First Presbyterian Church Of San Anselmo

Matthew 5:43-48: This sermon explores the nearly impossible request Jesus made in the Sermon on the Mount: "Love your enemies." The Rev. Scott Clark asks, "Who does that?" The answer is that Jesus does. And while we may never be able to "be perfect" in meeting this challenge, we can move toward it. Clark offers three notions about "the least we can do" in order to move in this direction.

Mark 5:1-20: Jesus' encounter with the Gerosene man afflicted by demons reminds us that God's relentless love and healing addresses us even as we suffer.

Psalm 139: Even though people commonly think it's their task to "find God," Psalm 139 describes a God who never gives up on finding us, being present with us, and loving us.

Leviticus 19:13-18; Mark 12:28-34: In the second sermon in our summer sermon series, "The Summer of Love," we explore what Jesus meant by "love" when he said that the second great commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Genesis 32:22-32: This summer, we’re exploring Scripture’s prime directive and giving a nod to the 50th anniversary of that summer in Haight-Ashbury that changed American culture with a summer sermon series, “The Summer of Love.” Today, our guest preacher, the Rev. Yolanda Norton, introduced the series with "Tough Love." Jacob gave up his privilege in order to wrestle with God, and he has the scars to prove it. Likewise, when we are to wrestle with love, which is tough, messy, complicated, but our calling through Christ.

Genesis 1:1-2:4: The key teaching of the first creation story in Genesis is not how or when God created the earth, but that it was God who created it, and that creation belongs to God. The verses which imply that humanity should have "dominion" over creation or "subdue" creation do not mean we are to disrespect or exploit creation, but rather, were written in an ancient context that understood that the wilderness could be hostile to survival. The ancients would have found our pattern of exploiting creation to be blasphemous.

Acts 1:6-14: The ascension tells us Jesus' ministry is no longer limited in time, space and history. The disciples have a chance to absorb this during the pause or interlude between his ascension and Pentecost, when the promised Holy Spirit arrives. This God-given pause helps to prepare them for what is to come. Likewise, our pauses - breaks, vacations, holidays - are God-given pauses to prepare us for what is to come.

Lesson: Acts 17:22-31. The new evangelism seeks not to convert people to our way, but to invite people into a conversation and into collaboration with God and neighbors in the great work of healing the earth, of building the beloved community, and of seeking first the kingdom of God and God's justice for all.

Lesson: Matthew 5:14-16. As we launch our 2017 Capital campaign, we look at the ways we can expand our welcome and minister to more people if we improve and maintain the buildings with which we are blessed.

Acts 2:42-47. This sermon looks at the ways fellowship and breaking bread together helped build the early Christian community and helped people to grow in faith, day by day. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper symbolizes this radical welcome and koinonia shared by the early church and by the church today.

On the Sunday after Easter, we celebrate Holy Humor Sunday, the traditional "Easter laugh." Our worship takes the format of a radio show, "A San Anselmo Home Companion." (Our thanks to Garrison Keillor.) The proclamation of the Word (or sermon) is "The News from San Anselmo," a work of fiction.

Passages: Colossians 3:1-4 (from The Message); Matthew 28:1-10 Many people wonder whether the resurrection really happened. The question is not, "Did it happen?" but "Is it still happening?" The promise of the resurrection is not simply what God has done, but what God is still doing. Easter is not over; it is ongoing.

Matthew 21:1-17: Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem was a demonstration of the Kingdom of God as an alternative to the Empire of Rome: peace, not war; love, not violence; joy, not coercion.

Ezekiel 37:1-4: God's Spirit is still at work in us and in the Church, giving us hope in the struggle to do hard things. That is where hope is born.

The 23rd Psalm and John's first letter help us to understand how God's companionship transform everything, helping us to affirm, along with the psalmist, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil."

This sermon explores how it's easier to get the people out of slavery than to get slavery out of the people. During the Exodus journey, the people forgot that God is the One who delivered them from slavery, who values freedom.

In a dialogue sermon on Esther 4:10-17, pastor Joanne Whitt and church member Peter Anderson explore Peter Anderson's experiences as a water protector with the Standing Rock Sioux at Cannon Ball, North Dakota, during the winter of late 2016.

This sermon introduces the season of Lent with Jesus' 40-day journey into the wilderness, where he was tempted, like Adam and Eve, to fill a God-shaped hole with something other other than God, apart from God and apart from his love of God and God's people.

In this final sermon on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel, we explore whether it is possible to love our enemies, as Jesus admonishes us to do. What might it look like to love our enemies in 2017?

This sermon looks at why Jesus intensifies the laws in the Sermon on the Mount. The law is not to be followed for the law's sake, but for our sake. The law was given to help us to live in relationship, to love our neighbors as ourselves.