Central United Methodist Church (Arlington, Virginia) Sermon Podcast

Abide
Series: Love One Another
Scripture: John 15:1–11 (CEB)
Preacher: Rev. Sarah Harrison-McQueen
What is the difference between simply passing through a place, a relationship, or even our faith, and truly settling in and abiding?
In this message, Pastor Sarah reflects on the difference between being a tourist and becoming rooted in a place. Drawing from her own experience spending time in Hawaii, she describes how staying long enough to return to the same cafés, recognize familiar faces, and settle into a different rhythm created a sense of belonging she never experienced on a short vacation. That experience becomes a window into Jesus’ invitation in John 15: “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.”
Jesus uses the image of a vine and its branches to describe what it means to stay connected to the source of life. A branch does not manufacture its own life; it receives nourishment from the vine. In the same way, Jesus invites us not simply to believe in him, but to abide—to remain, settle in, and become deeply rooted in the love of God.
Jesus gives this teaching to his disciples knowing that their world is about to fall apart. He knows they will face fear, grief, confusion, and uncertainty. His invitation is to remain connected even then, especially then. When life becomes frightening or overwhelming, we can be tempted to scatter, isolate, or disconnect. Jesus instead says: Come back to the vine. Stay connected to the source of life.
But abiding also involves pruning. Jesus speaks about branches being trimmed so that they can bear more fruit. Pastor Sarah explores pruning not as punishment, but as care—the loving work of making room for what produces love and joy. Sometimes what needs to be pruned is obvious: habits that isolate us, resentment, fear, or busyness. Other times it is more subtle, such as being physically present while our hearts and minds are somewhere else.
The passage also reminds us that our connection to Christ cannot be separated from our connection to one another. Just as branches are connected to the same vine, we are woven together as the body of Christ. Healthy community is a place where we both serve and are served, give and receive, and experience the nourishment that comes through genuine relationships.
Jesus says that abiding in him produces fruit, and Pastor Sarah identifies that fruit as love: love that crosses the road, sits at the table with unlikely guests, serves others, and flows into the neighborhood and the world.
The invitation is not to try harder or do more. It is to abide. To become more fully present—with God, with one another, and with the people and places where we have been planted.
Reflection Questions:
• How is your connection to Jesus as the “Source” of life also like your connection to others as a source of life and love and flourishing and joy?
• Think about a time when you truly settled into a place, a relationship, or a spiritual practice rather than just passing through it. What was different about that experience, and what did it produce in you?
• Jesus says that pruning is part of bearing fruit. What is something in your life right now that may need to be pruned so that you can stay more deeply connected to God and to the people around you?
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Show Us
Series: Love One Another
Scripture: John 14:8–14 (CEB)
Preacher: Brian Lamb
What do we do when we don't understand what is happening around us?
In the second message of our Love One Another worship series, guest preacher Brian Lamb continues exploring Jesus' final teachings to his disciples in the Gospel of John. Following last week's story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet, we return to what Jesus is teaching his friends during his final hours before the crucifixion.
Jesus tells his disciples, “Trust in God. Trust also in me.” But Philip is still searching for something he can understand. He asks Jesus to show them the Father, and Jesus responds by reminding him that the disciples have already been seeing God through everything Jesus has said and done.
Philip's question is one many of us can recognize. There are moments when life does not make sense, when circumstances leave us confused or grieving, and when we find ourselves asking, “How could this be happening?”
Brian reflects on the disciples' experience of witnessing Jesus' ministry. They had seen healing, miracles, compassion, and acts of love throughout Jesus' ministry, yet they still struggled to understand what they were seeing. Their doubts remind us that uncertainty and faith can exist together.
But Jesus offers something more than an explanation. He shows his disciples what it means to embody God's love in the world.
Brian explores the connection between trust, faith, and action. Faith is not simply something we possess as an idea or belief. It is something we practice. To trust Jesus means to follow the way he has shown us—to serve, to care, to love, and to make God's love visible through our lives.
