God's Wondrous Gifts

March 9, 2025 Deuteronomy 26:1-11 God’s Wondrous Gifts Lent 1 Year C “Wonder” Lent One Prelude Welcome and Announcements Over the Threshold – Call to Worship Leader: Professor of Jewish Mysticism and beloved author, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, said this: “Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement… Get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.” Sing Verse 1 of Hymn 454 – Open My Eyes So that I may see This Lent, we are invited to consider that one of the most important gifts we can give is to be “purveyors of awe.” A purveyor is someone who spreads or promotes a particular idea or who deals in a particular good. Our quest in this season is to promote a state of awe about the lives we’ve been given and revel in the sheer miracles of life that surround us. This is a spiritual journey in the tradition of biblical poets and of mystics. In our modern day, researchers who study wellbeing know that when we cultivate elements that deepen our awe of life, our appreciation for others, our dedication to the good, we live longer, more purposeful and more joyful lives. In a time when we are exposed to the weight of the world by the messages around us, we will spend time on a journey of being exposed to the wonder of the world. Sing Verse 2 of Hymn 454 – Open My Eyes So that I May See The “wide eye of wonder” creates optimal conditions for awe. When we open our senses to the “extraordinariness of the everyday ordinary,” we have begun the journey to a deeper existence than what resides at surface-level. Wonder can be an antidote to anxiety and depression, pulling us instead toward the awe-filled knowledge that there is more than meets the eye, there are solutions in the midst of problems, possibilities where we sense only dead-ends. Let us rise in body and/or spirit and pray: Awe-inspiring God, we come together this day because we need to be reminded to see through the lens of wonder. Too often, we relegate what is always amazing to what is ever familiar, forgetting that there are mysteries and miracles in the ordinariness of our lives. Open us to perceive anew. Inspire us to receive our surroundings with awe. Forgive us when we focus only on what’s wrong rather than allowing the right and good to show us the way forward. Be with us on this journey as we seek again to marvel at your works. Sing Verse 3 if Hymn 454 – Open My Eyes That I May See [fade into silence… after a time, the leader speaks softly into the silence] Be still and know that God is God. Wonders never cease. God forgives us. Jesus embraces us. The Spirit enlivens us. We are whole. With awe, we accept this belovedness. And all God’s people say, “Amen.” Hymn God Will Take Care of You UMH 130 In Awe of Young People and others PRAYER OF CONFESSION Jesus, We confess that when we read about your temptations, we excuse ourselves. After all, we reason, we are not you. Of course, you passed the test, we say. You’re God, right? But we mere mortals have no expectation that we can withstand evil like you did. But we are reminded that you are not only Savior; you are example. You faced the temptation to prove yourself, to be spectacular, and to have consuming power. And you walked away, resisting. Forgive us when we have not resisted; when we have yielded to temptation. Forgive us for loving power and prestige more than God. Help us to choose a life rooted in God’s word and grace. Amen. Written by Valerie Bridgeman Davis, The Africana Worship Book, Year C (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2008), 146. The Peace The peace of Christ be with you. And also with you. I invite you to share the peace of Christ with those around you, [remembering to greet those online with a wave to the camera]. Contemporary Reading Our first reading is a contemporary one–an excerpt from Monica C. Parker, author of The Power of Wonder: “Gently peeking its head around mental corners or bombastically announcing its arrival into our trembling psyche, wonder changes our perspective, our bodies, our souls, and our lives. Art, music, religion, politics, science, nature, love, fear, birth, death; each of the myriad experiences that compress to form the bedrock of human life has a golden vein of wonder running through it.” Ancient Reading Deuteronomy 26:1-11 In Awe of the Word (Sermon) God’s Wondrous Gifts We have all heard the saying – Those who cannot remember the past are bound to repeat it. George Santayama is quoted as saying that in 1905. But we all know that warning has been given to mankind since the beginning of time. There are times in our life when we are good at remembering the lessons of the past, and there are times when are so anxious for the future that we are convinced that the hold is holding us down. Sometimes, it is hard for us to hold onto the lessons of the past, we have to let it go in order to build something new, especially here in America. Some of the ways that we remember history as a people is by getting together, through traditions, even through the collective holidays that we celebrate. For instance look at the holidays that are popular – everyone loves Christmas, Halloween is getting really popular, St Patrick’s Day is coming up and everyone is Irish for the day. And yet there are days like memorial day – which is intended to remember the heroes who got us where we are today – and yet it is celebrated as the first day of summer. Labor day in intended to remember that we got where we are by hard work – yet we think if it as the last day of summer. In a lot of ways, not all it seems that as we march on to the future – more and more we are letting go of the past. When we no longer remember our history, then it ceases to exist. In John Steinbeck''s great novel, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, a migrating "Okie" family is told not to waste vital packing space on photographs and other items of family history and memories. One of the family members responds, "How will we know it''s us without our past?" In the Book of Joshua (4:1-7), the heir to Moses instructs the men from each of the twelve tribes of Israel to gather a stone and to lay them in a special place, "as these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever." The people of Israel must never be disconnected from God''s story and actions. One of the ways of remembering the lessons of the past is through worship – singing together, listening together and praying together. One of the primary messages of the bible is to remember where you came from. I think that the old Hebrew society does a much better job than we do in remembering the past. The bible is full of stories where the people are instructed to remember – an incident. There are even told of ways to collectively celebrate the past. Even Jesus tells his disciples to do this in remembrance of me. The Old Testament lesson from Deuteronomy 26:1-11 is thought by the German Biblical scholar, G. Von Rad, to be one of the earliest known "creeds" of the people of Israel. It was recited as a creed to keep the people''s memory of the mighty acts of God in their history alive. History is a simple compound word meaning "His-Story." The divine story and the human response were never to be forgotten. The primary way this was done was by the ancient method of oral communication, called "The Story". It was passed on. It was communicated. It connected people to their past so they would never be orphans. Lent is a time for us to gather and to collectively remember. Most of the scriptures that are chosen for lent are scriptures that remind us of our relationship with God. The Hebrew Bible scriptures usually point out God’s promise to us. They show us how God started a relationship with us based on love and care. They are stories of who someone was in distress, They called out to God and god answered them. This year – we wont hear about God’s promise – we will hear about our response to God’s love. In our scripture for today – Moses is the speaker. This is a part of his final speech. His people have wandered for 40 years- and they are finally about to enter into the land of milk and honey. God has told Moses that he won’t be coming into the promiseland with them -so moses is giving them these final words of advice. He tells them to remember the past, remember where God has brought you through and respond by returning to god your best. Moses starts by saying, when you get to the land of milk and honey bring an offering to God. This would be the land of milk and honey because it would be the land where their livestock would settle and graze and have babies and produce lots of milk, and where they could plant, which would attract the bees and there would be lots of honey. This is the land where the people could settle and be satisfied. Moses wanted them to remember that everything that they received in that land was a gift from God. There is an often-told story about an immigrant shopkeeper who had a son who continuously complained to him. The son would say, "Dad, I do not understand how you run this store. You keep your accounts payable in a cigar box. Your accounts receivable are on a spindle. All your cash is in the register. You never know what your profits are." The old man would respond by saying, "When I arrived in this land all I owned were the pants and the shirt I was wearing. Now your sister is a doctor. Your brother is a teacher. You are an accountant. I have four grandchildren. Your mother and I own a nice house and two cars and this little store. Add it all up, subtract the pants and the shirt, and then you'll have your profit." All of us have a lot to be thankful for, all of us have been blessed by God. Moses direction to us: give your first fruits to God, be grateful, in everything remember where you came from, take account of your gifts from God, the best way to see God, is to look back and remember. For me, every morning I try to get up and journal – to write about whatever is on my mind. Through that process, I set my intention for the day, set goals for the day, reflect on important things to do. Recently I also started identifying ways that I can see that God is working in my life – where are the places that I saw the spirit working. I soon realized that sometimes to only way to see how God is working clearly is to reflect on the past. My list of places and times that I saw God – is always about the day before. When we are living in the moment, it is hard to see how god is working. The only way to identify those moments is to sit and reflect and remember. I think that lectionary writers chose this scripture is to remind us to first bring our best to God, to be grateful, but most importantly to remember. Lent is that time to remember and to respond. We spend a lot of the Christian year in ordinary time – actually about six months. We are told to go out into the world and to be the hand, ear, feet and hands of God. We are supposed to be God’s