Even in the midst of a troublous world, standing in the unshakeoffable love of Jesus Christ, we affirm: "The world is full of wonderful things."

 The Pharisees and Herodians try to trap Jesus with a question about paying taxes to the Emperor. Jesus surprises us with a life-giving both/and when we’re preparing for an artificial yes or no. We follow One who sees the trap coming, unmasks the hypocrisy, and still sends the questioners away with new things to think about.  The Resurrected One has the power to turn our traps and tricks into astonishment and newness.

In an election year, we stand at the intersection of faith and public life, and consider the danger of tyranny and systemic racism, the promise of the right to vote, efforts to suppress that right, and our power to make a difference.  In God’s sovereignty, God honors our agency to choose, inviting and empowering us to participate in God’s re-making of the world.

This sermon looks at the Ten Commandments as (1) an expression of how free people live, (2) a trust document, and (3) a law called love. Then, thinking of the Ten Commandments particularly as a trust document (an expression of accountability), we ask, "How have we done by Breonna Taylor and her family?" How can we better live into freedom, trust, and love?

Psalm 121 sustains us on the journey with (1) the open possibility of a question, (2) confession of our own reality (the best and the worst of it), and (3) a blessing and a breath. And then, Rev. Yolanda Norton blesses us with this: “Be the muddy river that accumulates all of the things that God has created and shines in the midst of it.”

Freed from Egypt, out in the desert, the Hebrew people grumble because there is no food and they are hungry.  God listens, and provides manna in the morning.  In the long-haul of a wilderness journey, God provides enough, each day, for the living of these days.

In the gift of Sabbath, God invites us into the practice of compassion, and to ask, “What is it that my soul craves in this moment?”

In the body of Christ, we find our belonging and our calling.

The love that God has embodied for us in Jesus Christ comes to life now in us – in our bodies – in the life we create.

God breathes with us and calls us to become co-conspirators to set the whole world free.  Being a "co-conspirator" requires that we listen with humility to those who have been harmed most, and put something at risk for the life and the well-being and the freedom of others.