Pay Attention

Rev. Debbie Cato
Luke 16:19-31
Fairfield Community Church
September 25, 2022

Let us pray:  Give us your Spirit of wisdom, O God, so that we may hear your Word speaking through the Scriptures with ears that understand, and hearts moved to love.  Amen.

 

Pay Attention

 

Rich man Dives he lived so well.

Dip your finger in the water, come, and cool my

Tongue, ‘cause I’m tormented in the flame.

And when he died he went straight to hell.

Dip your finger in the water, come, and cool my

Tongue, ‘cause I’m tormented in the flame.[1]

 

Today’s parable is captured in this African American spiritual.  Christian tradition sometimes called the rich man Dives, a Latin adjective meaning rich.[2]  The rich man lived so well, yet now he is the one begging, looking up and wanting a handout, desperate for a drop of water to ease his fiery torment.  Hearing the melody in our heads enhances the sense of divine retribution lavishly portrayed in this parable.[3] 

 

Rich man Dives he lived so well.

Dip your finger in the water, come, and cool my

Tongue, ‘cause I’m tormented in the flame.

And when he died he went straight to hell.

Dip your finger in the water, come, and cool my

Tongue, ‘cause I’m tormented in the flame.

 

 The story of Lazarus and the rich man is full of contrasts and reversals. The poor man is named, while the rich man is not.  The rich man is dressed in purple and fine linen, like royalty, while the poor man is “dressed in” sores.  The rich man feasts sumptuously, while Lazarus, looking up, longs to be satisfied with what falls from the table.  The rich man has a proper burial, while Lazarus is carried away by angels.  By the end of the story, Lazarus, the poor man, is looking down from heaven, and the rich man is the one  looking up, begging.[4]

The socioeconomic divisions between the two characters is obvious.  Two men; one rich and one poor.  The two do not interact.  There is a clear division of status.  There is a clear boundary between the two. We can all probably relate more to the rich man than the poor one.  After all, who would want to be the hungry one lying in someone’s doorway?  Most of us would not want to imagine such need and in truth, we cannot imagine being that desperate.  So we choose the rich man’s perspective.[5] 

Now there is nothing to lead us to believe that the rich man is disdainful or mean or hateful toward Lazarus.  This is not an evil man. The rich man simply does not notice Lazarus.  Lazarus is sitting at the rich man’s gate day after day.  Every time the rich man leaves his home, he passes by Lazarus and yet the man does not even notice him.  He’s oblivious to the need right in front of him.  He’s oblivious of this poor man, sitting at his gate, day after day.  Lazarus’s empty stomach and life are gnawing at him, and his gaze is set on the household of the rich man, where all he wants are leftovers – or even less, the crumbs.  He gets nothing.  The only ones who notice him are the dogs, who, in a grotesque show of how low a human life can go, lick the oozing wounds of the poor man.[6]

If you read the Spokane newspaper or listen to the local news at all, you are aware of the growing problem of homelessness in Spokane and you are aware of the issue of Camp Hope and the City’s efforts to close the camp and relocate all the people that have made Camp Hope their home. Few see the residents of Camp Hope as people – as beloved children of God.  Rather they see them as a blight; a problem to get rid of; an eyesore to move some place out of sight.  Some place where they can’t be seen.  Some place where we don’t have to pay attention.  Where like the rich man, we can drive past our city gates without catching a glimpse of the poor and unhoused.  Those begging for help and not getting what they really need.

I was in our post office a couple of weeks ago and there was a teenager in there trying to get mail although he didn’t have the PO box key with him.  Steve was on vacation and there was someone filling in for him.  I heard her say to him, “You still can’t find your key?” He had come in before, wanting his mail, without a PO box key.  This young man smelled worse than anyone I had smelled in a very long time.  He clearly had not showered in a long time and it looked like he was wearing clothes that he had slept in and worn for a number of days.  I immediately recognized that he was homeless and on his own. I wanted to see if I could help him, but he disappeared before I got my package and was able to talk with him.   

We are not exempt from the poor because we are rural.  The homeless are among us – they are just harder to see.  Harder to notice.  They are not sleeping on our streets, camping on the doors of our businesses, begging for help like you see in Spokane.  I wonder where that young man sleeps at night.  Where he finds food – if he finds food. He has made me think about those experiencing homelessness here in Fairfield – something I had not thought about because I don’t see them.  I find myself praying for him and others I don’t know about.  I can’t stop thinking about him and my regret of not talking with him before he disappeared. 

What Jesus is trying to bring into focus is not that the man was rich. Money itself is never the issue.  I think you have heard me say that before.  Nothing in scripture says money is bad.  Nothing in scripture says that having a lot of money is bad.  Jesus never says that being rich is bad.  It is always about what we do with what we have.  It is about the heart.

