02-23-2024 Rev Steven Marsh – Loving On Fumes

“Learning From and With Our God of Unconditional Love (Together, in a Variety of Ways)”

“Loving on Fumes?” – 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50, Genesis 45:3-11, Luke 6:27-38

 

It is true that we drink from our own wells. Yes, what you fill your life with becomes nourishment. So, if I read the Bible, pray, engage in life-long learning, attend worship, participate in a small group, give from my life’s wallet, and serve others, I am filling my life with things that display God’s unconditional love. Thus, when I need a drink of God to sustain me, which I always do, the well is nearly full. What’s in your well?

Hassan John, a Christian pastor from Jos, Nigeria, is regarded as an “infidel” by Muslim extremist Boko Haram insurgents and has a price on his head of 150,000 Naira (about 800 American dollars). He goes to his church each day not knowing whether someone will murder him in order to claim the price on his head. As an Anglican pastor and as a part-time journalist for CNN, the 52-year-old Hassan has often been surrounded by violence and bloodshed in northeast Nigeria. He’s seen friends shot dead or injured in front of his eyes. As a reporter, he has often rushed to the scene immediately after bombings. He has narrowly escaped death himself. Hassan said, “You see it again and again and again. You get to places where a bomb [planted by Muslim extremists] has just exploded. There are bodies all over the place. You visit people in the hospital. You go back and meet families, you cry with them, you console them, you do the best you can with them all the time.” But this violence and hatred has not stopped him from reaching out to his Muslim neighbors who need Christ. After he helped a small Muslim girl who could not go to school after her father had been killed in the violence, he started to reach out to other orphan children. Soon he was helping 12 Muslim women, then 120. Young Muslim men in the area are starting to ask if they can find help as well. Hassan’s evangelistic outreach involves eating meals with Muslims. Hassan explained, “Now in Nigeria that is a big thing. You don’t eat with your enemy because you are afraid that you will be poisoned. Now [in an attempt to share the gospel], Christians build friendships with Muslims; it is just so marvelous.”[1]

 

Hassan John’s well is full of God’s unconditional love. Grace, , God’s faithfulness, the ability to forgive and not judge are just a few ways that people can experience God’s unconditional love in and through your life. But there is a cost when our lives are low on God’s unconditional love. If we live as Christians in survival mode, our faith is in survival mode, that is, our well is low on “God.” We become discouraged, depleted, and almost hostile toward God and others. As Gradye Parsons reminds us in Our Connectional Church, we mustn’t focus on what we lack, but on God’s abundance and place our lives and our churches in the place to drink from God’s deep well of faithfulness.[2] And that faithfulness is rooted in grace, the ability to forgive and not judge, and unconditional love. So, loving on fumes is a life that avoids change because its hard and holds on to fear because of the unknown. But God’s will requires us to risk and have courage.

The decisions we make each day, matter. Just like filling up the car with gas matters. Cars don’t work well on fumes. Nor do Christians. In 1 Corinthians 15 we learn that what we put in our bodies is either perishable or imperishable. That is, it will sustain us in loving God and others. Our bodies are the temple of God. What we do with them for the number of days we have on the planet matters. Our lives, preresurrection and postresurrection, are freed from the fumes of sinful sources that supply our wells when we take seriously that faith in Jesus Christ actually joins us with God’s grace, faithfulness, the ability to forgive and not judge, and unconditional love. Jesus’ power, person, and purpose are for us, not against us.[3] Genesis 45, in its focus on Joseph and his family, indicates that the greatest act of grace is the gift of forgiveness. God forgives us. We accept it. And we are to do the same, practice forgiveness. Forgiveness fills our tanks with good “God stuff” for the journey. Not to receive or give forgiveness is like putting an intravenous line of “Pop” in your body to quench a thirst. And Luke reminds us that life is not easy. Living with the mantra of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” will defeat us in the end. Seeking retribution is an example of loving God and others on fumes. Retribution is not life giving. It is life consuming.[4]

Hassan John did not love on fumes when he loved his Muslim neighbors and orphaned children. Loving on fumes has no love to give away. Robert Darden writes, “The more love we give away, the more love will come back to us, in greater measure, until it cannot be contained.”[5] God will fill you with love overflowing. Fumes are replaced with God’s grace, faithfulness, the ability to forgive and not judge, and unconditional love. What’s in your well? Amen. 