love in action. The work is important, but can be very busy. The other half of the year, we are in festival time, called into the church to celebrate Christ. We are called to listen, learn, reacclimate and to intentionally listen for God. So far we have been through advent, Christmas, epiphany and now it is time for lent. We are called to slow down. And really take account of God in your life. To listen to what God is saying to you, to find out who Christ is for you, and to become a witness to how God is working in the world, in our country, in our lives. It is time to rethink the covenant – what did God promise to me – and how is god fulfilling that promise in my life. God is all around us – sometimes we forget to look. Sometimes we are so focused on looking for God – we lose sight at what we are looking at. When we get used to looking for God, we can see the spirit clearly. My list of places I experienced God gets longer and more detailed everyday. Have you noticed that when you start to recognize the spirit of God in your life, you can’t help but to say wow! God’s presence is always amazing. God’s ways are always so much better than ours, God works in ways that are impossible to us, God does things that we would never have thought of, God’s blessings are beyond what we could ask for. So our Lenten task is to look for the awe and wonder of God. God wants to do something for us! Isn't that wonderful news? The story goes that Arnold Palmer was asked by an oil sheik to come and lay out and supervise the building of a golf course in Kuwait. Palmer went, built a magnificent course, and was paid extremely well for it. As he prepared to leave and return home, the sheik came to him and asked him what he could give him as a gift. "Nothing," Palmer said, "you've already paid me a fortune and I don't need anything at all." But the sheik persisted, "Isn't there anything I could give you? Just tell me, anything at all?" Finally, Arnold said rather nonchalantly, "O well, give me a golf club," and he thought nothing more of the incident. He got on a plane, flew home, and was met at the airport by his secretary, whose opening question was, "Mr. Palmer, what in the world are you going to do with the Westshore Hills Country Club?" We simply have no idea of how much God wants to help us, bless us, and redeem us. Someone said that when we give up things for lent, usually the things that we give up have nothing to do with God or God’s goals. Usually giving up something is about improving ourselves, not our relationship with God. That is not a bad thing. But how about this lent – we spend time looking for God, and remember when we see God to say wow! Sometimes life gets in the way, and it can be hard for us to see God. Lent is our time to step away, remember how god has worked in our life, and respond with gratitude. Whatever you do, wherever you go – don’t forget God. Lets pray…..Amen. Hymn Jesus Walked this Lonesome Valley TFWS 2112 Approaching an Awesome God [Prayers] Holy and Living God, we approach this time of prayer with wonder at your world. With all our senses, we open to you. Give us lenses of awe with which to perceive and love others as you perceive and love us. We imagine in our mind’s eye now the people in our lives, the people of our communities, and the people of our world. Each of them is beloved by you, and this alone creates awe in us. We especially lift up those who need our prayers in this moment… [continue with prayers of thanksgiving and care for people]. For all these people and those we name in our hearts, Hear our prayer, Awesome God. Give us lenses of awe with which to perceive and love your creation as you perceive and love it. Each blossom, each sunrise, each unfurling fern reminds us that new life is possible. You are making all things new all around us. Help us to care for the nature around us. This week, we name… [continue with prayers about specific entities of nature in your area]. For all these places, creatures, and lifeforms, and those we name in our hearts, Hear our prayer, Awesome God. Give us lenses of awe with which to perceive and love life as you perceive and love the life you have given us. Open us to the wonders around us–the art-fullness of each encounter, each moment, as a possibility for amazement waiting to happen. Slow us down in this season of Lent so that we might savor anew the gift of life. We pause in this silence, setting intentions of awe for the week ahead. [pause in silence] For all these intentions, Hear our prayer, Awesome God. Let us pray the prayer Jesus taught us… [Lord’s Prayer]. Lord’s Prayer Responding with Awe – Stewardship Moment Offering/Offertory [as is your custom] Doxology [Tune: Old 100th] Praise God, Creator of us all, Praise Christ, by whom we hear our call, Praise Spirit, that which sets us free, Our awe is yours, the One-in-Three. Offertory Prayer Faithful God, who journeys with us through the wilderness of our lives, as we offer these gifts, we remember your sustaining presence. In this period of spiritual renewal, strengthen us to resist temptation and guide us to live in community with love and grace. May these offerings be signs of hope and acts of compassion that reflect the love you have shown us in Christ. Empower us to rise together, supporting one another on this journey of faith and transformation. In the name of Jesus, our Redeemer, we pray. Amen. (United Methodist Board of Discipleship) Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook Benedictions are blessings. And blessings are all around us. So for this season, instead of bowing your head as I offer a Benediction blessing, I invite you to open your palms in a position of receiving, and hold your head high, imagining a radiant stream of light from above shining upon you and everything else around you. And this week when you need to be reminded of the wonder-filled world, take this stance again. Open your palms to receive, look around to perceive, and notice one small thing that can light up your heart for a moment. And now may you go forth remembering Rabbi Heschel’s words: “Get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.” Be a purveyor of awe this week. Be amazed as you gaze with the lens of wonder at the world around you, as you wonder with hope about what will unfold, as you invite wonder to live and breathe new life in you. Be a “purveyor of awe,” curating a life of spiritual depth that inspires others to join you on the journey. May the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of Awe, the Holy One-in-Three, be with you now and throughout these days, Amen. Community Time (Joys and Concerns) We Go Forth with Awe [Benediction] Beloved, you—you—who live in the shelter of the Most High and abide in the shadow of the Almighty —will find in God your refuge and fortress. Go now, in the blessing of the Triune God who shelters you and rescues you, that we all might be a shelter and a rescue for and with one another. Amen. Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, August 2024. Postlude Worship Notes Contemporary reading excerpted from the following source: Parker, M. C. (2023). The power of wonder: The extraordinary emotion that will change the way you live, learn, and lead. Penguin Random House. Additional Illustrations A friend once told me of an experience he had as a child. When he was eight years old he went with his family to visit an uncle who lived on a farm. He always looked forward to these visits because his uncle had horses that he let the children ride. When it was his turn to go for a ride, he rode the horse until he was out of view of the house. Then he slipped to the ground. He wanted to try mounting the horse as he had seen cowboys on television do it. So he got behind the horse and took a running start toward the horse. He jumped as high as he could but his feet barely left the ground. He landed on his feet directly behind the horse. He looked up at the horse's tail and, as he stood there, he wondered how he would ever get back up on such a large horse. The horse calmly turned its neck to look at him. Then it reared and kicked him with its hind legs. This time when he landed it was on the other side of a ditch beside the road. He got up and raced home crying. When he got to the house, he told his uncle the horse had kicked him. He failed to mention that he had been attempting a running rear-mount of the horse. His uncle insisted that that horse had not kicked him. He was absolutely sure the old mare was too gentle to kick anyone. He refused to believe that his gentle old mare would kick someone. With that the boy took off his shirt. He showed his uncle his chest, which displayed two bright red circles that looked conspicuously like the hoof prints of a horse. To a great extent, we choose what we believe, don't we? We also choose the outlook and the perspective that governs our lives. For Christians that outlook should reflect a sense of gratitude for what God has done in our lives. We can choose to ignore the evidence of God's goodness if we want. Yet, if we look through the eyes of faith, we will see God's faithfulness and we will be compelled to respond in gratitude. Today's scripture passage raises three important questions that can guide us as we see the perspective God wants for us. What Is Your Inheritance From God? The fathers of modern psychology, Freud, Adler, and Jung, are recognized students of human nature. Their combined message to us is that to be truly human we need three things - significance, security, and love. For Israel, and for us, the ultimate source of our significance and security is to be realized in the covenant of God's love for us. Giving to God a portion of the first fruits is a lovely way of honoring and thanking him. Imagine the five-year-old daughter who, upon receiving from her parents a gift of new crayons or markers for coloring, makes her first project an "I love you" note and picture for her mommy and daddy. This is the quality of the first fruits offering: let the first thing I do with God's gift to me be a way of saying "thank you" and "I love you" to him. Todd Outcalt, in his book, The Best Things in Life Are Free, tells about a short story authored by Charles Dickens, titled, "Tale of a Chemist." It is a futuristic tale in which a famous chemist is tortured by the painful memories of his past. He tries desperately to shake these memories from his mind, for they haunt him constantly, plaguing his days and tormenting his nights. But his efforts are to no avail. Eventually he decides that he will undergo a series of experimental shock treatments, which will obliterate his memory and give him a new lease on life. This he does, and the shock treatments are a complete success. However, the chemist soon discovers that the obliteration of his memory has had some dire consequences. Because his entire memory has been erased, he has no past. He cannot remember where he was born, who his parents were, who his