[Sermon] Spiritual Velocity

Pastor Hector Garfias-Toledo & Rachel Tobin

August 30, 2026 + Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Part of Summer 2026 "Conversations on the Road" sermon series.

https://youtu.be/hLFOxJkKtrg

In this Conversations on the Road dialog sermon, Pastor Hector Garfias-Toledo and Rachel Tobin sit with Paul's call to love inventively, even our enemies, from Romans 12 and Matthew 16. Rachel's story of an ordinary parking dispute becomes an unlikely parable for how quickly we can spot someone else's fault, and how much harder it is to own our own. Together they name the phrase that anchors the whole conversation: spiritual velocity, the Spirit's steady pull back toward the source of life whenever we drift. Peter's rebuke and eventual restoration remind us that God isn't asking for perfect theology or perfect virtue, just a willingness to keep turning back. It's a conversation about setting down the backpack of grudges and judgment we carry, and picking up the cross instead. Good news for anyone who's ever wanted to tow a neighbor's car.

Sermon Transcript

From YouTube's automatic captions, lightly edited by AI for readability.

HECTOR: Well, good morning.

RACHEL TOBIN: Morning.

HECTOR: It's good to be with you, Rachel. Thank you for being with us today. Grace to you and peace from God: Abba, Father, Mother, Creator, and the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Lord, our compass when we are confused, with all these colors. And we say, Amen.

CONGREGATION: Amen.

HECTOR: My siblings in Christ, you know that we have been practicing this, which I believe is part of our spiritual growth, to really spend some time to wrestle with the scripture, to see how the scripture speaks to us, in our "Conversations on the Road." For those of you who are not familiar, who are seeing this for the first time, it's a practice here at Trinity that we've been doing for about a year now, where we take time to really reflect on the conversation that was happening between those two disciples who were walking to Emmaus after the resurrection. They're talking among themselves, confused, trying to figure things out. Jesus joins them. Jesus stays with them, helps them understand things, and then they come to the realization of what the message was that Jesus was bringing.

So, Rachel and I — you and I have been having this conversation for what, two weeks, three weeks? I already lost track.

RACHEL: Yeah. A couple of weeks.

HECTOR: And today we have these two passages in the — the Gospel according to Romans. Oh my goodness, what am I saying? The Letter to the Romans, and the Gospel according to Matthew.

So, Rachel, I don't know, we've been having really good conversations, reflections. Some of your thoughts have really opened opportunities for me to look at things from a different perspective. I don't know if something else has come to your mind, but if you can maybe share a little bit of what caught your attention in these readings, maybe we can go from there and see how the Spirit guides us.

RACHEL: Yeah, well, thank you for having me. Pastor asked me to do this several months ago, and it's been on the docket, and then I found out a couple weeks ago that Dad was preaching, and I thought, gosh, this is an awful lot of Tobin for one month. So I can promise you it'll be a very different experience.

But we really liked both readings today; the one we're focusing on today just seemed like it was illustrated right here in front of us. These are really simple things that we all know, but they're not always easy to live by, and it seemed really relatable when we read the message.

So the part that stood out to me: initially he starts out saying, love everyone, and it made me think. He talks about loving people indiscriminately, just loving everybody, basically, and it made me think of that book, The Five Love Languages, that there are different ways to love people, and there are different ways to be loved.

But then, earlier in the week, on Tuesday, I had a dentist appointment, and my dentist is right across the street from the church. Last summer they watched the roof go on, and then this summer, I don't think they knew I had any association here, and they were like, "I wonder what's going on over there." They were having the resource fair going on in the parking lot during my appointment. So it gave me the opportunity to talk a little bit about what Trinity does: the Lynnwood Neighborhood Center, and so much of the ministry and the outreach and the service that Trinity provides. I got to talk to them a little bit about that, and it made me think, in my own life, the way that I know how to love people is to serve. Whether that means in my own family, or here at Trinity, or in the broader community. For me, service is love in action. It's God's grace in action, and it's gratitude made visible.

HECTOR: I remember, when we were talking about the Letter to the Romans, you mentioned something about the part where Paul says you need to be creative and inventive. Inventive — that was the word you used, and I've been thinking about that. Can you tell us a little bit what you were thinking when you used that word?