The question becomes not simply, “Do I believe?” but “Am I doing faith?”
Brian shares his own story of discerning a call to ordained ministry and the moment when he asked God for one more sign. Through that experience, he reflects on what it means to trust God's direction even when we cannot see the entire path ahead.
That call to trust becomes a call to action. Jesus says, “I am the way,” and invites his disciples to follow the way he has laid out before them.
As we live in a world that can feel chaotic, confusing, and overwhelming, the sermon asks whether loving action can become an antidote to simply stewing over everything we cannot understand. Instead of withdrawing from the chaos or waiting until we have all the answers, what might it mean to trust God's goodness and respond by embodying the love of Jesus right where we are?
Brian also reflects on the ways churches can practice this kind of faith through their communities and ministries. When we care for people, feed young people, offer hospitality, and invest in our neighbors, we may not know exactly what the results will be. But we can trust that the seeds we plant in love may bear fruit in ways we cannot yet see.
Faith, in this sense, is something we do.
Reflection Questions:
• When it is hard to “understand” what is going on around us, can we find a way to move into loving action as an antidote to “stewing” about all of it?
• What is your relationship to “trusting” the goodness of God, and our own capacity to love one another?
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Famous Last Words
Series: Love One Another
Scripture: John 13:1–17; 34–35 (CEB)
Preacher: Pastor Sarah Harrison-McQueen
What would you want people to remember if you knew you were speaking to them for the last time?
In the first message of our Love One Another worship series, we turn to John 13 and the final hours Jesus spent with his disciples. Jesus knew his time with them was short, and he wanted them to remember what mattered most. But before he gave them his famous command to love one another, he showed them what that love looks like.
The sermon begins with the Netflix series Famous Last Words, in which well-known people are interviewed and the conversations are only released after they have died. Knowing that these may be their final words to the world, they have the opportunity to consider carefully what they want people to remember.
Jesus' final words to his disciples carry a similar weight.
Gathered around the table on the night before his crucifixion, Jesus knew what was coming. He knew Judas would betray him. He knew Peter would deny him. And yet Jesus got up from the table, wrapped a towel around his waist, and washed the feet of every one of his disciples.
Peter resisted. He could not understand why his teacher and Lord would kneel before him and perform the work of the lowliest servant. But Jesus invites Peter to receive this act of love rather than reject it.
This moment reminds us that discipleship is not only about serving others. It is also about learning to receive love, grace, help, and care. We receive God's love, we give that love away, and then we receive again. To serve and to be served are both part of following Jesus.
Jesus then tells his disciples to do what he has done. His example looks something like what we might call servant leadership, but Jesus goes beyond leadership as a strategy. He washes the feet of people who will fail him. His love is not dependent on whether someone has earned it, agrees with him, or will respond faithfully.
Jesus shows us servant love as a way of life.
Throughout his ministry, Jesus repeatedly crossed boundaries and made room at the table for people others considered unacceptable, unclean, unwelcome, or simply inconvenient. He ate with tax collectors, spoke with Samaritans, and welcomed people who made the religiously righteous uncomfortable.
This is the kind of neighboring Jesus calls his disciples to practice.
Henri Nouwen wrote that we become neighbors when we are willing to cross the road for one another. The question is not simply who belongs in our circle, but whether we are willing to notice who is on the other side of the road. What would it look like to learn names, notice needs, show up consistently, and become a trusted presence in our neighborhoods and communities?
Jesus' command to love one another is not about having perfect theology, building beautiful institutions, or simply knowing the right things. “Love each other just as I have loved you.”
And Jesus doesn't just tell us what love looks like. He shows us.
His famous last words were an invitation to a new way of living: to receive love and give it away, to cross the road, to kneel down and serve, and to love our neighbors—even when they are not the people we would have chosen.
At the end of the sermon, we are left with a simple image:
The towel is on the table.
