Words of Welcome

Embracing the Relational God - Sermon for Trinity Sunday, Year A (2 Corinthians 13:11-13)

2026-05-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

Today is Trinity Sunday. It may not be as exciting as Pentecost Sunday, but it’s a good time to stop and think about the God we serve and worship. Most Christian traditions affirm the idea that God is both one and yet three. This may sound like some kind of math problem, but thankfully, especially since I’m not a math person, this isn’t about math. It just means that, like our Jewish siblings, we believe that God is one. However, Christianity complicates things by suggesting that God is also three persons. So, we sing: “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee; holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessed Trinity!” (Reginald Heber).

The doctrine of the Trinity that we celebrate this morning is only present in the New Testament implicitly. It took several centuries before early Christians nailed down a consensus view of God as Trinity. The Nicene Creed, which we will recite together in a moment, was finalized in 381 at a council held in Constantinople. Despite its complicated nature, our confession of faith in the Triune God, even if it isn’t explicitly laid out in Scripture, offers us an important witness to the relational nature of God.

One of the places we find a scriptural witness to the Trinity is in the closing verses of 2 Corinthians. Paul wrote this letter to a congregation that was deeply divided. Nevertheless, Paul ended this letter on an upbeat note with a word of blessing.

In his closing benediction, Paul gave the Corinthians a few last instructions:

First, “put things in order.” That’s always good advice for a church.

Second, “agree with one another.” That’s good advice, but if the first task wasn’t difficult enough, this one is even more challenging.

Finally, he told them to “live in Peace.” In other words, he wanted them to work together to build up the community rather than tear it down. Paul tells them that if they do this, then “the God of love and peace will be with you.”

As you can see, there are three parts to this commission: order, agreement, and peace. When Paul gets to his final Trinitarian blessing, it also has three parts: grace, love, and communion. I think you need grace, love, and communion if you’re going to have order, agreement, and peace.

Like I said earlier, this doctrine of the Trinity is complicated. That’s because God is much more than we can truly imagine. Theologians have been working on definitions of the Trinity since at least the second century, and they keep coming up with different answers. That’s because God isn’t a math problem that can be solved with the proper equation. One thing I can say, based on scripture, is that God is love (1 Jn 4:7-8). That word fits well with a particular theory about the Trinity. It’s called the “Social Trinity.”

When it comes to describing the indescribable, which is God’s nature, you can start with the oneness and move to the threeness, or you can start with the threeness and move to the oneness. The “Social Trinity” doctrine moves from the threeness to the oneness of God’s nature. What this theory does is emphasize the relational nature of God. As theologian David Gushee puts it, "To say that God is triune is to mean that God is social in nature. It is also to say that those made in the image of God are likewise intrinsically social [Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol. 3, p. 40]. What this means is that God is not an isolated, solitary being, living somewhere out there, completely disengaged from our lives. Not only that, but if God is, in God’s essence, relational, we who are created in God’s image reflect that reality in our own relationships. As the author of Genesis 2 put it, God quickly discovered that it’s not good for humans to be alone (Gen. 2:18).

There is a Greek word that describes how God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That word is perichoresis. It essentially means mutual indwelling or intimate union. The good news for us is that not only do the three persons of the Trinity experience intimate union with each other, but through our relationship with Jesus, we get to participate in this relationship through the “communion of the Holy Spirit.”

This is where we need to use our spiritual imaginations. So, imagine for a moment that God is an open circle of fellowship gathered around a table. This works best if the table is round. Picture God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit gathered around the Table engaged in conversation. Then imagine the Son opening the circle through the mediation of the Spirit and inviting us to join in the fellowship taking place at the Table. At first, you may feel like a stranger, but once you sit at the Table you discover that you’re no longer a stranger but part of the family.

Now, let’s extend this imagery to the Church, which according to Paul, is the Body of Christ. Since we will gather at the Lord’s Table in a moment, consider that when we gather at the Table, Jesus is present with us through the Spirit, presiding at the meal. As we share in bread and cup, we share together in fellowship with God and one another. The good news here is that no one is a stranger at this Table.

Now, opening the circle and inviting the stranger to sit at the table can be risky for both parties. However, if Jesus is willing to take the risk, then perhaps we should as well. Besides, when we open the circle wide and include the stranger, we may be in store for great blessings.

There is a famous fifteenth-century Russian Orthodox Icon that pictures three angels seated at a table. According to Andrei Rublev, the creator of this icon, the three angels represent the three persons of the Trinity. The table they sit around is the table that Abraham set for three strangers whom he met at the Oak of Mamre. After Abraham welcomed the three angels to his table, they gave him the good news that his wife, Sarah, would bear a child in her old age (Gen. 18:1-15).

Here in 2 Corinthians, Paul speaks of three blessings that come to us as we participate in the divine fellowship that is God: grace, love, and communion. These three blessings are the foundation for our experiences of salvation and healing. Earlier in 2 Corinthians, Paul wrote about how God reconciles us in Christ to Godself. Having reconciled us, God calls us to engage in the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:17-18). This ministry of reconciliation brings healing and wholeness to our communities. It all starts within God’s essence as the relational God who is love.

On a practical level, Presbyterian pastor Carol Howard wrote in her book Tribal Church about what it means to live together as an intergenerational community of faith. She wrote that many younger adults want to be part of intergenerational communities, even though too often we live in generational silos. That’s because it’s easier to hang out with people just like us. Different generations listen to different music, watch different movies, and drive different kinds of cars. While conventional wisdom suggests that the way to grow a church is to focus our attention on people just like us, we might want to ask ourselves if this is the way it’s supposed to be.

Building an intergenerational community isn’t easy. That’s because we often bring preconceived notions about others to the conversation. Marketers seem to know how to manipulate the way we perceive other generations, whether older or younger. Maybe you’ve seen those ubiquitous insurance commercials that warn younger adults to not be like their parents. I think the ad-makers are talking about Boomers, so I take the ad rather personally. But I think you get the drift. How do we overcome these perceptions so we can build community where different generations can share life together, bringing their unique and diverse wisdom to the conversation? Perhaps the place to start is with the God we worship, who is in God’s own essence, a community of inclusion. After all, the Trinity, as understood by the Church, is an intergenerational community of Father and Son, joined together by the sweet communion of the Holy Spirit. There is more good news in this intergenerational imagery. That good news is a reminder that when it comes to God, there is no hierarchy, only mutuality. May the same be true for us as we share in fellowship with the Triune God. So, let us embrace Paul’s closing blessing: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the [sweet] communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” [2 Cor. 13:13].

Now, let us recite together the Nicene Creed, which is found on page 34 in the front section of the Glory to God hymnal.

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth
and all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God,
Begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God,
Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made;
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven
and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary
and was made man;
and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.
He suffered and was buried.
And the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures
and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father.
And he will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead,
whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified,
who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church,
I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins,
and I look for the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Troy, MI

Trinity Sunday

May 31, 2026

Waiting Patiently for the Next Act of God - Sermon for Ascension Sunday (Acts 1:3-14)

2026-05-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

Acts 1:3-14

The season of Eastertide invites us to reflect on the ways Jesus revealed himself alive to his disciples. According to the Book of Acts, Jesus ended his time on earth after spending forty days with his followers, speaking about the kingdom of God. On the fortieth day, Jesus gathered one more time with his followers. Before he departed, he gave his followers final instructions.

The key verse in our reading this morning is found in verse eight, where Jesus gave the disciples their marching orders. He told them: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This verse serves as an outline to the Book of Acts, because things start getting interesting on the day of Pentecost. It was on that day, as the believers gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem, fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection, that the Holy Spirit descended on them, empowering their witness to the kingdom of God. So, beginning on the Day of Pentecost, the community began proclaiming the good news about Jesus and his coming kingdom. Starting with Peter’s powerful sermon to the crowd that gathered in the square below, members of the community, including Peter, John, and Stephen, spent time preaching in Jerusalem, even as the community continued to grow. Before long, the community began to expand outward into other parts of Judea and then through the ministry of Philip the Deacon into Samaria, after which Peter encountered Cornelius the Centurion in Caesarea, opening the door of the Christian community to Gentiles. The final step in this outward movement from Jerusalem involved the calling of Saul of Tarsus, an opponent of the Jesus movement, on the road to Damascus, which opened up new opportunities to spread the good news. This is the message of the Book of Acts in a nutshell, though there is much more to the story. I also believe that Acts 1:8 continues to serve as a guidepost for the ministry of the church, as it exists in its local expression, the larger community, and the world itself.

When you read the Book of Acts, you discover that the primary actor in this story isn’t Peter or Paul, but the Holy Spirit. This is why Jesus made it very clear that his followers shouldn’t leave Jerusalem until they received the promise of the Holy Spirit. After all, while John baptized with water, before long, they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. They would just have to wait a bit longer before they received the necessary gift so they could participate in God’s new thing.

Of course, the Day of Pentecost is still a week away, so this morning we get to ponder what it means to wait patiently before something new begins. Before that period of waiting begins, Jesus must depart from the community. Luke describes Jesus’s departure using language that his contemporaries would have understood, but which may not make sense to the modern world. Luke pictures Jesus rising into the sky while his followers stood there staring upward, amazed at what they saw. That’s understandable because they were still processing the resurrection. Now they had to deal with his departure into the heavenly realm. But while they stared into the sky, a couple of men dressed in white robes interrupted their awe-struck gaze. These figures told the community that someday Jesus would return in the same way he departed from them. In other words, it was time to get back to the business of waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit, so they could begin their ministry of proclaiming the good news to the ends of the earth.

Now, as we know in life, waiting isn’t easy. We get antsy when we have to wait for something to take place, whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing. A long time ago, when the President of the college where I was teaching asked me to come in for a meeting, I knew I was in trouble. Waiting to go to the meeting was nerve-wracking, because I had a feeling he was going to tell me I needed to get a new job. Unfortunately, I had to wait until the next day to get the bad news.

On a more positive note, waiting for Christmas morning when you are a child can also be challenging. When your parents put up the tree and decorate it, and presents begin to appear underneath the tree, you know something special is about to happen. Nevertheless, you still have to wait to unwrap the presents. So, you stare at the presents, trying to figure out what lies under the cover of the wrapping paper. You shake the boxes to hear if they rattle. If the contents of the box don’t rattle, it’s probably a sweater or underwear. But if it rattles, well, the box might contain something fun. Of course, there are the presents that Santa will bring in the night. Oh, waiting for Christmas can be challenging!

They say that good things come to those who wait patiently. At least that’s the message that Jesus gave to his followers. Most assuredly, the gift of the Holy Spirit is something worth waiting for. Since we are celebrating the Day of Ascension this morning, that means we have to wait a bit longer to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on the church. When it comes to Jesus’ earliest followers, this period of waiting was challenging because they had to say goodbye to their teacher. Goodbyes are always difficult, even if something good is about to happen.

After Jesus departed from their midst, his followers, most of whom came from Galilee, returned from the Mount of Olives to their meeting place in Jerusalem. While the community waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit, they made good use of their time. Luke tells us that they devoted themselves to prayer, preparing themselves spiritually for what would come next. He even tells us the names of at least a few of the people who gathered in the upper room. First of all, he named the eleven Apostles, which included Peter and his companion John. There was James, the brother of John, along with Peter’s brother Andrew, and Philip the Apostle, who shouldn’t be confused with Philip the Deacon who evangelized the Ethiopian Eunuch and the Samaritans, Thomas, whom tradition says want to India, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas, son of James, who shouldn’t be confused with Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus. They were accompanied by a group of women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. But most assuredly, there were others in the room as well.

Although our reading ends in verse 14 with this listing of Jesus’ followers present in the room, there is more to the story. Not only did they spend time in prayer, but they also began to organize themselves in preparation for what came next. Since Judas Iscariot had left their community when he betrayed Jesus, there was an opening in the group of Twelve Apostles. So Peter decided to fill that opening. The person they chose would need to have certain qualifications. First of all, this person would have walked with Jesus from the time of his baptism by John to the time of his death. What is more important, this new recruit had to be a witness to the resurrection. When the community looked around the room, they discovered two people who fit these requirements for ordination. You might say that because they had spent significant time with Jesus, they had earned their MDiv and were ready to go. Since they only had one opening, the community had to decide between Joseph, called Barsabbas, also known as Justus, and a man named Matthias. The method they chose probably would not pass muster with the Presbyterian Book of Order! It wouldn’t even work in my denomination. Nevertheless, they went with the tried and true method of casting lots. As they prayed that God would reveal the right person to fill the position, they cast the lots, which pointed to Matthias. Although the team was now complete, Matthias, like others in the list of the twelve, quickly disappeared from the story. Truth be told, although we call this book the Acts of the Apostles, Luke doesn’t tell us anything about most of the Apostles (Acts 1:15-26).

When it comes to the time of waiting between the Day of Ascension and Pentecost Sunday, biblical scholar Robert Wall suggests that “waiting for this dynamic future to unfold involves a measure of uncertainty and urgency.” Nevertheless, what makes this time of waiting possible is God’s record of faithfulness. Wall writes that “our capacity to wait expectantly for God to act according to ‘the promise’ is cultivated by the memory of the record of God’s faithfulness in the history of others” [New Interpreter's Bible 10:45]. In other words, because God was faithful to Jesus by raising him from the dead, we can trust God to be faithful with us. Wall then writes that “waiting for God to act is also a community’s project. Waiting with others is an act of solidarity with friends” [NIB, 10:45]. When we wait together, knowing that God has acted in the past, we can trust that God will continue to act in the future. Therefore, when we put our trust in God’s faithfulness, we will be better able to weather the uncertainty of each moment as we wait for God to do a new thing in our midst.

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Tyrone Township, MI

Ascension Sunday

May 17, 2026

Chosen for a Purpose (1 Peter 2:2-10) Sermon for Easter 5A

2026-05-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

1 Peter 2:2-10

Perhaps you can remember picking teams for a PE class or some other athletic event. No one wants to be the last person chosen. It’s not a good feeling. However, it’s a different story if you’re among the first picks. Perhaps you watched or paid attention to last week’s NFL draft. The Lions took Right Tackle Blake Miller from Clemson with its first pick, but the first overall pick was quarterback Fernando Mendoza, formerly of the Indiana Hoosiers. While it is a great honor to be the first pick, it does come with certain risks. That’s because the team with the first pick had the worst record in the league the year before. So, sometimes it’s better to be drafted near the end of the first round, so you can go to a good team. Then there’s the final pick of the draft. They call this person “Mr. Irrelevant” because everyone assumes he won’t make it in the NFL. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Sometimes Mr. Irrelevant can go on to be a star, as is the case with the 49ers quarterback, Brock Purdy. So, whether you’re the first pick in the draft or the last draft pick, as long as you get chosen, the rest is up to you! At least that’s the way it goes in the NFL and in PE classes!

This morning we’ve heard a word from 1 Peter. Whether or not the apostle Peter wrote this letter, the author wants us to know that even when we suffer persecution or exile, we’re still members of God’s chosen people who have been chosen for a purpose.

Peter begins this letter, which he writes to exiles living in what is today Turkey or Asia Minor, by letting his readers know that God the Father chose them and sanctified them by the Holy Spirit, so they could be obedient to Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:1-2). He tells them that even though they live in exile, they still have a purpose. That’s because, having heard the good news of Jesus Christ, they’ve been born anew of imperishable seed “through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Pet 1:22-23). Because they are “newborn infants” spiritually, they “long for the pure spiritual milk” that will enable them to grow into salvation. What that means is that they have “tasted that the Lord is good.”

While this is good news, we might want to go back to verse one of chapter 2, which the lectionary omits. In that verse, Peter tells the readers to “rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander” (1 Pet. 2:1). I’m not sure why the lectionary omits this verse, but it reminds us that Peter might have been concerned about their witness as newborn believers. After all, it’s easy to fall back into old habits. He wanted them to know that the way they presented themselves to the world, as followers of Jesus, was important.

Keeping with Peter’s focus on what it means to be chosen by God for a purpose, he switches metaphors from calling his readers newborn infants seeking spiritual milk to focusing on their identity as living stones, which God uses to build a spiritual house or temple. Peter tells his readers that Jesus is the initial living stone or cornerstone, which mortals rejected but God chose to use to lay the foundation of the spiritual house. When Peter speaks of this spiritual house or temple, he’s speaking of the church. In other words, the church is composed of God’s chosen people, who as living stones, are the building blocks for the spiritual house built on the foundation, which is Jesus Christ.

Peter then switches metaphors, telling the people that God has chosen them to serve as holy priests who “offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” While Peter doesn’t define what these spiritual sacrifices look like, if we continue reading through the letter, it is clear that Peter is concerned about his readers' obedience to the ways of God so that they, and we, might bear witness to God’s glory.

As I pointed out earlier, Peter writes this letter to a community that was experiencing exile because they had decided to follow Jesus. Whether his audience was composed of Jewish or Gentile converts, by choosing to follow Jesus, they likely had to separate themselves from their previous communities. They may have also experienced suffering, including persecution. Nevertheless, they could take comfort in knowing that because God had chosen them to be members of God’s people, they had a new identity and purpose. They may have been exiled from their former communities, but now they belonged to a new community where everyone belonged, and no one was irrelevant.

So, Peter wants us to know that whether you are the first living stone chosen or the last, you play an essential role in the formation of this spiritual house that is the church of Jesus Christ. Remember also that, as Peter points out, drawing from Psalm 118, “the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” (Ps. 118:22; 1 Pet 2:7).

Peter reinforces this message about what it means to be chosen by God by closing our reading with a riff on the names the prophet Hosea gave to his children. Although parents, especially celebrity parents, sometimes give their children rather odd names, the names Hosea gave his children weren’t just odd, they were highly inappropriate. Who in their right mind would name their daughter “No Mercy?” Or, their son “Not My People?” Nevertheless, these are the names Hosea gave to his children who were born from his marriage to a prostitute named Gomer. He chose these names as a sign of God’s judgment on Israel. Fortunately, Hosea later changed the names of these two children to serve as a prophetic sign of God’s compassion, mercy, and inclusion. As we see here in 1 Peter, Hosea changed his daughter’s name from “No Mercy” to “Mercy,” and his son, “Not My People,” became “You Are My People” (Hos. 1-2). Although I don’t recommend following Hosea’s example when it comes to naming children, Peter’s reference to Hosea’s efforts at using his children as prophetic expressions speaks to the question of identity. So, according to Peter, when God chooses us, God gives us a new name or identity. In God’s mercy, we move from being “Not My People” to “You Are My People.”

The name changes we find in Hosea aren’t unique. When we read Scripture, we find that God often gives us new names to reflect new realities. For example, the childless Abram and Sarai became Abraham and Sarah after Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Simon became Peter after he proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah, and Saul became Paul on the road to Damascus. In this case, Peter lets us know that since God is building us, as living stones, into a spiritual house built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, we have a new identity, which is “You Are My People.”

We often read scripture in individualistic terms, which is a product of our Western Enlightenment tradition. But the people who wrote the Bible often thought in more communal terms. So, God dealt with Israel not as a collection of individuals, but as a community. Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, and the other writers primarily addressed communities. Although these communities involved individuals, who were to use Peter’s term, living stones, these individuals were members of a community called together for a purpose. After all, the living stones Peter speaks of were designed to fit together to form a spiritual house. That means we are part of something that is bigger than us.

We see this play out in Paul’s letters, especially in 1 Corinthians 12 to 14. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul described the church as the body of Christ. According to Paul, each person or member of this body is equipped with spiritual gifts, which enable them to join with other members of the body of Christ in serving the common good. So, when we join together as the one body of Christ, we bring to the body our gifts and abilities and edify each other and bring glory to God our creator (1 Cor. 12).

Both Peter and Paul addressed communities, inviting them to appropriately represent Jesus to the world through their behavior. That’s why Paul emphasizes the importance of love, and Peter tells his readers to “abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul,” and to “conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that though they may malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge” (1 Peter 2:11-12). Since communities are composed of people, like you and me, Peter wants us to know that because God has chosen us to be living stones and holy priests, we are precious in the sight of God.

As Peter reminds us, we are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.” Therefore, no matter who we are, we belong to God’s family, even if it is by adoption. Because God has given us this new identity in Christ, we can “proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9).

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Troy, Michigan

Easter 5A

May 3, 2026

Revealed in Broken of Bread - Sermon for Easter 3A (Luke 24:13-35)

2026-04-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

Maximino Cerezo Barredo (Spanish, 1932–), “In the Breaking of Bread,” 2001.

