00:00:34,000 S1: Oh. 00:00:53,868 S1: I see. 00:01:01,400 S1: I. 00:01:03,767 S1: Love. 00:01:07,501 S1: You. 00:01:22,300 S1: I. 00:01:37,901 S1: Love you. I. 00:02:05,601 S1: In. 00:02:09,801 S1: The. 00:02:15,667 S1: Aftermath. 00:02:45,667 S1: Of the. 00:05:14,367 S1: You? 00:05:33,767 S1: Might. 00:06:02,567 S1: I. 00:06:51,200 S1: Spa. 00:07:05,567 S1: Day. 00:07:45,100 S2: Good morning. Oh, it is good to gather here together in this warm sanctuary this morning for worship and a world that feels unsteady at times. We come to remember that God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble. Today. Today we are reminded that we are held by a love that does not panic and called by a faith that teaches us how to stand firm when the ground feels uncertain. Fellow travelers and wayfarers, you are welcome here, just as you are, not because of what you believe or doubt, not because of what you have accomplished or failed, but because God gathers us and meets us right where we are. We walk together on this journey, Whether the path is joyful or complicated, heavy or quietly hopeful. Trusting that God is present in the midst of us all. We walk side by side on this path of life, whether we are queer or straight, cisgender or transgender, young or old, certain or searching. We walk knowing that God's love makes room for every person's calling. As seekers and searchers, we find strength for this moment not by denying the chaos around us, but by rooting ourselves in the one who does not abandon us. When the world trembles. So bring your whole self this morning. Bring your stories, your questions, your hopes and your fears, your weariness and your courage. This is the time to gather together, to breathe deeply and to remember that we do not face the storms of life alone. This is a time of deep joy as we celebrate the love of Christ, lived out in the rough places of humanity, a steady presence when the nations rage and hearts grow weary. Hear the good news today. You are beloved. You are held. And here you find companions. As we stand together, trusting the God who is with us still. Go! Alright. Go go go! Pass! 00:10:32,367 S2: That's a mic drop moment right there. Nicely done. 00:10:38,767 S2: And other things that are happening today besides the Super Bowl and the Pats winning. Right. There's something else. Yeah, there are a few things, uh, good things, uh, today. But part of the service is a great, wonderful day of celebration. We are recognizing choir members today. We are receiving new members into our community of faith. We are so happy to do that. And following the service, we have a potluck lunch right down the hallway. So hot coffee. Great. Great food. So all of you, please join us. And for for that time in welcoming our new members some good, delicious hot food back there. Uh, so what a wonderful day we have starting it off. And we'll, I'm sure, end in a wonderful day as well. No doubt. So a few things going on in this coming week. Uh, don't forget women's enrichment group is meeting this week. Winter wellness. You're going to want this. You're going to want it. You're going to be there, right? Chair. Pilates. Are you going to be there? I'm ready. All right. Arches has demonstrated our chair Pilates for this coming Wednesday. Winter wellness. And we're so grateful for the mission committee sponsoring winter wellness next, um, on the 15th, uh, there's a finance workshop in Holland Hall, and, uh, and then we have Shrove Tuesday. You know what that means? Pancakes, baby. So pancakes on Shrove Tuesday on the 17th, and then our Ash Wednesday service on the 18th. So please come join us for all of those activities and more as outlined in your bulletin. Are we ready? We are ready. Now we'll go. Go, God and then go Pats later. Yeah! Go, God! Oh, God. I invite you to be a part of our worship this morning. 00:13:16,167 S1: Sweet hour of prayer. Sweet out of prayer. Let us be from the world of prayer. And leaves me as my name was promptly on my knees. And must be known in seasons of Personally, my soul has often come. Dreams and other schemes attempt to send my home returned. Sweetheart. Pray. 00:14:11,100 S2: Please rise for our call to worship. 00:14:18,501 S3: We are called to bring a new understanding of God. That God who so loves the world. We are the salt of the earth. We are called to bring a new hope in God that God gives us new life. We are the light in the world. We are called to follow the commandments and the law. The law of God, love God, love one another. Come, let us be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And come as one another and the love of God. Let us join together our love for God to worship and follow Jesus. 