friends are or where he has come from. He is lost without the simple recollections of familiar faces and names. Not only are the painful memories gone, but also the memories that compose his identity as a human being. At the end of the story, the chemist cries out for his past--painful memories and all. He wants what he has lost, for without his memories he is nothing. Wilting inside, he cries out again and again, "Keep my memory green. Keep my memory green." (3) What a powerful story. We do cherish our memories, don't we? Memories of our childhood, memories of those we once loved who are now with God, memories of our wedding day, the birth of our children, our baptism or confirmation, memories of vacations, and significant victories at work, and all kinds of precious events. Israel retained their identity as a people because they remembered their history as a people. There are some things that need to be remembered. Steve Reeves tells about a woman who underwent a very delicate form of brain surgery. When the doctors removed a tumor they were concerned that the slightest mistake could cause her to lose either her memory or her eyesight. So they asked the woman to choose which side of the brain tissue they'd enter with their scalpels. In other words, if she had to lose one of those senses, which would she prefer to lose? She wisely said, "Let me think about it overnight, and I'll tell you tomorrow which is more important to me." The next day she said, "If I had to lose either my memory or my eyesight, I would prefer to lose my memory." When asked how she arrived at this decision, she calmly replied, "I'd rather see where I'm going than remember where I've been." (7) Our biblical, Christian faith is basically a response to a story, to the story of what God has done in human history. It is not as if Christians through the ages have looked at the natural world and decided that there must be a God who created it. They have not thought up a picture of God and designed worship to go with the picture. Nor have they adjusted to their changing cultural and social situations simply by drawing up their own rules for the ethics and morals by which we should live. There are some forms of faith in our day that are such products of human imagination and construction. But that is not true of the biblical faith of the Christian Church. No. Our faith is a response to a history of God's words and deeds, a history that is now preserved and passed on to us in the scripture. So it is that when we confess our faith in the Apostles' Creed, for example, we tell the story on which that faith is based, and the story is the history of what God has done: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth ... I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord, who was born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. The third day he rose again from the dead...." On that basis, then, we respond and say, "I believe." God's acts always come first. We did not construct our faith out of our own thoughts and desires. Rather, God did particular deeds and said particular words, and we say, "Yes, I believe God did those things and spoke those words," and then we work out our response of faith in accord with what the deeds and words have revealed to us about God. Thus, in our Epistle lesson from Romans 10:8b-13, Paul writes that whoever believes and confesses that God raised Jesus from the dead and made him Lord, will be saved. Faith and salvation rest on God's prior act in Jesus Christ. Dr. Craddock concluded Dr. Momaday''s story by saying, "Anyone who cannot remember further back than his or her own birth is an orphan." (1) Remembering is not intended to paralyze us, but to free us. Dr. William Hinson, tells the story of his brother-in-law who took piano lessons as a youngster, practicing on a Wurlitzer. He always began playing the pieces he had memorized by recalling that middle C was under the "W" imprinted on his piano at home. On the big day of his recital, he walked confidently on stage, yet to his consternation, he was seated before a Yamaha. He hadn''t the slightest notion as to the location of middle C. After a long, terrified silence, the piano teacher realized the problem, walked across the stage, and pointed to middle C. Hinson''s brother-in-law then proceeded to play the oft-rehearsed recital selection. (2) As we reflect on this Memorial Day weekend, what is the "Middle C" that is missing from our national heritage. Is it: Character, Compassion, Commitment, Common Cause, or Charity? What is the "Middle C" missing in the Christian Church? It is the "Centrality of Christ." Father Henri Nouwen wrote, "The strategy of the principalities and powers is to disconnect us, to cut us off from the memory of God." Do you remember that in George Orwell''s provocative book, 1984, the first thing to be sacrificed for the new world order and system is the history of the past? Only when you can convince a people they are strangers in an alien land can you then re-educate them, because they have been stripped of the richness of past experiences. Without our past, we can never really live or die, we simply exist. Elie Wiesel wrote, "Memory is an exalted way of seeing one''s life in its totality, it is not a morbid thing." There is a great power in memory. Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a powerful story that says it well. A young man meets and falls in love with a beautiful young lady. He asks her to marry him and she agrees. She is from outside the solar system. She asks her husband if she can go home one more time before they set up their home. When she comes back, she has with her a rather large box, and she says, "We''ll get married and I''ll live here, but this box must remain in our home and you must never look in it." He says, "That''s okay. No problem there." The days went by, and you know what happened. One day she was away from the house for a long period of time and he was there by himself. That box kept saying, "Come and look, come and look." He went over to the box and got the nerve to open it up. He felt he had to know what was in it. When he opened it up, it was empty. That made him angry. When she came in, he said to her, "You told me not to look into the box. The box seemed to be special to you. I made a special place in our home for it. Then when I opened the top and looked in, it was absolutely empty. How could you pull a fraud like this on me?" Tears were coming down her cheeks. She said, "You''ve missed the whole point. You remember when I went back to my planet and came with the box? I went to get this special box and I filled it with all the aromas of the crops and the homes, the aromas of the people of the streets--all of them are in this box. And when I get terribly homesick, I go and breathe deeply of the memories that are in that box. Now you have called what is very special to me profane." Memory is a powerful perfume from the past in which we continue our connection to God''s saving acts in history. I pray we will not let others or ourselves forget what God has done, is doing, and wants to do through us. Let us not take what is special, sacred and holy and call it profane. The woodcutter was filled with fear and began to panic. He wanted to escape, but the house was locked up tightly; there was no way out. As he slumped on the floor, the woodcutter thought of his wife and family. He had been a fortunate man and now his life was to end. After a long time, the woodcutter looked at the clock on the wall; it read five minutes to midnight. The snake stood ready to strike, but in the distance could be heard a faint sound; the church bell was ringing. It rang and rang -- nine, ten, eleven, twelve times. With the last peal of the bell, the house and the snake disappeared. With no place to go, the woodcutter, grateful for his reprieve from death, curled up in a soft place and went to sleep. The next morning he made his way toward the old church. When he arrived, he found the stairs to the belfry and climbed to the top. As he peered at the old bell, he noticed small spots of blood. On the floor of the bell tower he found many feathers and then the bodies of two white doves. They had thrown their tiny bodies at the bell twelve times in order to free the woodcutter, repaying him for their rescue by his hand so many years earlier. The woodcutter quickly picked up the doves. Their bodies were bruised and broken, but they were alive. He ripped his shirt and wrapped the small creatures tenderly. He stayed with the doves, feeding and nursing them until they were once again healthy. Then one morning he opened the church door and again set the birds free. The woodcutter then returned to his wife and children and all lived happily ever after.1 The story of the woodcutter and the doves demonstrates the need for gratitude in our lives. The doves were so grateful that they had been freed that they were willing to die in order to assist the woodcutter, who, in turn, was grateful for their totally unselfish action and nursed them back to health. This story, our lesson from Deuteronomy, and the national holiday we celebrate suggest that we must always demonstrate gratitude in our lives, to one another and most especially to God. On the battlefield a chaplain encountered a wounded soldier lying in pain in a foxhole. "Would you like me to read to you from this good book, the Bible?" The man could only respond, "I'm so thirsty." The chaplain dutifully ran off, found a canteen, and poured the soldier a drink of water. The wounded man was shifting around as if he were very uncomfortable. Thus, the chaplain found a bedroll and placed it under the man's head as a pillow. The soldier then began to shiver. Without thinking the chaplain stripped off his own field jacket and laid it over the wounded man. The soldier then looked the chaplain in the eye and said, "Now if there is anything in that book of yours that will allow a man to do more for another than you have already done, then please read it, because I would like to hear it." Recently, a college basketball player got hurt in a game. It was her third or fourth concussion in recent play. Officials and medical personnel were alarmed when they discovered that the young woman had a selective amnesia as a result of the injury. She knew her name and her family, but she could not recall ever playing basketball. They took her back home and showed her the high school she played for, and she laughed. She didn't believe them when they insisted she played basketball. She forgot who she was, at least in terms of her sport. Forgetting who we are is a tragic thing. It is so tragic that we spend a great deal of energy in reminding ourselves who we are. The patriotic celebrations we plan for national holidays are partly an attempt to remind us of our democratic heritage. The family reunions that are so prevalent in our communities are an attempt to keep our ethnic and family identities