Circling Around

1 Corinthians 12:27-31

On Labor Day weekend Sunday, we should take note: What a summer it was! And this past summer is worth remembering because it’s going to be a fantastic Fall, too.

We launched ourselves into the summer with our Souls on Fire on Pentecost Sunday/Memorial Day weekend and spent the next three months plumbing the depths of the “peculiar community” that sprung up in the first century CE around the Way of Jesus. That
community would become known as the church, the Body of Christ on earth. And those who were a part of would become known as Followers of the Way. That’s us, now. We are the great-great-great-great-great-great-seventy-eight-generations-later grandchildren of the first small gathering of followers we know of in the Greek city of Thessalonica. We are the Body of Christ in the 21^st Century. Our summer lifted up the vitality and passion of this peculiar community called the Church.

For the first month of our Fall, September to World Communion Sunday on the first Sunday of October 4^th, we’re going to dig into the particular Body of Christ in its Presbyterian form in Pewee Valley. Using A Sanctified Art’s curriculum once again, we’ll ask a few questions we’ve been meaning to ask and learn even more about who is a part of PVPC and why you are here.

As we begin, let us pray …

Bottom line: The Church (capital C) does have a peace that passes understanding and it does not offer that peace as the world does. The Church (capital C) does serve the world for its, and our, transformation – to realize even more the Kin-dom of God on earth we are called to reveal. The Church is connectional – understanding our relational GOD through relationships within and beyond the institution itself. And faith – trust in, and fidelity to GOD, that leads to a different way of seeing the world – is the heart of the Church (capital C). And I know that many of us are here because of that peace, service, connectionally, and faith. But, if I asked each of you individually why you are a part of Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church, I’ll bet very few, if any, of you would respond first with those words.

I think we’re part of PVPC for even more – and possibly deeper – reasons. Which puts me in mind of Charles Darwin. (Anyone else?!)

Charles Darwin … do you remember him? What comes to mind when you first think of Charles Darwin? Evolution … Nature “red in tooth and claw” (Tennyson) … survival of the fittest … natural selection. If you’re like me you, at least initially, you think of theories and conclusions about creation’s “competition” and antagonism toward itself. So, what in the world does he have to do with religion and being a member of a particular church?! Well, you may be surprised to hear that Darwin also argued that natural selection promotes sympathy, social feeling, unselfishness, and even self-sacrifice. In fact, he argues that sympathy and social feeling moved human beings up the evolutionary ladder.

“Communities which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members would flourish best,” he wrote in The Descent of Man, page seventy-two. It turns out that compassion is thought by scientists (not just theologians!) to be the key to happiness – along with empathy, gratitude and social connection. I’m not sure many, if any, of you would use those words exactly if Ashia or I asked you individually why you are a part of PVPC. But I think that’s why most of you are here. Because there is empathy, compassion, and social connection here.

(Conversely, I think that’s why most of those who are not here are not here. They have lost any sense of the “Church” truly possessing sympathy, gratitude, and compassion – let alone the happiness – they need to survive most fully, and to help others thrive more fully. But – as unfair as that may be to bring up and not address, that’s another sermon …)

This sermon is about why we are here.  We’re here because here we receive, and are empowered to offer, sympathy, compassion, love, hope, joy, faith, gratitude promise, and all those lifegiving requirements for a community to flourish. I mean, we are here for that reason, aren’t we? You are, aren’t you? Is that, at least in part if not in large part, why you’re here at Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church? Because that’s what we offer here, to all? If not, I honestly don’t think your time here will be long. And I’m even more certain it won’t be very joyful or fun.

Hearkening back to Darwin, the one thing we can be certain of is change. Things change. The Church, and especially the local individual congregation, in all it’s forms and sizes and expressions and locations, is no exception to this rule of change in almost every way. I’ve been here for eighteen years and the difference between 2008 when I began and now, in 2026, is profound: members, ministries, mission, staff, debts, assets, expenditures, buildings. These things have changed, evolved, dramatically. Some in very comforting ways and some in more unsettling ways. If you were here for any one of those reasons alone, you probably didn’t stay long. If you are now, you may not be here much longer – if you haven’t left already. But, if you are here – a part of the faith community of PVPC – because you have found a great number of people who, like yourself, share the sympathy and compassion required for a community, and each member of it, to flourish best, then you’ll be here a while. And many of have been here awhile. I think this is why people join a particular church and remain.

That doesn’t mean we don’t strive for numbers – more members, more money, more ministries, more mission. It just means those aren’t the goals we set. They are the result of our goals: To provide a community who cares about the world and its individual members first and foremost.

Allow me to close with a story that my father, who is still the most treasured resource I have for illustrating my sermon messages, shared with me last week as I talked with him about what we were getting ready to do as a church heading into the Fall this year. It’s a meditation he shared by the Reverend Cameron Trimble, who is the founder and CEO of Convergence, an organization committed to transforming how faith communities engage the world. She writes about something that happened recently on her ten-acre farm:

Every morning twenty-four hens greet us with their cheerful commentary and … their routines have become part of our own. Last week, those rhythms were interrupted. When I went to close the coop that evening, I found one of our Barred Rock hens hanging from the nesting box … I didn’t know how long she had been there. Her foot was losing circulation, and her hip was clearly out of place. I lifted her gently and held her until her heart began to steady. I tried to ease her hip back into place and then settled her into our separate ‘hospital’ coop where she could rest in a protected, comfortable space.

The next morning, she still couldn’t put weight on her leg. I carried her outside and set her in the grass near the rest of the flock. I hoped she would at least enjoy the sun-shine and the company while she healed. With my morning coffee, I pulled up a chair nearby. Then pure grace happened.

The oldest hen on the farm walked over and sat beside the injured bird. There was no pecking or competition. She just stayed close, their bodies pressed together in what looked clearly like comfort. Twenty minutes later, a hawk called out overhead. Usually, the flock would scatter, each bird running for safety. But not this time. Instead, they ran toward the injured hen. One by one, they gathered around her, forming a living circle between their vulnerable sister and the danger above.

No one taught them to do this. There was no meeting, no plan, and no debate about whether she deserved their help. They just knew they needed to keep her safe. I was stunned and honored to bear witness.

The Apostle Paul put it this way in his letter to the Corinthians. Read 1 Corinthians 12:27-31. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Paul wasn’t coming up with something new as he wrote to the church in Corinth. He was reminding them of one of the oldest instincts in creation, some of the most ancient wisdom revealed again in Jesus.  Real community starts with different values. It does not begin with survival of the fittest. You don’t leave anyone behind when they’re hurt or alone. You come closer. You become their shelter. You circle around one another – for protection and guidance. But mostly to remind ourselves that we are not alone and someone cares about us. That’s why we’re here.

And that’s what we’re going to dive into even more deeply in the month ahead, asking questions that reveal us even more fully to one another. And as we do, we too will see the “more excellent way” – a Community of Love (the next chapter in the book of 1 Corinthians).

We’re going to “circle around this Table in just a few moments to remember all this and more. That’s wonderful for this morning. Sure hope to see you all in the month ahead and beyond. Because, it’s not the same here without you. Amen.

Reverend Joel Weible, Pastor

Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church / September 6, 2026