First Presbyterian Church Of San Anselmo

We praise to name and acknowledge God’s goodness in the world, more powerful than anything that does us harm. “We praise God in order to see the world as God does,” and then to say “Yes!” to helping God make it so.

God searches us, knows us, and loves us still.  God creates us, challenges us, recreates us – always in love. Psalm 139 comforts us and unsettles us, and asks: Do we really want to be known? 

The Psalms speak to our public life, singing the world God wants. God insists that public power be used for the well-being of the poor, the vulnerable, and the marginalized.

In the Psalms, we sing our life to God, and God sings our life with us – every distress on the way to deliverance, every lament into the wide expanse of liberation, every lonesome groan into singing together the songs we know by heart.

In psalms of liberation, we remember, hope, and move forward into God’s ongoing, liberating work in the world. As we join that work, what do those psalms require of us? What does Juneteenth require of us?

Pentecost opens up a world of infinite possibility – a world whose possibilities are limited only by the bounds of God’s love and power and imagination. With the gift of the Spirit, this becomes clear: What God has been doing in Christ – God is now doing in us.

In the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has set all creation free; we are God’s own offspring. Christ’s resurrection life is present in every bit of creation, which means that every bit of creation gets to be free.

Facing violence and death, Stephen fixes his gaze on the life we find in the Risen Christ – healing, justice, and mercy stronger than any power that can do us harm.

In Resurrection, Jesus shares life with us, and invites us to share everything in life-giving community.  Acts 2 gives us a glimpse -- a memory of who we hope to be, in Christ – a community where love takes shape, where we live together and learn together and break bread together, where we share what we have so that everyone can thrive.

On the Road to Emmaus, in the walking, talking, and breaking of bread – they experience the Risen Christ and the power of Resurrection – in the fullness of life – in every step – in every word – in every taste, sight, sound, smell, and touch.

Will we have the courage to embrace doubt and the faith to believe in the one who can overcome it?

In Resurrection, Jesus opens up a brand new day where everything that lies ahead is life.  The beginning, the middle, and the end – it’s all right here in this moment – full of grace and truth – alive in us. 

On Palm Sunday, Jesus sets his face like flint, knowing where he is heading, and leads us toward the cross and on into Resurrection.

In the valley of dry bones, Ezekiel embodies a word of life. In all our places of desolation, God breathes breath into our dry bones and brings us into new life.

The story of Jesus and the man born blind challenges us to question the assumptions underlying some of our questions -- and invites us to ask, "How can we heal?" and "How can we help?"

In all our parched places, Jesus gives us living water and invites us to live in relationships of mutuality.

With God, we go, into this world of new beginnings, together, to be a blessing and to welcome each other into beginning again.

This Sunday, we consider the story of Jesus tempted in the wilderness. In a world full of voices that compete for our attention, the one that matters most is the one that says: “You are a beloved child of God.”

In the experience of awe, God draws us out of ourselves, connects us to something so much bigger than us, and urges us into lives of strength, courage, and kindness.