Luke 24:13-35

On Easter Sunday, we heard John’s story of Jesus’ resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene (John 20:1-18). This morning, we heard Luke’s account of Jesus’ appearance to two of his followers, one of whom was named Cleopas. Luke tells us that the two disciples were traveling to a place called Emmaus. As they walked along the road to Emmaus, they discussed the events that took place over the weekend, including reports that some of the women in their group had encountered angels at Jesus’ tomb who told them that Jesus had risen from the dead, as well as the report of others in their group that the tomb was empty (Luke 24:1-12). Despite these reports, these two disciples had chosen to head out of town toward a place called Emmaus. Although Luke tells us they were going to Emmaus, some seven miles from Jerusalem, you won’t find a place by that name on any map. So, perhaps Frederick Buechner is correct when he suggested that:

Emmaus is whatever we do or wherever we go to make ourselves forget that the world holds nothing sacred: that even the noblest ideas that men have had—ideas about love and freedom and justice—have always in time been twisted out of shape by selfish men for selfish ends. Emmaus is where we go, where these two went, to try to forget Jesus and the great failure of his life. [Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat, p. 85.]

So as these two disciples made their way to no place in particular, Jesus joined them on their journey. However, they didn’t recognize him.

So, "Incognito" Jesus asked them what they were discussing. With puzzlement and deep sadness, they asked him: “Are you the only one in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard what’s happened during the last few days?” (Luke 24:18 MSG). When the stranger asked them, “What things?”, they began to tell him the story of Jesus. They told him that the religious and political leaders had crucified this prophet named Jesus, who had done great works in their midst, and who they believed would redeem Israel. While they had heard reports that Jesus was alive, they seemed rather skeptical. After all, they were heading out of town.

After they told the stranger their story, he responded by chastising them because they failed to believe the teachings of Moses and the prophets about how the Messiah would suffer and then enter his glory. He showed them all these things about himself from Scripture. Nevertheless, they still didn’t recognize him. After all, they were still trying to make sense of Jesus’ teachings about the resurrection. People are still struggling to make sense of the resurrection. After all, reports of people being resurrected are very rare!

After "Incognito" Jesus finished teaching them about the Messiah, they arrived at a village where Cleopas and his companion planned to stay the night. When the stranger “walked ahead as if he were going on,” Cleopas and his companion, seeing that it was getting late, urged him to stay with them. He accepted their invitation.

When they sat down for their meal, the Stranger took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them. As you ponder these words, do you see a pattern emerging? Is this not what Jesus did on the night of his betrayal as he shared a final meal with his disciples? Is this not what we do when we gather at the Table of the Lord in remembrance of him?

When Jesus broke the bread and gave it to the two disciples, their eyes were opened and they finally recognized him. As soon as they recognized him, Jesus vanished from their sight. You can only imagine how they felt at that moment. Luke tells us that they were amazed at what transpired and said to each other: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road?”

Throughout history, others have expressed something similar. For example, Augustine spoke of the heart being restless until it rested in God (Confessions, BK 1). John Wesley wrote in his journal about the time his heart was “strangely warmed.”

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. [Journal of John Wesley].

Even if we’ve never had a spiritual experience quite as dramatic as the ones Luke or John Wesley described, I expect we’ve all experienced a special moment of spiritual connection to God that may have warmed our hearts. Perhaps that’s why I am drawn to Augustine’s word about restless hearts finding their rest in the presence of God. Even though we may experience doubt and ask seemingly unanswerable questions of God, there are also moments when we experience that sense of spiritual rest that Augustine describes. We may not have all our questions answered, but we may experience a sense of contentment.

While I am attracted to Augustine’s word about restless hearts, I am also attracted to Luke’s description of what took place when Jesus broke the bread in the presence of Cleopas and his companion. I appreciate the liturgical pattern present in this story that describes what takes place when we gather for worship. Presbyterians like to talk about pastors being ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament. Isn’t this what we see taking place in this passage when Jesus teaches them from the scriptures about the Messiah and then reveals himself alive in the breaking of the bread? As we consider this pattern, it’s also worth noting that although the two disciples invited Jesus to share a meal with them, it was Jesus who took on the role of host. That’s something Jesus often did when he sat down for a meal, even if he was the guest.

When Jesus revealed himself alive, I think these two disciples felt a sense of awe and relief. The relief came from the lifting of the sadness that may have been connected to a sense of divine abandonment. Perhaps we’ve experienced that sense of divine absence. Even Jesus expressed a sense of divine abandonment when he cried out to God, using words from the Psalms:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from helping me,

from the words of my groanings? (Ps. 22:1)

In drawing upon this Psalm, I believe Jesus gives permission to ask the same question of God when we feel abandoned.

Now, one of the reasons I like this reading from Luke’s gospel is that it suggests that the Lord’s Table can serve as a place of divine encounter. As you know, I wrote a book about Eating with Jesus. This is one of the stories I draw upon in that book.

What is interesting about this story is that it was the moment Jesus broke bread that they recognized him. He was with them the entire time, but they didn’t recognize him until he broke bread in their midst. Perhaps when we come to the Table, no matter who is presiding, using our spiritual imagination, we can picture Jesus as the host. After all, the words we use to bless the elements are the words Jesus gave us. At the same time, it’s worth noting that before Jesus broke bread with them, he was still a stranger.

If we reverse things a bit and think about the blessings that come when we show hospitality to strangers, we might gain a better appreciation of this story about a divine encounter that took place at a dinner table. With that in mind, consider the story of the time Abraham entertained strangers at the Oaks of Mamre, who turned out to be angels bearing good news that Sarah would bear a child (Gen. 18:1-18). Consider also the famous icon created by the medieval Russian artist Andrei Rublev, who used Abraham’s encounter with the three strangers to depict the Trinity. Then there is this word from Hebrews 13: "Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!" (Heb. 13:1-2 NLT).

Luke reminds us that not only might we encounter God in the stranger, but the “stranger” might become the host of our shared meals. The moral of the story seems to be that you never know who you will meet when you dine with strangers.

There is a theological term that describes what takes place at the Table. It’s called “real presence.” The way I understand “real presence” does not involve a change of the elements of the bread and wine, but rather the recognition that Jesus is present when we break bread together. While I believe that our celebrations of Holy Communion liturgically focus our attention on that reality, perhaps we can extend the divine encounter to other meals that we share with each other as the body of Christ. Indeed, even if we feel like God is absent in our lives, when we gather as the body of Christ, we encounter him in each other.

Luke concludes by letting us know that after they encountered the risen Jesus, Cleopas and his companion turned around and headed back to Jerusalem. When they rejoined the community, they got to share the good news that Jesus revealed himself alive in the breaking of bread (Luke 24:33-35). Now, we get to share that same good news with the world. Yes, the Lord is risen from the dead!

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Easter 3A

April 19, 2026

Is It Really You, Lord? --- Sermon for Easter 2A (John 20:19-31)

2026-04-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

John 20:19-31

According to the Easter Sunday reading from the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene got up early in the morning to visit the tomb where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had laid Jesus’ body after his death on the cross. When she arrived at the tomb, to her horror, she discovered that the stone sealing the tomb had been rolled away and the body missing. Of course, Mary will end up encountering the risen Jesus who commissioned her to tell his followers the good news that he had risen from the dead. This morning, we pick up John’s story a few hours after Mary’s encounter with Jesus. While Mary had told Jesus’ disciples that he was alive, it doesn’t appear that everyone believed her story. That’s because they had hidden themselves behind locked doors out of fear of the authorities. Then suddenly Jesus appeared in the room, greeting them with a word of peace. After greeting his stunned followers, he showed them his wounds so they would know that he wasn’t a ghost. When the disciples saw him, wounds and all, they rejoiced.

Now, there was one conspicuous absence that evening. For some reason, Thomas was absent. While Thomas appears in the list of the twelve disciples in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts, it’s here in the Gospel of John that Thomas makes his mark. Earlier on, Thomas had told his fellow disciples that they should follow Jesus to Jerusalem and die with him (Jn. 11:16). Then, after Jesus had shared his final supper with the disciples, Thomas responded to Jesus’ words about the place that he would be preparing for them. When Jesus told them they would know the way, Thomas wasn’t so sure. He told Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:5-7).

In John’s Gospel, Thomas had a knack for asking pointed questions. But John doesn’t tell us why Thomas was absent that particular evening when Jesus appeared alive to the disciples. Nevertheless, when they gathered a week later in that same room, Thomas was with them. He was filled with questions when he heard the report about Jesus’ resurrection appearances first to Mary Magdalene and later to the entire community. So, Thomas demanded proof that Jesus was alive before he was going to embrace the message of the resurrection.

Before we get to the rest of Thomas’ story, we need to step back to that first evening when Jesus revealed himself alive to his followers. Not only did he show them his wounds, but he gave them a commission. Jesus told his disciples: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Then, he breathed on them, imparting to them the Holy Spirit. He then told them that the sins they forgave, God would forgive, and if they retained sins, God would retain them. In other words, when Jesus gave his disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit, he was empowering them to carry the good news of salvation to the world.

Now, getting back to Thomas, we need to address the unfortunate moniker of “Doubting Thomas” that tradition gave him. This nickname is unfortunate because it not only casts Thomas in a bad light, but it does the same for anyone who has doubts about the things of faith. The fact is, we all have questions when it comes to matters of faith. That’s okay! What Thomas does is give us permission to express our doubts and concerns.

When Thomas asked for proof that Jesus had risen from the dead, he wanted more than simply seeing Jesus. If he was going to believe their report, he wanted to put his finger in the mark of the nails and touch the side where the spear had pierced Jesus’ body. Thomas got his wish.

When the community gathered on the evening of the Second Sunday of Easter, Jesus once again appeared to the community. When he appeared, Jesus invited Thomas to touch his wounds so he could believe. When Thomas saw Jesus for himself and touched the wounds, he believed. Not only did he believe, but he responded with a strong confession of faith, declaring to Jesus: “My Lord and My God!”

Thomas had his questions answered when he saw Jesus and then touched his wounds. He responded with a powerful declaration of faith. But perhaps there is more to the story than meets the eye. The Czech Catholic theologian Tomáš Halík writes that in revealing himself, wounds and all:

Jesus identified with all who are small and suffering. In other words, all painful wounds and all the human misery in the world are ‘Christ’s wounds.’ I can only believe in Christ and have the right to exclaim, “My Lord and my God!” if I touch his wounds, of which the world is full. Otherwise, I say, “Lord, Lord!” simply in vain and to no effect. [Halík, Touch the Wounds, p. 7].

As we gather this morning, we get to join Thomas in making our confession of faith in Jesus, by declaring to him: “My Lord and My God!” When it comes to our confession of faith, we differ from Thomas in that we must believe even though we can’t see the risen Jesus or touch his wounds. Nevertheless, Jesus told Thomas that those who believe but do not see will be blessed. While we may receive divine blessings because we join Thomas in confessing our faith in the risen Christ, perhaps, as Tomáš Halík reminds us, we should not lose sight of Thomas’ demand to touch Jesus’ wounds. We may not encounter Jesus in the same way as Thomas and his companions, but maybe we do see and touch his wounds in the woundedness of our world. This is the message Jesus shared in the parable of the sheep and the goats, where Jesus told his followers the nations would be judged on the basis of how they treated him by caring for the “the least of these who are members of my family” (Matt. 25:31-46).

So, even though we might not see Jesus’ physical presence, we can minister to him by ministering to those who suffer, whether they are members of this community of faith, strangers we encounter along the way of life, or by joining together in praying for peace and justice for those caught in the wars taking place in Ukraine, Lebanon, Iran, and elsewhere. As we join with Thomas in touching the wounds of Jesus by touching the wounds of those around us, we can also rejoice that when Jesus broke free from the tomb, he also set us free from the sting of death.

Our reading concludes with what seems to be the ending of the Gospel, even though there is another chapter in the Gospel. In this closing word, John tells us that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his followers that didn’t get written down in this account. However, “these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (Jn. 20:30-31).

This reminder hearkens back to Jesus’ statement about God’s love for the world in John 3:16. In both that passage and this one we are reminded that we serve the “Sending God” who first sent to Jesus into the world to reveal to us God’s love and then sends us into the world, empowered by the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus breathed upon the disciples and then on us, so that we might carry into the world the good news of God’s realm.

As I ponder John’s Easter story, I find myself encouraged by the way John tells us about Thomas’ role in the story, including his questions and doubts. So, when it comes to Thomas’s role in this story, biblical scholar Jaime Clark-Soles writes:

In the end, it’s not Thomas’s doubting that matters; it’s his believing. Everybody doubts; not everyone believes. Be a believing Thomas; be awestruck and proclaim him “My Lord and my God.” [Reading John for Dear Life, p. 145].

Although the Scriptures don’t tell us what happened to Thomas after this exchange, except that he appears in the list of disciples who witnessed the ascension of Jesus in the book of Acts (Acts 1:12-13), however, according to tradition, he took the message of Jesus eastward, ending up in India, where it is said that he planted churches and was later martyred. If you go to India today, you will find a very ancient Christian community that traces its origins to Thomas’ ministry. While we don’t have direct proof of Thomas’ mission to India, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that he did carry the gospel eastward to India, planting churches along the way. If this is true, it is a powerful affirmation of the transforming nature of encountering the risen Christ. So, like Mary Magdalene, Peter, and Thomas, we have received our commission to go into a world that is wounded with good news of God’s love and forgiveness. Not only is God sending us into the world, even as God sent Jesus into the world that God loves (John 3:16), but we have been gifted by Jesus with the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Troy, MI

April 12, 2026

Easter 2A

Image Attribution: Miller, Mary Jane. Doubting Thomas, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59684 [retrieved April 11, 2026]. Original source: Mary Jane Miller, https://www.millericons.com/.

Unexpected Encounters? Sermon for Easter Sunday (John 20:1-18)

2026-04-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

John 20:1-18

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb” (Jn. 20:1). This morning the Gospel of John invites us to join Mary Magdalene at the tomb where, a day before Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus laid Jesus’ body. What might Mary have expected to find when she arrived at the tomb? Do you think she expected that the stone would have been removed and the body missing? The same would have been true for Peter and the Beloved Disciple after they ran to the tomb to check out Mary’s report. Nevertheless, that is what John reports.

Each of the four gospels tells the Easter story a bit differently. According to John’s account, for some untold reason, Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’ followers, decided to visit the tomb that first Easter morning. Maybe she went there to pay her respects to her beloved teacher. John doesn’t say why she went to the tomb, but when she discovered that the tomb had been unsealed, she ran to tell Peter and the Beloved Disciple what she had discovered. When they heard Mary’s report, they ran as fast as they could to the tomb to check things out for themselves. What they found were the linens that had wrapped Jesus’ body neatly folded and lying on the bench inside the tomb. But, they didn’t find the body. While the Beloved Disciple reached the tomb first, he let Peter enter the tomb first. Then, when he entered the tomb, John reports that he “saw and believed.” But what he believed is unknown because apparently, they still didn’t understand Jesus’ words about the resurrection. You have heard it said that “seeing is believing.” So, what did the Beloved Disciple see that caused him to believe? As for us, what if we don’t see what the Beloved Disciple saw? How can we believe what John reported is true? How can we trust this ancient testimony and the others we find in the New Testament concerning Jesus’ resurrection?

The eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher David Hume asked this very question. How can we trust these testimonies if we’ve never witnessed someone rise from the dead? Where is the proof? Despite the unsettling nature of David Hume’s questions, Christians across the globe are gathering this morning to boldly sing “Jesus Christ is Risen Today, Alleluia!” or something similar, believing that in Jesus’ resurrection, death has lost its sting.

John’s account continues after Peter and the Beloved Disciple headed back to their homes, perhaps bewildered at what they had discovered. On the other hand, Mary Magdalene remained behind at the tomb, grief-stricken not only at Jesus’ death but also at the disappearance of his body. Who would do such a thing as steal a body from a sealed tomb? While she wept, she tried to figure out what had happened to the body. If only Father Brown were nearby, surely he would figure out what happened to the body. The one thing that didn’t occur to her at that moment was the possibility that Jesus had risen from the dead.

All that Mary knew at that moment was that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had placed Jesus’ body in the tomb and then sealed it with a stone (Jn. 19:38-41). It’s even possible that Mary had joined Joseph and Nicodemus in preparing Jesus’ body for burial. After all, she had stood with the other women, including the mother of Jesus, watching as the Roman soldiers nailed Jesus to the cross. She probably heard Jesus’ final word before he gave up his spirit: “It is finished” (Jn. 19:25-30).

Mary’s role in this story is important because she seems to have been an important member of Jesus’ community. While she makes her first appearance in John’s Gospel standing with the other women at the foot of the cross, the fact that she came to the Tomb that morning to stand vigil suggests that she was fully invested in Jesus’ ministry. Not only was she invested in his ministry, but she also wasn’t ready to give up on that investment until she got answers to her questions about Jesus’ disappearance.

As Mary kept her vigil outside the tomb, she had the first of two unexpected encounters. The first encounter came when she looked in the tomb and saw two angels sitting on the bench where Jesus’ body had once lain. The angels asked Mary why she was weeping. This might seem to be an odd question to ask of someone who is keeping vigil at a tomb. I don’t know how long it took for Mary to come up with a response, but using my imagination, I have to wonder if their question offended her. Wasn’t it obvious why she might be weeping? After all, someone she loved had been brutally executed by the government, and then his body had disappeared from his tomb. Even as she grieved her loss, she wanted answers!

Immediately after this first unexpected encounter with the angels, Mary turned around and saw a stranger standing in front of her. She assumed that he must be the gardener. Who else would be there besides the caretaker? Perhaps he would know where Jesus’ body had been taken. Before she could ask him where Jesus’ body had been taken, the man asked Mary why she was weeping. Using my imagination once again, I can hear in Mary’s voice growing frustration with what must have appeared to be a silly question. However, since she hoped to find Jesus’ body, she asked the man if he knew where the body had been taken so she could put it back where it belonged.

Here is that other unexpected encounter that came because Mary didn’t recognize Jesus until he spoke her name. When he spoke her name, her eyes were immediately opened, and she cried out: “Rabbouni!” That is, Teacher!

Earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus told a parable about the Good Shepherd. In this parable, Jesus declared that the sheep follow the shepherd because they know the shepherd’s voice (Jn 10:1-6). Just like the sheep in that parable, Mary knew Jesus’ voice when he called her by name. At that moment the whisperings of doubt began to fade into belief.

Perhaps instinctively, Mary tried to grab hold of Jesus. You can understand why. Now that Jesus stood there in front of her, she wasn’t going to lose him again. She might not have fully understood what was happening, but she was sure that her teacher was no longer dead. Although Jesus told her to let go of him because he had not yet ascended to the Father, he wanted her to know that he had a job for her. He commissioned her to tell the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he was alive. When Jesus gave Mary that commission, she became the apostle to the apostles.

If Mary was the first apostle, she continues to be an apostle to us. That’s because she continues to proclaim the good news that Jesus has risen from the dead. Now, we might still hear David Hume whispering in our ears, questioning her testimony, but her testimony is compelling. That is, if we are open to the glory that is the resurrection. There is more good news because, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ” (1 Cor. 15:22). Having heard the good news that is the Easter message, are you ready to join with St. John of Damascus and sing?

Now let the heavens be joyful!

Let earth its song begin!

The world resound in triumph,

and all that is therein;

let all things seen and unseen

their notes of gladness blend;

for Christ the Lord has risen,

our joy that has no end.

(Chalice Hymnal, 28)

The author of the first letter of John confirms Mary’s testimony, opening with these words:

We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and what we have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— . . . We are writing these things so that our joy may be made complete” (1 Jn 1:1, 4).

Mary Magdalene proclaimed the good news revealed to her by Jesus to the disciples. When she did this, her joy was made complete. The same is true for us as we embrace her testimony.

I believe it’s important to remember that Jesus could have first appeared to Peter or one of the other male disciples, but according to John, he chose Mary to be his ambassador. Therefore, at least in the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene is the first evangelist. She is the first witness to the resurrection, which means she’s the first apostle.

As we gather here this morning to worship God in the presence of the Risen Christ, do you hear Mary’s testimony about what she saw with her own eyes? While I don’t know if she got to touch Jesus, later on Thomas does touch him. In that moment, his eyes were opened to the mystery that is the resurrection. I believe that John wants us to know that the risen Jesus is not a figment of someone’s imagination. We may not completely understand how the resurrection works, but Mary’s Easter testimony to the resurrection serves as an invitation to celebrate God’s victory over death. Therefore, we can declare with the Psalmist:

This is the day that the Lord has made;

let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Ps. 118:24).

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Tyrone Township, Michigan

Easter Sunday

April 5, 2026

Image attribution:

Miller, Mary Jane. First Apostle to the Apostles, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59688 [retrieved April 4, 2026]. Original source: Mary Jane Miller, https://www.millericons.com/.

Walking in the Light - Sermon for Lent 4A (Ephesians 5:8-14)

2026-03-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 5:8-14

You may have heard the phrase “It has come to light.” That phrase often suggests that you are about to hear bad news. Whether it is a matter of moral or criminal behavior, you never want to hear those words. That is especially true if you’ve had some dealings with Jeffrey Epstein. If you’re in his files or visited his island, you might be in trouble. Look at what happened to the guy formerly known as Prince Andrew. Not only did he lose his title and place in the line of succession, but he was arrested for making the monarchy look bad. So, when the light shines in the darkness, it usually brings to light the bad things done under the cover of darkness.