This sermon was preached on the Seventh Sunday After Epiphany, 23 February 2025

by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary

at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas

Copyright Ó 2025

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

[1]Matt Woodley, editor, PreachingToday.com; sources: Clement Ejiofor, “Boko Haram Placed a Bounty on Christian Pastor from Jos,” Naij.com (12-3-15); personal interview with Hassan John in Nigeria.

[2]Gradye Parsons, Our Connectional Church (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 55-64.

[3]I am grateful for James C. Miller’s thinking and writing in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery and Cynthia L. Rigby, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 1 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 262-263.

[4]In preparation of this sermon, I have benefited from the thinking of Brent A. Strawn, Stacey Simpson Duke,  John W. Wurster, James C. Miller, Maria Teresa Davila, Wes Avram, and Robert F. Darden in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 1 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 255-257, 257-258, 259-260, 261-263, 263-264, 265-267, and 267-269.

[5]Robert F. Darden in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery and Cynthia L. Rigby, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 1, 269.

 

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02-16-2025 Rev Steven Marsh – Entrusting Ourselves to God’s Love Care and Mercy

Learning From and With Our God of Unconditional Love (Together, in a Variety of Ways)

“Entrusting Ourselves to God’s Love, Care, and Mercy” – Jeremiah 17:5-10, 1 Corinthians 15:12-20,

Luke 6:17-26

In whom or what do you trust? As Christians, we participate with God in the mission of justice and salvation. And fear should not inhibit our words and deeds for and on behalf of others, particularly those who are suffering. As Gradye Parsons reminds us in Our Connectional Church, being internally strong in the things of God will make us effective, externally, in the World that God loves when he writes,

North Avenue [Presbyterian Church in Atlanta] began in the 1990s to pray about how to reach people who are significantly different from its membership…as the church was thinking about being internally strong and externally focused, a research paper entitled ‘Hidden in Plain View’ came to its attention…the study identified the city of Atlanta as a major hub for human trafficking of children, kids under the age of seventeen.[1]

As the pastor and my friend, the Rev. Dr. Scott Weimer and the leaders at North Avenue read this paper, they discovered that the street corner on which the church campus was situated was identified as a location that was especially problematic for the trafficking of children. Those children, every human being, you, and I are made in the image of God. We are wired to live in relationship with God and others. Because of that truth, you can entrust your life to God’s unconditional love, care, and mercy. How do we do it?

The paralysis that sets in when we are asked to think outside the box is best characterized by preoccupation. To be preoccupied is “to dominate or engross the mind of something or someone to the exclusion of other thoughts.”[2] For example, you have just been diagnosed with cancer. You are driving home from the doctor’s appointment. You begin to think through outcomes. The next thing you know you are driving thirty miles an hour in a school zone when the yellow light is flashing. You get pulled over by a police officer and are issued a ticket. Your preoccupation with the cancer diagnosis sent you into a world that made you unaware of how fast you were driving.

To be preoccupied with God is a good thing. In 1 Corinthians we glean this: Easter Sunday is connected to every Sunday that follows. Think of all the times we have been told we are worthless and there is no hope for us to be any different than we are. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead guarantees all future resurrections from “death patterns” of living, let alone our literal physical death to come. Beth Felker Jones writes, “…the connection between Jesus and us is so intimate, so deep, and so real that his resurrection guarantees our future hope…Because of Jesus, ‘the dead’ have hope.”[3] Jeremiah indicates we have the propensity to do both good and bad things; that our intentions, motives, and decisions are never pure or without blemish. We are selfish and God centered. Our words and actions bear good and bad fruit. Yet, the more we rest in the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the benefits in knowing and experiencing that God’s unconditional love, care, and mercy for and toward us always wins, the inclination of our heart will lean more toward grace, forgiveness, and love for others. And Luke reminds us that people really do want to know Jesus. People wanted to hear Jesus teach. They wanted their diseases to be healed. And they wanted to be transformed by the Messiah to live God’s intended destiny for them. [4]

Is it the case today that people want Jesus? Some do. Deep within, everyone does. Therein lies the opportunity for authentic relationships of love, care, and mercy. Christians can be a blessing to those who are marginalized from the love, care, and mercy of God. And from others as well for that matter. How can you make progress in being set free from a worldview and lifestyle of self-centeredness to begin a life of authentically serving and loving others into trusting God’s love, care, and mercy for them? Take responsibility for the things in your life that you find not loving, caring, or merciful. Avoid affixing blame. Develop an action plan to move forward.