00:15:26,567 S1: You may remember. 00:15:34,000 S1: That we live on the same To be more aligned to Jesus spirit. 00:15:55,100 S1: And. 00:15:57,567 S1: More interested in them? All of. 00:16:06,467 S1: Us will be sorry for the mystery. What is appointed will bring 00:16:22,767 S1: us for 00:16:27,868 S1: the dosing. 00:16:34,400 S1: Of the man who presses a very low key for me. 00:17:08,167 S3: Please now join in our prayer of invocation followed by the Lord's Prayer in unison. 00:17:18,267 S3: God of grace and glory. We are so grateful for the leadership of extraordinary people who shine light into the darkness of disaster, transforming a curse into a blessing and the gift of salt and a new harvest of hope. Make us like that, Lord, so that our faith is not in our words, but in our lives, not in what we say, but in what we do. Passing on your light like the salt that blesses. Like a city on a hill. Like a lamp on a stand. Light for life. The light and the world. Amen. And now the Lord's Prayer. Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive those who lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. 00:19:06,267 S4: Hi, I'm Sue from the Port of Music, and it's my honor to get to recognize two members of the choir that have been singing with us for ten years, and today we're going to recognize Andrew Hankinson and Sarah Oakley. 00:19:25,667 S5: I'm. Thank you. 00:19:27,801 S6: So come on. 00:19:30,767 S4: And while they're coming up, I would just like those members of the choir who have already achieved their ten year anniversary to raise their hands. 00:19:48,868 S4: Thank you for sharing your gift of music with us for these last ten years. And, um, we want to invite you all to Holland Hall because there will be a celebratory cake. 00:20:57,501 S1: I. 00:21:11,968 S1: Called out the Lord of the Lord. That will not offend me. 00:21:26,801 S1: Oh, Lord. I missed Side is all you need. I give me back my all that in the ocean. Test it for me. Richer for me. 00:22:01,167 S1: 000000000I 00:22:10,567 S1: see me through the day. 00:22:18,801 S1: I cannot close my eyes to be my face. 0000. 00:22:30,167 S1: Rain and fill up. Promise me something 00:22:38,300 S1: and more. Shall you be that more shall be chassis. 00:23:06,200 S1: Yourself before. 00:23:11,567 S1: Us. Why, yes. Why weary souls? We die at the light. Why for We'd be like, oh my God. Oh. 00:23:35,567 S1: My God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. 00:23:50,100 S1: Richard Fuller. 00:23:55,501 S1: There's more shouting. 00:24:05,000 S1: Oh my. 00:24:08,968 S1: God! 00:24:16,801 S1: Oh! 00:24:20,767 S1: My God you. 00:24:27,467 S1: Are. 00:24:29,968 S1: People. 00:24:36,100 S1: That you know. 00:24:42,767 S1: Me? 00:25:02,567 S2: And now I invite our children. Come down for our children's message. 00:25:15,067 S2: And after the children's message, I will invite our new members to come down in. 00:25:20,367 S7: Just a second. 00:25:25,767 S2: Well. Hey, everyone. Good to see you. 00:25:29,767 S2: I need a little help. Um, Gunnar, would you hold this one? No. I'm not. Yeah, well, you know the microphone if you want. Okay. So today we're going to be talking about Jesus. Uh, Jesus's teaching. He said we are the salt of the earth and the light for the world. And so, uh, at the beginning, I want you to kind of think about, uh, I want us to think about salt and have some salt here, or they're not in here. And I want to I want to give you a choice, uh, and see which one, uh, you might would like, um, if you were to taste these two things, if you had a choice between tasting these two. One is salt and the other is animal crackers, which has wheat flour, thiamin, riboflavin, calcium carbonate, and so on and so forth, and salt and salt. And here in these cookies. So if you wanted to taste, which one would you want to taste. You'd want to taste the salt. You like salt. This is not going as planned. 