How good to be here today …
God loves us … and wants only the best for us.
God’s grace at every point in time … as needed.
Enabling grace … to see us through.
Whatever the need, the crisis, the sorrow …
Nothing in our life is a surprise to God.
God knows …
And God sets into motion all that we need …
The grace of Almighty God …
If you have a big problem, remember, grace is bigger.
Grace finds us when we’re lost.
Grace opens our eyes when we’re blind.
Always at the right time …
To see us through …
We are each a child of God.
No need to carry a chip on our shoulder … no need for grudges … what others did to us … said to us … or said about us!
All that ugly baggage that weighs us down and sours the soul …
The grace to let go of the past …
A clean soul … full of God …
Full of grace …
Full of peace …
Centered and confident.
Trusting God in all things.
Yet we have to work at this.
God gives us so very much.
But like anything in this life, we have to work at it.
We have to choose every day our mindset.
Which way shall it be for us?
When Jesus and the disciples are turned away by a Samaritan town, the disciples are angry … Who do those Samaritans think they are? We’ll show them a thing a two. We’ll call down some heavenly fire, and burn ‘em up … they hurt us; we’ll hurt ‘em back.
Ever felt that way?
Ever done that?
Sure, we all do.
It’s a default emotion – we pass hurt back and forth like a hot potato … but Jesus says, Don’t! Don’t pass the hurt on. Let’s move on, instead.
That’s the point, when we start passing the hot potato, it always comes back to us, hotter than ever.
It’s game that never stops, until we make the decision to hold the potato and let it cool in our hands.
The game stops when we stop it!
And there’s no better feeling in all the world then when we stop the hot potato game.
When we master our own junk.
When we make a noble decision.
When we rise above our garbage.
We’re bigger than our garbage, aren’t we?
We’re better than that, are we not?
Jesus didn’t pass on the hurt.
The hurt stopped with him, at the cross.
He held the hurt, and it was painful.
All the junk and poison of human kind:
Every bad thought.
Every careless word.
Every war and every sorrow.
All of our selfish pride and silly self-concern.
Jesus held it, and it hurt him.
Hurt him bad!
But he didn’t pass it on.
And he tells us the same.
Don’t pass it on.
Hold it.
It may hurt.
But let the hurt stop with you.
Don’t pass it on.
It’ll hurt for awhile.
But after awhile, you’ll be proud of yourself.
And whatever the hurt, you’ll heal.
I will heal you.
However much someone did to you, there’s no greater hurt then when you hurt yourself with bad ideas.
Let the healing begin.
Let it begin with you.
And I’ll help you!
The next little episode – folks want it all – they want Jesus, but they want him on their own time, in their own way … and they want everything else, besides.
Life doesn’t work that way.
Life is all about choices.
We take one road or the other.
And there’s no better road than Jesus.
No better choice:
To follow him.
Serve him.
Abide in his love.
Grow in his grace.
To see the world as he sees it.
And there’s no better day than today to make that choice.
This is the day the LORD has made.
To choose Jesus.
To put our hand to the plow and not look back.
To set aside lesser things.
To gain the pearl of great price.
It’s a choice to be made.
And we’re the only ones who can make it.
No one makes it for us.
Neither our parents nor our children.
Neither a friend at work, nor the neighbor.
It’s our choice, and our choice alone.
Friday, the anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death.
I found a quote from him, and I share it with you today:
"In a world filled with hate, we must still dare to hope. In a world filled with anger, we must still dare to comfort. In a world filled with despair, we must still dare to dream. And in a world filled with distrust, we must still dare to believe."
I think of St. Francis and his prayer:
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.
Matt Manzo sang my favorite song today – Somewhere Over the Rainbow …
I remember a graveside service many years ago …
Oklahoma …
A storm sky …
Huge clouds, black and gray and billowing white …
Blue sky behind them …
I said something about the rainbow …
And lo and behold, there it was, a rainbow off in the distance …
I’ve never forgotten that moment.
The graveside and the rainbow …
A promise …
A promise of goodness and kindness.
A promise that we’ll make it.
No matter what.
No matter the betrayals.
No matter the bumps in the road.
No matter the disappointments.
No matter the setbacks.
No matter the tears and the trials.
We will make it.
Because God is at work.
And there’s rainbow in every storm.
Blue sky behind every cloud.
The musical Finian’s Rainbow …
The theme song:
Follow the fellow who follows a dream
Look, look
Look to the rainbow.
Follow it over the hill
And the stream.
Look, look
Look to the rainbow.
Follow the fellow
Who follows a dream.
Follow the fellow,
Follow the fellow,
Follow the fellow
Who follows a dream.
Jesus our LORD.
Of all the choices we can make, no better choice than to follow Jesus …
Amen and Amen!
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