Sermon Preview for September 13th

September 13, 2026 - Gathering Sunday

Preacher: Rev. Anne J. Scalfaro

Sermon Title:

Who(se) We Are:

Forever God’s Beloveds, Forever Becoming the Beloved Community

Introduction to Becoming the Beloved Community

BE • BE LOVE • BE LOVED

Sermon Blurb:

This Sunday, Pastor Anne will introduce us to our focus for this year: Becoming the Beloved Community. At the heart of this focus is getting clear about our identity and our calling, or Whose We Are & Who We Are: We are forever God’s beloveds, forever becoming the Beloved Community.

Using scripture as our theological foundation and remembering the inspiration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we’ll explore this identity and calling as Christ-followers through the concepts:

• Becoming
• Beloved (BE • BE LOVE • BE LOVED)
• Beloved Community

• Becoming (yes, again!)

Throughout this year we’ll explore a number of different qualities of the Beloved Community, but we begin this Sunday with the reminder that we are on the journey together, and that the process of becoming means that as we make change, we are changed and that as we are changed, we make change. And—that God can (and will) do more through us than we can ever ask or imagine!

Series Blurb: (longer description on website)

Becoming the Beloved Community – Our Focus for 2026-2027

This year we’re grounding ourselves in the theological conviction that all persons are beloved children of God—and as we live out our belovedness, together we come closer to becoming the “Beloved Community” that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King envisioned, where all people are honored, cared for, and treated as equals.

The word Becoming embodies both what we already are and what God is yet creating us to be. We ourselves are “in process”—and as a community, the vision of the Beloved Community is something we will never quite actualize here on earth even as we strive to embody it more and more each day.

The word Beloved is also important. As Pastor Anne says, Calvary is a place where people come to be, be love and to be loved, and as we engage those three practices we grow as a beloved community.

For this series each week from Gathering Sunday through Pentecost, we’ll explore a different quality of the Beloved Community—qualities that stand alone, yet also build on one another, deepening our sense of what it means to be God’s beloved and shaping our sense of who we want to become as individuals, as Calvary, and as global citizens.

Scriptures:

Philippians 1:3-6 (Becoming)

3 I thank my God for every remembrance of you, 4 always in every one of my prayers for all of you, praying with joy 5 for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Mark 1:9-11 (Beloved)

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove upon him. 11 And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Psalm 46:10-11 (Be)

10 “Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations;
I am exalted in the earth.”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

Hebrews 10:23-25 (Be Love / Be Loved)

23 Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Luke 17:20-21 (Beloved community/kin-dom of God)

20 Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”

Ephesians 3:16-21 (Becoming)

16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth

19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.