00:26:55,467 S5: Anybody else. 00:26:58,567 S2: Anybody want to say cookies? Go ahead. Which one would you take? Thank you. 00:27:09,767 S2: You know, these things are perfectly planned in my mind. So we're going to be talking about salt. And salt is a preservative. Salt adds flavor to the things that we eat. And Jesus said that we are salt of the earth, but we don't. We use salt. Not most of us don't eat salt. A few of us, a few of us do. Most of us would prefer our salt in things like cookies, or on French fries or all kinds of. So salt adds flavor to our meals and to our food. And that's what I wanted to talk about today, because Jesus said that we are a salt of the earth, the meaning that we add flavor to the world, we add something to the world, and we we are the salt of the earth. There's salt and adding flavor to things. When we are doing the deep things that Jesus taught us to do, when we make our world a little brighter. So. Salt on your French fries. Make them taste a little better. And so when we follow Jesus's teachings, we make things a little better in a world. So what do you think? How do you think? Uh, kindness. What does kindness do when you act kind to one another? 00:28:43,667 S8: But you make them better. 00:28:45,367 S2: It's things better. Yeah. What happens when you include someone that's being left out? 00:28:51,801 S8: It makes them, like, feel good. Yeah. 00:28:55,000 S2: Makes them feel good. So we add a little bit to the world. We add things to our community and to our home and to our world. And when we help someone, when we include someone, when we love someone that adds flavor to our world and it makes our lives and people's lives a little, a little brighter, kind of like salt and animal crackers. It makes them tasty. So I would like. We're also doing something very special today. We are receiving new members into our church. And you know what? They're going to make our church very salty. Our salty earth. Yeah, your dad is going to make it a little salty. 00:29:46,701 S2: And what I what I mean by that is. 00:29:51,767 S2: What I mean by that is each person. Each person. 00:29:58,567 S2: Each person brings their own gifts, their own seasoning to our church, in our community. And so our new members are bringing their gifts and their abilities, just like you bring your gifts and your abilities like public speaking. 00:30:14,100 S5: To your church. 00:30:18,400 S2: So he's the pickle of Okay, Curtis, you're the pickle and the. And the hamburger. So we welcome new members and the gifts and what they bring and what we all bring to our community as a whole. So what I'm going to ask you to do is if you would sit on the front pew and I'm going to invite our new members down, would you all sit on the front pew and help me? Thank you. 00:30:51,868 S2: And so I invite our new members to come down. And if you would, we'll stand over here on this side of the sanctuary. So we have you all have in your bulletin, uh, the books that are joining and. 00:31:11,100 S2: Come on down. So we have Patty and Peggy and Cathy and Betty and Janet And Anthony and Andrew and Curtis and Katrina and Gunnar. If you want us to come and stand with your parents, you're welcome to. Wonderful. So we are all so very happy that you are joining our congregation in an official way. Many of you have contributed to to this community in various ways. And we celebrate you coming from the journeys that have led you to this point. So whether you're coming from Second Church, some of you are coming from other churches and other places and other journeys, and we are so delighted that you are here and that we that we will belong together and to each other. And so I ask you, do you desire to become full members of the First Church of Winona, part of the United Church of Christ and the larger family of God. Please respond by saying, I do, I do. Will you try to follow the teachings of Jesus according to your understanding of what those teachings mean in your life? Please respond by saying, With God's help, I will help. 00:32:40,601 S1: You. 00:32:42,267 S9: Will you, so far as you are able to share your love with everyone you encounter through your gifts, your fortune, and who you are? Please respond by saying, with God's help, I will. 00:32:55,267 S1: With God's help. 00:32:56,167 S2: And will you? Will you be forgiving of yourselves when you fall short? And will you forgive others when they ask for your forgiveness? Please respond by saying, With God's help I will. 00:33:11,467 S1: Confess our prayer. 00:33:13,868 S2: And now to the members and Friends of First Church. Will you offer your love, your support, your prayers, and your acceptance of these new members? If so, please do so by standing. And would you join with me in the welcoming covenant as printed in your bulletin? 00:33:37,000 S2: We welcome you with joy as partners. Amen. 00:33:42,000 S1: First church. 