Called to be Light (Matthew 5:14-16)

Family Ministries Director Caasi Grove starts with a piece of acolyte symbolism that's easy to walk past every Sunday: carrying the flame in signals Christ's light entering the room, carrying it back out signals what the congregation is meant to do next. From there, she draws on a flood relief trip to Burney, Texas, where a group of students and adult leaders chose to stay and help even as a second storm rolled through, to make a direct case for what loving your neighbor actually costs. It's an unflinching call to bring light into hard, uncomfortable places rather than staying safely inside, and a reminder, borrowing from both Martin Luther King Jr. and John Wesley, that silence is its own kind of choice. Sermon date: July 26, 2026