alive. Even the political elections that take place is this country are an attempt to sort out and reinforce who we are as a people. We always want to remember who we are. Remembering who we are is what worship is all about for the Christian community. One of the main purposes of worship is to clearly identify, clarify, and recall who we are -- people created, redeemed, and sustained by a loving God. This story is about three very religious people who lived in a rural community. It is a story about three people who chose to attend the annual thanksgiving worship service. Their names are Liz, Sam and Joe. They live in the country and each of them is involved in farming. However, each of them has his own view of what it means to be "thankful" for the harvest that is now out of the field and in the barns. Liz does not actually do farm work herself. She is married to a farmer. Her husband farms a very large plot of land. This past year they did very well. It was a bumper crop for them. Liz and her husband are very happy about it. As faithful worshippers, they will tithe a full ten percent of everything that they received from the harvest. Considering the size of this year's crop, giving away ten percent means giving away a lot, but they do not mind. Even after giving so much in their offering, they will still have their remaining nine-tenths. It is enough to make them quite wealthy and, for that, they are thankful. Sam also farms. He farms a much smaller area than Liz's husband does. For whatever reason, Sam's crop was not too good this year. Sam's barn is pretty small to begin with, but, even so, his harvest did not come close to filling it. Nonetheless, Sam is also faithful in giving his tithe every year. Discouraged as he is by how little he received from the land, he too plans to attend the special worship service. He will offer his tithe and give thanks for what crops he does have. Finally there is Joe. Joe is a very young farmer. Some of his friends tease him about being more of a "nature lover" than a farmer. He sometimes goes out to his field and just looks at the earth. He stands in awe as he watches the miracle of planted seeds sprouting from the ground. As Joe brings his tithe to the special worship service, he does so conscious of the magical wonder that is bound up in the process of planting and harvesting. Each of the three people approaches the worship service with a little different view of thankfulness. Liz is "happy thankful." Sam is "discouraged thankful." Joe is "awe-struck thankful." Yet, even though their viewpoints vary somewhat from each other, they each attend the thanksgiving worship service with the same thing in mind. Each goes to worship expecting it to be a time to offer God their thanks and their tithe. However, when they actually get to the worship, they discover that, this year, there's more going on -- much more. The worship turns out not to be only a time for them to give their offering and speak a prayer of thanks. This year's worship now includes: "the creed" -- and that changes everything. Attending this thanksgiving worship, Liz, Sam and Joe each discover that there is far more going on than they had realized. The end. That's the story. What did you think? Was it as bad as I led you to expect, or did it actually seem like a fairly nice story to you? I would guess that for many people it probably sounded simply like a story about some pretty nice, fairly generous, "church-going" people. If you had a hard time figuring out what was so non-Christian and so un-American about it, allow me to let you in on the secret. You see, the "creed" that was said in the worship service was not the Apostles' Creed. Nor was it the Nicene Creed or the Athanasian Creed or any other Christian creed. In fact, Liz, Sam and Joe were not attending a Christian worship service at all. They were attending a harvest time, thanksgiving worship service all right, but it had nothing to do with our American Thanksgiving. The three worshippers in the story were not Americans. None of them lived anywhere near America. Neither did they worship in a time that was anywhere near the 20th century. Although it may have sounded like it was a story about an American Thanksgiving worship service, much like the service we're having right now, it was actually a story about three Hebrew people attending the "feast of the first fruits" in Jerusalem, centuries before the birth of Christ. Such an event could not possibly be Christian and it certainly was not an American tradition. Nevertheless, the 26th chapter of Deuteronomy, the chapter which prescribes the worship for this ancient Hebrew festival, is the appointed Old Testament lesson which is to be read as we gather for our Thanksgiving Day worship. What, we might ask, could this text possibly have to say to our situation? The "feast of first fruits," described by our Deuteronomy text, is also called by other names in scripture. It is sometimes called "the feast of harvest," and sometimes "the feast of weeks." The date of the festival was set by counting seven weeks from the time the sickle was put to the standing grain (Deuteronomy 16:9). Since it was celebrated on the 50th day after the beginning of the harvest, it was later given the name "Pentecost," since the Greek word pentacosta means 50. It is the same harvest festival that was taking place when the Holy Spirit came to the disciples and others in the second chapter of the book of Acts. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. The story with which I began this sermon is a story about people attending this "feast of the first fruits." Liz, Sam and Joe are just nicknames I gave to worshippers who would probably have gone by the longer Hebrew names of Elizabeth, Samuel and Joseph. The particular characters, along with their scenarios, are just something I made up for the story, but the worship service I described them attending was not "made up." We heard Martin Luther say this earlier. He claimed that the offering up of the first fruits to which our First Lesson from Deuteronomy refers (v. 2a) are the good things of love given to us by grace. The first fruits you give to God in thanksgiving are the service you and I render to God and our neighbors.4 You can understand now why Christians do not just give ten percent to God. Essentially when we are living the Christian life we are giving God everything. How about providing for myself and my family? If you ask that question, you have not gotten the point. Christians, every good thing that you and I have belongs to God. He has given them to you to use responsibly and to enjoy. But since they are not yours give them all back to God by thanking him for them and by sharing all these goods with those in need. A few years ago, Susan and Harvey Duke went through a rough period that taught them to trust in God's providence. Harvey couldn't find work, and the family finances were dwindling quickly. One morning, Susan opened the pantry to find bags of potatoes and onions--and absolutely nothing else. And, to complicate matters, as she prayed over the family's financial situation, Susan felt God urging her to give away what they did have. What a dilemma. Then Harvey came home. And he asked Susan to take some food to the new family moving in next door. What was he doing? Didn't he realize how dire their situation was? In spite of her misgivings, Susan loaded a picnic basket with potatoes and onions and delivered it to their new neighbors. A short time later, Susan answered the door to find the neighbor's son on their front steps. He was carrying bags of groceries. His family's refrigerator hadn't been installed yet. They needed to get rid of the food they had brought from their old house. Would she accept a couple of bags of groceries? Of course, she would--with great joy. Susan and Harvey could only interpret the neighbor's kindness like this: God had rewarded their giving by giving back to them abundantly. (3) It was Christmas Eve, and Dr. Leandra Lynch was stuck working the night shift in the emergency room. As the newest resident at the hospital, she had the last choice of shifts, so she got the ones nobody else wanted. Late that evening, an elderly man was admitted with chest pains. Dr. Lynch treated him for heart attack symptoms. She checked on him throughout the night. Eventually, he was stable enough to go home later. The next year, Dr. Lynch was stuck once more working the night shift on Christmas Eve. At 9 p m., an elderly couple entered the emergency ward and introduced themselves to Dr. Lynch. The gentleman, Mr. Lee, wanted to thank her for saving his life the previous Christmas Eve. The next Christmas Eve at 9 p m., the Lees returned with another gift and a hug for Dr. Lynch. They just wanted to express their gratitude. And the next Christmas Eve they did the same. And the next. For 13 years, the Lees returned to the emergency ward on Christmas Eve to thank Dr. Lynch. And for the next 13 years, Dr. Lynch looked forward to working on Christmas Eve just for their visits. After Mr. Lee's death, Dr. Lynch and her family started a new tradition. Every year at 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve, they ring a small crystal bell--a gift from Mr. Lee--and toast the memory of a man who never forgot to be grateful. (6) To remember is to be thankful. And to be thankful is to taste joy twice. I challenge you this Thanksgiving to tell the story of this past year of your life--and as you tell it, to focus on the positive. Focus on how God has guided you and provided for you. Remember what God brought you through this past year. Remember God's promise that He has a "future and a hope" for you. And leave here rejoicing "in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and to your household." Even more important, the memories that we have show us the direction in which we need to be headed as we move into the future. Those are the memories of: • what God has done for us in creating us and giving us a job to do. • what Jesus did for us by entering into human history. • what Jesus did by taking our sins upon himself to the cross. • our religious tradition as handed down from the Reformers. • parents and friends who nurtured us in the faith. If we ever forget who we are, where we have come from, why we do what we do, and what we need to do as we travel the road, the danger is that we will flounder. The challenge on this day of Thanksgiving is a simple one ...remember! Lent is known as a season of giving up, but it is far more important to simply give, and to resist the temptation to give in. Give to the work of the church. Give to others. Give up because you want to be able to give more, and because you refuse to give in to our culture of wealth, power, acquisitiveness, envy, and greed. You bear great names — the names of Abraham and Jesus, and the God who is, and the promise of what is to come. These names make life worth living, and other lives