08-10-2025 Rev Steven Marsh – Beginnings and Arrivals
“The Unconditional Love of Our God Beckons Us To Serve Part 2 – (Together, in a Variety of Ways)
“Beginnings and Arrivals” – Isaiah 1:1, 10-20, Psalm 50: 1-8, 22-23, Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16, Luke 12:32-40
God’s story has embraced you and writes meaning making significance into your existence. And you in turn are a meaning maker to and with others. Trevor Hart in Making Good makes this connection that our partnership with God for making good is both eucharistic and eschatological. That is, our co-creating meaning with God is about the Table and the fulfillment of God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, because it is rooted in “…the vicarious self-substitution of Christ for us, and opened out by the work of the Spirit of Christ in and through you in the direction of that New Creation promised by the Father.”[1]
Beginnings and arrivals. We all were born. We all will die. We have experienced loved ones dying. From July 18th through the 31st, I was with my Dad during his final days of life. My Dad was born December 19, 1932. At birth he began a journey of many beginnings and arrivals over his 92 years. He was unresponsive when I was with him, but I read scripture, talk about his life journey, and prayed with him. On July 31, 2025, my Dad passed away. He experienced a final arrival with the one who loves him the most and knows him the best. A new beginning occurred. And eternal life continues the journey of beginnings and arrivals.
Scott Sabin, the Executive Director of Plant With Purpose, addressing Trevor Hart’s point of humans partnering with God in the creative work of “making good,” relates the story of an Episcopal priest who partnered with his organization to love and work with the people in the mountains of Haiti. Sabin writes,
As we sat in the dark, he [the Episcopal priest] told us how happy he was that God had given him a task. “God gives each of us something to do for him. It’s as if he gathered us together and said to each of us, ‘I have a very important job for you.’ It makes me happy that God has something for me to do. I feel excited!” But after a pause he said, “Can you imagine how it would feel if he [God] said to you ‘I have nothing for you to do?’ So many of the people in these mountains think they have nothing to give.”[2]
Ponder the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus did not say, “I have nothing for you to do.” He did say, “I have a very important job for you.”
The texts in Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 and Luke 12:32-40 affirm this fact: faithfulness matters; God’s and ours. The prophet Isaiah confirms that despite our unfaithfulness, God remains faithful. The significance of declarations of faith, play a significant part in the liturgy of Judaism in worship. From Luke, the parable on the master returning to his house after a wedding banquet expecting his servants to be waiting to open the door and welcome him back. does not give us detailed instructions on what to do. However, we are rallied to be ready to love and act as Jesus did. From both Isaiah and Luke we learn to experience fidelity in our relationships, workplaces, choices, and church.[3]
God’s unconditional love beckons you to allow God to serve you and you in turn to serve others. John Stott, citing the Lausanne Covenant in Christian Mission in the Modern World, writes,
We affirm that God is both Creator and the Judge of all men [people]. We therefore should share his [God’s] concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society and for the liberation of men [all people] from every kind of oppression. Because humankind is made in the image of God, every person, regardless of race, religion, color, culture, class, sex or age, has an intrinsic dignity because of which he [they] should be respected and served, not exploited….Although reconciliation with man [people] is not reconciliation with God, nor is social action evangelism, nor is political liberation salvation, nevertheless we affirm that evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part of our Christian duty….the salvation we claim should be transforming us in the totality of our personal and social responsibilities.[4]
Be embraced by and embrace God’s unconditional love. Jesus will live his life through you.
Serving in God’s mission of inclusive well-being of all in covenantal community is a journey of beginnings and arrivals. No matter how young or old, once we say yes to Jesus, the journey with God takes on a new dimension. God has something for each of us to do.
Rest in God’s love. Experience fidelity. Commit yourself to the rule of Christ. Enjoy the beginnings and arrivals on the journey. The Table speaks. Amen.
This sermon was preached on Sunday, 10 August 2025
by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh at Grace Presbyterian Church
in the Great Room and Sanctuary in Wichita, Kansas
Copyright 2025
All Rights Reserved
Steven M. Marsh
[1]Trevor Hart, Making Good (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2014), chapter 14, page 417 in the Nook edition.
[2]Scott Sabin in The Sower (Summer 2016), 4.
[3]In this paragraph, I am indebted to Ronald J. Allen, Emrys Tyler, R. Alan Culpepper, and Stephen Farris in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery and Cynthia L. Rigby, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 3 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 216-219, 219-221, 229-231, 231-232.
[4]John Stott and Christopher J. H. Wright, Christian Mission in the Modern World (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2015), 155.
