A couple weeks ago after I dropped our kid off I was going to go to a coffee shop to wake myself up and start working. But I was hit with a fresh round of feeling upset about the state of our society and the state of the world, and I decided it’d be best if I took a stroll before sitting down and staring into a screen. I let myself just wander a bit down some side streets of rowhomes in a part of our neighborhood I didn’t know so well.

I stopped to watch some bees that were burying themselves into the flowers of some blackberry vines on a trellis someone had put in their front lawn, with a sign that said, “Take some & leave some.”

I thought, “I’ll be sure to come by here later this summer.”

Then I looked up and noticed another sign in this lawn that said: “We Rise by Lifting Others.”

My friends, that was the message I needed to receive that morning, and I share it with you this morning because I’m pretty sure I’m not alone:

We Rise by Lifting Others.

This is an ethic and an approach to life we can recognize as people of faith who seek to follow in the Way of Jesus. It may feel counter-cultural these days. So much energy is going into trying to tear others down. But do you see how that’s bringing everyone down? What a mean, desperate, depraved, deprived way of life. We don’t rise by pushing others down. That only lowers ourselves. At the same time, we don’t need to fear that by helping others up we somehow have to be reduced to nothing. It is through lifting others that we rise.

Yes, it may seem counter cultural at the moment, but if you feel attracted to it, you – and we – are far, far from alone. We can proclaim it without hesitation or shame. We can rally around it, pursue it together, with joy – not with grim austerity, or sanctimonious moralizing, but with joy, for this is about life and life abundant, life without ending:

It is through lifting others that we rise.  

It’s the truth of the matter. We can even say it’s “God’s truth.” Jesus did. When Jesus found his disciples bickering and back-biting about which of them was top dog, he jumped on the chance to school them in God’s truth: If you wish to be first then you have to make yourself last. He made it clear, this was not just back-0f-the-line-last but servant-last, and not just servant-of-some kind-of-last, not just servant-to-kings kind-of-last, but servant-of-all kind-of-last. Becoming like the last and least, for the sake of all – that’s what Jesus was talking about … an all that includes you, and you and you and you, and she and her and he and him and they and them, and me …  So this kind of last is the last that ends up first, in a utterly transformed meaning of “first” in the light of a more God’s-eye-view of things – not first-of-all but first-with-all.

We Rise by Lifting Others.

The Apostle Paul, when he was teaching fledgling communities of Jesus-followers how to live and live together lives that are transformed into the Jesus-Way, no longer conformed to the death-bound culture around them, he taught about the important of building each other up. Love builds up, and living by Love leads to mutual up-building. In the spirit of Christ-led fellowship, the holy Love we share builds us all up; it builds us all up from a shared foundation: God Love and of all of our need for that Love. (This reflection is inspired by Søren Kierkegaard, “Works of Love,” pgs. 206-208, reflecting on “Love builds up” from 1 Cor 8:1. For more on Paul on building up, see for example, 1 Thessalonians 5:4-11.)

There are countless examples of how this is true, that we are built up through building others up from the shared foundation of God’s love.

One way I have experienced this, which I have been thinking about a lot lately, comes from the blessings I have received from participating in churches and in a Christian denomination that fully include and uplift folks who are gay or lesbian or trans or gender nonconforming.  I say this as someone who’s always been more-or-less comfortable being a straight, cis-gendered man. Some may think it’s in my narrow self-interest to exclude anyone who isn’t like me, and it’s stupid or weak of me not to fight to keep others down, or keep others out, especially if I can claim that God is on my side.

Thank God that’s not the truth. I thank God that’s not been my experience. I have been blessed, so blessed, blessed to the point of having tears when I think about it, from what I have received through the years from mentors and colleagues and congregants who have been able to freely and openly share their gifts and insights and struggles and walks with God in ways that would be forbidden in other churches or other eras, because of the gender of those they’re oriented to love or the gender they’re oriented to be. I’m thinking of very specific individuals who are gay Christians or trans or queer Christians who have shown me new things about God’s Grace in ways that have changed my life; who have taught me about courage, about faith, about trust in God, who have taught me about joy through it all in ways that have changed my life.

For example I’ll never forget one young woman, a trans woman, who found welcome and inclusion and celebration at a church I was serving, who told me “I know God is real and that God loves me, because my relationship with God has survived all the terrible, hateful things people have been trying to get me to believe about God.” That is an extraordinary faith, which is a gift to share.

Through the blessings of serving as a pastor at Open & Affirming churches, sometimes I have helped to build folks up; sometimes they have helped to build me up; sometimes I have helped to lift them up, sometimes they have helped to lift me up … through it all ultimately it clearly is God who is doing the building and God who is doing the lifting, of us all, for us all.

We Rise by Lifting Others.

To end I want to share with you a beautiful public statement made recently for Pride Month by a Christian ministry and community in the Kensington neighborhood of Philly, called the Simple Way. This is a group that seeks to live simply and communally and generously, like the early church did as described in the book of Acts: “To cultivate a neighborhood and a world where all belong and thrive together by encouraging people to come alive in their gifts and purpose, building beloved community across all dividing lines, and to advocate for justice.”

Here’s the statement they shared this Pride Month:

“Supporting queer people opens your heart and makes you more fully human. When we choose to love without conditions, we keep our hearts soft and that softness is a gift to everyone around us.

“In a world that often defines who belongs and who doesn’t, the radical act is to extend God’s love to all people, without exception. When we see people living as their full selves, we witness the wide array of beauty that is within creation and within humanity. And something powerful happens: their courage invites us to live more fully as ourselves, too.

“We love seeing who people were created to be, made in the image and likeness of God. This Pride Month, we are grateful for every difference we see in our community, here in Kensington and around the world. Our differences are not obstacles, they are gifts that teach us more about each other and about our Creator.”

We Rise by Lifting Others.

Through this to God be the glory, to God be all thanks and praise.  Thanks be to God.

Delivered Sunday, June 14, 2026, by Rev. Nathaniel Mahlberg at the United Church of Christ at Valley Forge.