speaker-1: Our first reading this morning comes from Genesis. Chapter one verses twenty six through thirty one, a very familiar passage. Then God said, Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created humans in his image. In the image of God he created them. Male and female, he created them. God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. God said, See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. The word of the Lord. we have our second scripture. It is, you know it. You know it. At least you know the first half of it. it'll be on somebody's eye black this afternoon, almost certainly. and it's from the Gospel of John. So listen, listen with me for the word of the Lord from John's Gospel, chapter three, verse sixteen and seventeen. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us pray. Gracious and loving God, may we receive your first words spoken about us, and may it shape our lives. May it shape our being and our doing. And now may the words of my mouth And the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing and acceptable in your sight. O Christ, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. You remember falling asleep in front of the TV as a kid? If you're of a certain age, when the last show was done, they'd play the national anthem. And then programming would just be over. Can you imagine such a thing happening in 2026? Like we found the end of media? It's like you've watched all of YouTube. Like I don't know. But then in the eighties or nineties, companies realized that they could sell more ad space if they just kept the train a rollin'. throughout the night. And so there was this golden era of groggily rolling over during a sleepover and being met with the smiling face of Billy Mays, the king of the pitch, who was trying to sell you a sham wow. The infomercial era was truly fantastic. Like, have you considered the range of products that were being pitched to you and the star power that they garnered for said pitches? I mean, do you really think that George Foreman gave a rip about grills? Like, he didn't. And the best thing that ever happened to one of those grills was that was that Michael Scott stepped on one one time. And then there was the Thighmaster with Suzanne Summers. You remember this? And Proactive, the the Zit Cream, who had Britney Spears as its as its face for a while. And then there was there was Flexeal with that guy who used a screen door as a boat that one time. That was neat. Like, and of course, of course, in my mind, the the the queen that rules them all is the clapper. clap on, clap on, clap on, clap on, clap on. It's great. The angriest looking old lady you've ever seen on a commercial. She was like and then she flops over. You remember this? Anyway. All of these use the same premise. They'd show you in eye-catching fashion the problem that they are there to solve. Maybe that problem is flabby thighs, a hole in your screen door boot, acne, I don't know. My personal favorite was the lady that opens up the kitchen cabinets only to be assaulted by an avalanche of Tupperware. You remember this one? Like I don't even remember what the product was, but I remember the problem. Put that in the back of your head for a minute. But then they'd make the pitch. They'd make the pitch. We can make you fast and healthy food. We can tone those buns and smooth that skin. We can make your screen door float again. We can give you back precious family time. You don't need to spend all that time in the kitchen chopping your vegetables. Get the splat the slap chop. And save your marriage. Don't you care about your marriage? So the pattern is: here's the problem. Here's a problem. And here is the solution to your problem, and you can have it for three easy payments of $19.99 and one really difficult payment of $215 Wample. What strikes me that we have been selling Jesus like flex tape for the better part of forever. Do you open the cupboards of your soul only to be overwhelmed by sin? Are you tired with of living with so many broken relationships in your life? Or at our very worst, have you considered the fires of hell? Well, my goodness, have I got a product for you whose name is Jesus Christ? And if you apply this prayer, God's love can be yours. Problem. Meets solution. And the cost is only one weekly payment of an hour and some change of your time, depending on how long the preacher goes. And the recitation of some secret words, and if you'd like the bonus package, a small percentage of your income. And that stinks. That whole scenario kind of stinks. Because Jesus' friendship, I mean, it's gotta be more than just the fix to a problem that we. Right? Like God's love for us has to be greater than just saving us from God's own wrath, doesn't it? Or is this just, are we just playing games now? God's created a problem that God now needs to solve. And yet, our default is to frame God up as the heavenly solution to a problem that we have. We're out here slinging Jesus like a Kirby vacuum cleaner, with increasingly the same amount of success. And part of me gets it. There are so many broken things in the world. Problems and in broken systems. Problems that I