Our reading for the Fourth Sunday of Lent from Ephesians 5 talks about leaving behind darkness and walking in the light. This letter addresses a number of practical questions about what it means to live the Christian life in the context of a pagan culture, which embraced ethical and moral conduct that differed greatly from the teachings of Judaism and Christianity. The recipients of this letter were mostly recent converts who, according to Paul, had been living in darkness before their conversion. Now that these Gentile believers had left behind the world of darkness, they should embody the light of Christ that is expressed in what is good, right, and true. According to Paul, the light of Christ shines into the world, revealing the “unfruitful works of darkness” that followers of Jesus should avoid.

This contrast between darkness and light is a theme that runs through the Bible from beginning to end. It starts with the opening verses of Genesis. In the first act of creation, while the Spirit of God swept across the waters, God said, “Let there be light.” When God spoke these words, God separated the light from the darkness, creating the first day and the first night. God pronounced the emergence of light from the darkness to be good (Gen. 1:1-5). Then at the very end, in the Book of Revelation, we read that “the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21:23).

Isaiah offered an important word about the contrasting reality of light and darkness that fits with the message we find in Ephesians 5:

Doom to you who call evil good

and good evil,

Who put darkness in place of light

and light in place of darkness,

Who substitute bitter for sweet

and sweet for bitter!

(Isa. 5:20 The Message)

In a world where the darkness of night was rather scary, it’s understandable that people would view the light of day as a good thing. After all, things that go “bump in the night” can frighten us. Besides, we all know that criminals like to operate under the cover of darkness. The same is true of the rats and cockroaches. So, at least in the movies and TV shows, when people turn on the light switch, whether in a dark and dank basement or the backyard, things that live in the darkness suddenly scurry away.

This dualism between light and darkness also appears in several places in the New Testament, especially in the Gospel of John. In the prologue to his Gospel, John picks up on the imagery from Genesis 1, and reveals that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” and in him there is life that is the “light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (Jn 1:1-5). Later in John 8, Jesus tells his disciples: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (Jn. 8:12). Then when Jesus responded to his followers questions about why he had decided to go to Jerusalem, where he might be killed, he told his disciples: “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble because the light is not in them” (Jn 9:9-10). Of course, it was under the cover of darkness that Jesus’ enemies came to arrest him. But, as John promised in the prologue, the darkness would not overcome the light because God had the last word in the resurrection. This is an important word because it gives us hope that evil will not have the last word. Things may seem rather dark at the moment, but morning will come, and with it a new day will begin.

Now, even though darkness won’t ultimately overcome the light, that doesn’t mean darkness is powerless. This is why Paul told the Ephesian converts to “walk as children of light” by doing what is good, right, and true. We hear something similar in his letter to the church in Rome, where Paul told the believers that the time of their salvation was close at hand, since “the hour has already come for you to wake up from your sleep. Now our salvation is nearer than when we first had faith. The night is almost over, and the day is near. So let’s get rid of the actions that belong to the darkness and put on the weapons of light. Let’s behave appropriately as people who live in the day, not in partying and getting drunk, not in sleeping around and obscene behavior, not in fighting and obsession” (Rom. 13:11-13 CEB).

The message that we hear throughout Paul’s letters and elsewhere, including the Gospels, is one of grace and mercy. However, Jesus, Paul, and James all emphasized the need to behave in accord with the will of God. For the writers of the New Testament who addressed largely Gentile Christians, this was an important message. Conversion in that context meant leaving behind their old life and entering a new life. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!” (2 Cor 5:17 NRSVUE). Paul had good reasons for addressing the behaviors of these new converts. We see this concern present in his first letter to the Corinthian church, where members of that community seemed quite adept at falling back into old habits that reflected the darkness.

When we come to the Ephesian letter, Paul advised them to separate themselves from anything that could cause them to fall back into their old ways. That’s understandable because the gravitational pull of old friendships and lifestyles can be strong. That was true then, and it’s true today. Peer pressure can be a powerful force, for good and for ill.

So, what word might Paul want to share with us? Is it possible that we could find ourselves living in darkness? We might like to think that, since we live in a supposedly Christian-dominated nation, we can avoid such things, but there are plenty of voices out there inviting us to embrace the darkness. Sometimes those voices cover themselves in religious language, even though their messages are quite different from what Jesus taught his disciples. St. Augustine offered a helpful word here about the relationship of love and how we read the Bible that I think applies: “So if it seems to you that you have understood the divine scriptures, or any part of them, in such a way that by this understanding you do not build up this twin love of God and neighbor, then you have not yet understood them.” [Teaching Christianity, NCP, I:36, p. 129].

So, we hear Paul remind us that when the light shines in the darkness, the light will expose the deeds of darkness. Ultimately, the light will prevail because darkness will not overcome the light that is God’s glory. We embody this light when we love God and our neighbors.

Our reading ends with what appears to be an early hymn that paraphrases a passage from Isaiah 60. The word we hear from Isaiah is:

1 Arise, shine, for your light has come,

and the glory of the Lord

has risen upon you.

2 For darkness shall cover the earth

and thick darkness the peoples,

but the Lord will arise upon you,

and his glory will appear over you.

3 Nations shall come to your light

and kings to the brightness

of your dawn.

(Isa 60:1).

This early hymn paraphrases Isaiah and adds the call to wake up from our sleep, rise from the dead, so that Christ will shine upon us.

So let us wake up and walk in the light and do what is good, right, and true, because a new day has begun, and Jesus has shown us the way forward. As my friend Allan Bevere puts it:

Paul’s words encourage the Ephesian church to embrace the full implications of their identity, to live visibly as those who have been rescued from darkness, and to participate actively in God’s work of bringing light to a world still in shadow. [Preachers Lectionary Notes]

In my view, the way to do this is by following Jesus’ instructions to love God and our neighbors, whomever they are and wherever they may be found.

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Tyrone Township, MI

Lent 4A

March 15, 2026

Justification, Reconciliation, and at Peace with God -- Sermon for Lent 3A (Romans 5:1-11)

2026-03-08T07:30:00.000-07:00

Romans 5:1-11

Six years ago, the world was shutting down because COVID was on the march. That included our church services. Everyone was uncertain about what the future held. Would this last a few days or weeks? No one knew at that moment. Just a few weeks earlier, I had shared with the folks at Central Woodward my plan to retire at the end of June 2021. Since I was giving them a nearly eighteen-month head start, I thought we had lots of time to prepare the church for the future. Suffice it to say, things didn’t work out the way I planned.

As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. While we might not be facing a global pandemic, the recently launched war with Iran is making people just as anxious, uncertain, and fearful as we were six years ago. That’s because we don’t know what the future holds. We know that gas prices are going up dramatically, and the stock market is going down. We don’t know how long the war will last and what form it will ultimately take.

As we gather here this morning, we bring our fears, anxieties, and our uncertainty into the room. The most important thing I can say this morning is that because we’re members of the body of Christ, we’re in this together.

The word we hear this morning comes from Paul’s letter to the Romans. In our reading, Paul declares: “Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1 CEB). Yes, it is because of Jesus’ faithfulness that we have peace with God. This promise is confirmed by the chorus of the hymn “My Life Flows On”: “No storm can shake my inmost calm while to the Rock I’m clinging. Since love is Lord of heav’n and earth, how can I keep from singing?” This isn’t a counsel of complacency or passivity. Rather, it is a reminder that as we navigate the storms of life that beat against us, we can find a sense of inmost calm or peace through our relationship with Jesus. Therefore, we can keep on singing.

When it comes to defining the kind of faith Paul has in mind, we would be wise to think in terms of trust. While putting our trust in God doesn’t mean we won’t experience doubt or anxiety, at the end of the day, like Abraham, we can go forth in the knowledge that we are not alone. As the Psalmist declares, “even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4).

If we step back to chapter 4 of Romans, we hear Paul say of Abraham that he “believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” How did Abraham believe God? When God made a covenant with him, Abraham responded by packing up the family and heading out on a journey to an unknown destination. But, he went on this journey with this promise that God would bless the nations through his descendants (Gen. 12:1-4). At the time God issued the call, Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were quite old and didn’t have children of their own. Nevertheless, Abraham put his faith in God. Although Abraham’s story is rather complicated, the point Paul wants to make is that Abraham put his trust in God, and God recognized this to be a sign of righteousness.

Now, even if we put our trust in Jesus so that we might experience peace with God, that doesn’t mean we won’t experience suffering. But, as we face the challenges of life, we do so in the company of Jesus, who is present with us through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when we experience suffering, our endurance builds character, which in turn produces hope. Paul assures us that this hope will not disappoint because God’s love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we can find peace with God. There is a line from St. Augustine’s Confessions that I think offers confirmation of this message: “You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” [The Confessions (Oxford World's Classics) (Kindle p. 3)]. Yes, our hearts are restless until they rest in God. That is, when we experience peace with God.

When we think of peace, we often think in terms of the absence of war or conflict. We sing “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” I love that message, but what does it mean? How does peace with God fit into our understanding of ourselves and our world? Does having peace with God influence the way we live?

In the Beatitudes, Jesus called peacemakers blessed because they will be called children of God (Matt. 5:9). I would think we would all like to be considered children of God, but what does it mean to be a peacemaker? Some would answer by suggesting that peace requires strength, especially military might. That was the promise made in Paul’s day by the Roman Empire, which offered the Pax Romana or Roman peace. This Roman peace was rooted in the empire’s use of its military to brutally enforce its decrees. One of the ways Rome demonstrated its power was by crucifying people the government believed might threaten its power. Jesus got caught up in Rome’s anxieties and faced the consequences. However, history has demonstrated that peace through strength is an illusion.

The kind of peace that Paul offers is quite different. Instead of the Pax Romana, he had in mind the biblical concept of shalom, which is much more than the absence of war and violence. The kind of peace Paul envisioned could be experienced even in the midst of suffering. It is a form of inner calm that allows us to persevere and find hope even in the midst of difficult times.

While we might be attracted to the principle of peace through strength, the pathway to peace that Paul envisions tends to look like weakness. That’s why he told the Philippians that the peace of God surpasses our understanding (Phil. 4:7). Although the pathway to peace with God that Paul envisions might not make sense to those who embrace peace through strength, he tells us that “while we were still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” Dying on a cross is a sign of weakness. After all, it was a slow, painful, and humiliating form of execution that was reserved for the kind of people the government didn’t like. Rome used this form of execution to deter people from threatening its power. But Jesus turned that sign of oppression upside down, and offered his death on the cross as the means of reconciling us to God and to one another.

The Scripture readings for Lent often speak of sin, death, and weakness. These readings fit with a season that invites us to examine our lives and make confession of sin, receive God’s forgiveness, and then be restored to right relationship with God and with our neighbors. While Paul speaks of suffering, he doesn’t suggest that suffering is a sign of divine punishment for sin. So, we shouldn’t see pandemics, earthquakes, tornadoes, or casualties during a time of war as forms of divine punishment. These things happen to good and bad alike, which is a message we find in the Book of Job. However, sin, which in many ways is a spiritual illness that creates an environment of brokenness that needs to be healed, can be seen in both personal and systemic terms. In many ways, what we think of as personal sin is rooted in broken systems that negatively impact our lives. But, whether we think of sin in personal or systemic terms, it is important that we take stock of how we contribute to the brokenness of this world so that we might experience the reconciling effects of God’s grace that brings healing to our world. In this, there is peace with God through Christ.

When it comes to the suffering that we endure as we move toward this hope that doesn’t disappoint, many will ask about where God can be found. In seeking answers to this question, I’ve found the teachings of theologians like the late German theologian Jürgen Moltmann helpful. Moltmann wrote that “God goes with us, God suffers with us. So where Christ, God’s Son, goes, the Father goes too. In the self-giving of the Son, we discern the self-giving of God.” [Moltmann, Jesus Christ for Today, p. 38]. So, God may not always rescue us from suffering, but God experiences it with us. Because God is with us as we undergo suffering, whatever form that takes, God provides the grace that sustains us. This takes us back to Paul’s vision of the church as the body of Christ. It is within the body of Christ, the community of faith, that we discover the grace that sustains us. It is grace that is revealed in the presence of others who walk with us, offering support and compassion when we need it. It is always good to remember that just being present with those who suffer can be a sign of God’s presence that can bring inmost calm or peace with God.

So even as we navigate the storms of life, we can cling to the Rock that provides us with inmost calm. Yes, and “the peace of Christ makes fresh my heart, a fountain ever springing! All things are mine since I am His! How can I keep from singing?” [Lowry, “My Life Flows On,” CH 619]. As we do so, we can join together in embracing our call to be peacemakers who join with Jesus in God’s work of reconciling the world to Godself. That leads to peace on earth, as we join together in pursuit of the common good by loving our neighbors!

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Troy, MI

March 8, 2026

Lent 3A

Bearing Witness to God's Glory - Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday, Year A (2 peter 1:16-21)

2026-02-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

2 Peter 1:16-21

The season of Epiphany begins with the magi following a star to the home of the Holy family. It ends with Jesus climbing a mountain with three of his disciples, who witness the revealing of Jesus’ glory and mission. From beginning to end, the season of Epiphany invites us to embrace the light that shines in the darkness, revealing God’s love for the world.

As we gather here on Transfiguration Sunday, we get to once again climb the mountain with Jesus and his three disciples. As we approach the mountaintop, we can ponder the age-old question: Who is Jesus? In the Gospel of Matthew, Peter answers that question by proclaiming that Jesus is the messiah, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16). While Peter got the right answer, it’s clear from Matthew’s account that he wasn’t sure what that meant. He needed more information, such as the resurrection of Jesus. Soon after Peter made that confession, he witnessed the Transfiguration of Jesus (Matt. 17:1-13), but even then, he still didn’t completely understand who Jesus really was. So again, he would need more information before he truly understood Jesus’ identity.

This morning, we have heard another version of the Transfiguration story that can help us better answer the question of Jesus’ identity.

Over the years, I’ve preached my share of Transfiguration Sunday sermons. You may have heard your share of such sermons. So, the story itself may be rather familiar. I mentioned that Matthew offers us a story of the transfiguration. Mark and Luke have their versions as well. Then there is the version we find in 2 Peter. This letter, which is attributed to Peter, is tucked into the back of the New Testament. Although the author of the letter claims to be an eyewitness to the Transfiguration, most scholars believe it appeared long after Peter’s death. However, even if this isn’t an eyewitness account, it does draw on apostolic traditions, such as the ones we find in the Gospels. What it does is call our attention to the church’s longstanding claim that Jesus is God’s beloved Son, who reveals the glory and majesty of God to the world. According to the letter, God not only affirmed Jesus’ divine sonship, but that we should attend to this witness on the part of God to Jesus’ glory and majesty, because this word is a lamp that shines into a dark place. In Matthew’s account, God not only claims Jesus as God’s beloved Son, but calls on us to listen to him.

So, if the voice from heaven points us to Jesus and asks us to listen to him, what is Jesus, God’s beloved Son, saying to us? How might his words and his life speak to us? How might his life and his words serve as a lamp that shines in the darkness?

As we ponder the question of what Jesus might have to say to us, our letter also speaks of the witness of Scripture as well as its interpretation. When the letter speaks of scripture, the author likely has in mind the Old Testament. Though he might also have had in mind the growing number of early Christian writings, including the letters of Paul as well as early version of one of the Gospels. In a sense, not only does Jesus serve as a lamp that shines in the darkness, but so does Scripture. As the 119th Psalm declares: “Your word is a lamp before my feet and a light for my journey” (Psalm 119:105 CEB).

In getting back to the story of the Transfiguration, if we follow the lead provided by the Gospel of Matthew, we’re told that Jesus ascended the Mount of Transfiguration in the company of Peter, James, and John. When they reached the summit, these three disciples witnessed the revealing of Jesus glory and majesty as his countenance changed and his clothing radiated light. The Common English Bible puts it this way: “He was transformed in front of them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light” (Matt. 17:2 CEB). Then, as they watched in awe the transformation of Jesus’ face and clothing, Moses the Lawgiver and Elijah the prophet appeared with him. These parts of the story are absent in 2 Peter, but the author of 2 Peter focused on what happened next. He was interested in the voice that spoke from within the cloud, much like the voice that spoke to Moses from within another cloud that enveloped a mountain (Exod. 24:15-18). When Moses entered the cloud, he received the tablets of the law, which revealed a word from God for the people, much like the word that was shared with the three disciples that day when they joined Jesus on the mountain. In this case, the voice that spoke from the cloud declared of Jesus: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased” (2 Pet. 1:17; Matt. 17:5).

So, why did the author of this letter share this word with his audience? According to the letter, the author was concerned that people who claimed to follow Jesus might “follow cleverly devised myths.” The letter doesn’t reveal the nature of these myths, but maybe that’s a good thing. Most likely, the recipients of the letter knew what the author had in mind. But people in every era of history have been known to embrace “cleverly devised myths” shared with them by false prophets. These false prophets and teachers malign the truth and in their gree,d try to exploit the followers of Jesus with their deceptive words. In this, there is darkness. The good news is that a lamp is shining in the darkness, if only we will attend to it.

When the letter speaks of the lamp that shines in the darkness, what comes to my mind is the call to be discerning about what we embrace as followers of Jesus. Although the letter doesn’t speak of the two great commandments, which begin with the call to love God with our entire being and then calls on us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, I think these two commands do provide us with the kind of light that reveals the stuff that hides in the darkness. Whether or not you enjoyed Bad Bunny’s halftime show at last week’s Super Bowl, the banner that appeared on the screen above the stadium speaks truth: “The Only Thing Stronger Than Hate is Love.”

So perhaps the word that God would have us hear from Jesus today is the call to love. When Jesus spoke of loving God and our neighbor, he wasn’t saying anything new. He was drawing on ancient words found in Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

This word is important because there are forces in our world that seek to divide us by manipulating our fears and anxieties. They may spread hateful and vulgar messages that demean and destroy. They may even do so in the name of Jesus.

Unfortunately, there are tools that seek to shroud the world in darkness, and they fulfill their purpose rather well. You might call these tools expressions of propaganda, which can include conspiracy theories and political speech, that then gets amplified on places like our social media feeds. While social media itself, whether it’s Facebook or another similar entity, isn’t bad or evil, it can be used for that purpose. That’s why we always need to be discerning with what we share, reshare, and amplify. If we’re going to be discerning in our use of such tools, we need to first ask whether what we share is true. Secondly, does it reflect the love of God and neighbor? But it’s not just social media; there are a lot of other spaces where a little love can shine a lot of light in places of darkness. A good place to turn when we are seeking a bit of light is Micah 6:8, where the prophet answers the question of what God expects of us: “He has told you, human one, what is good and what the Lord requires from you: to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.” (Mic. 6:8 CEB)

So as Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration reminds us, God has called on us to listen to Jesus, the one whom God has embraced as the beloved Son. May his words and his life, including his death and resurrection, serve as a lamp unto our feet. According to 2 Peter, that lamp includes Scripture, which is not a matter of one’s own interpretation, but depends on the leading of the Holy Spirit who moves those who speak on God’s behalf. The key is starting with the commands to love God and neighbor. If we do this, everything else falls into place, so that when we look around at the world and see the darkness that includes vulgar, hateful, racist, and sexist speech, we can bear witness to the glory and majesty of the one God calls the beloved Son, whose light shines in the darkness by revealing God’s love for the world. Paul calls this serving as agents of reconciliation, who let the world know that God is at work reconciling the world to Godself through Christ, and making all things new, so that today might be the day of salvation (2 Cor. 5:16-6:2). Salvation is a term that has broad meanings and implications, including healing and liberation. May we embrace the light that shines into the darkness, as it is revealed in Jesus, whom God calls the beloved Son.

Preached by Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Tyrone Township, Michigan

February 15, 2026

Transfiguration Sunday

What Does God Expect of Us - Sermon for Epiphany 4A (Micah 6:1-8)

2026-02-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

Micah 6:1-8

Back during my teen years, a bumper sticker appeared with a request: “Please be patient with me, God is not finished with me.” There’s truth in that request, because God isn’t finished with us. But, hopefully, we’re moving toward spiritual maturity, which, according to the Ephesians letter, means reaching “the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). This is a lifelong process. Unfortunately, I think this meme often served as an excuse for bad behavior, especially when that statement was placed on the back bumper of a car that cuts you off.

While I’m thankful that we’re justified by God’s grace, if we read scripture, we discover that God has high expectations of us. This is the message we hear from God through the words of the eighth-century prophet Micah, who lived outside Jerusalem. This prophet was deeply troubled by what he observed taking place around him, as the rich exploited the poor. Throughout this book, the prophet envisions God standing in a courtroom, suing the people, including monarchs, priests, and other leaders, because they fail to act justly.

