09/21/2026
One More Thing About Becoming Wholly Human
I was talking Sunday about the work of Hare and Woods and their idea of ‘the survival of the friendliest.’ Essentially, they conclude that “our greatest evolutionary advantage wasn't that we could do everything ourselves. It was that we could do things together.”
A human being is almost comically unimpressive as an individual.
- One person doesn't hunt a mammoth particularly well.
- One person doesn't build a house from scratch particularly well.
- One person doesn't raise a child particularly well.
- One person doesn't survive an illness, bury a loved one, harvest a crop, defend a village, invent a language or transmit accumulated knowledge across generations very well.
But humans together? That's where our species becomes extraordinary.
Again, I don’t want to get caught up in evolution vs. creation—because either way, God is one behind all that exists. But even if you just think of Hare and Woods’ idea of cooperative, communicative, tolerant human beings—the biblical story then takes that human truth and pushes it even further.
For instance, evolution says:
We survived because we learned to live together.
The gospel says:
We were made to live together—and in Christ, the circle gets bigger.
Evolution says:
Connection makes us stronger.
The church says:
Connection makes us more fully human.
Evolution says:
We need other people.
The gospel says:
You are not meant to carry your life alone.
In the end, grace doesn't make us independent. Grace makes us connected. We receive grace from God through other people, and then we become people through whom God's grace reaches other people.
Archived Posts
One More Thing About Becoming Wholly Human
I was talking Sunday about the work of Hare and Woods and their idea of ‘the survival of the friendliest.’ Essentially, they conclude that “our greatest evolutionary advantage wasn't that we could do everything ourselves. It was that we could do things together.”
Here’s a preview of our congregation’s Core Values
In the coming weeks we will be exploring the importance of presence, prayers, gifts, service, witness, and growth in grace. These are at the heart of what we commit to when we join a Wesleyan grace-led church like ours. But we choose to broaden them out and state them in a new way…
The Biblical prayer we don’t know what to do with
Psalm 137 is written by people who have experienced catastrophic loss.
They have been conquered...
Patience and Trust
Sunday, in my benediction (which traditional folks did not hear) I talked about the Marshmallow Test. The original results of that test with children was that those who could delay gratification did better in life than those who could not.
Gandhi and the Sugar
I wasn’t preaching Sunday, Reverend Jackie Chandler was. And she talked about the power of influence you get when you practice what you preach. This famous illustration came to mind. It fits Jackie’s points quite well. Enjoy!
Not Just for Parents
Our current sermon series is about How To Talk Parent, but it doesn’t require any of us to be parents to appreciate the bits of wisdom OUR parents shared with us growing up.
If Not Higher
Here’s a story I wanted to use when talking about ‘what you do when no one is looking’ yesterday. It’s a wonderful illustration of what Jesus was saying in Matthew 6:1-6—do what you do because of who you want to be, not so that others will take notice and praise you.