RACHEL: Well, when I think of inventive, I think creative. That's the part that made me think of The Five Love Languages, that there's a way that I maybe feel comfortable loving people, and then there might be a way that somebody else prefers to receive love. I watch my nephews a couple of days a week during the summer, and I certainly have to be inventive and creative when it comes to loving and entertaining and responding to them. What about you? You know the boys, you remember them being here.

HECTOR: What I was thinking with "inventive" was especially when it says, love your enemies. Sometimes we have this idea that love needs to look a very specific way. But I think love can mean something different, and we need to be aware of how, as you were saying, love is expressed, both from a person to us, or to an individual, or from an individual toward other people.

I shared with you a story: I was watching a video about food in Mexico, in the southeast part of Mexico, and Rachel and I kind of got into that tangent, but it was really good. In the video, if you remember, we were talking about this dish they call "stone soup." The stone soup is actually stones that make soup. What they do is take a bunch of stones and put them on the fire, making them very hot. Then they take five stones and put them in a bowl with all the ingredients. The stones are so hot that when they put them in, they cook the food.

That kind of soup is also connected to that region, to that ethnic group in the southeast part of Mexico, they call it "the men's soup." And I thought, here we go, the "macho man" Mexican, talking about how only men can do this, women can't touch it, right? But they went on: the Indigenous people of that region said the reason it's called the men's soup, the reason women don't touch it or have anything to do with it, is because the men go out to find the stones, carry the stones, heat the stones, and make the soup, to show gratitude to the women for all the work they do raising the children and taking care of things at home.

That made me think about how "inventive" is different in how we express that love, and I think St. Paul is challenging us to look at how that love needs to look in different contexts, especially when things may not be at their best for us.

RACHEL: Yeah, I love that. Well, what about the part with "don't hit back" and "love your enemies"? What do you think about that part?

HECTOR: Okay, Rachel, I was supposed to ask the question. I thought I'd get there first.

RACHEL: No, that's fine.

HECTOR: No, I totally agree. We love having these conversations, and to be asked about loving enemies, I think this is very hard for me. What we discussed and touched on a little bit is, first of all, how we define "enemy," how we define who is our enemy, because in defining who is our enemy, we also get an idea of how to love, or why to love.

And I remember you and I were also touching on something, going back to the Gospel, when we were talking about — Jesus says, well, Peter, talking about what I said here — Jesus says, "Take up your cross and follow me." I think that in order to pick up Jesus's cross, the first thing I need to do is put down what I'm already carrying in my hands.

Right? What is it that I carry in my hands sometimes, or in my backpack, or on my shoulders? All the prejudice, bias, judgment, and everything I use to see other people as my enemies. In order to be able to follow Jesus as the master, the one who guides us, I need to put down that backpack full of junk that I've accumulated, thinking that's what gives meaning to my life. So that's what was going through my head when we were talking about loving your enemies. Am I defining — am I deciding who is my enemy, or are they my true enemies?

RACHEL: Well, enemy seems like such a strong word. I don't have any enemies, but I'm a person who lives with people in everyday life. So in this context, maybe an enemy is just someone at work that I don't particularly like, or a family member that's difficult, or somebody I come into contact with day to day. Maybe I don't consider them my enemy, but maybe I hold a grudge, or a resentment toward them, or I'd prefer not to be around them.

I think it's, again, one of those things that's easier said than done. But when I just try to see people the way God sees people, and meet them where they're at (just like people have done for me in my past; I'm not always a walk in the park), giving people some grace, and letting go of expectations of people, because my experience has been, when I put an expectation on someone, it's just a future resentment. So, not having expectations of people: just meeting them where they're at, and just chilling out.

HECTOR: You just recently had an experience (I remember you shared it with me, and we probably don't have time to go through the whole story), but it's a good one, when your neighbor took your car last week.

RACHEL: Yeah, that was an unfortunate financial blow. I accidentally parked in my neighbor's spot (she parks right next to me), and it was my fault, but I think the frustrating part was, she's parked in my spot so many times over the years. I called her and said, "Cheryl, you parked in my spot. No big deal, just stay in yours, just let me know when you leave." So I have to believe she was just confused, and apparently didn't recognize the car that's been parked next to her for six years. I just have to let it go, because do I want to be happy, or do I want to be free, or do I want to be right? I could be like, "Next time she parks in my spot, I'm going to tow her car." Well, that's not going to make me feel better. That's not going to make me feel better. What would Jesus do? Probably wouldn't tow a car. He'd probably just park somewhere else.

