Arapaho UMC

Thanksgiving can be a hard time around the table. This sermon reflects on the challenges of relationships during the holiday season, drawing from

Jesus' teachings to emphasize the importance of reconciliation, love, and peace. It encourages us to focus on nurturing healthy, authentic connections rather than striving to be "right," and to approach difficult conversations with kindness, clear boundaries, and a belief that small steps toward peace matter. Peacemaking is portrayed as an active, ongoing journey, with the hope that, through God’s guidance, we can make meaningful progress in our relationships.

Bridges are essential for connection, both in our world and in our relationships. Just like a physical bridge that links two sides of a town, relational bridges link us across divides. Right now, many of our bridges are broken—whether it’s in society or our personal lives—and that creates distance and disconnection.
Jesus challenges us to build these bridges, even when it’s uncomfortable. His love invites us to move beyond isolation, reaching out to others with compassion and hope. In loving our neighbors, we don’t stay in our comfort zones but instead, we follow Jesus’ example of stepping into hard places, offering peace and reconciliation where there’s hostility.
Paul’s transformation—from a persecutor to a follower of Christ—is a powerful story of how love builds bridges. After being welcomed by the Christian community, Paul embraced a new perspective, seeing all people as children of God, worthy of reconciliation. This "ministry of reconciliation" isn’t about pretending everything is fine, but about exchanging division for connection, hostility for peace.
Reconciliation is a process—it’s not about ignoring wrongs but addressing them honestly, repairing what’s broken, and working toward peace. Sometimes, though, love requires boundaries, and not every relationship should be restored. Love never asks us to return to harm.
The heart of reconciliation is finding those sacred places of connection where bridges can be built. Even small steps, like sharing a conversation with a neighbor, can lead to surprising transformations. God’s love travels across even the smallest bridges we build.

We are all shaped by the lives of others—those who pour their wisdom, love, and faith into us. These people are our saints, not because they were perfect, but because they were used by God to nurture and guide us, leaving a lasting impact.
In the Bible, the word "saint" comes from hagias, which means "set apart" or "used by God." It’s a word for those whose lives continue to reverberate in us, like the faith of Timothy’s grandmother and mother, which Paul recognized as alive within him. This faith, love, and wisdom passed down through generations builds the foundation on which we stand.
We remember and honor our saints, those who have gone before us, especially on All Saints Day. Like a tapestry, their lives are woven with ours, binding us together in a deep, spiritual connection. Their influence is alive in us, and in many ways, they are still present, even as they rest in God's love.
But saints are not just figures in stained glass windows; they are everyday

people who have loved, supported, and shaped us. They show us how to live, how to give of ourselves, and how to pass on the good that has been given to us. We honor them not only with gratitude but with responsibility —to live in such a way that we carry forward their legacy of love and faith.

In this message, we learn how Jesus calls us to shift our focus from the narrow concerns of everyday life and anxiety to the broader horizon of God’s kingdom, which is rooted in justice, peace, and joy. Using the imagery of the lilies, Jesus teaches us to trust in God’s abundant love, freeing us from the constant grip of worry. When we seek God first, life opens up in unexpected and life-giving ways.
Jesus uses the analogy of the lilies to remind us that life’s beauty comes not from toiling anxiously but from trusting God’s care, just as flowers grow without worry. We are called to open our hands and hearts to life beyond our narrow concerns, finding freedom in God’s love and purpose. Big idea: When we seek God first, life opens up in surprising, abundant ways, and God’s expansive love transforms our circumstances, freeing us from the grip of worry.

What about our own experience? We all have wisdom of our own and our own "theology" — that is, thoughts about God. That wisdom is valid. And our own experiences can help us test whether something works (is life-giving) or whether we should think again.

• In fact, the Methodist tradition says that this is *our theological task* — our part to play is to bring our own perspective to help contribute to the faith life of the community, participating in a process that is critical and constructive, individual and communal, contextual and incarnational and ultimately practical.

What about other things we might learn? As the early followers of Jesus taught: "All truth is God's truth". That means that if something is true, then it is true — and our assumptions must adapt. This may seem simple, but it has been a place of wrestling throughout history. Partly because we are always learning more. We need to listen to science and social science and the best of human knowledge. We need to learn from the rich community of thinkers throughout history. And we need to hold our assumptions with open hands, ready to learn and unlearn as we journey throughout our life. Richard Niebuhr's idea of "absolute relativism" has encouraged me to stay flexible even while we fix our eyes on love.