Confirmation Sunday | “To Our Beloved” 6PM | Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III 06/14/26

1:23:46 We want to place a tag here. I want us to, for a moment, if you might, just turn to your neighbor. I didn't say anything. Y'all were talking. Just look at your neighbor and just say these words to your neighbor. Say, neighbor. Oh, neighbor. We are the beloved of God. Amen. Beloved. Beloved. Beloved. Beloved. This word, beloved, God speaks to God's Son, beloved, in whom I am well pleased. This word, beloved, is the language of God, of God speaking to God's own child, God speaking to God's son.

1:24:57 You are my son. You are my child. I confirmed you, the beloved. The word beloved in Greek is agapetos. It comes from the word agape, which means unconditional love. A love that's not based on achievement. It's not based on a merit. A love that just is. You don't have to work for it. you've got it as soon as you enter into this world. I raised one central question in my meditation and prayer this week. I was raising the question, what is the one central virtue?

1:25:56 What is the central embedded idea within the gospel that allows all other virtues to blossom? What is it that God wants us to understand? What is it that we as human beings must embrace? Whether one is a believer or an agnostic observer or a deconstructed wanderer or a spiritual skeptic, what is it that we as creatures of dust mixed with destiny must come to embrace? What must we learn? It is my contention, through study, through prayer, observation, and experience, there is no other virtue, with a principle, notion, belief, view, thought, or equation, that is as significant and important as to know you are the beloved.

1:27:07 The gospel, according to Mark, is sharing the experience of Jesus during baptism. But the gospel is sharing a simple yet profound idea. This is my son, the beloved. And I am well pleased with my son. And I speak to you, the village, the beloved of this village, from our confirmation class, to the voices of Sankofa, to students who've received scholarships, to those who are graduating, and to those who are part of this wider village. that these words may resonate with you at this moment. To simply know this, if it has never been shared with you before, you are the beloved.

1:28:08 There is nothing you must do to become beloved. There is nothing you can do to stop being the beloved. It is writer Henry Nouwen, priest and spiritual teacher, who had an encounter with a student. A student who chose a life of obligation over passion. He wrote a series of letters to this student who was not a believer in spiritual matters, but the student nonetheless said to Dr. Nowen, he needed to hear the lessons he taught in his classroom about purpose and passion and vocation. And Dr. Nowen put these letters he wrote to this student in a book entitled Life of the Beloved. And he offered what I offer this day. A simple, unspectacular, unglamorous maxim of the spirit.

1:29:06 You are the beloved. You are the beloved. To be beloved is your inheritance. a gift already prepared for you. An inheritance is something you don't have to work for. It's already hooked up for you. Your job is just to receive it. You didn't do anything to get it. And we are all well pleased just as God is pleased. God is pleased in you, who you are, and there's nothing you can do about it. It has nothing to do with what you have done. The good news is you have nothing to prove. You were born beloved.

1:30:01 For the psalmist says you were fearfully and wonderfully made. Accept this. You are our beloved. Whatever your circumstances, you are the beloved. Whatever your situation, you are the beloved. There is no beloved application you have to put in. There's no ethnic requirement, racial classification, gender identity, sexual orientation, social economic status. You are the beloved. Period. and the very essence of who you are. You have the imprint of the divine upon you. God's goodness, God's godness rests upon you. You are the beloved.

1:31:00 Yes, you. The one who was told you were not enough. You. The one who fell into a crowd of underachievers. Yes, you. The one who seeks to be to please and to be liked. Yes, you. You, the one who cannot trust because of past hurts. You. You, the one at times who thinks about self-harm. You. You, the one who needs weed to get through the week. Yes, you. You, who life is almost broken. You, the neurodiverse. You who wrestles with trauma. You are the beloved. And there's nothing you can do because God has already made the decision that you are the beloved. This is your inheritance. An inheritance that you didn't have to work for.

1:31:54 Don't you know that an inheritance comes through two things? Blood or decree or blood and decree. God did God's work. There's already an inheritance that has been passed down by blood and decree. Let me see if I can say it the way Andre Crouch would say it. The blood, it reaches the highest mountain. It flows to the lowest valley. The blood that gives me strength from day to day. It will never lose its power. It soothes my doubts, calms my fears. Oh, it dries all my tears. The blood gives me strength from day to day.

1:32:49 It will never, never lose. You are the beloved. Dr. Nowen states that, yes, you are the beloved. You were already born into the fact that you are the beloved. There's nothing that you can do to keep from being the beloved. But I must say that Dr. Nowen then says this, that you are the beloved, but you must learn how to become beloved. I didn't understand this at first. I said, what are you saying, Dr. Nowen? But then he says, you have to accept your belovedness. in order to accept your belovedness you have to practice acceptance and gratitude let me see if i can say it this way acceptance of the self is part of your spiritual journey that you will have a whole lot of folk telling you that there's something wrong with you and you will spend a lot of time comparing yourself that you are not at a level that someone else is one person said comparison is the thief of joy and we live in a world an algorithm that is always seeking to infect your soul with ease that will get into your very spirit that you think that you are not at the level of somebody else.

1:34:29 Stop comparing yourself. It is the thief of all joy. You've got to become your belovedness by accepting who you are. It is Reinhold Niebuhr who offers a prayer that he often recited. We do not know who the originator is, but he said in this prayer, he said, God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. I must say that I had the observation and the experience actually this week of understanding that this idea of acceptance and also the courage to deal with those things that you can change. As you all know, I am a basketball fan. I love basketball and I enjoyed watching these NBA Finals. It was a beautiful thing. I had no stake in the game, but I enjoyed watching every single game. Shout out to the Knicks. I know that you, they did the doggone thing. I appreciate them, appreciate San Antonio, but I have to lift up a brother by the name of Jalen Brunson.