can point to in other people. Love to do that. Problems that i exist in here, one of those being how much I love to point out other people's problems. And it might feel like a gospel proclamation that doesn't include the the sinful element in every room as being intentionally obtuse. But I don't know. I I guess I'm just tired of Burying the lead. Like I don't want to have to convince people of how bad they are before I convince them of how beloved they are. That God's interest in you isn't just as some pitiful reclamation project. And I think that scripture actually has my back here. I'd remind you that. In these opening chapters of Genesis that that Missy read some of, these foundational stories about God and creation and you and me and what it all kind of means, the thing that community wrote that they really wanted you to know is that the first thing that's said about you is that you're good. God creates all these things: birds, bees. sky, light, and he calls them good. And then he gets to humans, the the pinnacle of of his creation, and he looks at them and everything else he's made and he and he says this well gosh I crushed this. Like this isn't just good. This is very good. So before anything else is said about humans, God says they are very good. Before their hearts deceive them, before their mouths are fell filled with lies, before they hurt which one another, which is coming like very, very soon they are good. And I'm not sure that anything that happens after that fact can change that first proclamation about Problems and the brokenness sure do come. But whatever we want to say about sin, it doesn't change that first word that God speaks over us as good. Because the reason that Jesus came, as far as John is concerned, anyway, isn't because God was so disgusted with how gross we are. It was because God so loved us. There still remained something lovable deep within you. Because I I mean I don't know about you, but I wouldn't give up all that much for that which is worthless. But I might give up everything for something that is of worth. Endless value. Jesus didn't come as far as John is concerned to wag his finger at us in condemnation. Jesus came to save us. That is the gospel. And the word gospel in Greek is youonggelion, which is a a combo word, a compound noun. it's got the EU on the front of it, you, and then ongelos, message. So it's good, message, word, whatever. So the good news is a good word. It is a good message given to you. But we've spent like the better part of at least 500 years coding that truly good message of God's love for us in burnt hair. And our tradition is the worst at this. Like, truly the worst. Calvin is the king of dour and seems to delight in pointing out the brokenness of humanity. To Whit, in our book of confessions as a denomination, we've got the Heidelberg Catechism in there, which was written in 1536. And that catechism is framed up in three different sections. And the first section is entitled Misery. The second section is entitled Deliverance. And the third section is entitled Gratitude. I'm just here to tell you that we get our infomercial framing. Really honestly. And the picture that we are left with is that humans are kinda at their core, very bad. And it gives us a pathetic anthropology. And not to sound too condescending, but I'd like to remember or I'd like to remind you, so that you don't miss it, bad is the opposite of very good, which is actually the word that's spoken over you. And the truth is that as much as we do lip service to the Christian needs of people are bad and God, like it's really going out of God's way to love us, you know that there are really lovely things about you. Right? Like, if you felt like you could commit it, or if you felt like you could admit it, I hope you believe that God looks at you and loves you because you are worthy of love just because you are. Like I said a couple of weeks ago that all of us are really annoying and I stand by that. But that is the farthest thing from the truest truth about you. Right? Like I I have seen astounding beauty in so many of you. you are strong and you are kind, you're sensitive to one another, and you're funny and you're touched by the beauty and truth of the world. I've seen you weep for one another and show up for one another and shed just like so many happy tears. The you that God made is truly good. And that isn't just true because Jesus snatched you out of the rubbish bin. He snatched you out of the rubbish bin not so that he could love you, but because he so loves you. Why don't we talk about that more? Like, why can't we just say the good thing first? Is my point. And say it loudly, like you are, because God is love, you are God's beloved. God thinks you are absolutely stinking delightful. Very good, in fact, in defiance of all that might otherwise diminish you. I guess my fear is this. My fear is that we we narrate the story about us as though sin is just as important as God's love. And it isn't. It isn't. Gratefully, we don't do this with our kids. Not at our best, anyway. Our kids get the best part first. We don't convince our children of their deep rot so that we can then convince