Grace Presbyterian Church is becoming internally stronger in the basic practice of loving God and loving others. And focusing on unity, despite our differences, is making headway. Our external focus begs the question, who is our neighbor? Immigration, refugees, homelessness, the impact of “white privilege” both positively and negatively, and economic disparity show us our neighbors. Who is your neighbor? How do you engage him or her? Donald K. McKim writes, “Trust is faith. Trust is enacted faith…Faith is the trust that responds to Jesus’ command: ‘Follow me.’ Faith is the trust to love others. Faith is the trust to continue living as God desires and as Jesus showed us.”[5] Living as God desires is easier said than done. Why? It takes courage.

I’ve been thinking a lot these past weeks about courage. What might a courageous Christian look like?

  • A person who values their personal faith convictions more than their allegiance to a political party.
  • Christians who will say that bigotry, wrapped in religion, is still bigotry.
  • Christians, saying that Christianity was never supposed to be about power or America being first.
  • A Christian who asserts that diversity, equity, and inclusion is at the heart of everything Jesus was doing when he was here and continues to do through his followers today.
  • Christians who will say no more to a Jesus-less Christianity.

I believe that the American Church is at a turning point. That turning point is to shed irrelevance, uselessness, prejudice, selfishness, and moral bankruptcy and begin the rebirth of being the living, loving, and forgiving presence of Jesus.

Can we, the Christians of Grace Presbyterian Church, grow in our defense of the millions of vulnerable people who are being sacrificed on the altar of hateful people’s phobias, privileged people’s convenience, or fearful people’s cowardice?[6]

Respond to God’s love for you in Jesus Christ. Accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. Be “born again.” Reaffirm your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Entrust yourself to God’s love, care, and mercy. Serve and love real people who live in a real world who have real needs. Amen.

This sermon was preached on the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, 16 February 2025

by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary  

at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas

Copyright 2025

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

[1]Gradye Parsons, Our Connectional Church (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 43.

[2]Concise Oxford Dictionary Tenth Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 1129.

[3]Beth Felker Jones in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery and Cynthia L. Rigby, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 1 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 248.

[4]In preparation of this sermon, I have benefited from the thinking of L. Daniel Hawk, Donald K. McKim, Rhodora E. Beaton, Mark Abbott, Beth Felker Jones, Wes Avram, and Robert F. Darden in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 1 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 239-241, 242-243, 244-245, 246-248, 248-249, 250-252, and 252-254.

[5]Donald K. McKim in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery and Cynthia L. Rigby, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 1, 243.

[6]Steven Marsh, “A Word From Our Interim Pastor” in Grace This Week, February 16, 2025.

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02-09-2025 Rev Steven Marsh – Breaking Out of Routine Love

Learning From and With Our God of Unconditional Love (Together, in a Variety of Ways)

“Breaking Out of Routine Love” – Isaiah 6:1-8, Luke 5:1-11

You can live your life out of a place of love, yes, even unconditional love. Jesus has given us the grace we need to keep putting one foot in front of the other. In Christ, we can do what needs to be done.

To experience love and to love, we need a personal encounter with God and one that is ongoing. Believing is important, but unless beliefs transform us, and are put into action, beliefs are useless. In Jesus Christ, we are a new creation. A personal encounter with God leads us to participate with God in God’s mission. Mark Abbott, Director of Hispanic Distributed Learning, Asbury Theological Seminary writes, “In both Isaiah and Luke, personal encounter with God leads to missional engagement and is not an end in itself.”[1] A personal relationship with God is the means to break out of routine love.

William Carey had an ongoing personal encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. Early on in his ministry, as an ordained Baptist minister in the late 18th century, Carey was at a gathering of ministers for a theological forum on a variety of issues. One of the senior ministers asked Carey for a theme to discuss to which Carey replied, “May we consider whether the command given to the apostles to teach all nations was not obligatory on all succeeding ministers to the end of the world, seeing that the accompanying promise was of equal extent.” Dr. Ryland promptly denounced Carey, “Sit down young man! When God chooses to convert the heathen, he will do it without your aid or mine!”