This is what we encounter this morning in our reading from Micah 6. It’s clear that God isn’t happy. So God demands that the people plead their case before a jury composed of the mountains and the hills. The people respond by asking what God expects of them. What does God require of them? What would satisfy God’s anger at them? Does God expect burnt offerings, rivers of oil, or even one’s firstborn child? Micah answers their questions with a simple declaration. What God expects is that they “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Mic. 6:8). Justice, mercy or kindness, and humility. Yes, that’s what God expects of us.

These are well-known words that many of us have pondered and recited. One of the things we discover when we read the prophets is that while worship is important, it’s meaningless if we fail to act justly, kindly, and humbly.

So the prophet pictures God in the courtroom demanding that the people: “Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.” Then God begins to build a case against the people. God reminds them that they had been rescued from slavery in Egypt through the ministries of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. So, God asks them: “What did I do to you?” “How did I weary you?” In other words, God is asking them how God had failed to honor the covenant made with the people through Moses.

It’s clear that God is an even better prosecutor than Jack McCoy of Law and Order, because the people not only acknowledge their guilt, but they want to know how they can resolve the case. They want to know how they can make things right with God.

The people offer several possible solutions. They start by suggesting burnt offerings of yearling calves or perhaps a thousand rams, along with rivers of oil. Would that do? If these offerings weren’t sufficient, perhaps God would accept their first child as an appropriate sacrifice. After all, this was the practice of some of their neighbors. In other words, they wanted to know how they could be more religious.

Pastor Brett Younger points out that the defendants in this case “are religious, but their idea of what religion means is far from God’s hopes for them. They think that religion consists of worshiping ‘correctly’ and staying away from those who do not” [Feasting on the Word, p. 293]. The thing is, people can be very religious and still be evil.

Consider for a moment the mafioso Vito Corleone in the Godfather movie. He can go to church, have his children baptized, and then, when he gets home, order a hit on his enemies. Just because you go to church doesn’t mean you’re a good person. In fact, even being clergy doesn’t mean you’re a good person. History proves that.

So being religious, going to church, and maybe tithing, might be a good thing, but it doesn’t absolve us from our responsibilities before God. We can’t sweep bad behavior under the rug, because on Sunday we serve as a Sunday School teacher, an Elder, or even a preacher!

It’s worth remembering that the infamous B.T.K. serial killer, who murdered around ten people back in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, was a member in good standing of his local church. He even served on the church council and as a Cub Scout leader.

So if being religious doesn’t meet with God’s expectations, what does God expect of us? Before we get back to Micah’s answer, we might want to consider what Jesus had to say in the Beatitudes that are found at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. When we read the beatitudes, we discover that the people God blesses aren’t the rich and powerful members of society. Instead, God blesses the poor, the grieving, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted, and those who are falsely charged with crimes. This is a rather counter-cultural statement on Jesus’ part, but it fits with what Micah says about God’s expectations.

In another story from the Gospels, a lawyer approached Jesus and asked him what he needed to do to receive eternal life. Jesus responded by asking him what Torah had to say. The lawyer told him that we should love God and our neighbor. Jesus agreed and told him: “Do this, and you will live.” (Luke 10:25-29). Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the story because the lawyer wanted to know the identity of this neighbor he was supposed to love. Jesus answered that question with the parable about a Samaritan who responded compassionately to a stranger who had been mugged, even though a couple of religious leaders ignored the man in the ditch. This story probably offended some of the people in Jesus audience because Samaritans were persona non grata to much of Jesus’ audience. But this was Jesus’ answer to the question of the identity of the neighbor whom we’re to love. This brings us back to Micah 6, where God tells the people that what is good and desirable in God’s eyes is that we do justice, love mercy or kindness, and walk humbly with God.

So, when it comes to God’s expectations, worship is appropriate, but insufficient. While Torah teaches us to love God with our entire being, it also asks us to love our neighbors. That’s because, as we read in 1 John, it’s not possible to love God whom we can’t see if we don’t love our brothers and sisters who we can see (1 John 4:20-21). In Micah’s words, that means acting justly, kindly, and humbly.

We are living at a time where even people who claim to follow Jesus are engaging in unjust, unkind, and arrogant ways. Our world is increasingly coarse and even vulgar in its behavior. One of the places we see this is on social media. I picked it because it's an easy place to start.

You may not spend much if an,y time on social media, but I participate on several platforms. While these platforms can be useful, they can also be misused and manipulated. It seems like these platforms can bring out the worst in people, even people who are very devout. Every day I witness people breaking the commandment about not bearing false witness.

A few years back, Angela Williams Gorrell wrote a book for Christians who use social media. She proposed five questions we should ask ourselves when we participate in social media, which I think reflect Micah’s message to us.

1. “Is this information true?” This is an important question because it’s rather easy to pass on misinformation if we don’t pay close attention. Once its out there it’s hard to reel it back in. The damage can be enormous.
2. “Even though I find this funny, is it mean, hateful, racist, marginalizing, and so forth? Does it qualify as harassment, bullying, gossip, or lying?” Here is where that word about loving our neighbors really comes in handy.
3. “Am I OK with my coworkers or peers, potential employers, family, and friends viewing this?
4. “What is my tipping point when I see something bad happening online?”
5. “Am I affirming information or actions that are good and true?” [Gorrell, Always On, pp. 155-156]. When you hit that like button or add your comment, what are you saying to the world?

I think these questions resonate with what Micah and Jesus had to say, especially in this moment, even if neither of them had access to modern social media. I might add this word from Paul, who asked the people in Corinth whether their actions were edifying. So, whether it’s a post on social media or some other interaction with others, does what I have to say edify and build up, or does it tear down? We can add to that the question of whether our actions express love for our neighbors, knowing that Jesus’ definition of a neighbor is much broader than we might think. After all, when Jesus offers the parable of the day of judgment, he declares that the ones who are blessed are the ones who feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and those in prison (Matt. 25:34-35). This, it seems, is what God expects of us.

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Troy, MI

Epiphany 4A

February 1, 2026

Image Attribution: James, Laura. Sermon on the Mount, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57891 [retrieved January 31, 2026]. Original source: Laura James, https://www.laurajamesart.com/collections/religious/.

On a Mission for God - Sermon for Epiphany 2A (Isaiah 49:1-7)

2026-01-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

Sunrise at Arches National Park

Isaiah 49:1-7

After Elwood Blues picked up his brother Jake from the Joliet Prison, they set out on a “Mission from God.” This divinely authorized mission involved raising money to prevent the bank foreclosure on the Catholic orphanage where they grew up. Although their mission from God was a race against time, nothing, not even the Illinois State Police, which was authorized to use “all unnecessary violence to apprehend the Blues Brothers,” was going to stop them from saving their childhood home.

In our reading from Isaiah 49, a prophet commonly known as Second Isaiah, may face different kinds of obstacles than the Blues Brothers, but he also found himself on a mission from God. The prophet speaks to Jewish exiles living in Babylon, offering them hope, encouragement, and their own mission from God. In an earlier chapter, God tells the people: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” (Is 42:1).

In our reading this morning from Isaiah, the prophet, on whom God placed the Spirit so he might help “bring forth justice to the nations,” claims that God had called him and the nation of Israel to be a light to the nations. This call, according to the prophet, came while he was still in his “mother’s womb.” Not only did he receive this divine calling, but God also gifted him through the Spirit with a mouth like a sharp sword and made him like a polished arrow. So, he did not lack in any spiritual gifts he might need to fulfill his mission.

Now, the prophet doesn’t seem too excited about his prophetic calling, but then that was true of most prophets. Jeremiah claimed that God had called him to a prophetic ministry before his birth, and yet Jeremiah told God that he was but a boy who didn’t know how to speak. Nevertheless, despite Jeremiah’s protests, he went on to become an important prophet (Jer. 1:4-10). Then there’s Jonah, who ran the other way when God sent him to Ninevah.

The message Isaiah delivered to the people living in exile offered a word of encouragement to people who had lost their sense of purpose. Having lost their homes, their temple, and their homeland, they wondered whether the God who made a covenant with them had abandoned them. The prophet seems to have the same concern when he complains to God: “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity.” Nevertheless, he then confessed that “my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God.” He may have resisted his calling at first, but like Elroy and Jake, he knew that it’s not easy to say no to God.

Sometimes we might feel like this religion thing we’re engaged in involves laboring in vain. We might ask ourselves, what good does following Jesus do for me and for the world? After all, the world we live in seems to be in disarray. Things don’t seem to get better with time. We might not have the Illinois State Police and the Good Ole Boys chasing after us, but churches, families, and friends find themselves divided over politics and religion. While the United States might be observing the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this year, many of us aren’t sure that our democracy is going to survive much longer.

I have a group of interfaith friends that gathers somewhat regularly over coffee to discuss the state of the world and the challenges facing our faith communities. My Muslim friend Amin once raised a good question. What good is it to believe in God and practice our faith? What difference does being devout mean in daily life? What benefit does it provide?

That is the question the exiles were asking. It’s the same question the author of Ecclesiastes raised when he declared:

Utter futility! —said Koheleth—
Utter Futility! All is futile!
What real value is there for a man
In all the gains he makes beneath the sun? (Eccl. 1:2-3 Tanakh).

Some translations use the word vanity, but “utter futility” seems like a good translation. If life seems utterly futile, what should we do? Should we follow the lead of the ancient Epicureans and embrace the motto of “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”

The prophet may have felt like he had labored in vain, but God responded to the servant whom God called while he was still in his mother’s womb and commissioned him to bring Israel back to God. Here I’m using the New Living Translation:

5b The Lord has honored me,
and my God has given me strength.
6 He says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me.
I will make you a light to the Gentiles,
and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Is. 49:5-6 NLT).

Restoring the people to their homeland was only the beginning of the servant’s mission from God. Once the people returned home, God would make them a light to the nations so that God’s word of salvation might spread to the ends of the earth. So, in a sense, what we see happening in our reading from Isaiah 49 is God renewing the covenant first made with Abraham and then through Moses, so that they might reclaim their sense of purpose as God’s people.

This morning we gather on the Second Sunday of Epiphany, which is a season of light. We also gather on Martin Luther King Weekend. It’s been more than fifty years since Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, and while his dream remains unfulfilled, his call for justice is still with us. So, although it may not seem possible at this moment, we can embrace King’s vision that “the arc of the moral universe is long, . . . it bends toward justice.” It is our calling as followers of Jesus to participate in the bending of that moral ark toward justice, even if this mission from God at times seems utterly futile. The good news is that God promises to walk with us along the way through the presence of the Holy Spirit, who gifts us with every spiritual gift.

The season of Epiphany begins with the baptism of Jesus, which inaugurates his ministry. According to Matthew’s Gospel, on the day John baptized Jesus, the heavens opened up, the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove, and God claimed him as the beloved Son of God. After that, Jesus went into the wilderness, faced down the devil, and then took up a ministry that ended with him hanging from a Roman Cross. However, when all seemed lost, God raised Jesus from the dead, after which the risen Jesus commissioned his disciples to go make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:16-20). In doing this, they would fulfill the mandate first given to the one we call Second Isaiah, the servant of God, who, along with Israel, was called to serve as a light to the nations. When Jesus gave his disciples this commission, he also promised to be with them always, to the end of the age. This calling, first given to Isaiah and the exiles and then taken up by Jesus’ earliest disciples, has been given to us as well. Yes, we too are called to be God’s lights to the nations, offering words of justice, of hope, of salvation, and God’s love to a hurting world.

When Jake and Elwood received their mission from God, they gathered up their old band and headed out in search of venues where they could earn the $5000 they needed to pay off the orphanage’s mortgage. They faced lots of challenges, including being chased by the Illinois State Police, who sought to arrest Elwood because he was driving with a suspended license due to his 116 parking tickets and 56 moving violations, along with a mystery woman who wanted to kill Jake, and the country western band they offended by trying to impersonate them. Despite the challenges, they would not be deterred! In the end, they got their money and paid off the mortgage at the very last moment.

So, what about us? What is our mission from God? What does God have in store for us?

Richard Ward suggests that “Epiphany is the season where the church finds its way again through confusion and uncertainty. Our mission is to become a ‘light to the nations’ by becoming agents of God’s order of compassionate justice.” [Feasting on the Word, p. 247].

If we’re going to join Jesus in shining a light into the darkness of this world by pursuing the common good, we’ll need to think outside the box and seek new ways to be present in the world as representatives of God’s realm. Since our identity is rooted in our relationship with the Living Christ, he serves as the foundation for our witness. That witness is rooted in the call of Abraham to be a blessing to the nations. This calling is mediated to us by the Spirit of God through God’s covenant people, the people of Israel. Our participation in this effort is due to our status as Abraham’s adopted children, who have been given grace through Jesus Christ by the God who is always faithful.

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church

Tyrone Township, MI

Epiphany 2A

January 18, 2025

Living in Harmony - Sermon for Advent 2A/Peace Sunday (Romans 15:4-13)

2025-12-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

Edwards Hickes, Peacable Kingdom

Romans 15:4-13

This morning, we lit the Candle of Peace, which reminds us that this is not only the Second Sunday of Advent, it is Peace Sunday. Peace is something we all hope for, but which always seems beyond our grasp. World War I was supposed to be the war that ended all wars. Twenty years later, an even bigger war took place. This year, Peace Sunday falls on December 7th, the day Franklin Roosevelt declared would live in infamy. Having visited the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor on two occasions, I felt the presence of those lives lost that day. But that war didn’t bring an end to human wars. Many more were to come. There were wars in Korea and then Vietnam. I remember in the 1990s, after the fall of the Soviet Union, there was talk of a peace dividend for the American defense budget. But that talk didn’t last long because war came to the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. For nearly four years, we’ve watched the Russians devastate Ukraine, hoping to gain territory there, while the war in Gaza killed thousands and displaced thousands more. Nevertheless, even if peace seems to lie beyond our grasp, it remains something we should not only hope for but work for.

Perhaps the place to start on the path to peace is the Christian community, which, unfortunately, has too often divided into factions. Down through the centuries, wars of religion were commonplace. But Paul offers us a path forward toward peace that starts within the community of faith.

When Paul wrote his letter to the church in Rome, he was trying to introduce himself to a community that he’d never visited. He wanted to let them know what his message was before he arrived. Apparently, he had heard that problems were brewing in that community that centered around the relationship of Jewish and Gentile Christians. Since Paul had been engaging in a mission to Gentiles, bringing them into what had been a largely Jewish community, he felt the need to address the situation in Rome.

As I read our passage, I hear Paul addressing the Jewish Christians, reminding them what had been written in the Scriptures about God’s desire to bring Jew and Gentile together as one body so that together they might have hope in the God who is steadfast and brings encouragement. So, he offers a prayer for this community, praying that God might grant them the ability to live in harmony with each other in Christ, so that they might glorify the God and Father of Jesus.

When it comes to living together in harmony, especially when we face not only religious, but ethnic and social differences, it’s worth remembering the word Paul shared with the Galatian church regarding their baptism. In Galatians 3, we read:

As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. (Gal. 3:27-29).

Then in Ephesians, which may or may not have been written Paul, we hear this word about how Jesus breaks down the dividing walls that separate us from each other.

For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall that is the hostility between us. 15 abolishing the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16 and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17 So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, 18 for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone; 21 in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. (Eph. 2:14-22).

Did you hear the word about peace that is embedded in this rather lengthy passage?

The message we hear Paul deliver to the church in Rome is a simple one that reflects the message of Galatians and Ephesians, and as we’ve heard this morning, from Isaiah. That message is: “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Rom 15:7). This is a timeless message that is as applicable today as it was when Paul first wrote these words.

As we ponder Paul’s request that the Roman church live together in harmony, we hear this other word from Isaiah 11, which Paul draws on here in Romans 15. He reminds the believers in Rome that Isaiah spoke of the “root of Jesse” who would bring hope to the Gentiles. That reading from Isaiah is beloved by many because it depicts a future where the lion will lie down with the lamb, and the leopard with the kid. It is a world where the righteous one will judge on behalf of the poor and the oppressed, and a child will lead the people. When that day comes, “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD.” That is the future we hope for, but it is also a future that has yet to emerge.

So, we come back to Paul’s word to the Romans, where he reminds the Jewish members of the church of the promise God had made to the ancestors, that the Gentile nations would experience the same hope as the Jewish people, so that Jew and Gentile might experience the glory of God.

When I read Paul’s reminder about the promise God made to the ancestors, I go back to the call of Abraham in Genesis 12. In that passage, God told Abram to pack his family and head out on a journey to an unknown land, so he and his descendants might be a blessing to the nations. When we hear the word Gentile in Romans 15 we should think of the nations Abraham was called to bless so that all Abraham’s descendants, Jew and Gentile, might glorify God.

When it comes to living in harmony, theologian Sarah Lancaster writes:

The ones who worship this God do not bring honor to God by fighting with each other and shutting each other out. Rather they bring glory to God when they imitate the model of Jesus Christ. It is in welcoming that we become like the one we follow. [Belief: Romans, p. 249].

I like the message that “It is in welcoming that we become like the one we follow.”

So, this is our calling as the people of God, whether Jew or Gentile. According to Paul, God is calling on us to bring glory to God by welcoming one another. The best way to do this is in the context of a community. In fact, I believe that if peace emerges in this world, it will have to start within Christian communities who learn to imitate Jesus by welcoming others into our midst. That starts with living in harmony with one another. After all, how can you welcome others into your midst if you spend your time fighting with each other?

This takes us back to the vision that Isaiah offers us. While Isaiah had in mind the Davidic monarchy, the early church applied this word to Jesus, such that he was the root of Jesse, on whom the Spirit of the Lord rests, so that he might judge with righteousness. Then we have this beautiful, almost utopian vision of the future, which has been pictured by numerous artists, perhaps most famously by Edward Hick’s 1834 painting “The Peaceable Kingdom.” We haven’t reached that point in our human journey, but this is our hope. This is our calling. After all, Jesus did say: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matt 5:9).

As we continue the Advent journey, having lit the candle of peace, let us take hold of this vision of the one who is filled with the Spirit. This is the one who will bring into existence the realm of God, which is a realm of peace, where predator and prey lie together in peace. Let us go to God’s holy mountain where Isaiah promises no one will be hurt or destroyed, but instead will come to the full knowledge of God (Is. 11:9). On that day, Isaiah reveals, the “root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious” (Is. 11:10).

I close with this word from Paul’s letter to the Romans: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Rom. 15:13). With Paul’s prayer that God would fill us with “joy and peace,” so we might “abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit,” may we take hold of Jesus’ promise that the peace makers would be blessed and called children of God (Matt 5:9), and welcome one another so we might live in harmony and bring glory to God’s name through our worship.

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Troy, Michigan

Advent 2A

December 7, 2025

Image attribution: Hicks, Edward, 1780-1849. Peaceable Kingdom, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=53085 [retrieved December 6, 2025]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Edward_Hicks_-_Peaceable_Kingdom.jpg.

Living Faithfully in Times of Crisis - Sermon for Pentecost 23C (Luke 21:5-19)

2025-11-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

Luke 21:5-19

It’s almost Thanksgiving. The weather is changing, the leaves have dropped, and pumpkin spice is everywhere, letting us know that winter is on the horizon. We also seem to be living in a time of crisis. The United States government suffered its longest shutdown in the history of our country, which only ended late Wednesday evening. People who were working without pay, or trying to figure out how to put food on the table with the suspension of SNAP benefits, are thankful that the government has reopened. However, damage has been done. We can’t forget the war in Ukraine that continues unabated, while the ceasefire in Gaza remains tenuous, and trouble is again brewing in the West Bank. Then there are the political and cultural divisions here at home that continue to get worse, which can make for challenging times at many a family Thanksgiving table. Times like this can lead people to wonder if the end of the world might be at hand.

As we ponder the challenges that exist in our world today, we have this reading from the Gospel of Luke that is rather “apocalyptic.” That is, it seems as if we might be in store for some kind of catastrophic event that reveals how God views things. As we read this passage, we hear Jesus ask an important question: Will you stay faithful when things get tough? Will you endure whatever comes your way?

As we consider this week’s reading from Luke 21, it’s worth noting the larger context. While we’re getting ready for Thanksgiving, this reading takes place during Holy Week. Jesus has already entered Jerusalem in triumph, so Palm Sunday is in the past. He has cleansed the Temple, which means he has upset the religious leaders and the merchants who set up shop in the Temple precincts. He had also denounced many of the religious leaders who questioned his authority to heal and to teach. But, at this moment in the story, his disciples are taking a tour of the Temple and are expressing their awe at the Temple’s beauty and glory. This shouldn’t surprise us because this might be their first visit to Jerusalem and its Temple, which Herod the Great had expanded and refurbished, making it one of the great wonders of the ancient world. If we had been in their place, we might feel the same way. I know I felt that way during my visits to some of the great cathedrals in Europe and England. I remember going to London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral in 2013 for Sunday worship. While that church only dates back to the late seventeenth century, it is quite grand. Even though picture-taking is against the rules, everyone seemed to be ignoring the rules as they took pictures so they had a visual record of their experience. So, I understand a little bit how Jesus’ Galilean disciples felt when they entered this magnificent Temple.

