The texts for this sermon on the second Sunday in Lent are Genesis 15:1-12,17-18; Psalm ...

“Our faith gives us confidence in the God who blesses us, cares for us, and loves us, the God who is our refuge and our stronghold, in whom we put our trust.”

“Our collective rituals, our professions of piety, our acts of confession, repentance, and reconciliation—these can all be vehicles of God’s grace. They can train our minds and our hearts to listen to God’s word spoken into our lives, to feel our heart beating in tune with God’s heart.”

“It is when we experience our chosenness and our belovedness that we can increase our heart’s capacity for love, compassion, generosity, and forgiveness, and offer to others the realization that they, too, are beloved and chosen by God.”

“But as Joseph shows us, and as Jesus shows us even more profoundly, the way of mercy and forgiveness is the way of God. We are called to be merciful, just as God is merciful.”

“God came to us in Jesus Christ to show us that the kingdom of God can be made real on this earth, in real life, in real time.”

“The world is big and complex, and there are a lot of possible callings, a lot of possible ways to do God’s work. . . . To mend the broken world will require as many vocations as possible, all devoted to making the world more just, more compassionate, more beautiful, and more loving.”

“Comfort and challenge, challenge and comfort. Ourselves in the world and ourselves for the world. That is the dual nature of God’s mission. That is the wide breadth of God’s kingdom.”

“In our time we also live in God’s time. In our world we also live in God’s world. In our life we also live in God’s life.”

“We make promises in baptism—the Baptismal Covenant—that we are challenged every day to keep as we walk the earth, so that God’s vision becomes our vision, God’s dream becomes our dream, and God’s kingdom comes and God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.”