Simon Peter, like William Carey, had an ongoing personal encounter with Jesus. The story in Luke is set in the early days of Jesus’ ministry. After a day’s activity, Jesus paused at the lake of Gennesaret. Simon Peter, James, John and other fishermen had just returned from fishing all-night having caught no fish. The text intimates that Jesus was some distance away and a crowd had gathered around him to hear him teach. Jesus seized the moment to use a real-life situation to teach the disciples and crowd about his true identity. Shortly after Jesus and the crowd meandered over to Simon Peter and his partners, Jesus got into the boat and told Simon Peter to go out a way from the shore into deep water and cast his nets for a catch. Simon Peter did as Jesus asked and the text tells us that they caught so many fish their nets began to break. Simon Peter called to shore for his partners to come out and fill their boats. He had been a fisherman for years. Simon Peter knew his trade. But now, with his boats full to overflowing, he had a crisis of faith. Simon Peter didn’t believe that Jesus could get a catch of fish any more than he could. Simon Peter’s sin was his disbelief.[2]

William Carey did not “sit down.” William Carey “stood up and stepped out” and founded the Missionary Society to India. Transformation occurs in everyday, real-life situations through believing. Obeying Jesus and his Word moves us out of routine love to love that is self-giving, authentic, and transformational. As Gradye Parsons reminds us in Our Connectional Church, showing up is more than half the battle for experiencing transformation when he writes,

The few members of Spring City Presbyterian Church showed up. Showing up may not seem like a large accomplishment, but it is. As the saying goes, 90% of life is showing up. The people of the church didn’t just show up at church, they showed up outside the four walls of the building where many people have negative views of a church they see as too judgmental. So, we have to overcome that perception by revealing a different picture of the church.[3]

 

It is living your life in authenticity that speaks the loudest to the skeptical.

 

Jesus has a call on your life. Listen to this 19th century illustration of a life changing experience for a group of young men:

Awakenings started the foreign missions movement in America, and American missionary work started in a haystack, during a thunderstorm! In 1806, during an awakening at Williams College in Western Massachusetts, Samuel Mills and four other students hid themselves in a haystack to avoid a summer thunderstorm. While there they united in prayer, and pledged themselves to go as missionaries wherever God might lead them. Out of this group went the first American missionaries. Some of the best impulses for social reform in America’s history have come from awakenings. The anti-slavery movement in America was mainly a part of the reform movement generated by the Second Great Awakening, as were movements for prison reform, child labor laws, women’s rights, inner-city missions, and many more.[4]

Yes, following Jesus often has the frustration of working hard with little if any results. Do not forget that God’s grace and blessings are often more than you expect. The church is full of religious people with whom you cannot relate. The church, however, is either a hospital for imperfect sinners, or it is “the champagne toast of the spiritually proud.”

Jesus meets you in your sense of inadequacy. Stephen Mattson writes, “Following Christ implores us to pledge allegiance to Jesus above any earthly king, leader, political party, or government. Our loyalty is to Jesus and our duty is to love our neighbors. This should be prioritized above anything else.”[5] May your response to Jesus’s call be one of loyalty. Follow him whenever and wherever he goes. Break out of routine love by believing that showing up changes things. Amen.

 This sermon was preached on the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, 09 February 2025

by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary

at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas

 

Copyright Ó 2025

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

 

[1]Mark Abbott in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery and Cynthia L. Rigby, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 1 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 233.

 

[2]In preparation of this sermon, I have benefited from the thinking of Brent A. Strawn, Stacey Simpson Duke, Rhodora E. Beaton, Mark Abbott, Beth Felker Jones, Warren Carter, and Blair R. Monie in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 1 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 223-225, 225-227, 228-230, 231-233, 233-234, 235-237, and 237-238.

 

[3]Gradye Parsons, Our Connectional Church (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 32.

[4]Taken from “Spiritual Awakenings in North America,” Christian History, no. 23.

[5]Taken from John D’Elia’s FB post, Saturday, February 8, 2025.

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02-02-2025 Rev Steven Marsh – Love’s Primary Concern

“Learning From and with Our God of Unconditional Love (Together, in a Variety of Ways)”

“Love’s Primary Concern” – 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Jeremiah 1:4-10, Luke 4:21-30

The question I am asking and answering, from a biblical perspective, is “What is love’s primary concern”? Answer, to foster unity. Unity has a better chance of coming about when one speaks truth, whatever the cost, in a humble, kind, and just way. That way we demonstrate our love for God and others. I have two examples.

