Today I will be writing my sermon for tomorrow having spent most of the week thinking about it, but not writing due to the worst cold I’ve had in years and another priority assignment. The gospel lesson on Sunday is from Luke and in it John the Baptist tells his listeners that he is not the Messiah whom they are seeking. The people should be joyful because God is in their midst, but he is not God. The lesson for us is to model that behavior. Know who we are, accept who we are, recognize our own limitations and know that others have been before and others will come after. The humility in this carries a dual message. It asks us not to take advantage of the vulnerable or use any occupational privilege to exploit others. We might apply this to fossil fuel use and our greed, exploitation of the poor nations and people. As a wealthy country, the US could use this example set by John. As a nation we have the power and ability to help poor nations by cutting our own use of fossil fuel and setting an example by using more renewable energy. Some how the Christian values that our US government leaders profess to have don’t show up in the policies they make.

-- SallyBingham