worth saving. Amen. CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Sermons for Sundays in Lent and Easter: The City of Justice, by Frank Ramirez f I said to you that next year God will bless you with a million dollars, but that in turn he would require you to bring 10% to the altar, you would cheerfully sign up, would you not? Can you imagine how readily most of the world's people would nod in assent if I said that next year THEY will make what YOU make, but 10% must be returned to the Lord? They would see that as a tremendous bargain. They would indeed be cheerful givers. One church had on its bulletin board this sign: "The Lord loveth a cheerful giver. He also accepteth from a grouch." If we properly understood why we give, we would be cheerful givers. We would understand what a privilege it is to give. And we would anticipate the day when we will be able to give even more. Some years ago, Dr. Edson, the rector of St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Lowell, Massachusetts, used to walk through the town, greeting everyone with a cheerful "Good morning, and how are you today?" One morning, he was surprised to hear someone respond, "I'm very well, thank God!" Edson brightened and replied, "I am so delighted to hear you thank God for it! For 20 years I have heard everyone in Lowell thanking me. They always say, 'I am very well, thank you, Dr. Edson. "It's nice to hear someone thanking God." Do you have your health? Do you have people who love you? Do you have food to eat and a warm place to sleep on a cold winter night? Do you know that Jesus Christ died for your sins? We have much to be thankful for. We give, first of all in response to all that God has done for us. Some years ago, Dr. Edson, the rector of St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Lowell, Massachusetts, used to walk through the town, greeting everyone with a cheerful "Good morning, and how are you today?" One morning, he was surprised to hear someone respond, "I'm very well, thank God!" Edson brightened and replied, "I am so delighted to hear you thank God for it! For 20 years I have heard everyone in Lowell thanking me. They always say, 'I am very well, thank you, Dr. Edson. "It's nice to hear someone thanking God." Do you have your health? Do you have people who love you? Do you have food to eat and a warm place to sleep on a cold winter night? Do you know that Jesus Christ died for your sins? We have much to be thankful for. We give, first of all in response to all that God has done for us. Recently, I sat by the bedside of a friend who had the previous day been in a near-fatal motorcycle accident. When he looked up and saw me coming into the room he said, "Oh, oh, I must be really bad off if they have called you." He looked over to his wife and he said, "Who told you I was here anyway?" During the course of the next several hours he had several visitors who brought flowers, gifts, cards, and unsolicited words of wisdom about staying off motorcycles. Since he was a pastor, I could tell he was quite uncomfortable with his new role as a patient. He continued to show pastoral presence as his members and staff came to visit with the one from whom they had been accustomed to receiving comfort and consolation. Finally in a moment when we were alone, he turned to me and said, "Okay, you haven't said much. Let me have it. I know I've got a lecture coming." I said, "Oh no, not a lecture, just a lesson." We began to pray prayers of adoration, thanksgiving and praise. We cried out to God and thanked him for his continued protection and care. You see, although my friend had slid 575 feet on the pavement and grass, when he came to a stop within seconds a passing paramedic stood by his side. Several seconds later a passing physician came to his aid. Our prayers took us back over the 13 years of our friendship and our memories of God's faithfulness in many circumstances in our lives began to pour out of us. The Holy Spirit reminded us of God's promise to protect us and build a wall of protection around our ministries. While some of the visitors had asked, "What is God trying to teach you through this experience?" he and I knew that it was not punishment but covenant that sent the angels to deliver in time of trouble. O give thanks to the Lord! I sat amazed at how this man, bandaged from head to toe, raised his arms and began praising God in the midst of his injuries. We sat a while longer and recalled the stories of faith that we had lived through and then we again thanked God for being so good to us -- all the time! The season of Lent is a time to reflect on our journeys of faith. Sometimes those journeys take difficult paths, but we can know through faith that God never leaves us alone. Perhaps these words ask it best: What shall I render unto God for all his blessings, what shall I do? During the beginning of the Lenten season that is a question that we can all ask. What shall I render unto God? Our faith journeys are best understood in light of our covenants, convictions and hopes. What are we willing to put first in our offerings to God? CSS Publishing Company, TURNING OBSTACLES INTO O, by Rodney Thomas Smothe Deuteronomy says that the Lord bought us out of the wilderness into the promiseland. I like this scripture because it addresses another important lesson about lent – when you get to the promisland – never lose sight that it was the Lord that bought you through. Another lesson for lent – for all of our lives – is to remember to give our best to God – because God always gives us his best. STORY: Did you know that a person with six kids is more satisfied than a person with six million dollars? What do you think? The reason for this is that the man with six million dollars wants more. At this Lenten season, what do you like about your present giving patterns? What do you dislike? What would you like to change? Deuteronomy reminds us about the first fruits – to give the first of what we have. We don’t live on farms and grow fruits and vegetables. We go to work and earn money. Which is why the conversation is about tithing today and not first fruits. But the challenge is to look at all of our lives, all of what God has given and all of what we can give back to God. Lent is a time to look at what part of our lives are we giving to God. how are we intentionally being faithful, truthful and loyal. 2. To Deny Ourselves: Why don’t we give God what’s left of our paycheck, or of our time, of our efforts? Many people will say, “if I don’t have anything else to do Sunday, I’ll be at church. If I don’t have too many bills to pay, I’ll give a little bit.” If you operate on that principle, you will never give of your time or money. You’ll always be too busy or too broke to do anything. STORY: A Japanese artist painted a picture on a fairly large canvas. Down in one corner was a tree, and on the limbs of the tree were some birds, but all the rest of the canvas was bare. When he was asked if he was not going to paint something more to fill the rest of the canvas, he said, “Oh, no, I have to leave room for the birds to fly.” We often fill our lives so full of obligations that there is not room for the birds to fly and there is no room for God besides. This recitation helped them to remember what God had done for them. They told their story. During the Lenten Season what is the history of your relationship with God? What is your story? We need to share our story with someone this week. “Give God YOUR BEST; expect HIS BEST.” If we give God just the bare minimum, that doesn’t take much faith. Give to God your very best even if it stretches your faith. If you were giving your best to God, what would it be? What would you consider to be your very best? What would your best look like? CONCLUSION: Has God fulfilled His part of the bargain when you gave him your very best? God promised to be with you. Did He? to deliver you from whatever bound you. Did He? to teach you how to live abundantly. Did He? Are your vows a testimony to God’s blessings to you? Are they meaningful vows that connect with your whole life and vows that give God the best of your lives? What stands in the way of you giving all honor and glory to God in your lives? What temptations do you need to overcome. How do you give back to God? Have you made space in your life to give honor and glory to God? If not, lent is a good time to stop and think about how to overcome temptation, and to live in faith, loyalty and trust in God. No matter how we pray, how we go to church, how we trust God – temptation will not go away – evil will not go away. But good always defeats evil. Trust in the lord, in Jesus Christ gives us the strength to over look evil. Verse 14 of psalm 91 says o Because they cleave to me in love, I will deliver them, I will protect them, because they know my name. I will satisfy them with a long life and show them my salvation. Let that be our prayer this day Amen. We Haven’t Been Up To Bat Yet Temptation tries to blind us to other possibilities. A business man driving home from work one day, saw a little league baseball game in progress. He decided to stop and watch. He sat down in the bleachers and asked a kid what the score was. "We’re behind 14 to nothing," he answered with a smile. "Really," he responded. "I have to say you don’t look very discouraged." "Discouraged?" the boy asked with a puzzled look on his face. "Why should we be discouraged? We haven’t been up to bat yet." Brett Blair, The story is told of four high school boys who couldn't resist the temptation to skip morning classes. Each had been smitten with a bad case of spring fever. After lunch they showed up at school and reported to the teacher that their car had a flat tire. Much to their relief, she smiled and said, "Well, you missed a quiz this morning, so take your seats and get out a pencil and paper." Still smiling, she waited as they settled down and got ready for her questions. Then she said, "First question--which tire was flat?" Lent: Spring Training For Christians When I was a boy, I was told, "Baptists don't do Lent." No one knew why. I suspect that it was an anti-Catholic thing which I pray we are over. It was the old argument, "whatever they do, we don't!" - a curiously convoluted, twisted and unhealthy way to decide on religious practices. Whatever the reason for "not doing Lent," I think it is a great loss for any Christian not to prepare for Good Friday and Easter. Every spring the baseball players prepare for the season with spring training; every spring ordinary people prepare for summer by doing "spring cleaning." So why shouldn't Christians prepare for the most important events in Jesus' ministry - what he did for us on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, what he did for us on Golgotha's cross and at the empty tomb? If it helps you, think of Lent as a kind of Christian spring training and spring cleaning. John Ewing Roberts, Remembering and Forgetting

