"The Peace of One Degree"
Matthew 3:1-12
Rev. Emily Labrecque, Westmoreland UCC
Dec. 7, 2025

Good Morning! It is so good to be with you this morning. I am so grateful to your dedicated and faithful search committee for their hard work over the last year. We have had some inspiring conversations and I have loved getting to know Westmoreland in the process. Thank you for being here today, for providing a quorum, and for coming in with a discerning heart.

As we prepare for the word preached, would you pray with me: Speak to us G-d for we are listening; speak to us G-d for we are waiting for your voice; speak to us G-d in our hearts and all around; tell us what can be, what can be.

When I was serving my last church, our creation care team decided to put together a challenge to the congregation. This was a progressive, justice-seeking congregation whose Creation Care team had been in the works for a while. The challenge was to encourage people to take one step further in their care for the earth. The ask was that they change something about their everyday lives that would tend to the healing of the earth. They provided examples: Running the dishwasher only when it’s full, only using reusable grocery bags, shopping second-hand for clothing, ditching paper towels in lieu of reusable cloths ... the list went on.

Now, something you should know about me is that I excel at planning and risk assessment. I’m really good at analyzing situations ... I compare options and pitfalls ... I make spreadsheets to compare; I consult with others to help me gather all the information. I don’t make decisions lightly.

So when the challenge was for us to consider one change we could make to help improve the planet, I went to TOWN. I made a list of all the things I could improve at home or personally. I weighed the options. I had two infants, which turns out, children are not very environmentally friendly, what with all the diapers, bottle cleaning, and packaged items. So that made my decision a little easier. I could check some things off my list. But then I had a spouse at the time who I had to consider. What would she be willing to undertake with me if we made a change at home? By the time my analysis was all said and done, not to mention the pressure of being “The Pastor” which to me felt like I needed to go big or go home, I had made up my mind.

I was going vegan.

Of all the options I could think of and the reality of the choices in front of me, this felt like the best, most impactful choice. A huge overhaul of my diet. Yes, that was it. A vegan diet uses fewer greenhouse gasses and farm land and has a much smaller carbon footprint compared to other diets.

That was my way to help heal the earth.

Flash forward two months later, as we’re checking in with each other about our creation care goals and practices, and I have to admit to all these church folks ... Turns out, I can’t be vegan. It wreaked havoc on my body.

What I didn’t see at first was that my instinct – like any of us facing new opportunities – was to rush toward the biggest, most sweeping fix.

In our text today, we hear the iconic story of John the Baptizer as he comes to the people in his camel’s hair clothing with a pouch of locusts at his side, and starts out with a bang: “Repent, all of you ... Change your lives ... G-d is coming ... and be warned, G-d will sort what is faithful from what is not!” John comes ready to light a fire under all the people in the wilderness of Judea. His proclamation of the good news doesn’t sound so good when he’s calling people a brood of vipers. But clearly something powerful is going on. This call to change hearts and minds is palpable. He’s getting people’s attention. Something is worth changing for. Something is coming. Someone is already here and also, not quite yet.

That’s the beautifully frustrating thing about Advent. It’s a season of waiting, a season of “already and not yet” moments. We already know the Christmas story, but it’s not yet here. We are already seeing transformation in our society but it's not yet complete. Your search committee has already called us together – we are here, but we are not yet here.

The story of John the Baptizer can make us feel like the options are “change or be burned with unquenchable fire.” One or the other. But the Already/Not Yet story of Advent gives us a different way to look at it.

We live in a world, heck, in a region that is fraught with challenges. Here at Westmoreland you have ministries that address these issues. Your middle east committee and olive oil ministry to confront issues in Israel/Palestine; your feeding ministries to care for the hungry; your investment in Lincoln-Westmoreland Housing and Wheaton Woods elementary to care for those who do not have enough; your longtime commitment to refugee resettlement and welcoming the stranger ... the list goes on because the needs go on.

It is really easy to feel like we have to do everything to address, well, everything. Especially when we are living in a time when people’s dignity, safety, and flourishing are under real pressure in so many ways. I mean, that’s what John said, right? Make a change or be burned with the unquenchable fire. But John speaks in extremes to get our attention. The world is coming at us via social media and the news to get our attention. But that doesn’t mean we have to change everything. Even just one small change can make a difference.

Have you heard of the 1-in-60 rule? This rule states that a 1 degree error in an airplane’s flight path will cause the plane to be 1 mile off course after traveling 60 miles. And the error grows proportionally with distance. What that means in practicality is that if a plane were 1 degree off course from DC to Los Angeles, it could end up 33 miles off course in the Pacific Ocean. Just from one degree of difference.

John shows us the urgency; but in our text from Isaiah, the prophet shows us the vision toward which that urgency points ... a vision that shows the future toward which our small faithful steps move us.

​​The wolf shall live with the lamb;
the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the lion will feed together,
and a little child shall lead them. 
...
They will not hurt
or destroy on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

That vision of peace is G-d’s work. We cannot force a wolf to live with a lamb, but we can do our part; we cannot make a calf and a lion feed together, but we can start putting the pieces together for it to happen; We cannot be led by little children until we empower the little children to lead and TRUST them; We can try not to hurt or destroy but we are human and so repentance is our greatest ally.

There is so much that we care about, so many people and communities we are worried about. And yet, our sphere of concern is much larger than our sphere of influence. There is only so much we can do with the resources and the knowledge we have. I can’t eat vegan all the time, but I can choose sustainably sourced options as often as I can, knowing that it makes a degree of difference. It’s the small, faithful steps that truly matter.

So while John may come at us with extremes to get our attention, it is our responsibility to discern what it is we are called to do, remembering that just one degree of change can make a difference. Just one small movement can push the needle.

So what’s something you can do to make change in your sphere of influence? What’s one small change that could invite more peace into the lives of your neighbors? To what are you, as an individual – or Westmoreland as a community – called next? All God asks is for us to take the next most faithful step. And every small step draws us nearer to the Peaceable Kin-dom.

Amen.