My first example that love’s primary concern is to foster unity is the transformation of Knox Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, California.  A decade ago, the John Knox Presbyterian Church in Pasadena was down to twenty people in worship. A group of young persons who were tired of their megachurch experiences wanted a church where they could be connected with people of all ages in a meaningful way. They showed up at John Knox and felt those twenty people were open to such a venture. Gradye Parson notes, “The older members saw their sincere interest and took the risk of letting them set the tone for the congregation. That tone included regular doses of bluegrass music despite having a twenty-four-rank organ. The church rebound began, and now is a healthy church with lots of young families.”[1] Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:7-8a, “It [Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” God’s unconditional love bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things.

You are loved by God. God has chosen you.

Like Paul, we recognize that because of God’s unconditional love for all people, the discipleship practices of sacrificial giving and social justice are non-negotiable. Again Paul writes, this time in 1 Corinthians 13:3, “If I give away my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” Acts of unconditional love are not about the one doing the loving. Unconditional love is self-less and not self-congratulatory.

Like Jeremiah, we recognize that because of God’s unconditional love, God has called us to proclaim good news to anyone and everyone. Donald K. McKim writes, “The message of Christ is for all, and our calling during Epiphany and in all seasons is to proclaim this message to all.”[2] God’s unconditional love was on the move in and through Jeremiah’s life. God’s inclusive unconditional love for the people was evident through the words and actions of Jeremiah and he figured prominently as a model of faith for the people of God.

Like Luke, we recognize that because of God’s unconditional love, God spoke truth to power through Jesus’ self-disclosure in the synagogue. Following Jesus’ disclosure in the synagogue that the reading in Isaiah was fulfilled in the people’s hearing, the Jews were amazed and spoke well of him. According to Luke, initial amazement turned to hostility, as the audience took exception to Jesus. The people were filled with rage. Why? Blair R. Monie writes, “…because Jesus proclaimed a grace that was wider and more generous than they were. We are happy when the ‘right’ people are forgiven, accepted, or healed, but we’re not so sure that we want those things extended to people outside our favored circles, or that we want to extend that grace ourselves.”[3] God’s unconditional love for all people affords us an opportunity to explore ways we have things in common with those who are different than ourselves.

My second example, that love’s primary concern is to foster unity, comes from the sermon of The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, delivered at the National Cathedral on the occasion of the Inaugural Prayer Service, the day after the Inauguration. The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde began with a Prayer and then read the text on building one’s house on solid ground from Matthew 7:24-29. I quote:

Joined by many across the country, we have gathered this morning to pray for unity as a nation – not for agreement, political or otherwise, but for the kind of unity that fosters community across diversity and division, a unity that serves the common good.

Unity, in this sense, is the threshold requirement for people to live together in a free society, it is the solid rock, as Jesus said, in this case upon which to build a nation. It is not conformity…Unity is not partisan.

Rather, unity is a way of being with one another that encompasses and respects differences, that teaches us to hold multiple perspectives and life experiences as valid and worthy of respect; that enables us, in our communities and in the halls of power, to genuinely care for one another even when we disagree.

Unity at times, is sacrificial…a giving of ourselves for the sake of another…

Jesus of Nazareth, in his Sermon on the Mount, exhorts us to love not only our neighbors, but to love our enemies, and to pray for those who persecute us; to be merciful, as our God is merciful, and to forgive others, as God forgives us…

Now I grant you that unity, in this broad, expansive sense, is aspirational, and it’s a lot to pray for – a big ask of our God, worthy of the best of who we are and can be. But there isn’t much to be gained by our prayers if we act in ways that further deepen and exploit the divisions among us…

Given this, is true unity among us even possible? And why should we care about it?

Well, I hope that we care, because the culture of contempt that has become normalized in our country threatens to destroy us…Contempt…it’s a dangerous way to lead a country.

And we are right to pray for God’s help as we seek unity, for we need God’s help, but only if we ourselves are willing to tend to the foundations upon which unity depends. Like Jesus’ analogy of building a house of faith on the rock of his teachings, as opposed to building a house on sand, the foundations we need for unity must be sturdy enough to withstand the many storms that threaten it.