them that they are loved. We don't shove our kids' face in their worst parts so that we can houdini a redemption story out of thin air for them. No! We smother them with affection and encouragement and we stoke their goodness because that's what we want them to pay attention to. Because we think that the most important thing about them is that they are beloved of us. I don't know if you were paying attention, but last week's children's moment nearly brought me to tears. You remember what happened? We brought them all up here and they're gathered and and they were asked, Who is God? You remember? And maybe they were holding back their like standard issue church answers. Who is God? Jesus. Chicken butt, six, seven, I don't know. But what they did say first, off the top, right away, was that God is their friend and that God loves them. Like they're right. We must be doing something right around here, for that to be the first thought that they have about God. And truly curses upon anyone who convinces them otherwise. I'm belaboring this point because I I believe, and I think it just stands to reason, that the thing that we emphasize the most colors everything else. Like I and I wonder if since we have seated center stage so often to like sin and the brokenness of human beings, if all the rest of our story is then shaded by that rather than by the radically wide, preemptive, unearned, incarnation-inducing love of God for us. And is it possible that when we leap off that like twisted ankle that it sends us flailing so that everything Else kind of goes wrong, and we don't see ourselves particularly well as God's beloved, then. We don't see first the belovedness and the blessedness of other people first. We see their brokenness, and we don't even have like huge, unbelievably big, hairy dreams for the world because we're like, well, we can never pull that off because we're all toast. It stinks, and we did it to ourselves. So I'm praying that the thing that we magnify in worship and in the church and in our thinking about the God who is love is that because this God is love, God loves you. That God's first intention, God's first movement toward you and this world and creation and everything that is, is in love. And because of that, we get to be lovers ourselves of one another, that we get to receive love from one another and give love to one another. That's why our liturgy has you saying these words out loud every single week. I want you to remember after the prayer of confession that you are indeed God's beloved. I want you to say those words until you believe them, until you start to live out of them, until you let that little cynic in your head that tells you that your sin is more important than God's love. Until you let that sucker die in you. Because you gotta I you've just got so many identities to choose from, to choose to live out of, right? I mean, you could be a drunk, a liar, proud, racist, a terrific downer. Remember last week when we were about to take communion, and I was like Christ is communion, come to the table where God's love abounds. And then somebody's phone went off and it said, womp, womp, womp, womp, womp. It was perfect. So you could be a downer, or you know, you could be like really smart, good looking, a quick laugh, a soft heart, really good at everything. And you can choose to live out of any of those identities. But if you're living out of the fact that you're no good and very bad, it's awfully hard to make changes. If you think you don't deserve to be happy, or you think that God's really taking pity on you because you're just the worst, like it's it it changes our relationships to ourselves and to God in in a in a really terrible way. If you don't think you deserve to be happy or whole or have relationships where you can love and be loved, why would you even bother? Right? You might just find yourself submarine in every good thing in your life. On the other hand, if you're doing great and you're really productive, like good for you. But also, like, what happens when those things aren't true anymore? Who are you when your memory starts to slip? Or you aren't as effortlessly good looking as you used to be? Who are you then? Well, dang it, friends. You're loved of God. That's who you are. And that has never ever changed. And you can do nothing to change that. God delights in you still, like Mary Oliver delights in wild geese. Whatever else is true about you, that is true. That you are God's beloved, and you will always unchangeably be. I'm just done with Shamwild Jesus. You know? I don't want to. But wait, there's more. Our gospel proclamation, where God's love is like the surprise at the end after we wade through all the bad stuff. We've already found that great treasure that Jesus talks about. Why aren't we just sharing that? The reason that we are who we are here in this church and this community. How we hold a really hopeful, affirming posture that we do is because we are a people who want to trust that God's love is what had the first word about us, and it is indeed what's gonna have the last. Because the kids are right. God is your friend, and you are God's beloved. Thanks be to God. Amen.