While the disciples were impressed with the Temple’s grandeur, with its beautiful stones and adornments, Jesus wasn’t at all impressed by what he saw. In fact, according to Luke, Jesus warned his companions that before too long, Herod’s grand Temple would be nothing more than a pile of rubble.

Although Luke wrote his Gospel after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE, which included the destruction of the Temple, Jesus could easily have foreseen that something like this might take place before too long. Even then, Jerusalem was a powder keg waiting to be lit. The people hated the Romans and were waiting for someone to rise up and lead the revolt against their oppressors. There were plenty of rebels running around the area, so you can understand why many of the people who welcomed Jesus, as he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, by hailing him the Son of David, were hoping he would be the one to lead the revolution. Of course, not everyone shared this hope. One group in particular was worried about Jesus. That group included the Temple authorities who partnered with Rome, hoping to protect their interests. For their part, Rome expected the Temple authorities to keep a lid on the powder keg. They did this for a while, but by the year 66, things got so out of hand that the rebels finally lit that powder keg. Unfortunately for the people of Jerusalem, Rome won the war, and just like what happened six hundred years earlier, the oppressors destroyed the Temple. If you visit the Temple Mount today, you will find two Islamic shrines, the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. What you won’t find is the Temple, which is why Jews gather to pray at the base of the Temple Mount’s western retaining wall.

Our reading this morning is the opening portion of Luke’s “Little Apocalypse.” The reason is called the “Little Apocalypse” is that it covers similar territory as the Book of Revelation. Only, this apocalypse is much shorter!

Luke’s “Little Apocalypse” actually ends in verse 28 with these words: “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” In other words, it won’t be long until you can sing with Andrae Crouch, “Soon and very soon, we are going to see the king!”

In this passage, Jesus lists some of the possible signs that might take place before the day of redemption arrives. But he warns us not to get too excited when we see wars and insurrections take place. Don’t worry if earthquakes, famines, or plagues occur. The same is true of persecutions and martyrdoms. These things will take place, but that doesn’t mean the end is near. Although the Temple in Jerusalem fell in 70 CE, life continues to go on.

According to Jesus, crises will come and go, but the important thing is to be ready to testify to the things of God. However, you don’t need to prepare your defense because Jesus will provide the words you will need to share when the time comes.

While Jesus will face death on a cross in just a few days, he tells his disciples that “not a hair on your heads will be lost.” He tells them this right after warning that they might face persecution and even death. So, how can he reconcile these two statements? Perhaps the answer lies in Jesus’ promise that “by your endurance you will gain your souls.” We will face crises in our lives; the question is, will we stay faithful to our confession of faith in Jesus until the day of our redemption?

When Jesus tells us to remain faithful to our confession of faith, he doesn’t mean we should do this on our own. I believe he wants us to take this journey in the company of others who are empowered by the Holy Spirit, who sustains us while we testify to the things of God in words and in our deeds, as we partner with God in God’s work of reconciling the world in Christ to Godself (2 Cor. 5:18-19).

Passages like this invite us to consider what we value. What are we willing to invest our lives in? Hopefully, that includes the work of God in the world. Of course, this involves money. The problem is that money and wealth can be rather seductive and even destructive. Just ask King Midas of legend. He asked for and was granted the ability to turn whatever he touched into gold. Unfortunately, this “gift” backfired when he touched his beloved daughter and turned her into gold.

Then there is Mark Twain’s effort to rework the opening lines of the Westminster Confession of Faith, which I’m told many Presbyterians hold dear, to serve as a description of what is known as the “Gilded Age” of the late nineteenth century. This age might have been golden for the wealthiest Americans, but the majority of the people suffered. Twain’s version of the confession goes like this:

Q. What is the chief end of man?
A. To get rich.
Q. In what way?
A. Dishonestly if we can; honestly, if we must.
Q. Who is God, the one only and true?
A. Money is God, Gold and greenbacks and stocks. [Ronald White, American Ulysses, p. 538].

As followers of Jesus, I hope we would answer the question as to “What is the chief end of man” quite differently.

So, even as we endure the crises of our age, how might we answer the question: Will you remain faithful to your confession of faith in Jesus and invest yourselves in the establishment of God’s realm? As we ponder Luke’s “Little Apocalypse” that presages Jesus’ death on the cross, let us remember that Jesus remained faithful to the end. He might ask God to remove the cup of suffering from him during his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, but he stayed the course, enduring suffering and death on the cross (Luke 22:39-46). The good news is that in the resurrection, Jesus overcame the power of death, which marked the old age, ushering in the new age of God’s reign on earth as in heaven.

We will face crises and moments of doubt that challenge our faith in God. We may wonder why bad things happen, especially to good people. That’s only natural. Jesus had his own moment of doubt in the Garden, and yet he stayed true to his sense of calling that led to the cross. Might we also stay true to our calling, enduring to the end, so we might gain our souls, even as we participate in God’s work of redemption?

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church

Fenton, Michigan

Pentecost 23C

November 16, 2027

The War in Heaven Comest to Earth - Sermon for Pentecost 22C (Revelation 12)

2025-11-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

Woman of the Apocalypse (Hortus deliciarum)

Revelation 12:7-17

It’s Perry Gresham Weekend once again. Yesterday, we heard a word from Richard Beck that reminded us that “We Wrestle Not Against Flesh and Blood,” but rather against the powers and principalities of this present darkness. This morning, I return to this pulpit for the first time since I retired more than four years ago. Zach commissioned me to continue the conversation that Richard started yesterday. With that in mind, I chose the reading from Revelation 12.

We don’t often hear from John of Patmos in our mainline churches, especially if the preacher draws sermon texts from the lectionary, which has been my practice over the years. Nevertheless, I believe that John has an important word to share with us this morning.

Here is John’s word:

And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world he was thrown down to earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Rev. 12:7-8)

John employs a variety of images in this passage, including references to Egyptian and Greco-Roman mythology, as well as biblical allusions, such as Genesis 3 and possibly the opening chapters of Job. John envisions a war in heaven that leads to the defeat of the great dragon, who has seven heads and ten horns, along with seven diadems. While this may refer to the Roman Empire and the emperor, John also identifies the dragon that Michael and his angels defeated with Satan or the devil. There are two other characters in this story. The first character is a woman, who has been identified with Mary and with Israel---I tend to go with Israel---along with a male child whom she gives birth to, a child who appears to be the messiah. According to John, after he is thrown down from heaven, Satan wages war against the woman and her child, along with the rest of her children who keep the commandments of God and testify to Jesus.

As we read scripture, we encounter numerous passages that connect heaven and earth, such as the Lord’s Prayer. What happens in heaven affects what happens on earth. So, while Satan may have been banished from heaven, he hasn’t given up deceiving and accusing God’s children.

When we read passages like this, it might seem like we’re watching a scene from Star Wars. Could this be Luke and his friends battling the evil Sith lords Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine? You can see the similarities, but no light sabers are involved in this story.

While mainline Protestants don’t talk much about Satan or spiritual warfare, perhaps we’re living in a moment when such talk could be warranted. Although we need to be very careful how we use this language, Richard has invited us to consider the message of Ephesians 6, which suggests that “our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). Could what we read in Ephesians 6 fit with what John describes in Revelation 12?

One of the challenges posed by the Book of Revelation is the presence of rather violent imagery. Nevertheless, although he speaks of wars taking place in heaven and on earth, God’s people are never told to engage in violence. That is because the devil and his angels have been conquered not with swords or spears but “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.”

Although I don’t think John knew about the Gospel of Luke, there is a similarity between what we read in Revelation 12 and what Jesus shared in Luke with the seventy disciples, whom he sent out on a mission of healing and preaching. He told them that he “saw Satan fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18), and he connected Satan’s fall with their witness as they shared the good news that God’s realm is on the horizon.

The problem we face, according to John of Patmos, is that Satan may have been defeated in heaven, but the war on earth continues because the devil isn’t finished accusing and deceiving humanity. Therefore, evil continues to make its presence felt in our midst.

When it comes to the presence of evil and suffering in the world, as Richard Beck points out, we tend to think of them as if they’re a “logical puzzle to be solved rather than a reality to be resisted” (Beck, Reviving Old Scratch, p. 81). We may find ourselves trying to defend God’s honor by devising various theodicies, but as Beck points out, what John of Patmos, along with the author of the letter to the Ephesians, does is remind us that we’re not just living in the midst of a political crisis, we’re living in the midst of a spiritual one. As Ron Allen writes in his commentary on Revelation, “The figure of Satan reminds us that evil in the world is more than individuals doing bad things. Destructive forces in the world are often systemic in nature.” He also reminds us that “evil is tenacious,” so we need to prepare for the long haul [I Will Tell You a Mystery, p. 119]. Yes, our battle is not just against flesh and blood; it’s a spiritual battle against the powers and principalities that inhabit the systems of this world.

When we see threats emerging to the future of democracy in this country, along with the growing attraction to authoritarianism here and abroad, together with support for religious nationalism and ethnocentrism, we’re not just talking about an individual person. We’re talking about systems that are expressions of cosmic powers that have evolved over time and taken root in our midst, including systems like racism, that must be resisted, not just explained. The pathway of resistance, as John of Patmos reminds us, doesn’t involve violence on our part, even if we end up being the targets of violence.

So, getting back to our reading from Revelation 12, we see the dragon, otherwise known as Satan, falling from heaven but continuing to operate in our midst as the accuser and deceiver, and manipulator. So, how should we respond?

In his book Reviving Old Scratch, which some of you have been reading, Richard reminds us that the Bible takes the existence of evil for granted. Nevertheless, prophets, including Jesus and John of Patmos, among others, have called on us to join the resistance. The Borg of Star Trek fame may tell us that resistance is futile, but John of Patmos disagrees. While the path forward isn’t an easy one because resisting evil comes with a cost, Satan’s defeat was set in motion when he was cast out of heaven. We participate in the resistance to the accuser and deceiver not with weapons of war or acts of violence, but “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.”

The slaughtered Lamb we encounter in Revelation is none other than Jesus, the one who endured the cross. However, in the resurrection, he received “power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing” forever and ever (Rev. 5:12-13). When it comes to the ones who defeat the dragon through their testimony, John has in mind the martyrs who stood firm in the face of evil. These are the ones who resisted the temptation to give in to the empire’s false but seductive promises.

When it comes to the battles we face, Richard Beck writes that “there are forces in the world satanically opposed to love. So if love is going to invade and establish a beachhead in our lives, we’re going to have to fight for it. That is what I mean by spiritual warfare.” However, when it comes to engaging in this spiritual warfare, he writes, “it’s a battle fought with love and for love” [Reviving Old Scratch, p. 97]. Yes, our battle with evil is rooted in Jesus’ sacrificial love displayed on the cross. Then, as we read in Eugene Peterson’s translation of Colossians 2, “He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets” (Col. 2:15 MSG). In other words, Jesus made a public spectacle of the spiritual powers and principalities of this world by enduring the cross. This is the victory won by love for love by the God who is love and revealed to us in Christ, who endured the cross and thereby defeated the forces of evil.

C.S. Lewis pictured this event in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In that story, the White Witch, who held Narnia in her control, tried to kill Aslan on the Stone Table. However, she discovered that there is a deeper magic that brought Aslan back to life. When Aslan returned to life, he broke her control over Narnia. While the battle still raged, the victory had already been won.

As we face the crises of our time, and they are many, ranging from the growing threats to democracy to the war on immigrants in our communities, from the increasing presence of racism to the attacks on our Trans siblings, let us remember Jesus’ mandate of love that he gave to the disciples at the conclusion of his final meal before his arrest and crucifixion. He told the disciples, and us as well, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35 NRSVUE).

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Minister Emeritus

Central Woodward Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Troy, Michigan

Perry Gresham Weekend

November 9, 2025

Meeting Jesus, Changing Direction in Life - Sermon for Pentecost 21C (Luke 19:1-10)

2025-11-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

Luke 19:1-10

People often had life-changing experiences when they met Jesus. While not everyone responded positively to his ministry, there were many others who left behind their old lives after they met Jesus and chose to follow him. This was especially true of people like Peter and Andrew, who, along with James and John, left behind their fishing businesses to follow Jesus. Then there’s Levi, who left his tax collection booth when Jesus invited him to join his band of disciples, but not before he threw a banquet for Jesus and his friends. Jesus would add seven more members to his inner circle, but there are others who followed him. Luke also mentions the seventy who went out on a mission. Then there were several women who joined his team after they encountered him, including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, and others who provided for Jesus through their own resources.

Even if they didn’t join the band, there are many other stories of life-changing encounters. People were healed, and the dead were raised to life. One of the more dramatic encounters took place in the region of the Gerasenes, where Jesus freed a man from the grip of a group of demons who called themselves “Legion.” Luke tells us that this man not only went home in his right mind but returned home with a commission to share the good news with his neighbors about “how much God has done for you” (Luke 8:26-39). Our encounters with Jesus might not be quite as dramatic as this one, but they can also be life-changing.

This morning, our reading from the Gospel of Luke offers us a rather familiar story that we probably learned when we were children in Sunday School. We might have even sung a song about him:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man,

A wee little man was he.

He climbed up in a sycamore tree,

For the Lord he wanted to see.

And as the Savior passed that way,

He looked up in the tree,

And He said, "Zacchaeus, you come down!

For I'm going to your house today,

For I'm going to your house today."

I think this story and the song resonate with children in part because Zacchaeus’ shortness of stature made him more approachable to children. It may also have to do with him climbing a tree, which is something children at least think about doing, even if adults rarely engage in it unless it’s for professional reasons. However, we probably didn’t understand the full implications of the story when we were children.

So, we need to ask why this “wee little man” decided that seeing Jesus was so important that he would climb a tree so he could catch a glimpse of him walking by. After all, it must have seemed rather odd to see an adult man, especially a man of means, climb into the branches of a sycamore tree so he could see this itinerant preacher pass by. Nevertheless, because he risked his reputation and maybe a few bones, his life would change in ways he could never have expected.

While children focus on his shortness of stature, even more important to the story is his wealth. You see, Zacchaeus earned his riches by serving the Roman imperial government as the chief tax collector for the Jericho region. No one likes paying taxes—whether in the first century or today. But first-century Roman tax collectors were even more unpopular because they were seen by their neighbors as Jewish collaborators with an occupying enemy empire. Besides being collaborators with the enemy, they made their money through extortion. The way the tax system worked was a bit different from today. Rome didn’t pay its tax collectors a salary. Instead, they levied a certain amount to be collected, and then the tax collectors took home whatever they could extort from the people beyond the levy. Since the people feared the government, they paid whatever the tax collectors demanded of them. That meant tax collectors like Zacchaeus weren’t very popular with their neighbors. However, they could get rich!

So, why did Zacchaeus seek out Jesus? What did he hope to gain from seeing Jesus? Maybe he went looking for Jesus because he sensed that something was missing from his life that his riches couldn’t fill. Otherwise, why would he put himself in such a humiliating position just to see this itinerant preacher pass by?

As the children’s song reminds us, not only did Zacchaeus see Jesus from his perch in the sycamore tree, but Jesus also saw him. When Jesus spotted him hanging out in that tree, he called out to Zacchaeus, “Come on down so we can go to your house for dinner.”

While normally it’s not polite to invite yourself to dinner at a stranger’s house, when Jesus invites himself over, how do you say no? Of course, not everyone was happy to see Jesus go to Zacchaeus’ house for dinner. Then again, Jesus’ critics often complained that he ate with “sinners and tax collectors.” While he might seem to be a pious religious teacher, you know what they say: “Birds of a feather flock together.” So, maybe Jesus dined with Zacchaeus because, like Zacchaeus, he was also a sinner.

While his critics complained about Jesus’ choice in dinner partners, Zacchaeus was filled with joy. Not only did he see Jesus, but he also got to share a meal with him. Yes, of all the people in Jericho whom Jesus wanted to spend time with, it was this rich but a reviled tax collector, whom Jesus’ critics called a sinner.

Not only did Zacchaeus host Jesus for dinner, but this encounter also changed his life. He told Jesus he was going to give half of his possessions to the poor and pay back the people he defrauded four times the amount. That’s a lot of money to give away!

It’s worth comparing Zacchaeus’ response to Jesus with that of the rich ruler Luke speaks of in chapter 18. This man asked Jesus what he needed to do to achieve eternal life. After the ruler let Jesus know that he had kept the Ten Commandments from childhood, which meant that he, unlike Zacchaeus, was a righteous man, Jesus asked him to do one more thing. While both men were rich, the rich ruler seemed to be more attached to his riches than Zacchaeus was. You see, Jesus asked the rich ruler to sell his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor, and then become his disciple. Unfortunately, Luke tells us that he walked away with deep sadness because he “was very rich.” As he walked away, Jesus told his disciples that it’s easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. (Luke 18:18-25).

In a world that assumed that wealth was a divine blessing, Jesus’ statement about rich people didn’t make sense. If rich people couldn’t get into the kingdom, who could? Of course, Zacchaeus might have been rich, but he was also a sinner. Nevertheless, due to his encounter with Jesus, Zacchaeus decided to do what the rich ruler chose not to do. Though, like Levi, Zacchaeus first threw a banquet to introduce Jesus to his friends.

After Zacchaeus made his rather radical declaration, Jesus responded by telling him that on that very day, salvation had come to his house. His salvation included being restored to the family of Abraham.

When we read this story, we need to put it into a larger context. When Jesus proclaimed the coming of the kingdom of God, he contrasted two ages. The old age is dominated by oppression and the search for power over others. However, the new age of God’s kingdom is very different because it resists oppression and embraces the power of love and blessing. Before Zacchaeus encountered Jesus, he used his government-backed power to oppress his neighbors. By doing that, he walked away from his heritage as a child of Abraham and Sarah. But when he encountered Jesus, he rediscovered his Abrahamic heritage, which carried a divine promise that the nations would be blessed through the descendants of Abraham and Sarah. While he had lost his way, the Good Shepherd, who is known to leave the ninety-nine to seek and restore the one that is lost, led him back home to the flock so he would once again be numbered among the children of Abraham.

Zacchaeus’ life changed dramatically the day he met Jesus as he passed through Jericho on his way to Jerusalem. Instead of being a slave to his wealth, he began to store up treasure in heaven.

What is interesting about this story is that Jesus didn’t ask Zacchaeus to give away his wealth or even make restitution for defrauding the people of Jericho. Zacchaeus just seemed to know that this was what he needed to do. Perhaps, like the Grinch, his heart grew three times that day as he remembered that he was a child of God. Ron Allen suggests that in this moment Zacchaeus “recovers a fundamental part of his identity which promises to make him more a source of blessing for others, and perhaps, also to feel more blessed in his own life.”

I don’t know if Jesus is expecting us to divest ourselves of our wealth, but this is a good reminder that whatever we have materially should be held lightly and not hoarded so that as children of Abraham by adoption, we can fulfill our calling to be a source of blessing to the nations.

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Troy, Michigan

Pentecost 21C

November 1, 2025

The Welfare of the City - Sermon for Pentecost 18C (Jeremiah 29:1-7)

2025-10-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

Jeremiah 29:1-7

I’ve lived in small towns and big cities, but I think you could call me a city boy. After all, I was born in Los Angeles and have spent the past seventeen years living in Metro Detroit! So, while I enjoy visiting small towns, I like the amenities that come with living in a metropolitan area. But big cities, like small towns, present their own kinds of challenges. The word we hear this morning from Jeremiah raises an important question. Are we willing to invest ourselves in making our communities more livable?

This word from the prophet Jeremiah comes in the form of a letter sent to the first wave of Jewish exiles that King Nebuchadnezzar sent to Babylon. When Jeremiah sent this letter, Jerusalem, along with its Temple, still stood. But, while these exiles, including the former king and his court, may have hoped they would return home soon, Jeremiah warned them that their exile would last for a long time. He told them to ignore the false prophets who made promises they couldn’t keep. Instead, he told them to settle in for the long haul and seek the welfare of the city where God had planted them.

What these exiles experienced during their time in Babylon isn’t that different from what modern exiles, refugees, and migrants face. They may have wanted to return to their homelands, but many refugees and immigrants never return home. So, if they’re going to survive, they’ll have to make a life in a strange land. That can be a struggle for first-generation immigrants and refugees, but most of their children will eventually blend into their surroundings.

Although I’m not an exile, immigrant, or a refugee, sometimes I feel like an immigrant because we live so far away from our homeland in the far west of the country. There are things we miss about our homelands. Cheryl misses the ocean, and I miss the tall mountains. Of course, our extended families live out West, so it’s difficult to gather together. Nevertheless, we’ve put down roots and made a life for ourselves here in Troy. While this was our choice, putting down roots isn’t always a choice. Sometimes, it’s a necessity.