HECTOR: That's right. That's right. But I remember this is the part that really caught my attention, and made me think since our last conversation, when you said this experience helped you reflect on how much it was her fault, her actions, that caused you wrong, and how much could have also been your actions that were wrong. In the — I don't know if "expectation" is the right word — but let's say, in the characteristics of a follower of Jesus, some of your actions or reactions could have been something wrong. But you said — we were talking about how the Spirit gives us the ability to start moving toward the source of life, the source that gives us direction (like we were talking about with our young worshippers), that puts us in the direction we call... I told you, from a book I read, and friends I had, pastors in the Chicago area, many years ago, they call it "spiritual velocity." Remember, you were talking about it. And spiritual velocity, even though it sounds so technical, is about the driving force of the Spirit that points us in the direction where Jesus wants us to go.

And where I'm going with this is: you said, because of that spiritual velocity, the Spirit working in your life, you were able to find the actions on your part that could be wrong much faster, much quicker. I believe you used that word. And we were talking about how I don't think we can be perfect, we can't follow all the descriptions Paul gives us: do this, do this, do this, be this, look like this, say this, all these things we may never be able to do. But what Jesus is looking for in us is that we again have that reorientation, that spiritual velocity that leads us into the ways he teaches us.

I mean, Peter, at this point, we have Peter reacting to Jesus, and Jesus needs to stop him from that action and redirect him the right way. So that example you gave us, with the car, I think it was something that really stuck in my head, and I've been thinking about how the Spirit helps us discern things that are wrong more quickly.

So maybe the question for us is: how do these two passages in scripture bring good news to you, and to the community? What is the good news you hear in this passage, for you personally, but also for the community?

RACHEL: Well, I think there's a lot of good news in it, but going off what you said, there's always hope. Every day is an opportunity to be better, to love freely, to make progress, because that spiritual velocity you were talking about, it's very easy to be a victim. It's very easy to feel like things are happening to you, and people are out to get you. And ultimately, for me to even be able (I suppose, in spiritual growth) to recognize very quickly, like, sure, do I wish she would have done things differently? Yeah. But ultimately, I was the one who was wrong. Ultimately, I did park in her spot. It was my fault. As soon as we can accept where we're responsible, and stop blaming others, I think it's easier to love people.

Every day, this reads to me almost like a motivational speech. At the end, when I read the end of the message, I wanted to be like, "Yes, coach!" I just felt: every day there's this energy, this opportunity to love deeply and love freely, and to remember that we don't have to live with enemies or resentments. Every day is an opportunity. God wants the best for me, but God wants the best from me, too, for you, and from you.

HECTOR: Thank you, Rachel.

RACHEL: Yeah.

HECTOR: Peter didn't become perfect after Jesus rebuked him; actually, Peter denied Jesus three days later. But the rebuke, the turning of Peter, planted a seed — which is what you're saying, I believe, Rachel — planted a seed in Peter. And we know that later, after the resurrection, Jesus asked him again, "Peter, do you love me?" And Peter said yes.

This is God's reckless, never-ending love. God doesn't demand perfect theology or perfect virtue. But we keep turning, we keep adjusting our spiritual velocity back toward the source of life. And when Jesus pivots in our lives like this, we become more aware, more attuned to the work of the Spirit in our lives, and in the life of creation, of the world.

So the church is not a fortress — it's not a bunker of perfect people, of safe people — but a mobile embassy of the coming reign of God, constantly coming to us, constantly having its direction corrected by the merciful love that overcomes evil. We do not bear the cross as a burden — we wear the cross as the compass that gives us direction, to live out who we are, and whose we are. That's how I see the good news comes to us.

Rachel, I really thank you for again bringing your witness to this congregation, for being open and vulnerable in this way, and how, living our faith, as Bill said earlier, means to struggle with these words and find a way for them to become part of us. Rachel, it is always a blessing to walk this journey with you. Thank you.

RACHEL: Likewise. Thank you, Pastor.

HECTOR: Thank you. Amen.