We know what love looks like.
What will we do in response?
Reflection Questions:
• Peter resisted letting Jesus serve him. Are there moments in your own life when you find it difficult to receive love, help, or care from others? What gets in the way?
• Jesus washed the feet of people he knew would betray and deny him. Is there someone in your life, or in our current public life, whom you find it difficult to extend love and grace to? What would it look like to pick up the towel for that person?
• Henri Nouwen said we become neighbors when we are willing to cross the road. What road in your own neighborhood, workplace, or community is calling you to cross it? What has kept you on your side so far?
• Jesus said, “Since you know these things, you will be happy if you do them.” There is often a gap between knowing what love requires and actually doing it. What is one concrete act of neighboring you could take this week to begin closing that gap?
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When the Work Is Finally Done
Series: Divine Rest
Scripture: Revelation 21:1–5; 22:1–5
Preacher: Rev. Sarah Harrison-McQueen
What would it look like to experience a kind of rest that is more than simply recovering from exhaustion?
In the final message of our Divine Rest sermon series, we turn to Revelation 21 and 22 and the beautiful vision of God's new creation—a world fully at rest. John describes a place where every tear is wiped away, death and pain are no more, chaos has been defeated, and God dwells fully with humanity.
But this vision is not simply about what happens after we die. It gives us a picture of the kind of rest God intends for creation—and invites us to begin practicing that rest now.
The sermon begins with the story of theologian Dr. Shaniqua Walker-Barnes, who discovered during a planned season of renewal that she had learned how to work and how to crash, but had never really learned how to rest. Her experience of “hustle, hustle, hustle, crash” reflects a pattern many of us know well. We may think we are resting when we are really only recovering enough to begin working again.
The sermon then connects this struggle with the history of Labor Day. Workers fought for the eight-hour workday, the two-day weekend, and a federal holiday because human beings deserve time to rest. Their struggle reflects a truth we have encountered throughout this series: human dignity cannot be measured by output.
Looking back over the six weeks of Divine Rest, we are reminded of the journey we have taken together. In Genesis, we saw God rest when the work of creation was complete. In Exodus, Sabbath became a declaration of liberation for people who had been freed from slavery. Jesus invited the weary to receive rest as a gift and showed through healing that Sabbath is about restoration, mercy, and wholeness. And last week, we stood with the women at the tomb in the grief-filled stillness of Holy Saturday before the new creation of resurrection broke open.
Now, Revelation gives us a glimpse of where all of these scriptures are pointing.
John's vision of the new creation is filled with images of God's abundance and peace. The sea is no more—not because the oceans have disappeared, but because the chaos, fear, and threats that make life precarious have finally been overcome. Every tear is wiped away. Death, mourning, crying, and pain are gone. God is no longer distant, but fully present with humanity.
The river of life flows from God's throne, and the tree of life bears fruit in every season. There is no scarcity and no competition for limited resources. There is simply abundance. Enough.
And there is no night, because God is the light.
In contrast to our twenty-four-seven culture, where artificial light allows us to work around the clock and makes us constantly available, the light of the new creation is not a light of urgency or commerce. It is the light of God—a light that gives without condition or exhaustion.
Revelation also reminds us that the new creation is not an eternal nap. There is still purpose, activity, and even work. But this work is no longer driven by scarcity, fear, deadlines, performance, or the pressure to prove our worth. It is work that flows from love and calling.
And when that work is finally done, there will be real rest.
Not the crash at the end of a cycle of endless striving. Not a vacation that leaves us more depleted than when we began. Not a long weekend that fills up with activities before it even starts.
Real rest.
Our weekly practice of Sabbath gives us a glimpse of that eternal rest. Every time we stop striving and trust that the world will not fall apart if we stop producing, we are rehearsing for the time when the work is finally done. Every time we delight in something that is not productive, spend meaningful time with someone we love, or gather for worship, we are practicing the rhythms of God's new creation.