In this parable, the issue is he does not pay attention to the need right in front of him.  He does not even notice this poor man sitting at his gate every day, starving and sick, needing help. The issue is he does not lend a hand to Lazarus. He is so caught up in his own world of wealth and extravagance that he doesn’t bother to notice those around him.  Those who don’t have all that he has.  Those who need help. Those that he could easily help if he just paid attention to his surroundings; to what was happening right at his own gate.  He had a chance everyday to do something to help.  But he didn’t.  Whether he really didn’t see him – which seems unrealistic.  Whether he didn’t think it was his responsibility.  Or whether he just didn’t care, we don’t know.  It seems the reason doesn’t matter to Jesus;  what matters is that he did nothing.

For the rich man, the ending is fatal. It’s too late.  He failed to pay attention to the need right in front of him during his lifetime.  A need he could have easily done something about.  He had the means.  He had the ability.  He merely had to open his eyes, pay attention, look with compassion, and then act.

 And that’s what is required of us.  To pay attention.  To open our eyes.  To look with compassion.  To see beloved children of God and not problems that belong to someone else.  To understand that everyone has a story.  Something that got them to the place that led them to poverty and homelessness.  Something behind the drug addiction and mental illness that you might see on the surface that turns you off; makes you feel like they don’t deserve help.  That you don’t need to help.  Something behind the smell and the filth of not being able to bathe and take care of personal hygiene needs

We forget that each person was once a sweet child like Mason or Wyatt that we love to dote on.  Something traumatic happened in their life that caused them to take a dramatic turn and eventually end up on the streets in desperate straits.  When  you hear their stories, you can begin to understand why they have the issues they have.  It makes you really thankful for your own life.  These are the least of these. In Matthew 25, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’

Most of us are not wealthy.  I’m certainly not.  But we have far more than those we see or hear about that live on the streets; that are hidden in our own community.  We have enough to spare.  Jesus is asking us to pay attention.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us he is Lazarus:  He is that one lying at our door hungry and thirsty.  He is imprisoned and cut off from “decent” society.  He is the marginalized one that you can just as easily walk by.  That is God’s Christ who stands at our wall, knocking.  When we answer, we may not find someone who looks like us, but we may very well find someone who looks like our God, if we are paying attention.[7]

There’s an old story that I want to share with you.  You may already know it.  There was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work. Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions. 

Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching.  As the boy walked, he paused every so often and as he grew closer, the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea.  The boy came closer still and the man called out, “Good morning!  May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young boy paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves,” the youth replied. “When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.”

The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”

The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!”

 

The needs in our world are tremendous.  It can feel overwhelming.  None of us alone have the resources to meet all the needs or even to meet all the needs of one person.  That’s not what Jesus is asking of us. But he is asking us to act.  To reach out in compassion.  To pay attention to the needs before us and do something.  Let us pray:

 

Compassionate God,  The needs of this world are so great and we are often overwhelmed. So we do nothing.  We expect social service agencies and the government to take care of the homeless and those living in poverty when Jesus taught us that we are to care for the least of these. Give us eyes to see the needs around us and a heart of compassion to prayerfully do what we are able to do.  In Jesus name, Amen.

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[1] Feasting on the Word.  Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 21.  Luke 16:19-31.  Homiletical Perspective.  G. Penny Nixon.  P. 117
[2] Feasting on the Word.  Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 21.  Luke 16:19-31.  Exegetical Perspective..  Charles Cousar.  P. 117
[3] Feasting on the Word.  Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 21.  Luke 16:19-31.  Homiletical Perspective.  G. Penny Nixon.  P. 117.
[4] Feasting on the Word.  Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 21.  Luke 16:19-31.  Homiletical Perspective.  G. Penny Nixon.  P. 117.
[5] Feasting on the Word.  Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 21.  Luke 16:19-31.  Pastoral Perspective. Helen Montgomery DeBevoise.  . P.116 & 118,
[6] Feasting on the Word.  Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 21.  Luke 16:19-31.  Pastoral Perspective. Helen Montgomery DeBevoise.  . P.118,
[7] Feasting on the Word.  Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 21.  Luke 16:19-31.  Pastoral Perspective. Helen Montgomery DeBevoise.  . P.120.

One of Ninety-Nine

Rev. Debbie Cato
Luke 15:1-10
Fairfield Community Church
September 25, 2022 

Let us pray:  Let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. As we approach your Word, may we be ready to receive the message you intend for us today. Amen.

