October 26, 2025 First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA
Luke 18:9-14 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other, for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
When I was writing this sermon, I found myself listening to an old Bill Gaither video, where folks were singing “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”… you know this old gospel tune.
I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back… so beautiful, sung very slowly, very emotional..
And then I began to listen to the next video. The same song, this time sung by an African artist. The tempo was much more vigorous, some of the words in French or Yoruba.
I found 4 or 5 different versions of this song, each of them slightly different. In one, everyone there was singing, like a congregation; in another, a soloist used the song as the underlying foundation for an emotional altar call, in a third, the song was played simply and quietly on the harp.
In each, we were focused on the meaning of the words – even the harp solo, when I expect almost everyone heard the words in their heads, even though they weren’t spoken. And so that’s where we’re starting today. This is our first answer to the question, what does God expect of us?
God expects us to follow Jesus.
And there’s more than one right way to do that, just as there’s more than one right way to sing that song. Moreover, just because a way appeals to me, that doesn’t mean it has to appeal to everyone the same way. God expects us to follow Jesus in the way that each of us finds bringing us closer to living out Jesus’ way.
That means we’re expected to take following God seriously. It’s not just a “Sunday only” thing. We who have made promises, at our baptisms, when we joined this church, have set our feet on the path of going further in, higher up, continuing to learn more, allowing the changes of our lives to change how we follow, but not to erase our commitment.
In one of my churches, I heard the story of one member who – throughout all the years – had been one of the church’s leaders, who’d spent years organizing their food pantry, reaching out to those in need. But in her later years, she was no longer able to do those things, they told me, and for a while she felt out of it… but then she joined the team who kept track of the folks in the church who lived alone. Every morning, she phoned people – and for all practical purposes, her work was to make sure they were still alive, or – to call for help if they didn’t answer the phone. She couldn’t drive, didn’t have much money, but until her own dying day, she could, and did, make phone calls.
God expects us to be active, to do, according to our gifts, according to our abilities and resources.
God expects us to recognize that we won’t always do the right thing, that we have a tendency to take care of ourselves first, to be greedy about who gets the last slice of cake, to lose our tempers, and sometimes, to be mean.
Because, you know, we can’t do better if we can’t admit where we’re falling short of our goal. That’d be as if six of us decided to race from here to the Cumbies down the road, but I only made it to the front door, and then said, well that was the real goal, and I’ve won because everyone else ran to another place. Or it’d be as if I got angry at Deb Christensen because she pointed out that I’d forgotten something, without taking responsibility for not making notes and remembering… or if I got upset with my music teacher because I’m not getting better, when I’m not practicing.
I can’t get better until I admit where I’m falling short of the goal, whatever that goal is. And God expects us to face the places where we fall short of God’s ideal, our own goals, with honestly, and forgiveness.
In fact, God gives us a safe place where we can be real, so this expectation is a genuine gift.
God expect us to focus our energies on serving others. That means we factor in our commitment when planning our lives. We set aside time to serve, or energy to serve. We set aside resources to support that service. We step away from things and activities which limit our ability to respond. We budget our time, our talents, our financial resources to make the best use of those things as we follow God.
This means we don’t give God what’s left over at the end of the week. When we plan our days out, we make choices – we have the time for “this thing” or “that thing”, but we can’t do both . We can no more do everything we want than I can eat all the apple cider donuts I’d like.
So we set aside time for God, time to pray, time to come to worship and fellowship, time to serve our world in some way or another, each of us according to our abilities.
We set aside time to serve God’s church. One of my colleagues was telling me the other day that they were travelling to a church we both know, to meet with the church’s moderator, and to resources him and the church as they rewrite their bylaws. I was struck by the fact that this person she’s going to meet with is a retired successful trial lawyer who, in addition to being the church moderator is also the moderator of the Town Meeting where he lives. He has made it clear, serving the church is part of his commitment to following Jesus, and plans out his time and energy to make it happen.
In one of my Maine churches, we had a member who – until he retired – had been a baker down in Portland. He loved people, and one of the ways he lived out his faith was by being the greeter every Sunday, and connecting our visitors with people who were already here – someone one would come, maybe from Washington DC, and Horace would connect him with a member who’d just moved up from that area. Horace didn’t have a ton of money, but he had an exuberant personality and a great memory for faces. He was a gift to the church.
And God expects us to use a portion of our money to help support the church. There’s a lot of confusion about this, you know. Some folks think that if they can’t give thousands of dollars, that their gift is meaningless. That’s just not so.
God expects us to give out of our resources, but not to beggar ourselves. If you have a lot of money, then give a lot of money. If you don’t, then don’t. Give what works for you. Just do it, however, as a plan, not something we do with our leftovers, but as something that’s important to us, a sign of our decision to follow Jesus.
There’s one more thing God expects of us. God expects us to take God seriously, to make this commitment an active part of our lives, to give of our time, our talents and our money, and finally, God expects us to live believing that every person in the world is someone to be loved, welcome and respected.
Be real, let your deeds be your proclamation. Don’t think you’re better than others, like that guy in the Gospel reading this morning. No one’s perfect. But we can still try. We can do our best, we can apologize when we hurt others and then we can try again. That’s how we show God’s love, that’s how we build a strong church community. That’s how we follow Jesus – all the way, no turning back.
I’m going to close this morning with a prayer written by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who was Archbishop of Canterbury almost 500 years ago. You might know him as the principal author of the Book of Common Prayer. He was executed under the reign of Queen Mary because he was a leader of the Protestant Reformation. This prayer was written sometime before 1554 and it does a superb job of describing what God wants of us.
Let us pray:
“Merciful Father in heaven, give us your grace and help to love our neighbors from the heart, and to always do them good—both in words and deeds. Grant that we may live purely, avoiding offense to others, and provoking no one to unclean living. Help us to encourage others to honesty. May we help others to save and keep what they have. And if they live in poverty, help us to relieve them as we are able. May we never hurt others with a false witness, but instead always speak well of our neighbor. Keep us from evil lusts and desires, never wanting what belongs to others. For this is your will, and you have commanded us to be obedient. Amen.”
Amen.
© 2025, Virginia H. Child
To Believe is to Care. . . To Care is to Do 