The Sacrifice of Service

Rev. Harriette Cross First United Methodist Church of Wilmington May 26, 2024 Isaiah 6:1-8 Trinity Sunday Year B “The Sacrifice of Service” Prelude Greeting Welcome: Welcome! It’s so good to be together to celebrate faith and community today. My name is ____ and I’ll be leading our worship time today. Tomorrow [or this weekend] is Memorial Day, a very special day when we remember and honor the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. Who here served either stateside or overseas in any war? Which branch of the service were you in? [Let people mention their branch.] We salute you today and give thanks for your service, as we remember those who fell in the line of duty. And we recall God’s promise and fulfillment of triumph over death. Today is also Trinity Sunday, and Peace with Justice Sunday) Spiritual Eldercare Call to Worship One: Let us begin our time of worship with a moment of remembrance. All: We remember fallen soldiers, and the sacrifice they made for the sake of others. One: Let us begin our time of worship with a moment of thanksgiving. All: We thank God for brave men and women that have given their lives so that we may worship without fear. One: Let us begin our time of worship with a moment of silence; for a moment is the least we can do for those that gave their eternity.(Rev. Robb McCoy) Opening Prayer God of majesty and power, how awesome you are to us! The mountains tremble, the seas roar at the sound of your name! Yet you have chosen to come to us in love and tenderness. You have called us to be people who will act in ways of peace and justice in your world. Open our hearts and our spirits, Lord, to hear your word, and having heard, to act in ministries of hope and peace for all your earth. These things we pray in Jesus’ Name. AMEN. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Nancy Townley) Song Holy, Holy,Holy! Lord God Almighty UMH 64 A Sermon for all Ages Children's Sermon: Memorial Day (1 Corinthians 7:23-24, John 15:13) I brought an American flag with me this morning in honor of a very special holiday we get to celebrate this week. How many of you know what holiday it is? (Pause for response.) On Monday we’ll celebrate Memorial Day. Memorial Day is a day we stop to remember and to honor the military men and women who’ve died while fighting to defend our freedom. Ask: Tell about some freedoms we have living in the U.S. We enjoy a lot of freedom in our country. We are free to attend church and worship. We are free to choose what we want to be when we grow up. We are free to choose where we want to live. And we are free to choose most of the things that affect our daily lives. But that freedom wasn't free. Many courageous men and women gave their lives to pay the price for the freedom that you and I enjoy every day. They are who we honor this week as we celebrate Memorial Day. Just like so many brave men and women sacrificed their lives for our freedom here on earth, Jesus sacrificed His life for our freedom as well. In fact, the greatest freedom that we have is the freedom that we have in Jesus. The Bible teaches that the penalty for sin is death, but you and I have been set free from this penalty. We have been set free because Jesus paid the price for us. Instead of death, we have been given eternal life. This freedom wasn't free, Jesus paid the price. This week as we celebrate Memorial Day, let us remember to stop and thank God for those who have paid the price for our freedom. Let us also remember to thank God for Jesus, who has set us free from the penalty for sin, because He was willing to pay the price for us. Dear God, thank You for the freedom we enjoy. We are thankful for those who paid the price for that freedom, but even more importantly, we thank You for the freedom we have because Jesus was willing to pay the price for our sin. In Jesus’ name, amen Sermons4Kids.com Prayer of St. Francis Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. Scripture Isaiah 6:1-8 Sermon The Sacrifice of Service We Have Forgotten God - Abraham Lincoln In a speech made in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said, “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us. (Jeff Simms, Sermon Central) Remembering to stay humble, and focused on God is a struggle for the ages. It is something that is always a struggle. Isaiah’s lesson is important to us. Any time an important person dies, people are faced with a vacuum that must be filled, a time to question the purpose of life, a search for a pathway forward. King Uzziah died from being disrespectful. The prophet had reminded him to stay in a King’s place and to let the priest handle dealing with the presence of God. He had been told to listen to them. But Uzziah felt that no one should tell him what to do. He touched the Holy of Holies on his own, and died from leprosy. So now, only are the people trying to process his death, they are also trying to process what his disrespectful act will mean for them. Isaiah encourages them to look for God in the midst of everyday. To praise God and call God holy. To listen to God’s call on your life, humble yourself, prepare yourself, purify yourself, and live your life in service to God and to others. We are to acknowledge the holiness of God in everything that we do. We have a constant need for purification. Whether it is of the lips, or the feet, or the hand, the heart, the thought, there is need for cleansing. Is it maybe at crisis times in our lives, or in our families, or in our nation and world that we are most conscious of our frailties and sins? God uses especially these critical times to address us. When we think the end for us has come, God gives a new beginning. When the difficult times come, the days of extreme guilt or remorse; when the sins of the hour, the day, or a life-time weigh heavy on us, and we pronounce our own "woes" upon ourselves, and beg freedom from them, God has a word for us. It is a word of forgiveness. In his book, Reality In Worship, J. P. Allen likens our worship to entering a planetarium from a busy, noisy street. Dimming lights hush the sounds and the universe opens up over our heads. Earth becomes one of the smallest of planets and we become one of its smallest creatures. In that awesome moment, we focus upon the greatness, the goodness, and the grace of God. Our worship should be like that. It should not begin with the focus upon ourselves and our own needs, but upon the character of God; we should not proceed without the expectation of the visitation of his Spirit, but wait in his holy presence until He comes; we should not assume there is nothing new under the sun that we have not seen, but come expecting a glimpse of his glory.[4] It is in this humbling experience that we begin to realize that we can be imprinted by his holy mark on our lives. There is nothing in all the world that we can do to imprint ourselves when it comes to holiness. If we have been with God, we will bear his holy mark and people will observe his mark upon our lives. They will see his purity, compassion, joy, reverence, justice, and love stamped all over us. Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart. And try to love the questions themselves. Do not seek the answers that cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. Prayer: O God, thank you for the sheet wonder of our creation, preservation, and redemption - and for stout promises and bright hopes that keep us thinking kindly of the future. CSS Publishing Co., Inc., Promise Of Life, The, by Roger Prescott MEMORIAL DAY, A TIME FOR HEALING Memorial Day, perhaps more than any other holiday, was born of human necessity. Deep inside all of us lies a fundamental desire to make sense of life and our place in it and the world. What we have been given, what we will do with it and what we will pass to the next generation is all part of an unfolding history, a continuum that links one soul to another. Abraham Lincoln pondered these thoughts in the late fall of 1863. His darkest fear was that he might well be the last president of the United States, a nation embroiled in the self-destruction of what he described as "a great civil war..testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure." He began his remarks with those words as he stood on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19th of that year. The minute’s speech that became known as Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address turned into what might be called the first observance of Memorial Day. Lincoln’s purpose that day was to dedicate a portion of the battlefield as a cemetery for the thousands of men, both living and dead, who consecrated that soil in the sacrifice of battle. Said Abraham Lincoln: "That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause which they gave the last full measure of devotion...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom..." The next year, a pleasant Sunday in October of 1864 found a teenage girl, Emma Hunter, gathering flowers in a Boalsburg, Pennsylvania cemetery to place on the grave of her father. He was a surgeon who had died in service to the Union Army in that great Civil War. Nearby, Mrs. Elizabeth Meyer was strewing flowers upon the grave of her son Amos, a private who had fallen on the last day of the battle of Gettysburg. Emma respectfully took a few of her flowers and put them on the grave of Amos. Mrs. Meyer, in turn, laid some of her freshly cut blooms on the grave of Dr. Hunter. Both women felt a lightening of their burdens by this act of honoring each other’s loss, and agreed to meet again the next year. This time they agreed they would also visit the graves of those who had no one left to honor them. Both Emma Hunter and Elizabeth Meyer returned to the cemetery in Boalsburg on the day they had agreed, Independence Day, July 4, 1865. This time, though, they found themselves joined by nearly all the residents of the town. Dr. George Hall, a clergyman, offered a sermon, and the community joined in decorating every grave in the cemetery with flowers and flags. The custom became an annual event at Boalsburg, and it wasn’t long before neighboring communities established their own "Decoration Day" each spring. About that same time in 1865, a druggist in Waterloo, New York, Henry C. Welles, began promoting the idea of decorating the graves of Civil War veterans. He gained the support of the Seneca County Clerk, General John B. Murray, and they formed a committee to make wreaths, crosses and bouquets for each veteran’s grave. On May 5, 1866, war veterans marching to martial music led processions to each of three cemeteries, where the graves were decorated and speeches were made by General Murray and local clergymen. The village itself was also decorated with flags at half-mast, evergreen boughs and mourning black streamers. Also, as the Civil War was coming to a close in the spring of 1865, Women’s Auxiliaries of the North and South moved from providing relief to the families and soldiers on their own sides to joining in efforts to preserve and decorate the graves of both sides. A woman of French extraction and leader of the Virginia women’s movement, Cassandra Oliver Moncure, took responsibility of coordinating the activities of several groups into a combined ceremony on May 30. It is said that she picked that day because it corresponded to the Day of Ashes in France, a solemn day that commemorates the return of the remains of... On Holy Ground The 5th New York Volunteer Infantry, "Duryée’s Zouaves," was one of the most renowned fighting regiments of the American Civil War. Their colorful Zouave uniform, precise maneuvers, effectiveness in combat and steady bearing under fire, won them universal respect and recognition. "I doubt whether it had an equal," General George Sykes said of the 5th New York. On the afternoon of August 30, 1862, the third day of the Second Battle of Manassas, John Bell Hood’s famed "Texas Brigade" launched a massive attack. There were few Union troops to meet the onslaught, among those, were two Zouave regiments: the 5th and 10th New York In less than 10 minutes, 85 lives of approximately 525 men of the 5th New York were lost. Brevet Brigadier General Hiram Duryea, former commander of the 5th New York, would later comment on that fateful day in a Memorial Day tribute at Manassas in 1907, on land he had purchased for the erection of a monument to his beloved Zouaves: “We stand on holy ground! For this field was the altar of God. The Master said, ’Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ Here, our comrades laid down their lives for love of country, for human right, for the love and service of man. We sorrow at their loss, but we rejoice at their glorious death and achievements. God grant that the fruits of their sacrifice be preserved to our country." SOURCE: http://www.zouave.com How will you honor the sacredness of Memorial Day tomorrow? Whatever we do let us make sure that we are reminded of the important lessons of sacrifice, service, dedication and remembering to say Thank you for the countless Americans who have made that sacrifice for us to enjoy the day. Memorial Day is always a bittersweet day, a day where life and death intermingle. A day of rest, but also a day of intention. A day of celebration of the beginning of summer, yet the end of life. A day where we are at places that give us life, but we are also at the cemetary. ILLUSTRATION Someone has said that life is like a piano, the white keys represent happiness and the black keys represent sorrow... APPLICATION As you go through life, remember that when played together, they make beautiful music. "And we know that God causes black and white keys to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them" (Romans 8:28). On Memorial Day, but on each and every day of our lives, it is so important for us to find ways to keep God present in our lives. God can come to us in so many different ways with a message. We all have a calling to which God has summoned us. God uniquely equips each of us with gifts and graces for the special calling that is ours. This is how we actively fulfill God's plan for our lives as we work among God's human family members. At a young age, Rick Curry felt called to be a Jesuit priest. As he pursued holy orders, he was told that the priesthood was not open to him. The reason? He had been born without a right hand and forearm, a handicapping condition that would render him incapable of elevating and breaking the communion bread during mass. The Jesuits did welcome him as a monk, however. While studying for his Ph.D. at New York University, Brother Curry was surprised to learn that several of his classmates were supplementing their incomes by acting in television commercials. This was in the old days when you did not have to be a famous superstar to act in commercials. An "average Joe or Jane" could get paid to brush their teeth on national television. Curry was living in New York City under a tremendous financial strain. After obtaining approval from his Jesuit superior, Curry scheduled an appointment to audition for a mouthwash commercial. He thought he would be wonderful gargling nationally.4 Arriving at the agency prepared to audition for a mouthwash commercial, he was greeted by a receptionist who burst out laughing at the man with the empty right sleeve. She was sure her