Sermons in the Key of Life
Temporada 3
Let the Sacred be Sacred
The Church and the Mountain Top
Purpose, Pride, and Parateresis
Ponder and Praise
The Measure of Freedom
por Niels Teunis
The sermon traces the preacher’s spiritual journey, beginning in 2002 at Tassajara Zen Center, where a sense of emptiness despite professional success—completing a degree and securing a tenure-track position—sparked a search for faith. After years of struggle (career dissatisfaction, the 2008 financial crisis, resistance to seminary, and precarious circumstances), the preacher entered seminary in 2010, graduating in 2013 and marrying Angela. The sermon interprets Jesus’ cursing of the barren fig tree and cleansing of the temple as a call to choose a life-giving path, free from distractions and harmful influences. Forgiveness, especially of oneself, is essential to restoring the sacred inner temple where God’s grace dwells. The message: choose life, cultivate inner sacredness, trust God’s presence, and clear the heart’s temple of all that desecrates it.
In the sermon The Church and the Mountaintop, delivered on July 5, 2026, the speaker explores the intersection of personal gratitude, national identity, and the radical inclusivity of the Gospel. The message begins with a poignant personal story about visiting a dying World War II veteran in a poorly maintained nursing home. The veteran had been a P-51 Mustang pilot who crash-landed in the Netherlands—the speaker’s home country. This connection leads to a profound moment of realization: the speaker’s own life was made possible by the veteran’s service and the liberation of Holland. This story serves as a foundation for discussing nobility, heroism, and the "matter-of-fact call to duty" of ordinary people. The sermon then shifts to a critique of the current state of the United States, specifically addressing the "Freedom 250" initiative and the rise of Christian nationalism. The speaker expresses a deep irony: while some claim the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation, the actual values of Christ—welcoming the stranger and caring for the poor—are often absent from public policy. Referencing Gandhi’s famous quip about Western civilization being "an excellent idea," the speaker suggests that a truly Christian nation would be one where the values of the faith are actually lived out, rather than used as a political label. Drawing from the Gospels, the speaker highlights Jesus’s habit of retreating to mountaintops for prayer and communion with God. This "mountaintop" experience is presented as a necessary restoration for mission. Crucially, the speaker emphasizes that Jesus never excluded anyone from this communion; his invitation was universal. This theological point is used to challenge contemporary political issues, such as the "terrorizing" of immigrant communities and the questioning of birthright citizenship. The speaker argues that these are not merely political debates but fundamental Gospel issues, citing the prophets, Abraham’s welcome of the stranger, and Frederick Douglass’s distinction between the "Christianity of Christ" and the "Christianity of slaveholders." The sermon concludes by defining the church as a modern-day mountaintop—a place of prayer and sanctuary where "everybody belongs" and "nobody is excluded." It calls the congregation to honor the dignity of all people, from the neglected veteran to the stranger at the border, by committing to the work of justice, kindness, and humble walking with God. The final message is one of radical hospitality: the church must remain a place that always welcomes the stranger and brings good news to the poor in Jesus’s name.
It's Pride Sunday today, and many people are in San Francisco marching, celebrating, having a grand old time. They've been doing it for a few days. You know how that goes. There was the Trans March on Friday, the Dyke March yesterday, and then the general Pride March today. Some people go to all of it. Some people have their favorites. I used to be a pride monitor for several years, contingent monitor. I was a contingent monitor for the first LGBT Muslim contingent that ever marched in a pride march in San Francisco. I mean, that was a first worldwide, and it happened here in San Francisco, and I was supporting that organization that was doing that. And they needed the contingent monitor, otherwise you can't participate, so I did that. It means that you kind of keep the people safe. in place and moving forward at the right pace and all those kinds of things so that it moves smoothly. And you know by now here in California we're like is it still necessary? I mean does it still fire something like this is an important event this needs to happen and then we remember that our flag was our pride flag was stolen just earlier this month. It's like, oh, okay, yes, we're still here. We're still here. But at this time, I am thinking very particularly about our trans family who live around the country. And I want you to take a look at this map if we have it. No, okay, it didn't appear, that's all right. I'll share it with you another time. It shows you how the legislation that has appeared in various states around the country that is intended to make the lives of trans families difficult, if not impossible, It's just increasing all over the country. The majority of states are now Well, you just, the advisors don't even go. Don't go there, don't visit. And even if you're traveling abroad, try to avoid those states, those airports in those states as stops on the way to travel abroad. Because you might have to use a bathroom. And they can get in trouble. And there's all kinds of policing that is happening. We don't really notice it here, but the lives are dire. One of the things that happens as a result is that suicide rates go up, mental health crisis goes up. Particularly for the young ones, which is why at the beginning of the service we were always rotating the lifeline phone number because we want to make sure that everybody has as access to support when they really, really need it. You know, when we're talking, we're having this series on prayer in these few months. And today's theme is that of purpose. And it comes from the line in the Lord's Prayer, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Heaven is not necessarily up there, but we still make the gestures and I'm getting confused by them. And God's will is always, of course, a rich topic. Like, is it operating already? Or are we waiting it for God's will to kind of start to come obvious? I've quoted to you Desmond Tutu's prayer. Dear God, we know that you're in control. Could you make it a little bit more obvious? Please? And when I think about the lives of our trans family in these various states, that's one of the things that I pray for. Because it is not always obvious that God is love. And that God's will prevails. We read from this time from the King James Version. That was the first one. It won't happen again for a long, long time, most likely. But every now and then, it is beautiful poetry. That when Jesus was asked about the kingdom of God, is it coming? With the kingdom of God being the ultimate manifestation of God's will. Is it coming anytime soon? What do we look for? What is going to... And Jesus said, first of all, well, the kingdom of God is not something that you can observe. That's the word parateresis, which is in the sermon title. It's not observable. It's a term from astrology. Even in those days, people were using astrology and astronomy, that was kind of the same thing at the time.
You can praise God with your words. You can place yourself there. Because what does it mean to praise God? God who is beyond our understanding, beyond knowing. We can praise that God — the God who says, "I want to be known by you," and still remains unknowable in some very fundamental way. What does it really mean to say, "I'm praising God"? Choose words. Choose better words, different words. It's a way of bringing yourself into a space of awe and gratitude. Praise be to God. It's like — I'm in awe of the fact that I'm alive at all. That this miracle we call life is happening, and that we get to have an understanding, a consciousness of this — it's an amazing, ultimate fact. The Zen Buddhist teacher Suzuki, who wrote the book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind — many of you are familiar with it — said the fact that you are here right now is the ultimate fact. And for that, we say praise to God, in awe and gratitude.
That depth of resourcefulness that is in each and every one of us is something that we can know about because of this incredible history that has come through slavery and Jim Crow and all the other forms of oppression — from within the African-American community, who have plowed the depth of that resourcefulness that was yours to begin with, that was ours to begin with, that was theirs to begin with. It was created and put there because you were created by God and you were an heir of God, receiving all that God had to offer, already here and now and in the times to come. You come from God, and we shall all fully — 100% — reconnect and be reconciled with God, who is our essential identity.
To have a consistent life of prayer — it's not a self-evident trajectory in our lives. We are more and more distracted. Everybody will tell you that our attention span is shrinking, that we're pulled on by so many different objects and messages, technologies and people. If you feel that is happening to you, no shame on you at all. There are billions and billions of dollars being put into developing distraction for all of us. As someone who had worked at Facebook in the early days once said: "The brightest minds of my generation are all interested in getting you to click on something." Not to bring world peace. Not to end hunger. None of those things. How do we get you to click on something? That's the world we live in.