Touching Resurrection: Making Faith Public; May 3, 2026

speaker-1: Our first reading ⁓ is Acts chapter seven verses 55 to ⁓ 60. But filled with the Holy Spirit, Stephen gazed into the heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Look, he said, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. But they covered their ears and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to him and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. When they were stoning Stephen he prayed, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, Lord do not hold this sin against them. Then he said this When he had said this, he died. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

speaker-0: ⁓ All right, ⁓ not sure if you have tasted or seen the sweet site that this past near the office entrance of our building. ⁓ In case you missed it, starting around Monday afternoon, bees began swarming around the front office, and you ought to check it out. I left at around 2.30 p.m. Monday afternoon, and somehow I even missed it, but apparently the formation was hard to miss once the process began. So I am speaking from my own point of view, but you should ask anyone on staff because they have their own unique story of how it formed. But by Tuesday morning, there was a hive. These bees were stuck. They were focused. They were not wreaking havoc despite their reputation to some. They were not flying around chasing those who passed by. They were just stuck. It was a sight that I have not seen before. And stuck on what? Well, according to my research, the culprit was the queen bee. The life of a healthy hive revolves around this queen bee, despite their reputation to some. sorry, a queen bee might be the only queen in a colony of 60,000 or more bees. And this colony works together to support her egg laying productivity in various ways. A queen bee is not necessarily the boss, however, because a queen bee can be overthrown. However, maybe the queen bee can be seen as a catalyst, a spur or a spark that sets off activity. The queen bee is the foundation of her community. And perhaps you might consider the ways a bee colony relies upon the force of a queen bee in the same light as the building of the church. As Kirk reminded us, each of us are stones. You are a stone, you are a stone, and you are a stone. Built on the cornerstone that is Jesus. And it is through Jesus that we are able to stand, and without him, everything else crumbles. So here now are epistle reading from 1 Peter 2, verses 2 to 10, which provides this illustration for us today. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Come to him a living stone, though rejected by mortals, yet chosen and precious in God's sight. And like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture. See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. This honor then is for you. who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner and a stone that makes them stumble and a rock that makes them fall. They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen priesthood, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. The word of the Lord. Thanks be God. join your hearts with mine as we go to God in prayer. God, may we taste and see how sweet it is to rest in your love. God, would we rest in your firm foundation this morning, that your words would transform us, that our hearts be open to what you are doing here and now. We thank you, God, for gathering us here. This we pray in your son's name, amen. Amen. All right, so this past week I took a trip down to Henderson, Nevada where I spent most of my adolescent years to meet the new queen bee of my sister and brother-in-law's household, my niece Olivia Caris, and she is two months old. I have mentioned previously that I have moved quite a bit in my life, but most of those moves were because of my choices happening during my young adulthood. So defining home has been a recent theme. There are places where we feel at home the most, maybe because of the climate. Maybe you feel most at home in places that are 70 degrees and rainy. Or some feel at home when it's 100 degrees and sunny. Or there are things that taste like home. Does anybody here watch Survivor? Team Christian who was eliminated. But I watched the most recent episode with my sister and brother-in-law and one of the contestants were brought to tears after eating a bowl of mac and cheese because it reminded her of meals shared with her kids. And there are people who feel like home, right? Who are those people for you? I'm sure one or two people come to mind. But my point is that it is a gift to feel at home because it is not promised all the time and when we do feel such a feeling, we want to cling on to it with all that we have for as long as we can. And in an article from the Smithsonian Magazine from 2012, Verlin Clinkenborg wrote, For much of the earliest history of our species, home may have been nothing more than a small fire and the light it cast on a few familiar faces, surrounded perhaps by the ancient city mounds of termites. But whatever else home is, and however it entered our consciousness, it's a way of organizing space in our minds. Because home is home. everything else is not home. That's the way the world is constructed. The recipients of Peter's first letter, which we just read, are exiled people of the dispersion. These Christians were cut off from a homeland, spread out, living a new life as Christ followers, and having to pay the price. And yet, they still chose to be defined by their relationship to