The city of Troy is very diverse. I’ve heard that about thirty percent of the population is Asian of some type. Troy is home to a very large Hindu Temple, a mosque, along with numerous churches representing different ethnicities and backgrounds. Just down the street is a Coptic church, which is the home of Egyptian Christians. Over the past seventeen years, I’ve made friends with people who come from all over the world. One of my dear friends is a Hindu woman who was born in India but has spent most of her life in the United States. She has also served as our state representative. We’ve had lots of conversations about what it means to be an immigrant. I’ve learned that most immigrants work very hard to fit in, but it’s not always easy. There are lots of barriers that have to be crossed, including language, religion, and other cultural practices. It’s even more difficult when you are fleeing war and famine, like refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq.

Most of us are not immigrants, exiles, or refugees, but I believe that Jeremiah would want us to put ourselves in the shoes of these Jewish exiles living far from home in Babylon. When we do this, we can try to imagine what it’s like to live in a foreign land, especially if you’ve been forced to move from a land you love. Even if you long to return home, this may be an impossible dream. So, your only option is to put down roots in the land where you are living. So, whether we’re exiles or not, I hear Jeremiah calling us to put down roots, make a life, and seek the welfare of the city where we find ourselves.

One of the questions these Jewish exiles faced was a theological one. Many cultures have assumed that the gods are bound to specific geographic areas. So, while Yahweh might be the God of their homeland, they may have wondered whether Yahweh would travel with them as they journeyed from their homeland in Israel and Judah to Babylon. Since they lived in a world where “church and state” were intricately intertwined, they may have wondered whether they should join the church of Marduk, the god of Babylon, since this was his territory.

Jeremiah responded to these questions by reassuring the exiles that Yahweh hadn’t abandoned them. Since this exile would last a long time, Yahweh wanted them to put down roots by building houses, getting married, and bearing children, so their numbers wouldn’t decrease. While things might look bad at the moment, they didn’t have to abandon Yahweh and join the church of Marduk because God had traveled to Babylon with them. Therefore, they would serve as Yahweh’s representatives in the land of Marduk.

When Jeremiah told the people to build houses, get married, and have kids, he was telling them that since they were children of Abraham, Moses, and David, God still had a purpose for their lives. They might be heartbroken over their situation, but God had a job for them. Whether they were officially priests or not, God gave them a priestly calling. Yes, because they were still God’s covenant people, God commissioned them to pray for their neighbors and seek the welfare of their city.

If they were going to fulfill their calling, they would need a new vision that would empower them in the years to come. Song Mi Suzie Park puts it this way: "In the face of this religious upheaval, Jeremiah encourages the community to continue to have faith in God’s larger plan—a plan that seems utterly impossible, but which Jeremiah hints is possible for God. They are to hope and know that God can and will bring God’s promises to pass" [Connections, p. 377].

A few chapters later, Jeremiah will reveal that God was in the process of establishing a new covenant that would guide the people upon their return to their homeland. This new covenant would be written on the hearts of the people rather than on stone tablets (Jer. 31:31-34). In the meantime, however, they would need to make a life in Babylon while staying in fellowship with Yahweh.

While this word about a new covenant was addressed to the exiles living in Babylon, early Christians interpreted their experience with Jesus in light of this promise. Jeremiah might not have us in mind when he wrote about God’s new covenant, but Paul suggests that God has grafted us onto the vine that is Israel so we can participate in God’s covenant promises (Rom. 11:17). That means we have also been called to be a blessing to the nations along with Abraham and his descendants (Gen. 12:1-4).

It is in verse 7 of Jeremiah 29 that the prophet reveals God’s purpose for our lives, whether we’re exiles or not. That purpose involves a call to“seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

As we ponder this message, we might call to mind that old adage about blooming where we’ve been planted. When we bloom where we’ve been planted, we can make a difference in our communities. Over the years of my ministry, whether in Santa Barbara, Lompoc, or here in Troy, I have tried to invest myself in the local community. Sometimes that has meant being a leader, and at other times it simply means being part of the team. But I have done this because I believe this is our calling as followers of Jesus. Taking up this calling doesn’t mean we get to control things. After all, this motley group of exiles to whom Jeremiah wrote this letter didn’t have political, economic, social, or even religious power. But that didn’t prevent God from giving them a job while they lived in this strange land.

By pursuing the welfare of the city, we pursue the common good of all. When we do that, we will be blessed. That’s because our welfare is caught up in the welfare of our neighbors. That starts close to home, in the cities where we live. But, since we live in an increasingly globalized world, in many ways our welfare is caught up in the welfare of this planet. But, because we’re people of God, we must depend on God’s Spirit, who empowers us, rather than worldly power, if we’re going to make a difference in our communities.

In a moment, we’ll sing Eric Routley’s hymn “All Who Love and Serve Your City.” This hymn reinforces Jeremiah’s message as we sing:

In your day of loss and sorrow,

in your day of helpless strife,

honor, peace and love retreating,

seek the Lord, who is your life.

The hymn closes with a conversation with the “Risen Lord,” who answers the question “shall yet the city be the city of despair?” with a promise:

Come today, our Joy, our Glory:

be its name, “the Lord is there.” [Glory to God, 351]

Yes, the “Lord is there,” in Babylon and in Troy, and wherever God’s people live and accept their priestly calling to seek the welfare of the city where God sends them.

Preached By:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Troy, MI

October 12, 2025

Pentecost 18C

Is It Time For a Lament? - Sermon for Pentecost 17C (Lamenations 1)

2025-10-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Mourners, Pran Nath Mago, 1947 (National Book Trust, India)

Lamentations 1:1-6

It is said that American Christians struggle with laments. We like our religion to be positive and uplifting. I understand why. We often go to church when life is difficult, hoping to be inspired, but there are times when we need to be in a community where it’s okay to weep. We need places where it’s okay to share our concerns as well as our joys, a place where we can acknowledge that there are things happening in our world that trouble us.

Because we are a religious community, when bad things happen to other religious communities, we’re affected as well. We can empathize with them. So, when news came last Sunday that a man drove his truck into the front of the LDS church in Grand Blanc, shot and killed four members, while wounding eight others, before setting the church on fire, we feel their pain. Next time it could be us. There were also two other mass shootings that day, one in North Carolina and the other in Texas. These kinds of tragic events can cause us to ask: Where is God in this? While prayers are important, sometimes we need to add our tears as well.

Fortunately for us, there are passages throughout the Bible that give us permission to weep, lament, complain, and ask God tough questions. As the preacher in Ecclesiastes puts it: “There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance” (Eccl. 3:4). Yes, there is a time for everything, even lamenting what is happening in our world.

While it’s unlikely that Jeremiah wrote the poems and prayers that form the Book of Lamentations, they do reflect the kinds of messages he delivered to the people of Judah. This is why this week’s reading from Lamentations falls right in the middle of a series of lectionary readings from Jeremiah. I will draw on one of those readings from Jeremiah in next week’s sermon.

Like Jeremiah, the Book of Lamentations focuses its attention on the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Both Jeremiah and the author of these prayers lamented the destruction of Jerusalem along with the fall of the kingdom of Judah. The first lament begins by crying out: “How lonely sits the city that once was full of people.” What was once a bustling city had become a ghost town after the Babylonian army breached the walls of the city and set it aflame. So, like a widow, the city “weeps bitterly in the night” because there is no one to comfort her.

While the author of Lamentations grieves over the destruction of Jerusalem, we may have similar feelings when we suffer losses and feel as if there’s no one there to comfort us. We might even feel as if our friends have become our enemies. We might feel like life is out of control and we don’t know how to respond. It might be the political divisions and uncertainties at home or the many conflicts raging abroad. We may feel estranged from friends and family because of political and religious differences. So, like that widow, we may find ourselves weeping bitterly.

I realize my sermon this morning may feel a bit dreary, but don’t worry, before I close the sermon, I will share a positive word. But before we get there, we need to give ourselves permission to grieve our losses.

Every biblical passage has a context. This reading is no different. Even if Jeremiah didn’t write these poems, he also wept over the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of its people in the sixth century BCE. Things began to turn against Jerusalem around 600 BCE when Nebuchadnezzar attacked Judah, exiled its king, and put in his place a puppet king. When that puppet king rebelled, Nebuchadnezzar had his army finish the job. They captured and burned the city while carrying treasure and a bunch of exiles back to Babylon. When that happened, no one came for the religious festivals, while the priests groaned at their situation. So, you can understand why the residents of Jerusalem and Judah might feel betrayed and abandoned, even by God. Yes, while Judah’s enemies prospered, Zion lost its majesty. When you read these verses, you can hear and feel a sense of hopelessness.

I already mentioned last Sunday’s attack on the Mormon church in Grand Blanc. But there are other reasons to weep and lament. There is the ongoing war in Ukraine that is now in its third year. Then, a few days from now, people in Israel will mark the second anniversary of the October 7th massacre, while the people of Gaza face insurmountable odds as the Israeli military continues its attacks that have killed tens of thousands and essentially destroyed Gaza’s infrastructure. Then there is the government shutdown that makes life uncertain. So, all across the globe, people feel like they’ve been caught in the middle of an ongoing nightmare. We respond by weeping bitterly about the state of things, while wondering where we might find a word of hope.

While this morning’s reading from the first chapter of Lamentations doesn’t end on a positive note, if we jump to the third chapter, we will find that word of comfort. In chapter 3, we find another lament, but right in the middle of it, we hear a word of comfort. In verses 19 through 23 the poet offers this promising word that we can take hold of as we navigate our sense of loss.

19 The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall!

20 My soul continually thinks of it

and is bowed down within me.

21 But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,

his mercies never come to an end;

23 they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness. (Lam. 3:19-23)

Even though their beloved city and its Temple lay in ruins, creating a sense of despair, a word emerges about the steadfast love of God. The faithfulness of God is great. Despite everything happening around us, there is room for hope because God is both loving and faithful. This may be a slender thread to take hold of, but it stands as a lifeline for those who put their trust in God.

The best place to experience this steadfast love that never ceases is in the community of faith. Even if at times we feel abandoned by God and even our friends and family, we can find strength in the body of Christ. In his discussion of the body of Christ, which is made up of many members, but one in the Spirit, Paul offers this word of encouragement: “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it” (1 Cor. 12:26).

Although we aren’t celebrating the Lord’s Supper this morning, for obvious reasons, this is World Communion Sunday. World Communion Sunday is celebrated across the globe as a reminder that as followers of Jesus, we’re connected to one another as we share the bread and cup at the Table of the Lord. When we gather at the Table, we do so in anticipation of that heavenly banquet the Book of Revelation speaks of. Although Christians still haven’t figured out how to completely overcome the divisions that keep us from celebrating the Lord’s Supper with all our siblings in the faith, this meal continues to serve as a witness to our oneness as the Body of Christ. As we struggle to figure out how to share Christ’s meal together, it is good to remember that there will come a time when we all gather at the same table in fellowship with one another because of the steadfast love and faithfulness of our God.

With this promise in mind, I wish to share this word from William McClain who connects our future with the message of the Table:

When we begin to understand that our future is tied to the future of the city, we will welcome the strangers (foreigners, visitors) and invite them to gather with us around a common table, a community bound by a common Creator, Redeemer, and Host! And the table will be the “Welcome Table” that my grandmother believed in and sang about. In these in-between times, it is a table where all of God’s children can gather around in one Communion, at a common earthly meal as a rehearsal for the eschatological banquet. [Preaching God’s Transforming Justice, pp. 412-413].

Yes, it is good and right to grieve what has been lost, but it’s also important to hold fast the promise that God’s love is steadfast and that God is faithful. We do this every time we gather together at the welcome table that Jesus established as a reminder of the love expressed for us in the cross and in the resurrection.

The author of Lamentations wept because his beloved city had become a ghost town. He also found hope in God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. May we do the same?

As for the prophet Jeremiah, who also wept over the destruction of Jerusalem and the nation of Judah, it is good to remember that he also offered the people living in exile from their beloved city a word of hope. So, next Sunday, we’ll explore that word of hope when I preach from Jeremiah 29, where the prophet tells the people living in exile to settle in by building homes and praying for the welfare of the city where they lived in exile, because it is in the welfare of that city that they will find their welfare. But more about that next week!

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Troy, MI

Pentecost 17C

October 5, 2025

A Shrewd But Faithful Steward? - Sermon for Pentecost 16C (Luke 16:1-13)

2025-09-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

Luke 16:1-13

What qualities does a person need to be a good manager? Would you say that honesty is an important quality? If so, would you say the manager described in the parable we’ve heard this morning would qualify as a good hire? Not only did this manager squander his wealthy employer’s property, but once he realized he was going to be fired, he “shrewdly” made side deals with the people who were in debt to his employer in the hopes they would take him in once he was let go. Ultimately, when he was fired, his employer commended him for his shrewdness in making sure he had a way of supporting himself after his firing.

There is something rather strange about this parable. If you’re like me, you probably wonder why Jesus decided to tell this story. What was he trying to accomplish with it? There are no easy answers to these questions because even biblical scholars struggle to make sense of it.

While the wealthy employer commended the manager for his shrewdness, surely Jesus isn’t suggesting we emulate him. That would make no sense. So there must be more to the story. Perhaps Jesus is using this manager as a symbol for the ones he calls the children of this age. Such “children” are, it would seem, to be shrewd in their dealings with each other. Another way of putting it is that they are streetwise, while the children of the light, who tend to be naive about the things of the world. So, perhaps a bit of shrewdness is a good thing as long as you remain honest and faithful.

Getting back to the parable itself, it might be helpful to put it in context. Back in the first century, wealthy landowners often hired managers or stewards to run their estates. They would give these stewards significant freedom to make decisions about their master’s property. That’s because the property owners thought they had “better things to do” than take care of their estates. So, they would empower their managers to take care of business. We see this happening in other parables in which Jesus talks about wealthy land owners entrusting property or funds to their employees, expecting them to make a profit, while not worrying too much about how they did this. When we turn to this story, it seems as if someone might have blown the whistle on the dishonest steward. That’s when the landowner called in the manager and fired him. However, it appears that the manager knew what was coming and took steps to ensure his survival by cooking the books. After all, as the manager thought to himself, he was too weak to dig and too embarrassed to beg. As I said before, the landowner does seem impressed with the man’s ingenuity. He might lose his job, but he provided himself with a means of survival.

So, we have this strange parable about a shrewd but dishonest steward who can’t serve as a proper example for us. However, it does our peek our attention. As we struggle to make sense of it, Jesus changes the subject a bit in verse 10. Rather than commending the dishonest steward for his shrewdness, Jesus calls on his disciples to be faithful stewards. He tells them that those who are faithful in little things will be faithful in bigger things. At the same time, those who are dishonest with little things, will be dishonest with the big things. Therefore, if you’re dishonest when it comes to the use of mammon or wealth, then who will trust you when it comes to true riches?

Here is where this morning’s passage speaks to our age. One of the biggest complaints people register when it comes to religion is hypocrisy. We’ve watched religious leaders tarnish the reputation of the church in recent decades. There are cases of embezzlement and other forms of financial misdeeds. There are also numerous cases of sexual assault, harassment, and other forms of sexual misbehavior, including the abuse of minors. There are also many cases being reported of forms of spiritual abuse. While these leaders have been entrusted with the Gospel, they have failed to remain faithful to their calling. The reputation of the Christian community has suffered as a result.

So, Jesus calls on us all to remain faithful in our Christian life. Here’s where shrewdness might come into play. It’s important that we remain faithful to our calling to follow Jesus. However, faithfulness doesn’t require naivete. There is a place for shrewdness as we navigate this world. We need to understand how the world works without giving in to its temptations. One of those temptations involves the pursuit of power. As Lord Acton supposedly said, “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

While democracy is far from perfect, it does offer protections against the dangers of authoritarianism. As Reinhold Niebuhr once wrote: “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary” [Reinhold Niebuhr: Theologian of Public Life, p. 254]. At a time when authoritarianism is on the rise across the globe, seizing power in whatever way possible, being faithful to the Gospel does require a bit more shrewdness and a bit less naivete. As Jesus is recorded as saying in the Gospel of Matthew: “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16).

I think it’s worth pointing out here that in our reading from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t speak to the larger crowds that followed him. Instead, he speaks directly to his disciples. In Luke’s narrative, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, where he ends up being executed by the authorities. His followers needed to be prepared for what was coming their way. They would need to know how to deal with what they would face after Jesus had departed from them. What was true for these disciples is true for us. Can we be faithful stewards of the things of God while navigating a world that is always seeking to entice us to take a different path? So, can we be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves as we follow Jesus?

The parable focuses on the proper handling of money and wealth. Jesus closes the conversation with a warning. Using Eugene Peterson’s translation of the closing verses, we hear Jesus declare to us:

No worker can serve two bosses:

He’ll either hate the first and love the second

Or adore the first and despise the second.

You can’t serve both God and the Bank. (Luke 16:13 MSG).

Unfortunately, we don’t live in the world of Star Trek, where apparently money is unnecessary. So, we do need the bank, but Jesus warns us against becoming slaves to the bank or the stock market.

While the Gospels do record Jesus telling certain people to sell everything they own, give it to the poor, and follow him, I’m not sure he requires everyone to follow the example of St. Francis of Assisi, who gave away everything he owned and became a beggar and the leader of beggars. But, be careful in your stewardship of mammon so that it doesn’t take over your life like it did for Ebenezer Scrooge. It took three Christmas ghosts to turn him around. Hopefully, we won’t need that kind of intervention!

So, as we walk faithfully and shrewdly along the path set before us by Jesus, perhaps this parable can serve as a call to live faithfully but boldly our calling as followers of Jesus. With that calling in mind, perhaps something my friend Ron Allen wrote for stewardship material my church used a few years back can be helpful. He suggested there that the children of light, “should be as fresh, creative, imaginative, innovative, and bold in the service of the values and practices of the realm as those enmeshed in pursuing the values and customs of the present broken world.”

If the dishonest manager was bold and creative in his use of his bookkeeping to prepare a place for himself during his time of unemployment, how might we be just as bold and creative in the ways we participate in God’s work in the world? How might we invest time and resources in a way that further’s God’s purposes as we navigate this rather broken world we live in? After all, we can only serve one master. Will we serve God or the idol of materialism? Deciding which way to go requires wisdom and discernment. As we ponder these questions, we will need a tonic of God’s grace to sustain us when we fall short.

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church

Tyrone Township, MI

September 21, 2025

Pentecost 15C

Image attribution: Merchant taking accounts, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55705 [retrieved September 20, 2025]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BLW_Stained_Glass_-_Roundel_showing_a_Merchant.jpg.

Thankfully, God Is Merciful - Sermon for Pentecost 14C (1 Timothy 1:12-17)

2025-09-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

1 Timothy 1:12-17

We’ve heard a lot of bad news this past week. Of course, for this congregation, Marilyn’s death hits us hard because she has been such a steadfast part of the life of this congregation. She will be missed. But that’s not the only bad news we’ve heard this week. That’s because once again, gun violence is in the news. The most talked-about act of violence was the murder of political activist Charlie Kirk in Utah. That same day, a student walked into a school in Colorado and wounded two classmates and then killed himself. Then I read the news of a father in Port Huron, who shot and killed his seventeen-year-old son and wounded his other two children. This kind of news, which seems increasingly more common, ends up numbing us to the ongoing violence in our world. People wonder where God is present in all of this. The word we hear this morning from 1 Timothy speaks of God’s mercy that strengthens us as we navigate this world we inhabit.

There is, of course, another word spoken this morning that reminds us that sometimes we frustrate God with our actions. That is the word we hear from the prophet Jeremiah. When I started working with these passages earlier in the week, I felt like Jeremiah might be a bit too judgmental. Fortunately, the reading from 1 Timothy offered a more hopeful message. We need that message, but perhaps in light of the events of this past week, we also need to hear this word from Jeremiah. Maybe we are foolish people who don’t understand the ways of God.

Now, no one likes to be called foolish and stupid, but Jeremiah delivered this message to the people on God’s behalf. Not only did he tell them that they were foolish and stupid, but he told them they would suffer the consequences of their actions. In the case of the citizens of Jerusalem, those consequences involved the destruction of the city and their beloved temple by the Babylonians. Many of the leading members of society, including the king, were carted off into exile. In other words, there isn’t a lot of grace or mercy in Jeremiah’s message. But he told the people the truth.

When we read a passage like this one from Jeremiah, it serves as a wake-up call. It invites us to consider whether we are on the right path. With this world seemingly spinning into further disarray, Jeremiah invites us to consider whether we are contributing to the problems.

While Jeremiah pokes at us, prodding us to consider whether we are prone to straying from God’s path, this letter addressed to a young pastor named Timothy speaks of God’s grace and mercy. We need to hear this word as well because it offers us hope for the future.

