In this week’s sermon, “One Way to Help,” Rev. Emily McGinley begins with a story of a walk through the Tenderloin with the San Francisco Night Ministry and a simple truth offered there: “People fall on hard times and it’s not their fault. This is one way for me to help.”
From that moment, we turn to John the Baptist—accidental spiritual icon—calling out crowds chasing spiritual highs instead of real transformation, yet still offering an invitation: there is time, it is not too late, and who you’ve been doesn’t have to determine who you can become. We reflect on baptism as a ritual of beginning again when life feels heavy or directionless, and we return to the Tenderloin question: What’s one way I can help?