God and Jesus Christ. Hence, this rally cry like reminder from Peter, that they are a chosen people, a royal priesthood. So my friends, please keep going, he writes. So admittedly, when I first met my niece, The first song that I decided to sing as my sister held her while she began to cry and I tried to distract her was this. I am a C. I am a C-H. I am a C-H-R-A-S-T-I-A-N. Does anybody know this song? Come on. This is from when I was in BBS. And admittedly, my sister and I could not remember the words past the spelling of the word Christian. But this song is about declaring our Christian identity because it is a way to show our pride and our belief in Jesus Christ. It's also pretty fun and catchy. But furthermore, this letter to the churches in Asia Minor is a call to have hope in a time of trials and tribulations. Not in a place they call home. but in a collective identity. For the audience of the first letter of Peter, home was being redefined by their identity in Christ. So as Pastor Jake reminded us last week, the resurrected Christ reminds us that God is with us in our suffering, in the valleys of life. And this morning, we are taking it a step further now by thinking about what it means to make our faith public or visible beyond just our hearts. And perhaps I might start by saying what living a public faith is not. It is not by shouting or singing songs spelling out the word Christian as loud as possible. It is not forcing our beliefs onto people in the name of Christ. It is not singing worship songs to distract us from the suffering of our neighbors, no, because these things tend to be exclusionary. Even with good intent, they tend to push people who don't know the inside even further into the margins. But rather today, might I suggest that a public faith begins with building on the cornerstone, the firm foundation of Jesus Christ and making a home for our faith in what he sought out to do on earth. Jesus came to live a life of love, was persecuted to his death and rose again, conquering the unconquerable, going against the grain of the oppressive systems in that society in those days. So when we settle ourselves on that firm foundation of Christ, we find a security that cannot be found anywhere else. Because there will be teachers, there will be pastors, leaders, even churches. that we will be tempted to put our faith in, even with the best intentions. And yet, they are not exempt from failing us simply because they are human and we are too. Furthermore, the call to build upon Christ as our cornerstone is an invitation to make a home in God's love. And from this love, we trust that our public witness, our public faith will not be out of fear, it will not be out of pride, or out of our need to protect from the other, whoever that might be. but rather the public faith to which we are called to have will come out of a place of invitation rather than exclusion. And this royal priesthood or chosenness is not an us versus them, but rather again an invitation to rest in the belonging which God offers everyone. And so the question we might ask today is this. To what extent will we allow ourselves to hope in such a thing? And do we really believe that such a thing so abundant can exist? And do we dare to act in response? In our first reading in Acts, we bear witness to the faith of Described as a man full of God's power and grace in chapter six, Stephen performed such wonders and signs among the people, and because of his faith in the goodness found in Christ, he was accused of blasphemy and eventually persecuted just like Jesus. Stephen is known as the first Christian martyr. But we look to the story of Stephen today, glamorize dying for one's faith, but more so to recognize and see the deep conviction Stephen had in the mission of Christ. Stephen is an example of a faith made visible because Stephen could not deny what God was doing. And as a result, Stephen followed it with his whole heart. And for us today, performing signs and wonders and living out a public faith may not look like what it did for the early church. Although who am I to say that it's not possible, right? But maybe signs and wonders looks like choosing a consistent, faithful act each day and pursuing it with all that we have, with all our heart. And perhaps signs and wonders might be standing up for those with a silenced voice in our communities. Our choice to participate in the Presbyteries Renewed Grace cohort is a great example. The Renewed Grace team. consisting of Chris, Colleen, Melanie, and Mary Collette, have worked together with our office staff and our worship committee to find creative ways to make worship accessible to neurodivergent minds. And because of this choice, and because of our decision as a congregation to put our whole heart in this, we now have a different bulletin, right? You may have noticed. We have made our worship more accessible by adding icons to help signal what each liturgical act means in our worship. We have added crosswords and word searches, not just for mere entertainment, but to help redirect our minds and focus on what God is trying to speak to us today. And there are promptings to help us reflect on what we just heard. But I bring this up because maybe it is a sign and wonder these days to simply consider those outcasted by society. Another sign and wonder that I witnessed because of my work with the youth is when I saw one of our students consistently tending to one of the garden beds during wow while we would play kickball. Weeds would grow each week, but that same student