Rector's Reflection: Wonder, Awe, and Relationship, September 14, 2025

Beloved Members of St. Martin's,

Our readings for this weekend are all about priorities. Our reading from Exodus, which tells the famous story of the Golden Calf, warns us not to place any object or desire, especially those of our own making, over our love and obedience to God. Similarly, no system, no tool, no possession should be placed over our love and obedience to God, to the debt of forgiveness and mercy we owe God. Our gospel portion from Luke 15 includes two parables about prioritizing seeking the lost, and the joy when even something small is pursued and returned rather than given up on.

Placed side-by-side, these two readings remind us to place our relationship with God first in our lives, and to make our relationships with each other centered around restoring the lost to their place within our community, and being willing to sacrifice ourselves to do that. Love of and obedience to God, and love and reconciliation with others, especially those who are struggling, are to take priority over self-centeredness and estrangement. We are never to substitute the works of our hands or the systems we've devised as objects of worship in place of God, not economic theories, not money, not power, not tools or weapons, not tribalism, not our own delusions of grandeur and invincibility nor our fears and insecurities over the love and lordship of God in our lives.

Our readings speak of the joy of recovering something once lost, or turning aside from our own arrogance to make room in our hearts for God and for each other-- what is known as repentance. They call for us to exercise a faithful humility that comes from a sense of wonder, awe, gratitude for what we have been given-- the building blocks of reverence toward God and care for this earth and each other.

Creation insistently reminds us of the web of mutual dependence in which all living beings live. Human beings first ate food they had foraged, seeds and nuts and leaves and fruits. All of those things come from the growth cycles of plants. There would be no seeds or flowers or fruits, like sunflowers or peaches, without pollination by birds or bees. There would no birds without seeds from those sunflowers or even lowly thistles, tiny treasure boxes that fall to the ground and spring forth, or from worms that live in the ground or insects that live in the trees. Everything from good soil to the right sunshine and water affects whether the plants we eat grow or not. Even something as simple as destroying birds habitat, or spraying pesticides upon fields as they flower that then get taken back by the bees to their hives, can have a catastrophic impact on our own human flourishing. A thousand intricate events must all line up to produce that sweet juicy peach we all enjoy, including the work of countless others to bring it from the orchard to our markets or stores.

Our gospel poses an important question for all of us: what is the value of a person, a single living, breathing human soul? What should we be willing to risk or to spend to recover one who is lost? How can we truly take these questions seriously, and how might it affect our views on violence, on justice, on exploitation and prejudice?

We were made for God, and we were made for each other. All that humans have accomplished for good has been done in and for community throughout history, and Jesus made the forming of a new community of fellowship central to his gospel. Worship of our own power or importance, or of things we think make us powerful or dangerous or important, is to turn away from God and God's dream for our flourishing.

Acknowledging the importance of our own choices in making or damaging our relationship with God and each other begins with rediscovering not just a lost sheep or a lost coin, but rediscovering how the generosity of God and the blessings of our common lives together give us far more than the golden idols of self-centeredness, arrogance and aggression that we often build and idolize.

Where in our lives do we put things that we have made in the place in our hearts that is made to worship God? Do we, as members of society, value guns, money, or power more than living our lives with God as the priority?  Once we recognize those things, we can choose to put our priorities where they should be, with God's help.

In Christ,

Mother Leslie+