What are the foundations of unity?…

The first foundation for unity is honoring the inherent dignity of every human being, which is, as all faiths represented here affirm, the birthright of all people as children of the One God. In public discourse, honoring each other’s dignity means refusing to mock, discount, or demonize those with whom we differ, choosing instead to respectfully debate across our differences, and whenever possible, to seek common ground…dignity demands that we remain true to our convictions without contempt for those who hold convictions of their own.

A second foundation for unity is honesty in both private conversation and public discourse. If we aren’t willing to be honest, there is no use in praying for unity, because our actions work against the prayers themselves.

Now to be fair, we don’t always know where the truth lies, and there is a lot working against the truth now, staggeringly so. But when we do know what is true, it’s incumbent upon us to speak the truth, even when – and especially when – it costs us.

A third foundation for unity is humility, which we all need, because we are all fallible human beings. We make mistakes. We say and do things that we regret…we are perhaps the most dangerous to ourselves and others when we are persuaded, without a doubt, that we are absolutely right and someone else is absolutely wrong. 

The truth is that we are all people, capable of both good and bad. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn astutely observed that “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties, but right through every human heart and through all human hearts.” The more we realize this, the more room we have within ourselves for humility, and openness to one another across our differences, because in fact, we are more like one another than we realize, and we need each other.

Unity is relatively easy to pray for on occasions of solemnity. It’s a lot harder to realize when we’re dealing with real differences in the public arena. But without unity, we are building our nation’s house on sand.

With a commitment to unity that incorporates diversity and transcends disagreement…we can do our part, in our time, to help realize the ideals and the dream of America.

Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you. As you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families who fear for their lives.

And the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in our poultry farms and meat-packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shift in hospitals – they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes, and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches, mosques and synagogues, gurdwara, and temples.

Have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. Help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were once strangers in this land.

May God grant us all the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, speak the truth in love, and walk humbly with one another and our God, for the good of all the people of this nation and the world.[4]

Knox Presbyterian Church accomplished unity through and with a very diverse congregation. The Right Rev. Budde asked our President to work for unity, which he promised he would, in the midst of polarized citizens, policy, and goals for our country. Every Christian is called by God to live the radical gospel of Jesus’ unconditional love; to affirm that all people are created in the image of God; and to treat everyone with dignity even in disagreement. Love’s primary concern is unity. Foster unity. Build the common good on solid ground. Amen.

This sermon was preached on the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, 02 February 2025,

 by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary

at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas

Copyright  2025

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

[1]Gradye Parsons, Our Connectional Church (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 34.

[2]Donald K. McKim in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery and Cynthia L. Rigby, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 1, 211.

[3]Blair R. Monie in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery and Cynthia L. Rigby, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 1, 222.

[4]Excerpts taken from The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde’s sermon given at the Inaugural Prayer Service on Tuesday, January 21st at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

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01-26-2025 Rev Steven Marsh – Saying No to False Options for Love

“Learning From and with Our God of Unconditional Love (Together, in a Variety of Ways)”

“Saying No to False Options for Love” – Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a, Luke 4:14-21

Epiphany is the radical inbreaking of God’s love into human experience in the birth of Jesus. The baptism of Jesus is the radical inbreaking of God’s love into human experience in that Jesus represented every human being past, present, and future.

The radical inbreaking of God’s love into human experience continues today. Each day, the radical inbreaking of God’s love impacts your life. Those moments of revelation when you realize that God is moving in your life confirms God’s mission in and through you for the sake of others. We are in this thing called the Christian life, together. Listen to Henri Nouwen connect the dots regarding our connection to one another:

Living with … handicapped people, I realize how success-oriented I am. Living with men and women who cannot compete in the worlds of business, industry, sports, or academics but for whom dressing, walking, speaking, eating, drinking, and playing are the main “accomplishments,” is extremely frustrating for me. I may have come to the theoretical insight that being is more important than doing, but when asked to just be with people who can do very little, I realize how far I am from the realization of that insight. … Some of us might be productive and others not, but we are all called to bear fruit: fruitfulness is a true quality of love.[1]

A life that bears fruit is one where being present with another demonstrates Jesus living his life through you…. the radical inbreaking of God’s love is happening through you for the sake of another.

The scribe Ezra, in the book of Nehemiah, points us to the importance of the Law. The Law, the Ten Commandments, restrains evil, convicts of sin, and aids our understanding of God’s will.

