyone to be an intermediary, to intercede for us. And, it is also a comfort and a privilege that we are here to support each other, to help each other on our journeys of faith and our life journeys. God is our comfort all of the days of our life and as we transition from this life to life-eternal. In addition to our loving God, we are also called to be comforters, and supporters, and cheerleaders for each other as we live out our faith in Jesus, and care for one another….we are called to care for the other sheep in our flock.

Praise God that we get to be God’s sheep. Thanks be to our Loving Good Shepherd, and thanks be to the brothers and sisters we have in Christ. Amen. 

The Peril of "Doing What is Right in Our Own Eyes" -- A Message for July 12, 2026

 

It is difficult being a minister’s child – a “Pastor’s Kid.” Pastors kids are depicted on tv and in movies as either being goody-two-shoes or rebels. Pastor’s kids are often pressured to set a good-example to other children in their parent’s churches…the whole family may feel like people are paying attention to them as being different than everyone else – maybe put on a pedestal, but sometimes people are scrutinizing them for signs of imperfections.

So, the pastor's kids grow up like fish in a fishbowl. Sometimes, in response, the pastor’s kids figure out strategies to give their parents a hard-time, a comically hard time.

This morning, we focus on the scriptural passage Lucia selected as her favorite. She selected a passage from the book of Judges about a particular judge – Shamgar. Shamgar’s story consists of two lines in the Bible….listen to Judges 3: 31 and what it says about Shamgar – 

31 After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel.

I suspect Lucia first and foremost chose this scripture to tease me – to give me a hard time. 

Perhaps, Lucia wanted me to spend my sermon trying to talk about an ox-goad….which is a tool used by farmers to guide and prod oxen. It is between 8 and 10 feet long – on one end there is a pointy, metal spike for poking oxen. The other end has a flatted chisel that is used to clear mud, roots and clods of earth off of a plaw so that it doesn’t get weighed down while it is being pulled by the oxen.

So, Shamgar became a judge in Israel after he killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad. What a brutal and bloody way to vanquish an enemy army. 

Lucia knew I wouldn’t have much to say about Shamgar and his oxgoad.

But, this little scripture passage allows us to dip a toe in the water of the book of Judges.  What was going on in this little scripture passage, and what was going on during the time of the Judges in Israel?

Now, please turn to Judges, chapter 2. We will read verses 10 through 23. Listen now to the word of God. 

The Scripture Lesson Judges 2:10-23 & Judges 3:31

After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. 

Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 

They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger 

because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 

In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 

Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.

Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. 

Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands. 

Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 

But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways. 

Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated the covenant I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me, 

I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 

I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did.” 

 The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua. 

Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the People of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray…

The Message The Peril of “Doing What is Right in Our Own Eyes”

The book of Judges describes a difficult time in the lives of the people of Israel. A few generations earlier we find the people who followed Moses out of Egypt. They lived in the wilderness for 40 years – things were difficult, but they had the goal of soon entering and taking over the Promised land. They were first led by Moses – a capable and talented leader who was directly guided by God. God helped the people, fed them with manna from heaven, led their journey by day with a pillar of cloud and by night with a pillar of fire. God was intimately involved in protecting them and providing for them.

And, then the people came to the Promised Land – they reached their goal. Joshua led them into the land promised by God. But, the land wasn’t empty of people….different groups dwelled there. And, many of those groups were actually related to the people who traveled there from Egypt – they were descendants of Abrahan’s nephew Lot….they were descendants of Abraham’s son Ishmael….they were descendants of 

Esau, Jacob’s twin brother.  So, the people in the Holy Land were distant relatives of the people who left Egypt to settle the Holy Land.

The writers of the Bible wrote that God wanted the people who left Egypt to kill all the people who were occupying the Holy Land, and take over their farms and villages and cities. But, the people who left Egypt, the descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel, had trouble doing this….they didn’t want to kill them all….these people were their cousins…and maybe they didn’t have the military strength or the ability to kill them all anyway.

So, they settled alongside the people who were already in Israel. Their kids played with the neighbor’s kids. Their sons married their daughters. They shared common hearths to bake their bread. They washed dirty clothing together in the streams that dotted the land. Soon, the Hebrew people, the descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel, started worshipping their neighbor's gods and goddesses too….what is good for my neighbor is good for me too, right?

Well, God didn’t like this. The people of Israel, the people God cared about and provided for and taught and made covenants with, were not supposed to worship false Gods….and they weren’t supposed to get married to people who worshipped false gods…and they were supposed to be loyal to our God….to remember God’s words:

 
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.“You shall have no other gods before me.”

But, the people were disobeying and worshipping other gods. And, were not following God’s laws.