The supposed author of this first letter to Timothy is Paul, the Apostle. However, most scholars believe that this letter was written in Paul’s name after his death. Nevertheless, despite the question of authorship, the word we hear this morning does represent Paul’s own sense of gratitude for God’s mercy, which allowed him to be of service to God. It is God’s grace that redeemed Paul even though he had once persecuted the followers of Jesus, making him the worst of all sinners. But, due to that mercy, the trajectory of Paul’s life completely changed. In this word, there is hope for us as well as we navigate a world that seems rather in disarray.

Our letter writer reminds us that even though Paul had once been a blasphemer, a persecutor of Jesus’ followers, and a man of violence, God showed mercy on him. Why? Because he acted in ignorance and unbelief. Or as Jeremiah might say, he was foolish and stupid because he didn’t truly know God and the ways of God. In fact, when he acted as this man of violence, he believed he was doing the right thing. He thought he was doing God’s work, but God thought otherwise. Nevertheless, due to God’s mercy, Paul discovered a different path in life.

One of the most beloved hymns of the church is “Amazing Grace,” which we will close the service with this morning. The writer of that hymn, John Newton, had been the captain of a slave ship before his conversion. That’s why he wrote these well-known words:

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind but now I see.

Yes, it was through God’s amazing grace that one such as John Newton, who once was lost, could be found by God.

Jeremiah reminds us that sometimes we encounter passages of Scripture that speak of God’s frustration with humanity due to our penchant for engaging in evil deeds. The scriptures also speak of God’s persistent desire to restore broken relationships by showing mercy to us. We see this persistence play out in today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke. In Luke 15, Jesus tells two parables. One parable deals with a shepherd who leaves behind his flock to find the one that wandered off. The other parable speaks of a woman who lost a silver coin but then went to great lengths to find the coin. When she found her lost coin, she threw a party to celebrate.

As we read these two parables, doesn’t that reveal something important about God, who graciously goes to great lengths to find and reclaim lost things, including someone like Paul, who was a man of violence? If God can reclaim Paul, as our reading from 1 Timothy suggests, by showing mercy on him, then surely God can reclaim us!

I am grateful to God, because I know God to be full of love and mercy. That love and mercy is revealed to us, as the letter to Timothy suggests, in the person of Jesus. For “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am foremost.”

From what we know of Paul, he would make that claim because he did violently pursue the followers of Jesus, believing he was doing the right thing. Instead, he discovered that though he was the greatest of sinners, God’s mercy was sufficient to restore him to a right relationship with Jesus and his followers. Why did God show mercy on him? According to this letter, it was so that “Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.” Not only that, but due to God’s mercy, which not only strengthened Paul, it allowed God to appoint him to God’s service. What was true of Paul is true for all of us.

I want to say one more thing about this letter, which is part of a collection known as the Pastoral Epistles. These three letters, two directed to Timothy and one to Titus, give directions to young pastors. Perhaps the reason why this letter opens with a word about divine mercy is that this young pastor might have wondered about his own past and whether he was worthy of this calling to serve. I think this is something most pastors wonder about. I have, and I’m sure Pastor Dan has had the same questions at one point or another. These are probably questions that many of us ask of ourselves, whether or not we’re pastors. We may wonder whether we are worthy of God’s mercy. We may end up suffering the consequences of our actions, but in the end, we can put our trust in God’s mercy, which was revealed to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. What I take from both this reading from 1 Timothy and the parables of the lost sheep and lost coin in Luke 15, is that no one is beyond God’s reach, even if, as Jeremiah reminds us, God can at times lose patience with us.

Having heard this good news about God’s love and mercy, which is revealed to us in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we can offer to God a word of praise and thanksgiving, declaring: “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.” That is the word we proclaimed in our opening hymn. In the opening stanza of the hymn, we sing of the Immortal and Invisible God, “in light inaccessible hid from our eyes, most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.” Then in the final verse, we sing: “Thou reignest in glory; thou dwellest in light. Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight. All praise we would render; O help us to see ‘tis only the splendor of light hideth thee.”

So, with the words of this hymn, which reflect the closing words of our passage from 1 Timothy, we hear an invitation to join together in worship because God has shown mercy on us, transforming our lives. Therefore, the God whom we know through the person of Jesus is worthy of praise and thanksgiving! So, “To God be the glory; great things he has done.”

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Troy, MI

September 14, 2025

Pentecost 14C

A Whole Lot of Shaking Has Been Going On! - Sermon for Pentecost 11C (Hebrews 12:18-29)

2025-08-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hebrews 12:18-29

There’s an old Jerry Lee Lewis song that goes back before my time, which describes what it feels like to go through an earthquake. "There's a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on." I don’t know if you’ve experienced an earthquake, but having lived in Southern California, I’ve experienced a few of them. Fortunately, I’ve lived far enough away from the epicenters that while I experienced a bit of shaking, it wasn’t too frightening. However, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law did experience a whole lot of shaking from the 1989 Santa Cruz earthquake. They were at Candlestick Park, getting ready to watch the World Series, when the quake struck. They decided not to go back when the Series resumed, so I got to go to the make up game along with my father-in-law. When you live in California, earthquakes are part of life, just like tornadoes in Kansas and hurricanes in Florida.

Earthquakes are mysterious and dangerous. You never know when they’ll strike, but even people who live near fault lines can grow complacent and forget that a quake could strike at any moment, without warning. We keep hearing about the “Big One” that is supposed to devastate California, but so far it hasn’t hit. So, Californians go on with life, figuring if it happens, it happens. Nevertheless, these less devastating quakes serve as an occasional wake-up call, letting us know that a big one could happen at any moment. So, it’s good to be prepared!

The prophet Isaiah issued a wake-up call to the people of Judah that featured a bit of shaking of the foundations.

The Foundations of the earth do shake.

Earth breaks to pieces,

Earth is split in pieces,

Earth reels like a drunken man,

Earth rocks like a hammock;

Under the weight of its transgression earth falls down

To rise no more!

(Is. 24:18b-20, translation in Tillich, Shaking of the Foundations, p. 2)

Whether it’s an earthquake, tornado, fire, or hurricane, disasters remind us that even when we do our best to plan for the worst, some things lie outside our control. But there are some things that lie within our control and that involve the way we live our lives in the presence of God, who is, according to the Book of Hebrews, a consuming fire.

When we read the Old Testament, we encounter prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Micah, and Elijah. These prophets speak on God’s behalf, warning the people about what happens when they break the covenant God established with the people through Abraham and Moses. In the reading from Jeremiah, we hear God calling Jeremiah to prophetic ministry, even if Jeremiah didn’t think he was qualified. God appointed Jeremiah “over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:9-10). Here’s the thing about prophets. They usually presented the people with options. If they followed the path God set out for them, they would experience God’s blessings. If they chose a different path, they would probably end up experiencing some form of disaster. Which path will you choose? That is the question.

We live in a different world from the one Jeremiah experienced, but humans are humans. So, the prophets still speak, and we may experience a whole lot of shaking going on in our lives. That shaking reveals the kinds of foundations on which we build our lives.

After the end of World War II, a war that included the dropping of atomic bombs on Japanese cities, as well as the fire bombing of German cities, theologian Paul Tillich preached a sermon he titled The Shaking of the Foundations. In this powerful sermon, Tillich called on the audience to consider the devastating power we humans had unleashed on ourselves. He reminded his audience that with the launching of the nuclear age, we now had at our disposal the tools of our own destruction. So far, we’ve not used our nuclear weapons, but it could happen, whether by choice or by accident. During the Russian war in Ukraine, we’ve heard Russian leaders raise the possibility of using nuclear weapons. So, it could happen. But nuclear war isn’t the only challenge we face. There is, for example, the ongoing threat of climate change. While scientific advancement has shaken the foundations of heaven and earth, do we have the right to unleash the sources of our own destruction? [Tillich, The Shaking of the Foundations, pp. 2-3]

Paul Tillich closed his sermon by declaring:

We happen to live in a time when very few of us, very few nations, very few sections of the earth, will succeed in forgetting the end. For in these days the foundations of the earth do shake. May we not turn our eyes away; may we not close our ears and our mouths! But may we rather see, through the crumbling of a world, the rock of eternity and the salvation which has no end! [Shaking of the Foundations, p. 11].

As the author of the Book of Hebrews reminds us, it is God’s kingdom that cannot be shaken. This is the proper foundation on which to build our lives. This is the “rock of eternity” that Tillich spoke of.

The question Christians face relates to how we share a prophetic word with a world that may not be interested in building on foundations that cannot be shaken. The starting point is simple. Our ability to share this word with the world starts with us, as we build our lives on the foundation of God’s righteousness. This is the word we hear in Hebrews 12:

"But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."

So, let us go up to Mount Zion and gather in the presence of God with all the company of heaven, including Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. Jeremiah speaks of this new covenant, which he tells us God will write on our hearts rather than on stone. Therefore, the people on whose hearts God writes the new covenant will be God’s people. The good news is that when God does this, God promises to forgive our iniquity and no longer remember our sin (Jer. 31:31-34).

The Book of Hebrews reminds us that what has ultimate value is what is eternal. Years ago, a 6.0 earthquake hit my hometown of Klamath Falls. It came as quite a surprise because even though the city lies in a volcanic region, earthquakes rarely if ever occurred. Nevertheless, the quake damaged a lot of the buildings. However, the oldest building in town, the Baldwin Hotel, survived because it was built on solid bedrock and not on the sifting sands of reclaimed lake bed like much of the downtown area.

According to Hebrews, when God shakes the foundations of our lives, what survives is what is built on a solid foundation. That foundation is that which is the eternal. When an earthquake strikes, some things remain standing, and other things fall down. Although the construction of the buildings is important, even more important is the foundation. Therefore, what we construct will likely withstand the storms and earthquakes of life if we build on a solid foundation. So, don't neglect the warnings issued by the prophets, ancient and modern. Remember what Jesus said:

Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall! (Matt. 7:24-27).

Turning again to Paul Tillich, he wrote that the prophets spoke with boldness because "their power sprang from the fact that they did not really speak of the foundations of the earth as such, but of Him Who laid the foundations and would shake them; and that they did not speak of the doom of the nations as such, but of Him Who brings doom for the sake of His eternal justice and salvation" (Shaking of the Foundations, p. 9)

So, let us build our lives on the solid foundation of God’s coming kingdom, rather than on the sifting sands of things that are temporary. They may seem attractive and enticing, but they won’t withstand the shaking of our foundations. So, let us put our trust in God, who is the rock of our eternity, as we come into God’s presence offering worship that is reverent and full of awe.

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Tyrone Township, MI

August 24, 2025

Pentecost 11C

A Race to the Finish Line -- A Sermon for Pentecost 10C (Hebrews 11:29-12:2)

2025-08-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.” We often hear this saying before a tough race, game, or big decision. It’s supposed to serve as a word of encouragement when we feel like giving up in the face of difficult challenges. It speaks of the importance of persistence and perseverance. Here in our reading from the Book of Hebrews, the author encourages us to persevere as we race toward the finish line.

I’m not a runner. I’ve never run a marathon or a 5K. Even when I was in my best shape, a long time ago, I wasn’t very fast, nor did I have the stamina to run a long-distance race. Nevertheless, I did live in Eugene, Oregon, which is known as Track Town USA. The famous marathoner Alberto Salazar was on the University of Oregon track team at the same time I was a student at a little college next door. I even got to attend the 1980 Olympic Trials that were held in Eugene. So, even though I’ve never run track, I feel like I know something about running a race.

When it comes to running a long race, especially a marathon, you have to keep going even when things get tough. Now, running a twenty-six-mile race may seem insane to someone like me, but people do it. Even though the training is difficult, participants report that the reward of finishing the race is worth the effort. It’s a sense of accomplishment no one can take away.

Our reading from the book of Hebrews isn’t about running track. But it is a reflection on what it means to live by faith, which is defined in Hebrews 11 as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1).

We don’t know who wrote the Book of Hebrews, but whoever the author was, here in Hebrews 11 and 12, the author illustrates what it means to live by faith by pointing our attention to stories of the great saints of the Old Testament. The author begins with Abel, the son of Adam and Eve, and moves forward from there, lifting up the stories of saints such as Abraham, Moses, Rahab, and many others. Our reading picks the story up with the crossing of the Red Sea and the journey to the Promised Land and beyond. We hear about saints and heroes, including prophets, some of whom were martyred. While the author commended these saints and heroes for their faithfulness, none of them crossed the finish line in their own lifetimes. That’s because, we’re told here, something better was still to come. Therefore, they would not be made perfect “apart from us.”

While the author may have had a marathoner in mind in writing about persistence, the list of saints who participate in this race, without crossing the finish line, suggests a long-distance relay race. In a relay, each runner has to complete their leg of the race and cleanly pass the baton to the next runner. Then together, they can move forward toward the finish line, one pass of the baton at a time. The person who runs the anchor leg is usually the best runner, whether that involves speed or endurance. But the team can’t win unless the baton reaches the anchor, so the anchor runner can cross the finish line ahead of everyone else.

Here in Hebrews 11, the initial runner is Abel, son of Adam and Eve. The anchor leg is run by Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. While each runner did their part, they didn’t cross the finish line until they crossed over with Jesus. The good news is that everyone gets to share in the glory of the moment of victory.

Now, this race to the finish line wasn’t an easy one. Abel was murdered by his brother after he ran his leg. While the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea, they had to stay ahead of Pharaoh’s army, which was in hot pursuit. Then there are the prophets, many of whom were tortured and killed. Yet, “all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.”

While each of us gets to run our leg of the race, there is a great cloud of witnesses who ran their legs of the race and now cheer us on as we run our legs with Jesus. Each runner has to persevere if our team is going to cross the finish line along with Jesus. This is what it means to live by faith.

When it comes to Jesus’ anchor leg in this race known as the life of faith, the author of Hebrews reminds us that Jesus endured the cross for our sake, “disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.” So, although Jesus endured the pain and shame of the cross on our behalf, he finished the race and took his place at the right hand of God’s throne. Having received his crown, he beckons us to come and receive our crown.

According to the letter to Titus, Jesus redeemed and purified a people of his own who are “zealous for good works.” The King James translation uses the phrase “peculiar people” to describe the ones whom Christ redeemed and purified (Titus 2:14 KJV). While I’m not sure I like being called “peculiar,” there is some truth present in this phrase. Perhaps it takes peculiar people to persevere while running the race of faith. After all, being a Christian can cause us to seem a bit different. At least, it should.

As God’s peculiar people, we may experience suffering and even persecution. We may face the temptation to drop out of the race because of the obstacles that stand in our way. Fortunately, we’re not in this race alone. We have that great cloud of witnesses rooting us on, as well as Jesus, who is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. He stands at the finish line, urging us on so he can welcome us.

When it comes to running this race called the life of faith, we may feel tempted to go it alone. While it’s possible to go it alone, I don’t think it is wise. Over the years, people have asked me, probably because I’m a professional Christian who gets paid to go to church, whether a person has to go to church to be a Christian. I usually respond with a question of my own: Why do you ask? My conversation partner might tell me that they’ve been hurt by churches and are uncomfortable joining another one. That’s understandable. Nevertheless, living the Christian life can be difficult, so it helps to have companions to take the journey with you. My friend Diana Butler Bass has written about moving from being nomads to being pilgrims. She suggests that nomads try to go it alone, while pilgrims usually take the journey of faith together in community. So, as we join together in faith practices such as study, worship, discernment, prayer, and hospitality, we grow in strength and in endurance. Then, working together, we can finish what can be a difficult but rewarding race.

The writer of Ecclesiastes has something to say about the importance of community. He writes: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). And if two is better than one, then surely three is better than two. I think this is one of the most important messages of the Harry Potter series. Although Harry is blessed with unique abilities, he needs the help of Ron and Hermione, and many others, to reach his destiny.

So, do we need a church if we’re going to finish the race that is the life of faith? While some churches can be toxic, if the race we’re running is a relay, then we can’t do it on our own. Each of us may have a leg to run, but in the end, we need each other if we’re going to cross the finish line and join Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of God’s throne.

In a moment, we’ll gather at the Lord’s Table for communion. This sacred meal isn’t meant to be eaten alone. According to the Gospels and to Paul, Jesus instituted this meal as a community meal of remembrance. We know from reading the Gospels that Jesus shared meals with lots of people, some of whom might be considered less than desirable company. But, in doing so, he drew them toward the finish line. Consider the story of Zacchaeus the Tax Collector, whose life completely changed after Jesus came to his house for a meal (Luke 19:1-10). These meals can change lives and sustain us as we run our leg of the life of faith and move toward the finish line, where Jesus stands ready to greet us.

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church

Tyrone Township, Michigan

August 17, 2025

Pentecost 10C

Are You On Alert? Sermon for Pentecost 9C (Luke 12:32-40)

2025-08-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

Luke 12:32-40

Do you worry about what’s going on in the world and how it affects your life? Are you concerned about your security and safety? Do you make sure your doors to your home and cars are locked? Do you have a Ring camera so you can see who is at the front door?

While we might be concerned about such things, Jesus doesn’t seem to share our concerns. Here in Luke 12, Jesus tells his followers not to be afraid because God is going to give the kingdom to them. If we step back a few verses, we hear Jesus tell his followers not to worry about life because worrying won’t add even a single hour to their lifespan (Luke 12:22-31).

Perhaps the reason Jesus warned against worrying about life is that he advocated living a very simple life. The problem with this warning is that my lifestyle is much too complicated. I have accumulated way too much stuff, which can cause anxiety. Now, some things are essential to living a good life; things like my books. I can’t live without my books. However, I might want to think about letting go of my baseball card collection. After all, I haven’t played with it in many years. I also have a large collection of CDs, but while my stereo receiver and speakers work, the CD player doesn’t work. Cheryl wants me to get rid of the whole setup since we rarely use it. But, I’m not sure I’m ready to let go of it. Nevertheless, I am getting older so maybe it’s time to start downsizing. At least that’s what Cheryl keeps telling me!

Jesus told his followers that wherever we store our treasure, that’s where our hearts lie. Jesus recommends that we store our treasure in heaven. Then we won’t have a reason to be afraid. After all, as Jesus revealed to his disciples, “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” This kingdom God wishes to give us is the one we pray for when we recite the Lord’s Prayer. In that prayer, we ask that God’s kingdom might come into our midst. When we pray for God’s kingdom to come, we declare that the things that belong to God’s realm have priority in our lives. This is where things get complicated. Jesus tells us that if God’s realm has priority, then we should sell our possessions and give alms. This is how we can lay up treasure in heaven where moths can’t corrupt or thieves break in and steal. After all, if you don’t have any possessions, there’s nothing for moths to corrupt and thieves to steal!

While Jesus tells us not to worry or be afraid, he does warn us to be on the alert for the coming of God’s realm. Therefore, Jesus calls on us to “be dressed for action and have your lamps lit.”

As he often did, Jesus shared a parable with his followers to convey the full meaning of his message. Jesus tells us that we should be dressed and ready with our lamps lit so that we can be like the watchful slaves who are awake and ready to open the door when the master returns from the wedding banquet and knocks on the door. If they’re awake and ready to welcome him home, their master will shower them with blessings. In fact, the master will be so pleased with their effort that he will fasten his belt and serve them dinner. Yes, in this story, the master becomes the servant. But, you have to be dressed and have the lamp lit so you can open the door to the master, no matter when he arrives. It might be the middle of the night or even dawn. Even so, if you’re up and ready to go, you’ll be blessed. That’s the way it is with the coming of the Son of Man and God’s kingdom. They can come at any moment, just like a thief in the night.

This passage serves as another reminder that Jesus went about the land proclaiming the coming of God’s realm. Like John the Baptist, Jesus wanted to prepare the people for the coming of God’s realm, which was close at hand. But you never know when this will take place. As Jesus tells his followers, “if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.”

So be on the alert. Make sure you’re dressed and your lamp is lit because God’s realm can come in its fullness at any moment. If you’re ready to welcome the master, then you will receive the blessings that come with this kingdom.

The early Christians who first heard or read the Gospels and letters, and sermons that make up the New Testament, were expecting that “soon and very soon, we are going to see the king.” Of course, the urgency we see present in the New Testament, especially the early letters of Paul, began to wane with time. By the time the Gospel of Luke appeared, fifty years after Jesus’ earthly life had ended, the people were settling in for the long haul. Before too long, the so-called institutional church began to form. So, staying awake and being prepared for Jesus’ imminent return was increasingly difficult. It’s even more so for us, since it’s been two thousand years and counting.

So, how do we stay prepared for the coming of God’s realm? How do we keep our priorities straight? How do we prevent fear from taking hold of our lives? Like I said up front, my life is more complicated than what Jesus recommended to his early followers. I do worry about things like the economy, climate change, the political divisions at home and abroad.