00:33:44,467 S2: We promise our friendship, prayers, and support as we share in the joys and the work of the Church of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. May we continue to grow in. 00:33:59,801 S1: God's wisdom and love. 00:34:01,601 S2: And to be faithful servants of Christ. And. Amen. And please, let's give it a round of applause. 00:34:17,367 S2: So we are so grateful that you are an official part of our congregation, and I just want to make sure that we have a photo of you all. Do we have a photo? Okay, okay. One more. 00:34:34,868 S2: I was I was instructed to make sure you get the photo. 00:34:43,767 S2: All right. And now we have. 00:34:49,167 S2: Some flowers for you. 00:35:02,868 S2: We didn't plan on this part. 00:35:07,367 S2: This is going to. Not if this is going to go a little out of order. You get your flowers on second. I guess. 00:36:19,767 S2: You may be seated. 00:36:25,601 S2: Thank you. Thank you all. 00:36:33,567 S1: For joining. 00:36:51,000 S1: Me? As I. 00:36:56,400 S1: Increased the pressure on. 00:37:07,100 S1: Your house. 00:37:11,767 S1: Because 00:37:14,701 S1: we love and. 00:37:19,801 S1: Grace. Our lives are those around us that. 00:37:34,267 S1: We share the most. Jesus is my slave and the God of love. In the Lord be with you. When we love to see us. See. 00:38:06,767 S1: That we shall see. you are meant to be. Amen. 00:38:34,367 S2: This is our time to. To remember each other in prayer. To remember our world, to remember our country. To remember our community and to remember ourselves. 00:38:52,367 S2: Let us join together in prayer. 00:39:01,267 S2: Gracious and generous. God. 00:39:06,300 S2: We gather before you. Carrying the week behind us. All that has transpired. 00:39:16,100 S2: The challenges and the joys. 00:39:20,767 S2: The unsettling and the grounding. And we look to the week ahead of us. Some of us today arrived with full hearts. Others have come. 00:39:38,267 S2: And gathered. Worn thin. 00:39:42,100 S2: You receive us all the same. With a welcome that never flickers. 00:39:51,567 S2: We thank you for the quiet saints among us. For those who plow driveways and bake bread. 00:40:01,667 S2: Those that answer late night calls sit at hospital bedsides, send notes, offer humor, and study the rest of us by their presence. 00:40:20,367 S2: For lies that season, the world without needing recognition. Oh, God, we give you thanks. 00:40:31,901 S2: Loving God, we ask that you shape us into your people. Where we are sharp. Soften us where we are weary. Restore us where we are cynical. ReAwaken. Wonder where we have confused faith. Return us to love. 00:41:06,000 S2: Teach us the way of the Beatitudes of God, make us poor in spirit enough to depend on you, gentle enough to listen. Merciful enough to forgive. Hungry enough to seek justice. Brave enough to make peace. 00:41:32,100 S2: Help us be salt that enhances life and not overwhelms it. Light that reveals beauty, not blinds with judgement. We pray for those who feel flavorless in their own lives, who wonder if they matter, who feel hidden, dimmed, or forgotten. Let your spirit, O God, whisper into their ears and bones. 00:42:08,467 S2: We pray for our community and for our neighbors. For firefighters and teachers, bakers and caregivers, children and elders all whose daily work holds the fabric of life together. 00:42:26,968 S2: And we pray for the places where the world seems and feels unsettled. 00:42:34,767 S2: Where decay, racism, violence, grief and fear seem too strong. 00:42:44,701 S2: Sin. Oh, God, your people, there is preservers of hope. May we be bearers of mercy and keepers of compassion. 00:42:59,000 S2: God make our lives a place where others Experience kindness. Make our presence a window where others glimpse your light. We offer all this in the Spirit of Christ, who did not dominate the world but loved it into transformation. Amen. 00:43:29,667 S1: We love. 00:43:33,467 S1: Each other with our. 00:43:40,501 S1: Fall 00:43:43,400 S1: in love. We can. 00:43:50,767 S1: Reach our soul. 00:44:01,167 S1: We. 00:44:03,801 S1: Are very. 00:44:12,467 S1: Much indeed. We must pray. 00:44:19,567 S1: In the. 00:44:23,100 S1: Grace of. 00:44:28,000 S1: God. 00:44:31,100 S1: We are. 00:44:46,167 S3: This is where I get to say a few words about supporting First Church. Now, when we walk in the door, we know what we're going to get. We're going to get great messaging, Terrific music. A community of faith. But how do we feel when we leave First Church? Listen to the following. When you leave First church, do you feel better than when you arrived? Do you feel good? Do you take with you a few nuggets to sustain you through the week? If you can answer yes to those, raise your hand. Me too. And that's just one of the multitude of reasons why we support First Church. With the deacons, please come forward from the morning offering. 