God observed the people were not holding up their end of the bargain – their end of the Covenant. So, since the people weren’t being loyal to God, God wasn’t loyal to them – or so thought the writers of the Bible. So, God didn’t help the people when they were attacked by neighboring tribes and armies. God allowed them to suffer.

But, God still loved the people. And, God felt bad when they struggled. So, God would raise up “Judges” who helped the people – some of them were prophets who talked to God – others were mighty warriors who protected the people militarily. The Judge in Lucia’s passage, Shamgar, was a common farmer who used the tools of his trade, an oxgoad, to defeat an enemy. He was an unlikely warrior but God used him to help the people and protect them from their enemies.

Throughout the book of Judges, when the people were led by a helpful Judge, the people fell into line. They stopped worshiping idols and started worshipping God. They followed God’s commandments. They were faithful.

But, whenever the Judge who helped them died, the cycle started over again…..they started worshiping false gods, they were attacked by enemies, God raised up a judge, they fought off their enemies, the people fell into line, and then the Judge died and chaos resumed.

This chaos continued until God finally listened to the pleas of God’s people and gave them a king – we can read about how that went down in the books of Samuel.

The book of Judges concludes with this line: “ In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” 

As we read through the book of Judges, and as we read about human history when there has been a power vacuum, it is never good when everyone does whatever they want. Society slides into chaos very quickly – might becomes right – weaker people suffer – many people end up without the basic necessities they need for life.

The antidote to this chaos is Jesus. Jesus’s message to us was radically different than everything that came before Jesus. 

Jesus cut though all of the divisions that previously separated people. “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” We are all one in Jesus Christ. All people have intrinsic value….all people are equal in the eyes of God and in our own eyes. We are mandated by Jesus to care for the least of these: the hungry, the thirsty, strangers, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned. We are commanded to love our neighbor as we love overself. 

And, we are to follow the greatest commandment, to: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

Jesus’ antidote to chaos is love. As people of faith, we are called to take action to help other people – especially people who are weaker than we are, who don’t have the same amount of power or privilege we have. Our command as Christians, our duty as Christians, our opportunity as Christians is to work to care for each other and to care for the people in the world who are struggling. So, we can’t just do what we want. We can’t only do things that bring us pleasure, or make us happy, because we are commanded and challenged to take action to improve the lives of other people – do make them happy….to free them from their burdens.

The book of Judges is a guidebook to teach us about how people can get things wrong – As followers of Jesus, it is our opportunity to work on behalf of each other and get things right – to make a positive difference in the lives of other people.

Let us do so with love in our hearts today and all days. Amen. 

Holy Curiosity in the Shadows -- A Message for July 5, 2026

 

This summer, our worship services are focused on our members and friends' favorite scripture passages. Today, we focus on the favorite scripture of the oldest member of our congregation: John Becker Senior. It is not every congregation that can boast we have a 101 year old member – and a World War II veteran at that. Since this is the weekend we celebrate our Declaration of Independence, it is a wonderful privilege to focus on the favorite scripture of a man who made sure other citizens of the world would be free from tyranny and oppression and evi – that they too would have access to independence.

Mr. Becker selected John 3:16 for his favorite scripture – 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jesus made this statement, this declaration, in the middle of his nighttime conversation with Nicodemus the Pharisee.

This morning, we will read the entire passage about their visit with each other, as we turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 3, and read verses one through twenty-one….listen now to the word of God. 

The Scripture Lesson John 3:1-21 

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 

He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 

Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 

You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 

Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our 

testimony. 

I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 

No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,

that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 

Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray…

The Message Holy Curiosity in the Shadows

Nicodemus was an important man in Jerusalem… He was a devout Pharisee…. He was a member of the Jewish Ruling Council – The Sanhedrin – which made him both a religious leader and a politician. Years after the conversation we read today, Nicodemus defended Jesus when he was at risk for arrest by telling the other members of the Sanhedrin that they couldn’t convict Jesus of a crime unless they gave him a fair trial. And, when Jesus’ life was over after he was crucified by the Romans, Nicodemus brought a one-hundred pound mixture of aloe and myrrh to the tomb and prepared Jesus’ body – this was a very expensive mixture and Jesus’s body was prepared for burial like a king, not like a Galilean peasant. Nicodemus must have been a man of means in order to provide such a luxurious balm to anoint the deceased body of Jesus. So, Nicodemus was faithful, he was a religious leader, he was a politician, and he was wealthy…

After Jesus’ baptism, he started doing things that attracted attention – he turned water into wine…he cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem of money changers…he preached profound sermons..he performed miraculous healings….he got noticed. Nicodemus heard about Jesus. And, he may have seen Jesus in action – but the scriptures describe Jesus as always attracting a crowd…whereever he went, he not only had his disciples with him, but he also had others seeking him out and observing his every move. Jesus was never alone. 

