This is my second to last sermon as a pastor. Last week I explored the bigness of God and why we must not shrink from what I call the “heretical imperative”—that is, the freedom to break the dead chains of orthodoxy when they hold us captive to lesser views and experiences of God. Next week, July 31, 2022, I’ll preach my final sermon and explore the future of Christianity.
In this current sermon, preached at Davis Community Church on July 24, 2022, I meditate on the truth of our common and sacred humanity, its relation to the tradition of the Incarnation, and how, in the immortal words of Victor Hugo (Les Miserables), “to love another person is to see the face of God.”
The sermon is based on 1 John 4.7-12 and was preached on July 24, 2022. The video of the sermon can be found here.
Last week, I spoke with you about what I was looking for when I came among you in March 2015. This week, I want to spend some time reflecting on the key lessons I’ve learned among you. Next week, for my final sermon among you, I’ll explore what I sense we must become if we are to survive as a species and try to thrive. I’ll explore what it means to allow religious faith and spirituality to shape a way of being human that helps us live benevolently and cooperatively on the earth.
After next Sunday, I will no longer serve as a pastor, but I still believe that religion—the stories, rituals, symbols, and practices of religion—are immensely relevant. If religious ways of life can be re-imagined for the centuries ahead . . .