00:45:53,767 S1: You, the kingdom. And when you do. In the name of the kingdom of the river. From the lake to this world, and shoulder on the cross. To take it home to Jesus. Sing that good news for you. I got a harp up in the. The King of mainland New England. And the God of our walk into the kingdom. The good news is, I'm going to lay down this world for sure. And so I'm going to take it over to the Jesus 00:46:40,701 S1: Kingdom, give you the new aroma of the kingdom that will do you like all the love of God, that will give you the kingdom of Does this make up it? So once you. 00:47:07,267 S1: Do that you see New Kingdom things with music that configure singers, including the new king of the land of this world. Come shoulder to what goes. Continue on to Jesus. Sing that good news against the news of my life. 00:47:40,567 S1: For the good of. 00:48:04,868 S1: The worship song may come to us. Praise the. 00:48:16,267 S1: Lord. Praise the. 00:48:21,868 S1: Lord. 00:48:37,567 S3: We thank you for the gift that have been bestowed upon us. And now we share some of our gifts. That first church may continue their work in our world. Amen. 00:49:13,200 S3: Today. Our scripture reading comes from Matthew. Matthew five opens with Jesus ascending a mountain, sitting and beginning to teach a series of blessings that turned the world's value system inside out. The poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, the persecuted. These are named as citizens of God's reign. The Beatitudes in Matthew one through 12 establish the character of the kingdom and the interior posture of those who inhabit it into that identity. Jesus then speaks. Vocation. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. The disciples are not simply recipients of blessings, but agents of transformation. Their communal life is meant to be public, potent, and life giving for the sake of God's realm here. Now, our reading this morning from Matthew five chapter chapter five, verses 13 through 20. You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, how can saltiness be restored? It's no longer good for anything, but it's thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. The city built on a hill cannot hide. People, do not light a lamp. Put it under the bushel basket. Rather, they put it on a lampstand and it gives light to all in the house, in the same way that your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven. Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to establish, to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away. Not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven. Thus ends our reading the Word of God for the people of God. 00:52:07,267 S2: Yesterday when the snow was swirling all around. And even today, when the cold wind is blowing, I my mind went to thinking about Roger and all of Clayton. You've heard of him, right? No you haven't. 00:52:29,367 S2: Roger and Olive were born in Madison, New Hampshire, a little tiny town. There were probably 300 people in town when they were born. They walked to the one room schoolhouse. As kids, they got married. They moved away down to Connecticut to get work and raise a family. And then, like so many New Englanders, found their way back home and retirement to Madison. On snow days, Olive would bake oatmeal molasses bread every snow day, which happened a lot in the White Mountains. When I would plow their driveway, she would come out with a hot loaf of bread in her hands, bundled up, and pass it through the windows of the plow truck. 00:53:31,367 S2: When I was building my house, she delivered chocolate chip cookies on the regular, and whenever I was perplexed and trying to figure out what the heck I was doing, I would sit down, eat a chocolate chip cookie and ponder until the right thing came along. Arlo did this without any fanfare, without any announcement she just generously gave Roger. Her husband was a volunteer firefighter, he joked he snuck on a fire truck when he was 14, going to a fire and never stopped riding. And for 40 years, he was a volunteer firefighter. He responded to emergency calls at any hour, at any time, day or night, even with his severe arthritis, he showed up. He mentored me as a firefighter, as a fire chief, as a human being. He would help anyone at a drop of a hat any time of day. Both of them were wicked funny. Wicked funny. They laughed. They joked with one another. They were full of life and laughter. They became grandparents to my children. They taught them gentleness, kindness, how to pay attention to neighbors. They were the kind of people that brought out the best. And who you are just brought out the best in you. Their generosity, self-deprecating humor, humility, zest for life, care for neighbors, and good in nature just flowed out of them so freely, and you wanted to give it back. You wanted to give it to other people. You wanted to do better. Live more fully. Care more deeply for others. Neighbors and strangers alike. 