October 12, 2025
• Rev. Mindie Moore
OCTOBER 12th
TITLE: What You “Leaf” Behind
SCRIPTURE: Philippians 4:5-7
We’re in our second week of our series “The Faith of Trees” and if you weren’t with us last week, I want to give you a little bit of the “why” behind doing a series like this. One of the things we believe so strongly in our church is that the action we take in our world is critical to our faith. And this isn’t just a St. Luke’s thing—I have the United Methodist Social Principles right here (show book), where our church leaders have taken the time to really examine how we as people of faith should engage in the very real issues of our world.
And so we are all about the things that we do, absolutely. AND we’re also about the state of our souls. Because healthy souls lead to sustained healthy action in our world. And so this series is about THAT...tending to what’s going on inside of us so that we can show up in our world in a way that truly reflects who Jesus is.
Today as we continue that conversation, we’re exploring the question of what do we “leaf” (see what I did there?) behind? What impression do we make on the people around us and what do we need to cultivate in ourselves so that what we ARE leaving behind is something that reflects the faith that have and how God is working in us.
Last week, I told you a bit about the trees in my yard, and how we have four really giant ones that bless us with an abundance of leaves to take care of this time of year. But fall isn’t the only time that our trees “leaf” something behind. In fact, late spring/early summer, usually around June, our tulip trees become a home for aphids, these tiny little bugs that you would never notice...except for the effects that they have on the trees. So these tiny bugs hang out on the underside of the leaves and they chow down. But as they feast, it causes a reaction in the leaves that produces this really sticky sap. And one of the quirks of our house is that we do not have a garage, and our parking pad is right underneath these two tulip trees. So as the aphids feast and the sap they create rains down and leaves fall, they get on our cars. And to really complete this ecosystem experiment, while the aphids love to eat these leaves, wasps and hornets, it turns out, love to eat aphids! So there are mornings where we will come out to our cars and the hood will be covered in sticky sap, and different varieties of hornets...which WOULD be terrifying but they are so full from eating all these aphids that they are just passed out, completely oblivious.
Needless to say, we spend a lot of time at the carwash during late spring and early summer.
Despite the annoyance of this whole process, the aphid’s presence and the trees’ response does create a very memorable impression! It might only happen for a few weeks every year, but our family brings it up all year long. We have a core shared memory of this weird ecosystem that lives on the hood of our cars and is driven by our trees.
And people are like this too. When we show up, we leave some kind of impression on the people and places we encounter. The way that we engage with people, the way we respond (or don’t), the general vibe we put forward...we don’t always think about it, but (SLIDE) the way we show up matters. And I think especially as people of faith, the way we show up not only matters in our individual interactions, but it matters in the bigger story of what it means to be a Christian, what it means to say that we follow Jesus. There are a lot of different stories that can be written in someone’s mind about what someone who calls themself a Christian looks like. Sometimes those stories are shaped by the bigger narratives we see on the news, and public discourse, sure. But I think more often than that, they’re shaped more by the day-to-day interactions that we have.
In the book of Philippians, we see Paul’s instructions to a group of people as he gives them guidance on what it means to show up in the world, and about what he hopes God will be doing in the hearts of those who say they follow Jesus, who call themselves The Church. Paul writes this letter while he is in prison, and he wants to give not just instruction...but he wants to his friends in this church some encouragement.
And as he encourages them, he is well aware of the state of their world. He knows that they may be seeing things happen in their community that distress them. He knows that for many reasons, the times they are living in are hard...but he also believes that these people called the Church can live in a way that reflects what they know about Jesus.
Paul gives them the encouragement that he does in this letter, because what’s true for this community, and what I think can also be true for any of us, is that it can be really easy to stop reflecting what we know about Jesus, and simply just react to whatever is going on around us. This isn’t a criticism, it’s really just how we as humans are wired. In Psychology it’s known as the Stimulus-Response Theory and the basics of it is that people, we're all existing in an environment, and our environment has lots of external stimuli that we experience. And the stimuli that we experience causes a response in/from us. And not only do we respond once, but if we have repeated exposure to whatever that stimulus is, then we become conditioned that we respond that way over and over again.
The question this Scripture begs is...what if our response could be driven by something different? Not that we block out what’s happening around us and get apathetic to it, but what if our responses could be MORE shaped by what the Spirit is doing INSIDE of us than SIMPLY reacting to whatever is going on around us?
The world that the people of this church were living in was harsh—but Paul says, you don't have to respond harshly. The systems that govern them are based on power and might and oppression—but Paul says, you could choose to be gentle even in the face of that. It’s true that Paul is in prison as he writes this--but he says, you are allowed to choose hope instead of giving into despair. Paul isn’t interested in downplaying the reality of their challenges, but he is committed to reminding them that their faith and their community have given them something that is bigger than those immediate struggles, and that they still have the chance to make an impact on the world around them.
I think about that tension a lot right now, as I preach and as we form this community of faith together. I never want to downplay the very real fear that a lot of us in this room feel because of the state of our world, and our country specifically. I never want this to be a cocoon away from what’s hard, although I do want it to be a place where you can exhale and have a sense of comfort and nourishment. But I also have been praying so much lately, both as your pastor and as Mindie, the human who lives in the world, that I would be able to root myself in something deeper. And that what comes out of me could be bigger than a simple reaction. That I could cling so hard to who I believe Jesus is and what Jesus is about that those pieces of Jesus would be the thing that people see when I show up. That I wouldn’t forget that God has called me and each of us to have an influence, whether that’s in a big or small way.
