The Life We Cannot See (Margaret Fuller)

In this sermon from Grace Cathedral, Malcolm Clemens Young reflects on the mysterious patterns that shape our lives—patterns that we often cannot see while we are living them. Drawing on the story of Moses and the burning bush, Jesus’ difficult words about losing our lives in order to find them, the remarkable life of Margaret Fuller, and Denise Levertov’s poem “To Live in the Mercy of God,” this sermon asks what God might see in our lives that remains invisible to us. We are unfinished people. Our stories are still unfolding. What may feel like failure, loss, resistance, or random striving may yet become part of a larger pattern we cannot see. Rather than spending our lives trying desperately to preserve and control what we have, Jesus invites us into another way: giving ourselves away and trusting in the inexhaustible mercy of God. “God is making something out of our lives that we cannot yet see.” The Life We Cannot See (Margaret Fuller)A sermon by Malcolm Clemens Young Grace CathedralSan Francisco, California Sunday, August 30, 2026Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 17A) Scripture readings:Exodus 3:1–15Psalm 105:1–6, 23–26Romans 12:9–21Matthew 16:21–28