1:35:45 Jalen Brunson understands the idea of acceptance because he was always told everything throughout his journey, he always had a comma and a but next to it. That he was not tall enough, he was not athletic enough, that everyone was always doubting him. And his father taught him, he said, that there are some things you cannot change. you've got to learn how to accept some things this is your height and you ain't getting any taller this is as high as you can jump and that's as fast as you can run but there are some things you can change he said i can't change my height but i have power over my mentality that i can control how the ball is dribbled i can control my shot i'm not going to worry about what I can't change, but I am going to focus on what I can change. I'm going to accept what I have been given, and in that acceptance, then I will shift my mentality so that I am able to make and make a move on my journey. That you, the beloved, must learn this idea of acceptance. Accept who you are.

1:37:08 Let me say it again. Accept who you are. Let me say it. Accept who you are. Stop comparing yourself with other people in a frame that you don't really know what's outside of that frame on what you're watching on your phone. It may look good in the frame, but all hell may be breaking loose outside of the frame. Accept who you are. Acceptance is how we move into becoming the beloved. But it's not only acceptance. It's also acceptance connected with gratitude. Alice Walker said it this way that one of the greatest prayers that you can pray is thank you but you ought to offer thank you often and and and thank you is a choice the choice is how will you wake up every morning how will you experience an event is your choice how you will worship is your choice if you see life as a privilege you will walk through life as in the words of Maya Angelou, that you've got oil wells pumping in your living room.

1:38:40 When you give thanks, you really shouldn't be here. Let's be honest. For those of you who can go back through the files of your own experience and know all the stuff that you have been into, all of the dangerous toils and snares that should have taken you out. You see, when you wake up in the morning, you shouldn't be upset. You should say, thank you, Jesus. Because while you were in an unconscious state, there were about a million different organisms that wanted to take your body out. but yet you woke up for one more day and since you woke up you shouldn't come into church frowning and upset and whatnot you ought to walk up in here like you got oil wells pumping in your living room you ought to walk down the aisle get to your seat if there ain't nobody else up in here, you ought to be the first person giving God thanks because you know the hell you've been through. And the fact that you've been through all of this and you are still standing, you ought to say, Lord, I thank you for being so good to me. Lord, I thank you for covering me.

1:40:14 I thank you. I haven't had a job in eight months, but you put food on the table and I got a roof over my head. I have clothes on my back. I'm still relatively in my right mind. Is there anyone up in here who can give thanks unto our God for what our God has done and what our God is doing? Is there anyone here who's got some good home training? Your mama told you when somebody does something for you, you ought to say, thank you. Thank you for being good to me. Thank you for blessing me. Thank you for taking some people out of my life. Thank you for bringing some people into my life. Is there anyone in here who can give gratitude? Gratitude.

1:41:11 You are the beloved. You are the beloved. And there's nothing you can do about it. God has already made the decision that you are the beloved. I don't care what anyone else says about you. Because the one who really matters is the one who made you. and the only reason the haters hate is because they have an issue with themselves not with you because they're still trying to figure out because they know a little bit about what's been happening in your life how is it that you've been through all this and you still look as good as you do.

1:42:30 How is it you got the attitude you got and all the mess that's been in your situation and you still walking up in here like it's the greatest day of your life? Well, it is the greatest day of your life because you've been given one more day. that we walk into our belovedness, that we must become, we must become, we must become, we must become, become and move into our belovedness. But I must bid you farewell today because I want to once pray again for our young people and our young adults that God has placed it on my heart that we're not leaving out of here until we pray as a village over these leaders.

1:43:26 I didn't say future leaders. I said leaders. Because God is working something out right now in the lives of these young people, in the lives of these young adults that's about to turn our community around. And I just want to be a witness. And so finally, beloved, you must discover how powerful you are. It's not an act of cosmic coincidence. You find yourself in this space. all that has conspired to rob you of your strength and leave you in a huddled mass weeping in a corner failed you are the beloved the moment you woke up placed your feet on the ground the enemy started cussing because everything the enemy tried to do to upend your destiny did not work everything in your yesterday that sought to hamper your today failed you are the beloved you are more powerful than you will ever know your life is not a series of tragedies nor a succession of regrets but a single triumph you were written off you were called useless you were left for dead you crawled out of prisons and dungeons but thought but there you are emancipated from that moment you are the beloved god has invested so much in you god has been watching, waiting, and cheering and encouraging. The angels are conspiring, leaning over the

1:45:35 banister of heaven, waiting for you to understand who you are. And the moment you understand that you are God's child, there will be a cheer from heaven because God already invested so much in you. I dare you. Act like a child of God. I dare you. Lift up your head. I dare you. Walk like angels are standing on both sides. As a matter of fact, you got two everywhere you go. One named Grace and the other named Mercy. Everywhere you go, you are the Beloved. You are the beloved. You are God's child.

1:46:31 You are the beloved. The beloved of God. And a voice came from the heavens. This is my son. This is my daughter. This is my child This is the one who will do great things This is my leader This is the one who's anointed This is the one who has great power and doesn't even know it yet You are the beloved And this village is well pleased The door of the church is open. We welcome you right now.

1:47:26 For all. This is an invitation for you to be a part of the community of Trinity United Church of Christ. We invite you.