Paul writes in a third lectionary text for today, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” To know that all who profess faith in Jesus Christ, regardless of their differences, are included in the family of God, requires us to trust that God loves all unconditionally. We are one body connected to one another to advance the kingdom of God.

Jesus states in Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” One day, Jesus went to the synagogue. There, he stood up and read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. It was the custom to read the scripture in the synagogue. It was the custom of the people to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath and to hear the Word of God read. It was the custom of the people to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath and be with one another in the presence of God. But Jesus challenged custom with one short sentence, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”  God became personal. Jesus brought good news to the poor, proclaimed release to the captives, restored sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free and proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favor.

God’s love marks the beginning of creation and the consummation of the new heaven and earth. God’s unconditional love leads us to transformational daily living every day until the new heaven and earth is consummated at the Second Coming of Jesus. The radical inbreaking of God’s unconditional love compels Christians to remember, tell, and live the way of Jesus by being just, kind, and humble. The Confession of 1967 states this about the importance of unity and Jesus’ mission,

The life, death, resurrection, and promised coming of Jesus Christ have set the pattern for the church’s mission. His life as man involves the church in the common life of humanity. His service to humanity commits the church to work for every form of human well-being. The church is called to bring all people to receive and uphold one another as persons in all relationships of life: in employment, housing, education, leisure, marriage, family, church, and the exercise of political rights…[2]

Humility, kindness, and justice are at the core of the Gospel.

Saying no to false options for love is a daily exercise. Finding love in being successful in my career is short-lived and a dead end. Struggling to experience love when a long-standing friendship goes south is troubling. But our knowing and experiencing love does not begin and end with that failing friendship. Learning that our experience of being loved begins and ends with God is a gamechanger.

 

In a sermon entitled The Beauty of Biblical Justice, pastor Timothy Keller defines the biblical concept of shalom as universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight. Keller states, “God created the world to be a fabric, for everything to be woven together and interdependent.”

 

Keller illustrates his point with the following picture of biblical shalom: “If I threw a thousand threads onto the table, they wouldn’t be a fabric. They’d just be threads lying on top of each other. Threads become a fabric when each one has been woven over, under, around, and through every other one. The more interdependent they are, the more beautiful they are. The more interwoven they are, the stronger and warmer they are. God made the world with billions of entities, but he didn’t make them to be an aggregation. Rather, he made them to be in a beautiful, harmonious, knitted, webbed, interdependent relationship with one another.”

 

Then he offers a concrete example for the need to practice the Bible’s call to shalom. In large cities around the world, children are growing up as functional illiterates—largely due to school and family situations. By the time they become teenagers, they can’t read or write. According to Keller, at that point, they’re often locked into poverty for the rest of their lives. Some people pin this problem on unjust social structures; others blame the breakdown of the family. But nobody says it’s the kids’ fault.

So Keller concludes, “Nobody says that 7-year-olds need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. And yet, a child born into my family has a 300 to 400 times greater chance for economic or social flourishing than the kids in those neighborhoods. That’s just one example of the way in which the fabric of the world—the shalom of this world—has been broken … . It’s not enough to do individual charity; you have to address [larger social issues].”[3]

Live Spirit led lives. Exercise the spiritual gifts. Bear the fruit of the Spirit. Say yes to the true option of love, Jesus Christ. Demonstrate the good news of Jesus to the marginalized, hurting, and hopeless. More people will join the journey of living a better life now as well as inherit eternal life.[4] Amen!

This sermon was preached on the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, 26 January 2025  by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas 

Copyright 2025 –  Steven M. Marsh – All rights reserved.

[1]Henri J.M. Nouwen in Lifesigns. Christianity Today, Vol. 35, no. 12.

[2]Book of Confessions, The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Part 1(Louisville, Kentucky: The Office of the General Assembly, 2014), sections 9.32, 43-45 on pages 292-294.

[3]Taken from Timothy Keller, “The Beauty of Biblical Justice,” byFaith, (October 2010).

[4]In preparation of this sermon, I have benefited from the thinking of Glen Bell, Melissa Browning, Khalia J. Williams, Shannon Craigo-Snell, Cynthia A. Jarvis, Warren Carter and Blair R. Monie in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 1 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 192-194, 194-195, 196-198, 199-202, 202-203, 204-206, and 206-207.

 

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