00:56:02,100 S2: Here's something interesting. I never once heard them quote scripture 00:56:10,868 S2: or talk much about their faith, even though it was essential to their lives. They didn't have a bumper sticker on their car. There wasn't even an embroidered prayer hanging on their wall. 00:56:28,667 S2: But the love of Christ flowed from them. 00:56:36,567 S2: And it invoked a goodness and people. It was just beautiful. 00:56:45,100 S2: My mama always taught me to be a good Christian example, to be the salt of the earth. I don't know how many times I've heard this passage to be a candle on a lampstand, a city on a hill, a shining example. And that meant always having a sunny disposition, because God would make all things work out. Being kind to other others. Dressing properly. 00:57:13,767 S2: Never cursing. Always do the right thing. Be loving. Serving others. Work hard. Be honest. These, in and of themselves are all really good things. 00:57:29,000 S2: But layered into all that was this desire to win others for Jesus, to convince others to become Christians so they wouldn't go to hell. And I took that responsibility to heart. I really started living that way so others. 00:57:51,767 S2: Wouldn't go to hell. The others could be one for Christ and for me. Sometimes it produced a veneer of inauthentic faith. Beneath it was a subtle manipulation that I was taught winning souls rather than building genuine two way relationships with God or with others. In that fundamentalist context, being the salt of the world sometimes meant Christian domination winning the country, winning the culture, winning the world for Jesus, a very specific vision shaped largely by Southern American evangelicalism. 00:58:47,000 S2: We still see it today. We see that wrapped up in political expressions today. 00:58:57,000 S2: World domination was never Jesus's goal. In fact, his 40 days in the wilderness, at the end of that, he was tempted by that very power and he refused it. 00:59:19,467 S2: Dominion, control. Coercion. These were not what Jesus taught, and they are not what is meant by being salt of the earth or light of the world. 00:59:40,000 S2: Let me ask you this. 00:59:44,000 S2: How many of you raise your hands? How many of you would love to love drinking salt water? Anybody? We already had somebody that liked eating salt. So maybe, you know, you got freedom. No one likes drinking salt water, right? How many of you like when the the optometrist shines the light right in your eye? 01:00:08,200 S2: Directly into your eye. 01:00:12,100 S2: No one. Salt by itself is overwhelming. Like, aimed to blind us harm. So what does Jesus mean? To understand salt and light, we have to step back to the beginning of the chapter. Or for that matter, for everything that Jesus taught. Because before Jesus tells us what we are, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, He tells us who is blessed. 01:00:44,100 S2: Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. 01:00:55,701 S2: Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful, the pure in heart. The peacemakers. 01:01:10,801 S2: Those persecuted for righteousness. This is the character of God's realm. 01:01:21,701 S2: Then Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. In other words, people shaped by mercy become mercy In the world. People shaped by peacemaking become peace in the world. 01:01:50,200 S2: Eugene Peterson's, in his Paris Paraphrase version of the Bible, captures the texture of this. He translated it this way you. You're here to be salt. Seasoning that brings out the God flavors of this earth. You're here to be light. Bringing out the God colors in the world. 01:02:22,868 S2: Those of you who are bakers or cookers. Susan usually put a blanc of salt, right, a pinch. You don't dump the whole Morton salt in, because a pinch of salt enhancers enhances the flavors that are already there. You don't eat a bowl of salt. You might put it on the rim of your margarita 01:02:56,968 S2: because it makes it tastier. But you don't drink salt water. 