boyfriend had put Curry up to this as a joke on her. When Curry assured her that he was a serious applicant, she replied, "Please leave. I couldn't possibly send you upstairs to audition. If I send you upstairs, I could lose my job."5 Curry felt deep hurt and anger. Painful as it was, that moment of looking directly into the face of prejudice changed his life. "Nothing had prepared me for this rejection," he said. Two days later, Brother Curry decided to begin the "National Theatre Workshop for the Handicapped," which has now been in existence for over thirty years. This theater experience has been transforming the lives of performers and audiences alike for over three decades. Brother Curry urges all people to celebrate their differences and to use their imaginations to change the world. "Artists," he explained, "have the gift of imagination, and imagination has no physical boundaries." Prophets are like artists, helping us to see what we had been looking at but had not noticed. Jesus did not call any rabbis or priests to be his disciples. He called laypersons exclusively. God calls disciples from all walks of life to seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. The church is called to equip disciples and to send them into the world to accomplish God's work. Some of you, I know, have found your ministry among us, while others are searching for a way to use your gifts. Some of you even believe you don't have any gifts God can use, but let me assure you that God can use you. God empowers and equips us for the work within the church and community. Prayer is important. Take time to pray and take time to listen. Each one of us is an integral part of the body. God's work in our lives is not entirely contingent on our knowledge or even our agreeing to work for God. Throughout your lifetime, God has always been at work within you. Examine your skills, interests, the needs of the Christian community, and even the needs of the world. Each of you is invited to participate in God's work of reconciling the world to God. When holiness comes calling, what will be your response? God is calling you right now with a special job that only you can do. Is your spiritual cell phone turned on? Listen to God's call. Every day we can live under God I live under His heavens, The nations are under His authority, My destiny is under His direction, My past is under His grace, My future is under His control, My cares are under His wing, My sin is under the blood! Conclusion The really meaningful times in our lives come when we realize how very small we are - yet cared for and important. The mystery overwhelms us. We see ourselves in Isaiah as he struggles with the mystery and awe of his vision, in the year when King Uzziah died. And a more recent poet helps put it all in perspective for us: We look, too, to the sensational in human activity to catch a glimpse of the Creator who put all things together. But, once again, that Creator steals in through the smallest of activities. God is so close sometimes that we can’t see the presence. For instance, I see the Spirit of God working in the simple imagination of one human being: There was a family who always had trouble on vacations. Each year they would get about 75 miles out of town, and Mom would cry, "Oh, no! I left the iron on." Each year they would turn around and go back. But it was never plugged in. One time the carload was headed for Yellowstone National Park and, sure enough, almost to the mile marker, Mom gasped, "I just know I left the iron on." Her husband didn’t say a word. He just pulled over, got out, opened the trunk and handed her the iron. And every year after that, he made sure that the iron was in the trunk before they left on vacation. We smile at that, but such quiet imagination puts us in awe. We can see God smile too. God is revealed in the drama of humanity as well as in the awesomeness of the ordinary. The voice of God came to Elijah as he was holed up in a cave, not in the strong wind, earthquake or fire, but in "a still small voice" (1 Kings 19:12). A few years ago, while on a retreat at the Dunrovin Retreat Center, just north of Stillwater, Minnesota, I noticed a banner hanging on the wall with these words, attributed to Peter Marshall: There is a beauty in homely things which many people have never seen: • Sunlight through a jar of peach-plum jelly; • A rainbow in soapsuds in dish water; • An egg yolk in a blue bowl; • White ruffled curtains sifting moonlight; • The color of cranberry glass; • A little cottage with blue shutters; • Crimson roses in an old stone crock; • The smell of newly baked bread; • Candlelight on old brass; • The soft brown of a cocker’s eyes. If we read this slowly and reverently, we catch a glimpse, I think, of what Isaiah must have felt when he saw the seraphim and exclaimed, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory. (6:3) Song This is My Song UMH 437 Pastoral Prayer We are struggling, Lord. You know how difficult it is for us to hear the news of violence and warfare and to see dear lives lost in battle and strife. We long for your peace to flood the world. We cry out for your presence. We wonder if you hear our cries. How small is our faith! From the very beginnings of time, you have poured your love into the world. People have made decisions about how to respond to that love. Some have chosen to act in ways of peace, justice and mercy, loving ministries of kindness and compassion. Some have chosen to impose their will on others, never acknowledging the rights and lives of those they oppress. Sometimes, we, by our attitudes as well as actions, have acted in ways of oppression. But you forgive and heal us. You call us to be your witnesses of peace to the world. We do not need to crawl to you during the night of our fears for healing. You have given us new life in Jesus Christ, who taught us about your love. Through Christ we are adopted as your heirs, your beloved children. You have given us opportunities to bring hope and peace to others. Let us seize these opportunities for ministries of hope. Encourage our hearts. Strengthen our spirits and our commitment to serve you. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. AMEN. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Nancy Townley) Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment Scripture has a way of working inside us as we hear, read and contemplate. In Romans, Paul teaches clearly that “brothers and sisters” have not been given a spirit of slavery, but a spirit of adoption. For many who have been adopted, their adoptive parents work to assure them of their place in the family. Sometimes adoption means a change of name. Paul uses this image to assure those who will hear his language that “adopted” means “claimed”. Adopted children are heirs, just as children born into a family. Believers, now adopted into the family of God, are God’s heirs, and joint heirs with God’s Son, Jesus Christ. What a gift! In joyful recognition of being claimed and named as heirs, our natural instinct is gratitude. So, with full delight, let us share our gifts to support this part of the Body of Christ as we receive our morning offering. Prayer of Thanksgiving We are grateful, Abba/God, for the ways you claim us and name us as your own beloved children. Thank you for this adoption, and for our ability to recognize we are fully yours. Receive our thanks offerings. Inspire us to use them wisely. Help us be a nurturing community into which all your adopted children will be welcomed. AMEN ( Disciples of Christ Center for Faith and Giving) Prayer For Our Country UMH 427 Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook As we go into the world May the Divine Parent lead us to be agents of peace with justice May the Holy Spirit fill us with a spirit not of fear, but of adoption So that all who we meet will know the love and grace of Jesus Christ. Go now in peace. (United Methodist New York Annual Conference, Rev. Melissa Hinnen) Community Time – Joys and Concerns Benedictions God of infinite patience, loving presence, and dazzling surprises, be with us as we leave this place today. Guide and guard our lives and bless our witness to your love. We go in peace seeking ministries of justice and hope. AMEN. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Nancy Townley) Additional Illustrations Interactive Homily: Let’s pause our singing for a moment and reflect a little more on the meaning of sacrifice. • What does it mean to sacrifice? o Give up something • What would make a person do that? Why would you give up something for something else? o You’re willing to pay a price for something more valuable or worthy than what you have to give. o Who here loves baseball? In baseball, what’s a sacrifice hit or bunt? ▪ “a bunted ball that puts the batter out but allows a base runner or runners to advance.” • With sacrifice, there’s a tradeoff: something is willingly given up to gain something more valuable. o When we consider the sacrifice that men and women made as part of their service in the U.S. Armed Forces, what does that mean? What did those men and women sacrifice? ▪ their lives, health, time with family, other careers o Why did these men and women sacrifice these good and valuable things? What did they consider more worthy or valuable than even their lives? ▪ freedom, democracy, safeguarding our country▪ We often say the Pledge of Allegiance at patriotic events: (recite with the group:) “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” ▪ “Liberty and justice for all” – is this yet a full reality? • No. Those who serve in our military are still sacrificing for this great goal of liberty and justice for all. • Where do we see this notion of sacrifice in the Bible? o John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that God gave (that is, sacrificed) his only Son, that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.” o What did God determine as so valuable that he was willing to sacrifice his son? ▪ US! For God SO LOVED us…. to build a bridge between us, faulty people, and himself, holy and pure. • “The message for Remembrance Day [Memorial Day] is the message that lies at the core of our faith: that death is not the end, because Jesus has defeated death.”2 … Let’s take a moment to silently pray and reflect on the meaning of sacrifice. (Spiritual Eldercare) A pastor stood at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and watched as a man in tears lay a wreath at the base of the memorial. The pastor put his hand on the man’s shoulder, and the man said, “Twenty-five years ago he stepped into the line of fire for me, the least I can do is say, ‘Thanks.’” Source: Unknown However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.” — Douglas MacArthur “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”— President Ronald Reagan Top Five Memorial Day Illustrations A History of Memorial Day The custom of placing flowers on the graves of the war began on May 5, 1866, in Waterloo, NY, and Waterloo has been recognized by Congress as the official birthplace of Memorial Day. In 1868, Gen. John A. Logan, then president of the Grand Army of the Republic, declared that May 30 would be a day to decorate with “flowers the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” After World War I the day was set aside to honor the of all American wars, and the custom was extended to pay homage to deceased relatives and friends, both military and civilian. The most solemn ceremony conducted on Memorial Day is the placing of a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns located in Arlington national Cemetery. Some Southern states observe Confederate Memorial Day--April 26 in Georgia, the last Monday in April in Alabama and Mississippi, and May 10 in South Carolina. Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina do not observe the general holiday, and in Virginia the last Monday in May is called Confederate Memorial Day.” SOURCE: Encyclopedia Americana, 1991 edition Contributed by: David Whitten Jeff Greenfield is a news correspondent for ABC News. He lives in Salisbury, Connecticutt and has attended the same Memorial Day observance in his community for the last 15 years. He writes: "At 10 a.m., the parade begins moving down Main Street. It is a small parade: two vintage cars, bearing the region’s oldest war veterans; the men and women who served in the military; the Salisbury Town Band; the Scouts; the Housatonic Day Care Center; the fire trucks from the volunteer fire departments in and around the Northwest Corner. We fall in line behind the fire trucks, and follow the parade to the cemetery. There’s a hymn, and a prayer, followed by a Scout who reads the Gettysburg Address, haltingly, shyly. Then come the names of the men who died in the World Wars, in Korea, in Vietnam. A minister recites the 23rd Psalm, a bugler plays taps (with another bugler far away playing the echo), the flag is raised from half-staff, and we all walk the few steps back to the Village Center. It is as artless, as unaffected a ceremony as can be imagined. There are no speech writers, no advance men measuring the best angles for TV (there is no TV) and by the end of it, I—along with many other allegedly sophisticated urban types, are in tears. The men whose names have been read indeed gave what Lincoln called “the last, full measure of devotion”—some in wars whose purpose no one could doubt—some in wars whose purpose will never be clear, some for the folly and arrogance of the men in charge. When they fell, their deaths were a small part of a bigger story. But every Memorial Day, the lives they never got to live, and the people they left behind, are the only story that matters. That is why it matters that their names are uttered aloud before people who never knew any of them. That is why it matters that we were there this year—and will be there the next and the next and the next. SOURCE: Jeff Greenfield. ABC News InFocus, May 28, 1997. During World War II a young soldier named David Webster of Easy Company of the 101st Airborne wrote his mother: "Stop worrying about me. I joined the parachutists to fight. I intend to fight. If necessary, I shall die fighting, but don’t worry about this because no war can be won without young men dying. Those things which are precious are saved only by sacrifice." A little 7-year-old boy named Alex was staring at a large plaque in the church foyer. The plaque was covered with names and small American flags. As Alex looked at it, his pastor walked up and said, “Good morning Alex.” Alex said, “Pastor, what it this?” “Well, it is a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service.” Soberly, they stood together staring at the plaque. In a tender voice Alex asked, “Which service, the 8:30 or the 11:00?” The custom of placing flowers on the graves of the war veterans began on May 5, 1866, in Waterloo, New York. Waterloo has been recognized by Congress as the official birthplace of Memorial Day. In 1868, General John A. Logan, then president of the Grand Army of the Republic, declared that May 30 would be a day to “decorate with flowers the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” After World War I the day was set aside to honor all of the American wars, and the custom was extended to pay homage to deceased relatives and friends, both military and civilian. (Source unknown).