Nicodemus wanted to talk to Jesus one-on-one.  He didn’t want a crowd of people to listen to their conversation. He wanted Jesus’ undivided attention. So, Nicodemus visited Jesus in the middle of the night.

Nicodemus wanted to find out what Jesus was all about…who was he and what was his mission?

We were not in the room with Jesus and Nicodemus, so we are missing many details – how long did they talk? Were they standing up or sitting down? Were they eating and drinking? Was Jesus wearing his outer robe or just his night shirt? How formal were they? There are so many things we don’t know about their conversation.

But, we do know the highlights – Jesus told Nicodemus that no one can achieve spiritual truths without being born again. This was a new term for Nicodemus…and a new idea for him. He initially thought Jesus meant that people needed to literally shrink down into the form of a baby and be reborn out of their mothers – an impossibility. But, Jesus didn’t mean a literal birth – he meant a spiritual rebirth….being born of the waters of baptism and the Holy Spirit. 

Whenever we baptise someone at Trinity, whether they are two years old or 92 years old, we invite the Holy Spirit and the baptismal waters to be present with them so that they are born again. When we confirm our young people, like we confirmed Crystal a few weeks ago, we invoked her baptism and invited the Holy Spirit to once again help her be born again. And, when people join our church, we do the same – we remember their baptisms and invoke the Holy Spirit, asking them to be born again as they become a part of our church. Today, when we celebrate communion, we will invite the Holy Spirit to bless the bread and the cup, and bless all of us in our eating and drinking at the communion table – in a way, every time we receive the bread and wine of communion, we are born again because we are filled with the Holy Spirit as we take in the body and blood of Jesus.

When we are born again, we ask the Holy Spirit to give birth to our spiritual life. We stop being religious spectators and start being religious practitioners. We become followers of the Way of Jesus ourselves. We start living out the teachings of Jesus as part of how we live our lives.

Nicodemus probably wondered if Jesus was the Messiah. The signs Jesus accomplished certainly pointed to him being the Messiah, but he wasn’t sure. Although Jesus was sometimes poetic in his language, and asked as many questions as he answered, he was the Messiah….sent by God to save humanity.

The second topic that Nicodmus and Jesus covered was Jesus’ authority. Nicodemus wanted to know how Jesus could make these statements…how did he know what he knew? Jesus then told Nicodemus that he is the Messiah – he was God born as a man. And, Jesus was going to die on a cross, and whoever believed in him would receive eternal life.

The late-night conversation concluded with the most famous verse in the Bible, Mr. Becker’s favorite: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. God loves the people of our world so much that God shared himself with us in the form of Jesus….God wanted to teach us directly. And, God didn’t shy away from pain – God knew Jesus would die a gruesome death. God sent himself as Jesus so that the world would be saved through him. Jesus’s words taught us about God and how God wants us to treat each other: with kindness, generosity and love. God wanted everyone to know about God’s love for us and achieve salvation – not just Jewish people, not just well-behaved people, not just pious people, not just do-gooders, but everyone. 

Jesus came to the earth to save us…all of us. He didn’t come to judge us – decide who was in and who was out. He didn’t come to cordon off the good people and separate them from the flawed people. He didn’t come and say only the Jewish people are saved or only the white people are saved or the rich people are saved or the people who eat beef are saved. Jesus came to the earth to save us all and to encourage everyone to believe in and follow the guidance of God. 

Jesus came to earth to heal and save people, not for condemnation. But, we sometimes forget this. People are guilty of picking sides, and thinking some people are winners and some people are losers. We like to imagine that we are the good guys and others are the bad guys. We sometimes follow false prophets and false ideologies. We sometimes think we belong to a superior group of people and everyone else is wrong. 

Jesus came to earth to break us of these tendencies. Jesus came to the earth to save all people – all of us. The good guys and the bad guys. The Jewish people and the Gentile people. The people of the Middle East and the Mediterranean and Europe and Africa and Asia and Australia and the Americas.  Jesus came to save straight people and gay people….women and men and trans people alike. People with resources and people who are struggling. People who are old and people who are young and everyone in-between. Jesus came to earth that the whole world will be saved through him.

This weekend, this summer, we are celebrating the two-hundred and fifth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. We live in a nation founded on principles of justice and equality and fraternity for all people. And, we are also believers in a faith that is thousands of years old - although we are proud of the achievements we are part of as Americans, we should even be more proud of achievements we have made as part of the Christian family. God sent Jesus to save the world and to call upon us to take care of each other – the people who believe and the people who don’t believe yet. The people of our communities and strangers who are joining us here. The people who are struggling and seeking healing and wholeness and the people who are doing ok. God sent Jesus to save the world – it is our work to help Jesus however we can – help Jesus to heal and restore the world and make it the creation God intended it to be from the very beginning of time.

May we do so with our whole hearts and very beings – today and all days. Amen.