01:03:04,467 S2: Salt is not a meal. It reveals the meal and light. The light itself reveals the colors. The light reveals the colors that make Monet's water lilies so beautiful. 01:03:26,767 S2: The salt is not the dish. The light is not the the star of the show. Salt enhances flavor. like reveals the beauty that is already present. 01:03:43,601 S2: There are a group of Theravada Buddhist monks. 01:03:52,200 S2: Conducting a 2300 mile walk for peace, they started in Fort Worth, Texas, which began in October. And they are going to end in our nation's capital very soon. I haven't really been following them. I've been getting reports about them. And here's the thing. 01:04:23,067 S2: Their presence gives me hope. I don't know anything more except what I've just told you and the reports I get. But their presence gives me hope because they are walking for peace. They're walking for peace. Makes me want to do more, to be more. 01:04:52,367 S2: I think about the people that help us be more. 01:04:58,901 S2: Something came to mind recently when Michelle Obama was giving her speech. Years ago. 01:05:10,000 S2: She said when they go low, we go high. 01:05:17,567 S2: That's what Roger and Olive did too. They enhanced the goodness already present in people. They revealed the beauty and neighbors and firefighters and my kids in the community. No billboard, no slogans, no humblebrag faith. No need to dominate the world for Jesus. 01:05:51,467 S2: This is what Jesus is talking about when he says he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. The fulfillment of the law is not domination. It is transformation. Mercy. Embodied peacemaking practice love enhanced by simple, ordinary daily gestures. 01:06:19,901 S2: Bread delivered. Warm. 01:06:24,501 S2: Driveways. Snow plowed. Snow blowed. Calls answered at 2 a.m.. 01:06:35,868 S2: Cookies in an unfinished house. Salt. Light. So here is the invitation. Jesus places before us. 01:06:50,567 S2: For us to be enhancing the love and peace in a world. For us to illuminate the good that happens in this world. The kindness that is practice. The grace that is given to reveal the grace of Christ in the world. To live in such a way that others taste goodness because we were present. To stand in such a way that others see beauty that others might have missed. 01:07:37,400 S2: You may never preach sermons. Others remember. You may never quote Scripture out loud. You may never hang a prayer on your wall, but you may break bread that carries comfort. You might send a card that brings hope. You may provide a presence 01:08:03,801 S2: that steadies fear. You may live in kindness that multiplies other kindness. And when we do that, the world tastes something of God. 01:08:21,501 S2: In a pinch of time. In a pinch at a time. And a flicker at a time. 01:08:29,167 S2: We promote God's love slowly, quietly, faithfully. The God flavors deepen, the colors become more vivid, and the ordinary landscape of human life begins to shine. Let us be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. 01:09:48,067 S1: I see. 01:09:52,367 S1: The business sitting with. 01:09:57,667 S1: The view of people running this 01:10:04,767 S1: place. 01:10:10,467 S1: With me. For us to be able to. 01:10:25,567 S1: For those. 01:10:31,067 S1: Of us. 01:10:35,767 S1: That is in. 01:10:40,901 S1: Need of precious. 01:10:47,100 S1: Blood. 01:10:52,901 S1: I will pray for those who are given power during the power to power through. 01:11:17,467 S1: My mother. She seems to me with. This might be my dream. 01:11:36,701 S1: Of. 01:11:39,567 S1: Being with people who. 01:11:46,367 S1: Rise to the power. 01:11:54,467 S1: There. 01:12:03,701 S1: Are. 01:12:12,868 S1: Three of. 01:12:22,067 S1: Us. I mean, he brings me up to me. People ask me how. 01:12:40,400 S1: The. 01:12:57,901 S1: Rest of our predictions are in the name of the spirit of the church. 01:13:22,000 S1: See. 01:13:24,868 S1: For some. 01:13:28,667 S1: Of us. Now and then. 01:13:45,167 S2: Don't forget to join us for our potluck lunch and greet our new members and greet visitors that are with us, and greet people you've known forever, too. This is a part of our worship as well. The fellowship of one another. And now let us go in the grace and peace of Christ. Let us live that out and our lives in great and small ways. Amen. 01:14:11,000 S1: Amen. 01:16:24,467 S10: I.