Preached on Sunday, February 4, 2018 at St. Aidan's Episcopal Church in San Francisco. The texts for this sermon were: Isaiah 40:21-31 , 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 , Mark 1:29-39 , and Psalm 147:1-12, 21c . God numbers them, calls all them by name...not one is missing. During the State of the Union speech this past week, President Trump highlighted several moving stories of extraordinary citizens. Like all State of the Union addresses, these stories were specifically chosen in order to convey certain values and a particular vision of what America can and should be. However much I disagree with those values and that vision, the stories, and the people they honored, were indeed admirable. One story in particular, the story of Ryan and Rebecca Holets, stuck out for me because it was not just a story about courage and compassion. It was also a story explicitly about God. When the young Albuquerque police officer encountered a pregnant woman on the street about to inject heroin,