And as Paul tries to help this community do a similar thing, to let their rootedness in Christ drive what comes out of them, one of the key pieces that Paul focuses on in this letter is for the people of this church to (SLIDE) “let their gentleness be known to everyone.” And the word that Paul uses for gentleness here has a very specific meaning, maybe a bit different than our automatic assumptions of what gentleness looks like. Because it’s more than being soft or mild-mannered, which might be our initial image of what it means to be gentle. The word Paul uses here is the Greek word (SLIDE) epieikes which means: reasonableness, forbearance, consideration of others.
In other words, be a group of people that loves in a way that is distinctly different from what others might expect. Contradict the expectations around you just like Jesus did. Put others first; be overly generous with your grace and kindness whenever you can; let yourself focus on the people around you and how you can love them well. Let people see THAT coming out of you...and pay attention to the impact that it makes.
Next week, the second season of the Netflix series “Starting Five” comes out, and if you’re a Pacers fan, you might be very excited that Tyrese Haliburton is one of the players who’s featured. You might also be dreading reliving Game 7 of the NBA finals, where he tore his Achilles. I know some of us have still not emotionally recovered from that, so sorry to bring up fresh wounds. But what I’m really hoping makes it into this documentary is what Haliburton did AFTER the game. Because that has stuck with me ever since it happened, and I think is a pretty good illustration of what we’re talking about.
Because after the game, after the tough loss, after he had been through this horrible thing...Tyrese Haliburton stood in the tunnel that goes back to the locker room and personally greeted and consoled every single one of his teammates. That’s the footage we have of him. Standing there, on crutches, present for his people. He’s not sulking back in the locker room or throwing a fit. He’s sad, he’s physically hurt, he’s angry—yes. This is probably the low point of his whole career and 16.4 million people watched it happen in real time. So that’s all real. But what we saw was that at the end of the game, he sets all of that down, and is able to show up in this really beautiful and I would say GENTLE way for his teammates.
At the press conference after the game, his teammate TJ McConnell said this: (VIDEO) (T.J. on Hali's character 🤝)
It’s that connection of “this is who he is...so that’s what he does” that really stands out to me. I think that’s the heart of what Paul is getting at as he’s talking to this church: this is who you ARE... so do those things! Let your gentleness be known, be grateful people, experience the peace of Christ in a really transforming way. And when you do this, it not only is going to tell people something about who YOU are, as one individual person, but it’s going to tell people something about who God is too.
And those actions we take...those are going to speak a lot louder than probably any words that could come out of our mouth. I find it really interesting, given Paul’s context, as someone who is living under Roman occupation, as someone who is in prison and is anticipating that he might even be executed in the future...I find it interesting, considering all of that, what he DOESN’T advise this group of people to do. What he DOESN’T encourage them to let pour out of themselves and into the world.
We never hear Paul say things like, let your:
o Assertiveness
o Strength
o Power
o Confidence
o Knowlege
o Toughness
...be known.
None of that. Even though, it might make a lot of sense that those are the things to use to fight back in their situation. Those are the tools that would help this group of people persevere and make it through this moment that they find themselves in. Because those things—those things would reflect the culture they were in! Logically, it makes sense.
But I’m not sure we can out-tough the world. Like I’m not sure that’s what God made us to do. Because the way of Jesus is so different and so surprising. And (SLIDE) the gentleness that Paul talks about has the power to create change in the moments we find ourselves in, but also to create long-lasting impact.
I started the message by talking about sort of the mess that trees can leave behind, but I want to end by reminding us of the nourishment they can leave as well. Our first couple of years as homeowners, we spent time bagging leaves and trying to keep our yard neat and tidy. But then we learned about mulching leaves, and how that actually was really great for the soil of the yard. We found out that mulching your leaves with a mower and leaving them on the grass infuses all these nutrients into the soil and can reduce the amount of fertilizer you use because the leaves do that work on their own.
And it was so funny to me because all my life I had watched people or been the people who raked leaves and it was like—wait! There’s a different way! A gentler way! What are we doing?!
Sometimes, we have to discover that in our own selves and our own responses. That there might be a different, gentler way that what we’ve always known. And the best news is that it’s never too late to discover that. We can always pivot, we can always change, we always choose gentleness even if we never knew it was an option before. We can always decide to leave something good with out lives and our relationships.
If you were here last week you received a leaf to think about the true colors you hope would show up in you when you’re in a stressful situation. We’ve got more in the basket in the Gathering Area and this week, I wonder if we might use this leaf to remind us of how we show up in the world and help guide us in praying over what we want to leave behind when we do. So as the band comes up, I want to lead us in a moment of prayer, as an example of how you might use this little fabric leaf as a guiding symbol of your prayers this week.
Let’s pray:
God, we are in a season where the leaves are falling all around us. Making their mark, making themselves known. It’s impossible to miss the changing colors and the growing ground cover around us.
Holy Spirit, would you make our lives like these leaves? Would you be working in us in such a way that it is impossible to miss your presence? That we would show up—to work, to school, to friendships, to family, to joy, to pain, to all of it—in a way that changes things for the better.
Would you empower us to leave each place we go better than before we arrived? Would you help us remember who we are...and then do those things?
Would you help us make our gentleness known to all, and in doing so, help the world look more like you would have it be?
Amen.