As this six-week journey comes to an end, the invitation is not to leave Sabbath behind. It is to carry it forward.
Practice Sabbath not simply as an escape from the world, but as a rehearsal for the world that is coming. Let your calendar, your time, and your choices become a declaration that you are not a slave to the clock, your ambition, or your productivity.
Your worth is not your output.
You are a beloved child of God—the God who rested and the God who invites you to rest, too.
Reflection Questions:
• Dr. Walker-Barnes described her own pattern as hustle, hustle, hustle, crash, and admitted she had never really learned to rest for its own sake. How familiar does that pattern feel in your own life, and what do you think makes genuine rest so difficult to receive?
• As you look back over this six-week series, what has shifted in how you think about Sabbath?
• What commitments will you make moving forward?
One block of time I will set aside each week for Sabbath: __________
One activity I will stop doing during that time: __________
One joy I will embrace during that time: __________
One way I will worship during that time: __________
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The Lord's Day
Series: Divine Rest
Scripture: Luke 23:50–24:12 (Common English Bible)
Preacher: Rev. Sarah Harrison-McQueen
What if the pauses in our lives are not empty spaces, but an essential part of the story God is writing?
In this message from the Divine Rest sermon series, we explore the Sabbath between Good Friday and Easter Sunday—the day when Jesus lay in the tomb, the women waited in grief, and the world seemed to stand still.
The sermon begins with a simple illustration from music: a rest is a pause between notes, but that pause is not meaningless. Rests give music its rhythm and meaning. In the same way, the spaces and pauses in our lives can give meaning to what happens around them.
Luke's account of Holy Week gives us one of those important pauses. After Jesus' crucifixion, his body is placed in a tomb, and the women return home and rest on the Sabbath according to the commandment. They are living in grief and uncertainty, waiting without knowing what will happen next.
The Sabbath gives them permission to pause. They do not have to immediately move past the pain of Good Friday or fill the silence with activity. They simply rest faithfully, even when that rest may feel more like endurance than peace.
And then Sunday comes.
The women go to the tomb expecting to find death. Instead, they find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. The resurrection arrives in confusion, wonder, and the startling realization that God is doing something new.
The first day of the new week became the Lord's Day for the early Christians—the day when followers of Jesus gathered to celebrate the resurrection and the new creation God had begun.
Every Sunday when we gather for worship, we echo that first resurrection morning. We proclaim that the tomb is empty, death is not the final word, and new creation has begun.
Sunday worship is more than a weekly habit or another item on the calendar. It is a weekly theological statement. It is a chance to gather as the body of Christ and become a visible sign of God's new creation.
John Wesley described gathered worship as one of the means of grace—not because attending worship earns us points with God, but because something happens when the people of Christ gather together. We become a glimpse of God's kingdom and a sign of what God is doing in the world.
But we can become so accustomed to Sunday worship that we forget how remarkable it is. We can arrive exhausted or distracted, already thinking about everything that comes after worship. The rhythm of rest creates space for us to notice what God is doing.
Just as the women went to the tomb expecting death but encountered life, we are invited to come to worship with a sense of anticipation and wonder:
What is God doing today?
As we continue through Divine Rest, we are invited to consider the holy pauses in our own lives—the places where waiting, rest, and stillness may not feel productive, but may be creating space for us to notice God's presence and receive the new life God is bringing.
Reflection Questions:
• The women rested faithfully on the Sabbath, even though that day was saturated with grief and uncertainty. Have you ever had to be faithful through a season of waiting when obedience felt more like endurance than peace? What did you learn from it?
• The sermon described Sunday worship as a weekly theological statement: the tomb is empty, death is not the final word, and new creation has begun. Does that description match how you actually experience Sunday morning? What would need to change if it doesn't?
• If the rests in a piece of music are what give the notes their meaning, where in your own life do you see the opportunity for rests to add meaning to your life?
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