Re-member

All Saints Day
Remembering so that we can move forward
Ephesians 1:11-23
Luke 6:20-31
Year C



Poem to Remember

Always remember to forget the things that made you sad, but never forget to remember the things that made you glad. Always remember to forget the friends that proved untrue, but don’t forget to remember those who have stuck by you. Always remember to forget the troubles that have passed away. But never forget to remember the blessings that come each day.

Definition of Remember
The dictionary definition of remember is to re memor (memoir) – to bring back to mind, to be aware of, to rethink, to look back upon.
But there is a deeper meaning – to literally re –member. We live such fractured lives, where our thoughts are all over the place. We remember the past, not as it happened, but as it is convenient. We remember people with sorrow – for what we should have done, and not for what we do. We can get so caught up on what needs to be done, that we forget to look at the blessings that God has given us in today. I heard a saying that tomorrow is a date on a fool’s calendar. In our fractured state, we worry about what we will do when we have more money, more time, more understanding, never realizing that day will never come. All that we have is today – and who we are and what we have.
Remembering is the task of re membering our lives. Taking all of the parts of ourselves and putting them in one place. Taking our past and our future and making a strong connection with the present. That is all that we have to work with.

History of Englewood
Since coming to Englewood church, I have been fascinated in researching the history of the church. If learning of the young pastor who came on the train to meet someone, they didn’t show up and he realized that there was not a Methodist church in the area, so he gathered the Methodist families and started one. Then there was the newsletter article from the 20’s or 30’s which said the Negros are coming, and a challenge to the church to reach out to them. The building of the new facility in the late 50’s early 60’s as the neighborhood was changing and the facility was starting to age and need care.
I even had a facebook friend who emailed me from Iowa to tell me that a member of his church, James Beebe was also pastor of this church. It was funny because he assumed that because he was pastor in 1910, he must have been the founder of the church. It was fun to email him back to say that this man was five years old when Englewood was founded, so he could not be the founder. Rev. Beebe had a pretty distinguished career, he died pretty early at about 56, but he went on to become president of several seminaries and I think even a district superintendent. And it looks like he had been brought into the conference specifically to run a 1000 member church. He pastured Englewood in its heyday.
In reading the 25th anniversary booklet, Rev. Beebe makes a very powerful statement. It was a celebration of the church and the Sunday school. He say, “It is one thing to be proud of the achievements of our predecessors. It is another thing so to achieve that our predecessors would be proud of us. Let us manifest our pride in the history of our Sunday school, not by boastful words, but by service in our day as faithful and conscientious as the past ever knew. So we too shall enter into the joy of our Lord – and our successors.”
What a wonderful statement of what it means to remember. To connect who we are and what we do in the future, not only with the past, but also with Christ, and the saints that he commissioned before us.

Vision
I was so impressed with his statement, that as I get more and more familiar with Englewood, and I develop the vision and mission for ministry in this area – that is my foundational goal. To remember what was done here in the past, but to create a future that achieves just as much and makes the saints proud.
Ephesians says that in Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were first to set our hope on Christ.
We have inherited a purpose, a plan and a hope. We are all saints – people who have been chosen by god for a holy purpose. We have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit – which gives us ability to recognize that God is with us at every moment of our lives, the ups and the downs. Christ is not only the ruler of our lives, but the example of what it means to live holy. The church is a group of saints that have been chosen by god and who belong to Christ.

What it means to be a saint
Being a saint has nothing to do with whether we are good or bad, or even if we are dead or alive, God has different categories than that. It is about whether we listen to the Holy Spirit and we devote our lives to discipleship and service. We are not concerned with making a name for ourselves in the world, but in the eyes of our ancestors who taught us the ways of God.

Discipleship and Service
The second text for today is called the sermon on the plain. Matthew has the Sermon on the Mount that we are familiar with. In Luke Jesus gives 4 blessings to the oppressed, but he also gives 4 woes to those of us who forget to be in discipleship and service to Christ and those whom Christ blesses. You heard it in the new Revised Standard Version, so I will give it to you in another version. Rev. Eugene Peterson, wrote a version of the bible in modern language, called the Message – and once you have the literal version, it breaks it down.
Luke 6: 24-26 says
There is trouble ahead if you think you have made it. What you have is all you ‘ll ever get. And its trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself, your self will not satisfy you for ling, and it is trouble ahead if your think life is all fun and games, there’s suffering to be met, and you’re going to meet it. There is trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others saying what flatters them doing what indulges them. Popularity contest are not truth contest. Look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors. Your task is to be true, not popular.
Usually on all saints day – we spend a lot of time remembering the blessings, remembering that our tears of loss for our loved ones will be comforted, remember that is we are peaceful we will be blessed. Remembering that in our sadness we will be blessed. Remembering is not task of feeling, it is a task of action and work. I think that it is honoring the woes – the trouble ahead that we really honor the saints who gave their lives before us. It remind us of the work in the present that we have to do. Of who we have to be to honor their lessons and to honor the lessons of Christ. Never be satisfied with who we are and what we have. Never look for the truth within ourselves, be true to our values, not to the world. In all things think of what it means to be in discipleship and service. That is the task of remembering – re- membering – bringing the world together in unity with Christ.
And when we complete that task, God moves us on to another task. In another world.

God makes no distinction

For God, life and death is not defined in terms of whether we are physically present in the body. God notes that there a lot of people in the world who are breathing, but are dead, because they have no idea of what their inheritance is and what they were put on this earth to do. And there are a lot of people who are not breathing, and yet have been granted eternal life, because they are faithful. In god’s eyes there is no separation of the past, the present and the future – they are all happening at the same time. In God’s eyes – there is no distinction of the work of the saint, we all work together for a common cause.
Unfortunately we don’t always see things the way god sees them.

We are never alone

A man from Chicago went up to heaven. And walking the streets of God, and visiting the many mansions, he noticed there was a sign on one door which said quiet please. He asked saint peter why the sign asked for quiet.
He said that behind that door there was a group of saints – they were having church service – and the members of heaven had to be quiet, because the saints truly believed that they were all alone – no one was having church but them.
We are never alone – how many other churches are having service and in praise and worship with us right now, how many people who wish they could be with us, but join us in spirit. We are never alone – but we have to have special days like this, to set aside time to remember – to re-member to connect to all of the saints of God. Let us pray….