would come back and try to make the soil fertile for growth. And when I asked what they were doing, they said that they had hoped to nurture life and make use of the space. And because of this consistent act of faith, this resulted in our students working with Christy Williams and Jennifer Painter this week while I was away to plant some summer fruit. And sometimes a sign and wonder is a faithful no to things that do not align with who God calls us to be. And I believe this is probably the hardest when life can be full of possibilities and fun, dare I say, right? For those of you who were with us in January and picked out a star word, this is my check-in to see how that word has played out so far this year in your life. Where have you seen this word come up and how has it guided you to new doors or maybe guided you to shut some doors as well? For me, as fitting as it might seem, my word was align. So coming firsthand from a recovering people pleaser and also someone who approaches life with a yes and mentality, a faithful heart is no, but it is necessary. And I have seen how seeking alignment calls us to a deeper place in faith because we must observe and become more aware of what exactly God is doing and trust that signs and wonders will appear even after closing doors ourselves. My point is, our faith in the resurrected Christ produces a persistent hope for what could be. It opens our heart up to the possibility of change through new life and growth. And as David L. Bartlett writes, as Christians await what is hoped for, they need to choose how to live in the meantime. The way Christians are to live is by loving God and hoping for God's future. And although the path along the way may not always be what it we expect, it is through our hope and faithful acts that the world around us eventually transforms. So while visiting Family in Nevada, I watched Angels in the Outfield with my sister. Has anybody watched that? It's an oldie. That was one of our favorite movies growing up together. And the premise of the movie is as follows. Foster kid Roger, played by a young Joseph Gordon Levitt, loves the Anaheim Angels, even though they're the worst team in the major leagues. His estranged dad promises to reunite the family if the Angels make it to the World Series. So Roger decides to ask for some divine help and prays that his favorite team will turn things around. And soon, a real angel named Al, played by Christopher Lloyd, back to the future guy, shows up in response to Roger's prayers and Anaheim's hopeless coach, George Knox, played by Danny Glover, is shocked to see his team on a winning streak. And in this movie, does anybody know the signal, the famous signal which the kids give? Exactly! The kids give this signal to the coach to tell them that there are angels in the outfield. And this will come to play soon enough. I really suggest that you watch it. It's a really wholesome family movie. ⁓ And I will try my best not to spoil the movie entirely right now. But what happens in the end, to me, provides a great illustration to what it means to have our faith rest on the cornerstone of Christ and that impact on the collective. So, at the bottom of the ninth inning, the aging picture of the angels, Mel Clark, has his last task to strike out the last player at bat and he is a nervous wreck. Noticing this, and with the game on the line, the foster kid with mighty faith, Roger, starts flapping his wings even though he does not see angels. And Roger does it in faith that Mel can do the unthinkable. He just needs to believe. And what follows this act of faith, again, there is no angel, there are no angels, but what follows this act is that the whole stadium then begins to join Roger and a wave of people begin to stand and start flapping their wings becoming a visible sign of faith and Mel's abilities. And for Mel, he is able to put his faith in the belief that in that moment, whether he sees it or not, there are angels watching out for him and that he can complete the task. So nonetheless, I bring this up because I think that is what it ultimately means to bear a public witness and to have a resurrection hope. Because when we believe that God is the God who God says God is, a God of never-ending grace and love and miracles, we too begin to believe that such grace and love exists for ourselves to both receive and ultimately to give to one another. And from this belief, change happens. To quote the movie itself, where there is love, miraculous things can happen. Our creator God recreated us out of love and with an innate sense of belonging. We see it in the ways the bees work, in the ways humanity acts out both positively and negatively. We are all yearning for home and we are all yearning for alignment. So our faith in our God who so loved us must be made public for the world to see that there is a home for all of us. There is a possibility for a place to exist where we all feel belonging that we don't have to guard or protect. There is a place so abundant with love and grace that the table continues to extend for all to have a seat. There is a place where we all feel alignment in some way, somehow. And this place is not something that we have to wait for until after death. But because of the resurrection of Christ, we can hope for glimpses of this place we all can call home in our present reality today. So my friends, would you believe this in this with me today? This I give you in the name of our creator, redeemer, and sustainer, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

1 Peter 2:2–10