The truth is that it’s easy to let fear paralyze us. There is an important scene in A Charlie Brown Christmas that sets up the entire story. As you may remember, Charlie Brown was struggling to make sense of this season that was supposed to be marked by joy. So he decided to pay a visit to Lucy’s counseling clinic, where Lucy offered advice for a nickel. Lucy asked Charlie Brown what was bothering him. As the conversation went on, she asked him what he was afraid of. She listed off a series of phobias until she got to “pantophobia.” When Charlie Brown asked what that meant, she told him that it meant “the fear of everything.” He yelled back, “THAT’S IT.” He shouted so loudly that he knocked Lucy off her chair and into the snow. That is the kind of fear that paralyzes us and keeps us from staying awake to the presence of God’s realm.

Here in Luke 12, Jesus tells us to focus on the coming realm of God so we can let go of our fear. We do this by staying alert to signs that the kingdom is knocking at the door, but how do we do this, especially after all these centuries have passed and the kingdom still hasn’t arrived? Does Jesus want us to sell everything we own and give alms to the poor? That’s what Saint Francis of Assisi did. He sold everything and embraced a life of poverty, even though he came from a very rich family. That is one possible response, but is it the only one? I think this is a question we each need to wrestle with.

Staying prepared involves keeping the lamp burning. We keep the lamp burning by keeping our priorities straight and by putting our trust in God, who knows what we need. If we do this, then we needn’t be afraid. When it comes to putting our trust in God, it is helpful to keep in mind a word the prophet Isaiah gave to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. The prophet told the people that God was not impressed by their sacrifices and burnt offerings because they had engaged in evil and unjust deeds. So the prophet told the people that God wasn’t going to listen to their prayers since their hands were covered with blood. But he did offer them a word of hope if they followed these instructions: Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove your evil deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:16-17). Isaiah let the people know that if they followed these instructions, they would “eat the good of the land” (Isa. 1:19).

Here is my takeaway from this passage from Luke 12 in light of the message of Isaiah. I believe that God is calling us to live out the message of the kingdom. God is inviting us to join with God in extending God’s reign in the world. This doesn’t require us to impose our religion on others. We don’t have to take over the government. We simply need to follow the guidance given in Micah 6, where the prophet offers this word from God, who has told us what is good and what God requires of us, “but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Troy, Michigan

August 10, 2025

Pentcost 9C

Putting on New Clothes - Sermon for Pentecost 8C (Colossians 3)

2025-08-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

Colossians 3:1-14

Mark Twain famously said that “Clothes make the man.” Even in this more casual era, clothes still stand for something. There are times when we need to purchase a new set of clothes. It could be that our old clothes no longer fit, or we’re attending a big event that requires a clothing upgrade. After all, we don’t want to be underdressed!

In his Colossian letter, Paul speaks of stripping off the old self and clothing ourselves with the new self. He directs this word to people who exchanged their old pagan ways for a new life in Christ through baptism. At least as early as the second century, baptisms took place after a lengthy period of instruction. Then on the day baptisms took place, the candidates would strip off their old clothes before entering the baptismal. When they came out the other side, they received a new set of clothes to symbolize their new life in Christ.

This exchange of old clothes for a new set represents the change of lifestyle that accompanies baptism. With that in mind, Paul offers us a list of vices that represent the old life and a list of virtues that represent the new life in Christ. The list of vices includes sexual immorality, evil desires, greed, anger, malice, lies, and much more. The list of virtues that accompany the new life in Christ includes compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience (Col. 3:12).

Since most of us grew up in a church setting and have always identified as Christians, we might wonder whether what Paul writes here applies to us. I believe it does since even if we were never “pagans,” we may have indulged in a few of the vices listed here. Living as we do in a consumer culture, greed is always standing at the door and knocking. I’m sure we’ve all had some experience with anger. As for the rest of the list, I’ll leave that to your consideration. This is where repentance comes into play, even for people who have put on their new selves in baptism. In other words, we may have kept some of those old, tattered clothes from the old life hidden in our closets. So, maybe we should clean out our closets and replace the old clothes with the new set Jesus is offering us.

What is this new set of clothes Paul speaks of here? According to this letter, this new set involves love. This love that we clothe ourselves with “binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col. 3:14).

While Paul calls on us to clothe ourselves with love, which comes to us from God as we follow Jesus, he calls our attention to the divisions that existed in Greco-Roman society. We know something about societal divisions. In this case Paul told the Colossians that when it comes to putting on the new clothes that come with the reign of God in our lives, “there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, enslaved and free, but Christ is all and in all! (Col. 3:11). When Paul speaks here of Scythians, he has in mind the rural folk the city folk living in Colossae might look down on. We still see that rural-urban divide in our own time. The message here is that your social status doesn’t matter when it comes to God’s family. We’re all equals. Of course, we can add to this list of social divides that don’t matter when it comes to God’s family. Even if divisions exist in the larger world, we’re all one in Christ.

We may have put on new clothes, but the work of God in our lives is not complete. The clothes might be new, but the memory of those old clothes often stays with us. So, we need to be continually renewed in our faith. This continuing renewal is represented by the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. While we are baptized only once, we continually come to the Table to experience renewal through our encounters with Jesus at the Table.

As we move toward maturity in Christ, we need a gift of patience, something that the fifteenth-century monk Thomas á Kempis wrote about in his devotional classic, The Imitation of Christ.

Patience is necessary in this life because so much of life is fraught with adversity. No matter how hard we try, our lives will never be without strife and grief. Thus, we should not strive for a peace that is without temptation, or for a life that never feels adversity. Peace is not found by escaping temptations, but by being tried by them. (Devotional Classics, Foster & Smith, eds., pp.185-186).

Although this process of transformation will last throughout our lives, we can still see ourselves in a new light. We may not reach full maturity in this life, but when we clothe ourselves with Christ, we will see ourselves as having become new persons. What is most important, this involves clothing ourselves with love, “which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col. 3:14).

So, how do we clothe ourselves with love? The answer to that question is found in the opening verses of Colossians 3 where Paul tells the readers to “seek the things that are above.” Although we often hear of people who are so heavenly minded they’re of no earthly good, the kind of heavenly-mindedness Paul has in mind does lead to earthly good. He might tell us to focus our minds on things above rather than earthly things, but what he has in mind are the kind of behaviors and actions that are destructive. By pointing us to the things above, he’s telling us to focus on living lives that reflect God’s love for God’s creation. This love leads to perfect harmony.

Paul wrote this word to the Colossians because it’s tempting to return to the old life. This was especially true for this group of relatively new Christians who lived in a cultural context that was not conducive to living for Jesus. Everything Jesus taught and embodied was counter-cultural. While we live in a different world from the Colossians, we face similar temptations. We may live in a country where a shrinking majority claim to be Christians, but even churches that proclaim Jesus to be Lord and savior can become captive to the culture. Jesus’ teachings, especially the ones we find in the Sermon on the Mount can look rather strange. It’s one thing to love our neighbor, as long as the neighbor looks and thinks like we do, but loving our enemies like Jesus commanded, that’s rather radical.

We might want to consider the message found in Jesus’ description of the day of judgment in Matthew 25, where Jesus speaks of separating the sheep from the goats on the basis of how they treated him when he was found to be hungry, thirsty, a stranger, unclothed, sick, or in prison. The righteous will ask when had they done this for Jesus. He answers, when they had this for the least of the members of Jesus’ family. As for those judged to be unrighteous, they had failed to care for Jesus when they failed to care for the least of Jesus’ family members.

The Colossian letter provides a wake up call to people who might be tempted to stray from the things of God. Here in the Colossian letter Paul calls on us to be formed according to the life of Jesus.

In the first chapter of the letter, Paul offers a hymn to Christ, the one in whom we are being formed as we mature in faith. So Paul invited the Colossians to sing this song of praise to Christ:

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, 16 for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. (Col. 1:15-20).

To be a follower of Jesus is to put on new clothes through our baptisms that reflect the one who is the “image of the invisible God.” The message of Colossians is that Christ has come down from heaven to be like us so that he might bring about cosmic reconciliation, such that Christ might be “all in all.”

So, now that we have rid ourselves of our old clothes and clothed ourselves with Christ in love, let us grow into spiritual maturity so that together we can be of earthly good.

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Troy, Michigan

Penecost 8C

August 3, 2025

Do The Right Thing - Sermon for Pentecost 4C (Galatians 6)

2025-07-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

Galatians 6:1-16

When Paul wrote his letter to the Galatian church early in his ministry, he was trying to bring Gentiles into a community rooted in Judaism. One of the defining elements of Jewish identity was circumcision. Some of the Jewish members of the community argued that Gentiles should be circumcised before entering the church. Since this was a stumbling block to Gentiles, who wished to enter the community, Paul argued that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision mattered because “the new creation is everything.” Since the new creation is rooted in God’s grace, this physical marker was unnecessary.

The sixth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Galatians offers a summary of previous topics, while I’m tempted to cover all of them, I promise not to do so. This chapter in Paul’s Galatian letter follows his discussion of the fruit of the Spirit. He closes chapter 5 by telling the Galatians: “If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit. Let’s not become arrogant, make each other angry, or be jealous of each other” (Gal. 5:25-26 CEB). Then, in the first two verses of chapter six, Paul follows up by telling his friends:

Brothers and sisters, if a person is caught doing something wrong, you who are spiritual should restore someone like this with a spirit of gentleness. Watch out for yourselves so you won’t be tempted too. Carry each other’s burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ (Gal. 6:1-2 CEB).

If we read these four verses together with Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit, we see him connecting living by the Spirit with caring for others. This includes restoring those who stumble while carrying the burdens of those who are in need.

This word about caring for others is important because there is increasing talk in our society, even among Christians, about the “problem” of empathy. It seems that empathy makes us weak, even though both Jesus and Paul emphasize the importance of empathy. What Paul does in Galatians 6 is balance caring for the needs of others with taking responsibility for our lives. So, when possible, we should bear our own burdens. But when others need help carrying their burdens, we should help them out. This fits with Paul’s vision of the church as the body of Christ.

If we turn to 1 Corinthians 12, we find Paul telling that community that the Holy Spirit provides each member of the body of Christ with gifts of grace that contribute to the common good (1 Cor. 12:4-7). Every gift, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is important to the health and welfare of the community. This is what it means to do the right thing. Paul’s counsel to us here in Galatians 6, is to not grow weary as we do the right thing in pursuit of the common good.

Paul’s call to do the right thing reflects his vision of the new creation that began to emerge with the coming of Jesus into the world. So, Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5 that as the new creation comes into being, the old ways pass away and everything becomes new. In other words, whatever has transpired in the past no longer defines who we are as followers of Jesus. Therefore, we can move forward in life unhindered by the past. For that, I am quite grateful!

If we reach back once more into chapter 5 of Galatians, we discover that doing the right thing, which means living according to the new creation, involves embodying the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). After Paul gives this list of spiritual fruit, he tells us that “there is no law against such things.”

Of course, human experience reminds us that we haven’t reached perfection when it comes to doing the right thing. This means we will stumble at times and fail to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. That is why Paul tells us to gently restore those who stumble and fall to the pathway Jesus has set before us.

To get a sense of what Paul is up to, think about what happens when someone trips and falls. How do we respond? Do we let them lie on the ground, perhaps laughing at their situation? Or, do we help them get back on their feet and then check to see if they’re okay? If we do the latter, then we’re doing the right thing.

Getting back to that embattled word “empathy,” let us remember that to be in Christ involves living in a community where we take responsibility for those who are in need. While we could limit that responsibility to the Christian community, I believe both Paul and Jesus would want us to expand the circle quite a bit. This is especially true in a society where the majority claim to be Christians. After all, Jesus emphasized two commandments. The first commandment focuses on loving God, while the second involves loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. We might want to read that command in light of what Jesus had to say in Matthew 25, where he told the people that they cared for him when they cared for the “least of these who are members of my family” (Matt 25:31-46). So, if we are going to do the right thing, we need to pursue the common good by sharing each other’s burdens.

The problem that Paul sees occurring in the Galatian church and elsewhere is that this support system has broken down. People are not attending to the health of the body. Therefore, the body and its members reap what they sow. As Paul writes in verse 8, using the Common English Bible translation:

“Those who plant only for their own benefit will harvest devastation from their selfishness, but those who plant for the benefit of the Spirit will harvest eternal life from the Spirit” (vs. 8 CEB).

This weekend, we are celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Although the Declaration of Independence is not the nation’s governing document, it gives voice to the values the signers hoped this new nation would embody. The defining statement of that document is found in these words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

While Jefferson and his colleagues thought these values were self-evident, they had a rather limited view when it came to whom these words applied. We’re still trying to figure out who gets to benefit from these self-evident rights. That’s because the founders applied these words only to white men who owned property. In their mind, these words didn’t apply to Black men and women, most of whom were enslaved. They didn’t apply to Native Americans, even though they were here first. They didn’t even apply to women, who didn’t get the right to vote until 1920.

Getting back to Paul’s Galatian letter, earlier on in the letter, Paul wrote that our baptisms into Christ serve to overcome our social inequities. He wrote to people who lived in a world where a majority of the people were slaves and women were second-class citizens at best. This was also a world where Jews and Gentiles generally didn’t mix. Paul responded by letting the Galatians know that in Christ, things should be different. So he wrote: “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). While this should be true for the church, I believe that if we’re followers of Jesus, we should do our best not only to embody these values but to find ways of helping the larger community, whether it is a town, a state, a nation, or even the world itself, embody these values that reflect our diversity and seek to bring about inclusion and equality for all. By doing this, we embody Jesus’ command to love our neighbors. If we do this, then we’ll be doing the right thing. Doing the right things requires humility. That’s not easy because there is a human tendency to embrace selfishness.

Since we’re thinking about freedom this weekend, our freedom doesn’t require selfishness. If we’re to be free in Christ, our freedom must be tempered by our responsibilities for the welfare of others, especially the ones who are most in need. So, in the Spirit of the weekend, let us take to heart Paul’s warning to the church in Galatians 5, where he told the church members not to use their “freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.” In doing this, we fulfill the law to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and this is the key to finding the right balance (Gal. 5:14-15 NRSV).

As we hear this call to do the right thing as followers of Jesus, we also hear this closing word from Paul: May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen. (Gal. 6: 18 NRSV).

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church

Tyrone Township, MI

July 6, 2025

Pentecost 4C

Peace with God - A Sermon for Trinity Sunday (Romans 5:1-5)

2025-06-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

Romans 5:1-5

According to the liturgical calendar, today is Trinity Sunday. On a Sunday like this, we get to reflect on who God is. As history has proven, finding an answer to the question “who is God” has proven difficult. The Creeds define God as being one in substance but at the same time three persons. The first verse of our opening hymn declares:

Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!

Early in the morning

our song shall rise to thee.

Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and Mighty!

God in three persons, blessed Trinity!

At least since the fourth century, the majority of Christians have affirmed that definition of God’s nature, even if we still struggle to make sense of our confession. So, if you don’t completely understand the ins and outs of the Trinity, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Nevertheless, together with the majority of Christians throughout history, we proclaim that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This morning, we have heard a reading from the fifth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul wants us to know that since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus. Or, we might want to go with the way the Common English Bible translates the opening line of our reading: “Since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” If we go with the Common English Bible version, peace with God comes not through our faith but the faithfulness of Jesus. I think that makes a lot of sense. But not only do we experience peace with God through Jesus’ faithfulness, we have hope because God has poured out God’s love in us through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

If we read this passage through a Trinitarian lens, perhaps we will see a Trinitarian pattern. Of course, Paul doesn’t provide us with an explicit Trinitarian formula, nor is this the point of the passage.

What Paul does here is develop his understanding of how Jesus’ faithfulness makes us righteous and enables us to experience peace with God. In making his argument about experiencing God’s peace, Paul points to several qualities that come to us through our relationship with God through Jesus, and in the Spirit dwells within us. These qualities that lead to peace with God include endurance in times of suffering, which produces character, which produces hope, and which is rooted in God’s love. These are the gifts of God we celebrate today. While it’s easy to miss the word about suffering in this passage, when Paul talks about our relationship with God, he wants us to know that even as Jesus suffered, we may also experience suffering. However, suffering is not the final word, because suffering produces endurance, which produces character, which offers us hope.

Since Paul begins by speaking about experiencing peace with God, we might want to consider what Paul has in mind when he speaks of peace. Is peace a nice, quiet spot in a grassy meadow where we can take a nap? That’s called “peace and quiet?” That kind of peace is welcome, but too often it’s fleeting. We need to remember that Paul not only speaks of peace with God, he recognizes that suffering can be part of our life experience. It’s clear from his letters and from the Book of Acts that Paul experienced his share of suffering, but that didn’t deter him. So, rather than dwell on suffering, he speaks of endurance and character. I’ve noticed that character is in short supply in our world, starting at the top.

Now, sometimes we speak of peace of mind, which happens when we have a clear conscience. That’s a good thing because it goes along with character. However, I’m not sure that this is what Paul has in mind.

Of course, peace can be the absence of war, and Paul lived in an empire that offered the Mediterranean world the Pax Romana. However, Rome’s peace came with a heavy price. People across the empire exchanged freedom for stability. Even Rome’s peace was fleeting; that’s because history has shown us that the kind of peace that involves an absence of war is rare. When one war ends, another one starts. All we have to do is look around at what is happening in the world. There are the ongoing wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and over the last few days, we’ve witnessed the exchange of fire between Israel and Iran. It looks like the United States will get pulled into this conflict. We shouldn’t forget the divide that exists in our own country, which feels like we’re at war with each other.

While I strongly embrace the call for peace, both external and internal, I think Paul speaks here of a deeper kind of peace that is not determined by our circumstances. This kind of peace surpasses our understanding and is a gift of God received by faith that reconciles us to God. Every other form of peace is rooted in this act of reconciliation, rooted in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

In Paul’s view of things, God has proven God’s love for us through Jesus’ faithfulness that led to his death on the cross even though we are still sinners (Rom 5:8). What this means is that while we often put up barriers to keep God at bay, God is at work breaking down the barriers that separate us from God and one another. When God breaks down these barriers, we can experience God’s peace, hope, and love.

The good news is that while Paul can speak of God’s wrath, ultimately the God we meet in Scripture isn’t an angry, distant, judgmental supreme being who is out to get us. Instead, the God we meet in scripture and who is present to us through the Holy Spirit is passionate, committed, caring, and loving. This is the God who made a covenant with Abraham, promising that God would bless the nations through his descendants. This same God covenanted with Moses, through whom God delivered Israel from slavery and bound it together as a nation. This same God is known to us through Jesus, whose life, death, and resurrection remind us that God’s love is ever present. This is the God who walks with us when we experience the pain and suffering that builds character through endurance.

Theologian Jürgen Moltmann calls the God we meet in the New Testament the "Crucified God," because this is the God we meet on the cross. Therefore, it is in the shadow of this cross that we encounter the Prince of Peace. It is in this encounter, as we grow in character through endurance, that we experience hope. Hope does not disappoint.

I want to step back for a moment to what Paul has to say about suffering and how it leads to endurance and character. We must reject the idea that suffering is an expression of divine judgment. Too often in life, the guilty get off easy while the innocent suffer. That’s often the way it is with war, including all the wars that are taking place right now. The innocent victims of war, who too often are children, are called “collateral damage.” So, let us be careful with how we speak of suffering, because not all suffering is the same.

God doesn’t promise us a life without suffering. Disasters strike, people get sick, and we wonder where God is at, as we go through these difficult times. We may wonder why God doesn’t do something to prevent a plane filled with passengers from crashing. Unfortunately, there aren’t any easy answers to these questions. However, we have this promise that God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we might experience hope no matter our circumstances.

The good news is that we have been made right with God because of Jesus’ faithfulness, which leads to peace with God along with hope. According to biblical scholar Beverly Gaventa, the kind of hope Paul has in mind is different from “the flabby and trivial hopes for pleasant weather or a hearty supper. ‘Hope’ for Paul is not the equivalent of desire or wish. To the contrary, hope refers to confidence, trust, conviction. The ‘hope of sharing the glory of God’ is Christian certainty that God's glory will be shared with all. [Gaventa, Texts for Preaching, C, (WJK, 1993), 357.]

All of this is due to the fact that, as the Book of Hebrews reveals, we have a high priest who has been tested in every way like us and yet does not sin (Hebrews 4:14-15). In embracing Jesus, who has been tested in all things, we find peace with God.

As for what this asks of us, peace with God ultimately leads to transformed lives, so that we might stand before God as righteous. When it comes to being righteous before God, Kathleen Norris writes that Scripture consistently defines righteousness "as a willingness to care for the most vulnerable people in a culture, characterized in ancient Israel as orphans, widows, resident aliens, and the poor." [Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace, (NY: Riverhead Books, 1998), 96]. So, if we’re at peace with God, then we will live lives full of compassion and grace.

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pulpit Supply

Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church

Tyrone, Michigan

Trinity Sunday

June 15, 2025