Sermon Preview October 25th 2026

October 25, 2026

Preacher: Rev. Anne J. Scalfaro

Sermon Title:

Hermeneutical Honesty

Becoming the Beloved Community Series

Sermon Blurb:

The 2022 State of the Bible report by the American Bible Society found that roughly twenty-six million people had mostly or completely stopped reading the Bible between 2021-2022. This is the sharpest decline on record. It’s not surprising given that scripture is often weaponized for harm. Or as scholar Peter Enns says, “The spiritual disconnection many feel today stems precisely from expecting (or being told to expect) the Bible to be holy, perfect, and clear, when in fact after reading it they find it to be morally suspect, out of touch, confusing, and just plain weird.”

With so many choosing to walk away from this text, or give up on it as a spiritual resource—why do we keep reading it? Does the Bible really mater that much?

After many years as your pastor, most of you know by now that I love scripture because I love wrestling with its stories. The wrestling takes work…but it’s worth it, I believe. There is Life to be found in the Bible.

As we continue in our series, Becoming the Beloved Community, we turn this week to the quality of Hermeneutical Honesty. How we interpret the Bible matters deeply for how we use its inspiration for healing and hope in our lives and in our communities. Join us on Sunday as we explore how to engage one of the most essential resources of our faith—our sacred text(s).

Centering Quote:

“The truth is, you can bend Scripture to say just about anything you want it to say. You can bend it until it breaks. For those who count the Bible as sacred, interpretation is not a matter of whether to pick and choose, but how to pick and choose. We’re all selective. We all wrestle with how to interpret and apply the Bible to our lives. We all go to the text looking for something, and we all have a tendency to find it. So the question we have to ask ourselves is this: are we reading with the prejudice of love, with Christ as our model, or are we reading with the prejudices of judgment and power, self-interest and greed? Are we seeking to enslave or liberate, burden or set free?”

- Rachel Held Evans

Scripture Readings:

Psalm 119:103-105

How sweet are your words to my taste,

sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Through your precepts I get understanding;

therefore, I hate every false way.

Your word is a lamp to my feet

and a light to my path.

Nehemiah 8:1-12

1 All the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. 2 Accordingly, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh month. 3 He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand, and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.

4 Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that had been made for the purpose, and beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. 5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people, and when he opened it, all the people stood up. 6 Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. 7 Also the Levites Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah helped the people to understand the law, while the people remained in their places.

8 So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. 10 Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord, and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” 11 So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” 12 And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

1 Thessalonians 5:21

21 …but test everything; hold fast to what is good…

Luke 11:52-54

45 One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us, too.” 46 And he said, “Woe also to you experts in the law! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them. // 52 Woe to you experts in the law! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” 53 When he went outside, the scribes and the Pharisees became hostile to him and began to interrogate him about many things, 54 lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.

Matthew 22:34-40

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

John 1:14a

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us…

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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.