Faith, Trust, and Divine Kindness

Sunday, October 12, 2025

Scriptures: John 14:1-21

• Sermon Summary

  Summary: In the sixth sermon of our series, Grounded, Jeremy explores how the values of intellectual honesty, spiritual passion, and a Christ-centered faith ground us in the experience of God's Spirit. By looking at John 14, he reflects on how Jesus responds to fear and uncertainty with presence and kindness, not answers or certainty. Jeremy emphasizes that faith is not about having the right beliefs but about learning to ask better questions and trusting love in action. Jeremy encourages us with a call to live out a Spirit-led, self-giving love rooted in the relational character of the triune God.

  Thomas, again: Jeremy emphasizes that authentic faith requires space for doubt. He argues that certainty, especially about God, can be both dangerous and spiritually limiting. Rather than opposing forces, faith and doubt exist together. Pastoral care means helping people hold this tension with honesty.

  Good news, bad news: Jeremy highlights that faith becomes meaningful not in what we believe intellectually but in how we act on that trust. He encourages moving from abstract belief in God to practical trust in the way of Jesus, particularly in how we treat others.

  Divine Kindness: Jeremy reframes discipleship as the practice of asking better questions. He suggests that sincere inquiry opens space for deeper relationship with God, rather than just passive acceptance. He emphasizes that faith matures not through rigid answers but through ongoing, open-handed curiosity.

  The pivot to Spirit: Jeremy presents the Spirit as the ongoing presence of Jesus and the love of God at work in and through us. The doctrine of the Trinity is not a puzzle to solve but an invitation to experience God as eternal, self-giving love. This love, Jeremy says, is the clearest evidence of God’s presence in a person’s life.

• Discussion Guide

  Community is shaped by the conversations we share. These questions and reflections are a tool to help you meaningfully engage with the themes of this week's teaching.

  Connect: Jeremy tackles the relationship between faith and doubt. You may have grown up avoiding doubt, or leaning into it as part of your faith journey. Maybe you held different feelings toward doubt at different points of your life.
  
  Q: If you feel like sharing, what has your posture toward doubt been throughout your life?
  

  Share: Share your thoughts about the connection between belief and behaviour. Our beliefs inform our actions, but their connection can be complicated. Consider Jeremy’s words,
  
  “Sometimes I find my faith pretty solid, right up until it asks me to do something.”

  He adds, “Good theology doesn’t matter—unless it turns us into good people.”
  
  Q: Do you relate to this quote?
  Q: What do you think is significant between doubt, faith, and your behaviour?
  
  Reflect: Reflect on the concept of faith involving something other than blind obedience, but allowing a depth of curiosity and an invitation to ask questions. Reflect on Jeremy’s words,
  
  “The Bible is far more decisively a record of our inquiry, followed by divine response. And what I take from that pattern is that faith does not make it our job to repeat what we’ve been told. Faith makes it our job to ask better questions of God. I ask better questions today than I did last week.”

  Q: How might this understanding of faith conflict with other versions of faith that you may have encountered or may have been passed down to you?
  Q: Why might our God desire for us to grow in curiosity and ask more questions?
  
  Engage: Engage with the idea that Jeremy challenged us with, to move from belief to action. Read Jeremy’s words,
  
  “There also comes a time when we need to learn to trust ourselves to the Spirit of God—that Voice of love that calls us to step beyond what makes sense and extend ourselves into what is loving.”

  Q: What does it mean to “extending ourselves into what is loving,” apart from what makes sense; and what might that look like in your life?
  
  Takeaway: What is your takeaway from the message or today’s conversation?

  Prayerfromthesermon:
  God of all our seasons,
  You meet us here again in the rhythm of our return.
  In the turn of the year, in the gathering of your people,
  in the repetition of songs and scriptures that hold us steady
  when the world feels uncertain.

  We confess how easy it is to chase what is new,
  to look for you in spectacle and surprise;
  when so often, you wait for us,
  in the quiet patterns that shape our days.

  So today, as we pause in this familiar place,
  help us to recognize your Spirit
  woven through the ordinary and the repeated:
  the meals we share, the words we rehearse,
  the friendships that tether us to grace.

  Root us once again in the story that grounds us.
  Center us once more in the love that calls us by name,
  and remind us that to return to you
  is not to retrace old steps,
  but to find new life in the path we know by heart.
  In the strong name of the risen chats we pray,
  Amen

• Service Songs & Prayers

  CALL TO WORSHIP Psalm 95

  MUSIC Curated by Kevin B.
  Brooke Ligertwood - Ancient Gates
  Worship Circle - My Jesus I Love Thee
  Aodhán King - My Hallelujah
  Brooke Ligertwood - A Thousand Hallelujahs

  PRAYER FOR THE CHILDREN IN OUR LIVES
  Written by Bobbi Salkeld

  At all of the morning services today we had child dedications and baptisms. 

  Our posture at Commons is that both of these traditions express something beautiful about the mystery of God’s love at work in our lives. And so families choose the ritual that honours their beliefs and commitments. 

  As part of our worship tonight, we pray for the children who were baptized and dedicated today: for Avery, Thalia, Riley, and Orien. 

  And we also pray for the children in our own lives – 

  Be they nieces, nephews, neighbours.

  Children of your own, children long grown, or memories of your own childhood.  

  Please join me in a prayer for the children in our lives. 

  Loving God, 

  I think back to a memory

  where I saw a neighbourhood kid slow his bike down on the sidewalk outside my house, 

  balance on his tiptoes,

  and stretch his whole body up, up, up

  until he could reach and grab a handful of golden yellow leaves off of the tree.

  I saw in this simple gesture the wonder of childhood 

  the gift of being present and captivated 

  by beauty and moved by curiosity. 

  Maybe we all have moments like this where we witness children being children 

  and something inside of us is stilled with awe and care. 

  
  So today, we pray for the children in our lives.

  For those we worry about, 

  For those learning at their own pace,

  For those who aren’t well, or who struggle, or who are having a hard time getting their needs met – 

  God, bring help. Bring love. 

  We pray for the children in our lives. 

  At the start of a new school year interrupted by a teacher’s strike,

  And still, in their education, discovering what they love and what they loath, 

  Making choices everyday that can help or hurt – 

  God, bring light. Bring love. 

  We pray for the children in our lives. 

  For a world that protects and nourishes them,

  For communities that delight and sustain them,

  For families and homes that provide support and find joy in being together 

  God, bring mercy. Bring love. 

  Amen.
  
  SERIES BUMPER
  Grounded