I preached yesterday .... (in a church though, not just online :-)

Saturday night my husband got pretty sick with a stomach bug and by 8:30 Sunday morning had decided he couldn’t be away from the bathroom long enough to lead worship and preach.

And there’s only one person in the world willing to do those two things with 2 hours notice.  So I quickly prepared a sermon on the text that her had chosen for the day.  (Well actually what the Revised Common Lectionary had chosen for the Ascension, but I digress.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.  They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

I talked about how this season of COVID has had all of us standing still.   We have been, in essence, looking up waiting for guidance — not always from God, sometimes from the CDC and sometimes from the governor.  But we had to do a lot of standing and a lot of waiting.

I mentioned the feeling we have as parents when we look at a group of small children or a group of teenagers (who have much in common) and say “It’s time to go” and they all just look up at us and stare and don’t even start to move.

The passage above clearly states that the disciples were going to receive power and then be God’s witnesses of who He was and what He did.   And then he was lifted up and disappeared.  

And the disciples kept looking up at the sky until two men in white robes asked them why.   Why are you still looking up?

And of course, I ended it with a story about CarePortal and said, it’s time to stop looking up and start going out to be witnesses to our community — our Jerusalem — by not only what we say, by what we do.   

My final words “Let’s stop looking up…. let’s continue to come to church to learn how to go outside of our walls to BE the church.  

So I say the same thing to you.   Stop looking up — the Holy Spirit has given you power to be HIS witnesses where you are.  Now.  Today.

Extremes

The song I’m sharing today is a song that I’ve shared before …. but the one I have shared before is the tame version.

John Mark McMillan wrote the song “He Loves Us” but there are two versions out there.   In the song there’s a line about a kiss that is a simile used to describe the love connection between heaven and earth – the Father sending the Son to earth as an action of love.

David Crowder sings it with the words ‘unforeseen kiss” while Kim Walker from Jesus culture sings “sloppy wet kiss.”

There’s a lot of discussion about these two versions and some say that the “sloppy wet kiss” is too extreme.

And I got to thinking about that today and thinking about how extreme God is.    Have you read the Old Testament?

And then there’s Jesus who uses hyperbole often to make a point.   "If your hand sins against you cut it off," remember?

And think about God’s plan to redeem us.  It wasn’t an easy plan  — it was actually kind of extreme — sending his son to die a bloody gruesome death.

So…. all that to say this …

Sometimes when we are talking about crazy God-sized stuff …. extreme language may be necessary — because we don’t serve a toned-down, watered-down, insipid God.   

Now enjoy this amazing song as you envision the love connection between heaven and earth as a sloppy wet kiss.

Happy Mother's Day?

Since I took PTO on Thursday and Friday to get our taxes done (and yes, you can imagine with my personality how fun that was for me) I didn’t get a chance to share thoughts about Mother’s Day before it was over.  But I have a few so here goes.

If everything is pretty good in your world and everything lines up, Mother’s Day is a great thing.   But for many folks, Mother’s Day can be a painful day.  

It’s painful if you happen to have lived through the death of your mother.

It’s painful if you are unable to have children for one reason or another.

It’s painful if you have a distant or conflicted relationship with either your mother or one of your children.

For many folks, yesterday was a challenge at a minimum or maybe you were even crippled with depression.

In my world, mother’s day has always been hard for my kids, and thus hard for me.  Even yesterday, with my kids now being ages 22-35, there were some stressful moments.

I started my day reading a blog post I wrote in 2009 because I needed to read it to remind myself of what the day is like for my kids.  I made my own self cry when I read it.  It’s worth the click.

The bottom line is this….. God, while our Father, also has many traits of a loving mother and God is always with us.   In Isaiah 66:13 we read:  As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.   

So whether or not Mother’s Day is a positive or a negative trigger, just know that God as our mother is ready to come to us and help us.

This verse from this great hymn reminds us of this:

Praise to the Lord, who doth nourish thy life and restore thee,
fitting thee well for the tasks that are ever before thee.
Then to thy need
God as a mother doth speed,
spreading the wings of grace o'er thee.

Abide

 If we hear the word abide, we kinda know what it means … but have you ever looked it up.

The definition is to live, or to dwell, or “to continue without fading or being lost.”

Apply those meanings to this scripture:

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

If we live/dwell in Jesus without fading or being lost, He will do the same for us.  Isn’t that an amazing promise?

Let’s all take time to remember how amazing it is that He abides with us.

Here’s a couple old hymns that focus on this thought.  Bonus points if you’ve heard both of them.  We used to sing it at old fashioned camp meetings when I was a holiness girl in the 70s.

https://youtu.be/84YASWe3_2Q

https://youtu.be/ZdW03C1qbrA