 

One of Ninety-Nine

 

A New York Times travel article in April, 2008 on pubs in Oxford, England titled “A Pub Crawl through the Centuries” commented that “a good pub is a ready made party, a home away from home, a club anyone can join.”  Scott-Bader-Saye, author and Academic Dean and Professor at Southwest Seminary says, “One can imagine the Jesus of Luke 15 sitting in such a pub, eating and drinking with “anyone” to the chagrin of the proper and the pure. To be more specific, in Luke 15, Jesus is eating and drinking with “tax collectors and sinners” while the “Pharisees and the scribes” are grumbling about the company he keeps – actually the company he seeks out.  In response to this muttering, Jesus tells a series of “lost and found” parables that have to do with homes and parties and letting anyone in.  Who is in and who is out, who is lost and who is found?  What does it mean to be saved by Christ and what does it mean to be the community of Christ today?”[1]

Would you be surprised if I told you that as I read this and as I studied, I kept thinking about our values and our meeting last Sunday when we put action to our values?  The Holy Spirit, who is heavily involved in my sermon preparation, kept bringing to mind that we will be going out into our community.  We will be welcoming our new neighbors with welcome baskets full of information about our community and letting them know they are welcome at our church.  We will be serving a meal to our fire department and EMT volunteers to say thank you for all they do to keep our community safe.  We will adopt PCAL residents who need some TLC and extra help and be prayer partners with them, extending our relationship beyond just what I do on Tuesdays.  We will have monthly game nights at the community center and serve a meal, providing fun activities for families throughout our community and an opportunity for us to get to know our neighbors.  Janel is going to help us match one-on-one with the preschoolers and pray for them throughout the preschool year, building those relationships with their families.  We are going to serve and eat lunch a couple of times with our preschool families to deepen our relationships – really get to know them.  Let them know we care about them.  We are going to do community service projects on the 5^th Sundays as a way of worship. In the spring we will do a hayride food drive and tail gate party, supporting our community food bank and building community all at the same time.  Everyone will be included.  Everyone will be in.  And in the process of all these fun activities, we will learn what it means to be the community of Christ today.

So, can you picture it?  The crowds are pressing in around Jesus to hear his teachings. All kinds of people make up this community that have come to hear him teach.  They gather around Jesus for a variety of reasons:  the disciples to receive instructions; the Pharisees and Sadducees to keep tabs on Jesus’ radical teachings; and the people who do not really belong anywhere because they have lived so much of life on the fringes – the edge of society.  In this passage they are described as the tax collectors and sinners, which mean that they are the people no one else wants to hang around with, for fear that their reprehensible reputations would implicate the good reputations of the other. Somehow these outsiders have crowded into the community to listen.[2]  This is a rather interesting guest list but here they are, all eating dinner with Jesus and straining to hear what he has to say. 

I can imagine the whispering.  “Wh0 invited them?”  “Doesn’t Jesus know who they are? Doesn’t he know what they do for a living?”  “Who is Jesus, really?  He talks about godly things, but he eats with those kinds of people.”

Maybe Jesus can hear the whispers.  Maybe he can sense the division growing in the crowd.  But He begins to talk about the nature of God in ways that everyone gathered together that day will be able to understand.  He uses economic terms, talking about things they value.  He wants them to think about what is most important to them.

First, Jesus talks about the shepherd who is responsible for one hundred sheep. When the shepherd discovers that one of the sheep is missing, he leaves the rest of the sheep, all the ninety-nine sheep that are safe, and goes out searching for the one lost sheep.  He will not rest until that one lost sheep is found.  He values the health and safety of each and every sheep in his flock.  Not one sheep has more value than the other. Finding the lost sheep, the shepherd brings that sheep back into the safety of the fold of the flock. Then he calls his neighbors to celebrate.  The lost sheep is back where it belongs.

Then Jesus tells of the woman who has ten silver coins. This is hard-earned money she has scraped together and saved to feed her family.  If she loses just one of those coins, Jesus says, she will light a lamp, sweep the house, and diligently search for that coin until she finds it. Those coins are how she will support her family and we can all understand the value of providing well-being for our children and family members.  Likely, her coin was a drachma, worth the price of a sheep or one-fifth the price of an ox.  When she finds it, she is overjoyed.  She calls her friends to celebrate finding the lost coin. 

Think of that thing that is most precious in your life and what it would be like to lose it, whether through carelessness, or intent, or theft.  Something on which you place extreme value goes missing.  You would be devastated.  You would search and search and search until you found what you had lost.

God is like the shepherd who values each sheep in the flock, like the woman who accounts for every silver coin in her purse.  God treasures every child of the family.  When one goes missing, God goes into search mode.  God’s nature is love, and love looks like one who goes out tirelessly searching, because the one who is lost is so lost that she cannot find her way back home.[3]

I wonder who we will find as we go about our community?  Who will answer the door when we knock with a welcome basket?  What we imagine when we start something like this is enthusiastic surprise and delight at the door that we would think to welcome them in such a wonderful way.  “Thank you!” we imagine.  “How nice of you to do this for us.”  We imagine them being thankful.  We even  imagine them coming to church the next Sunday and joining our church family.  This could happen.  It’s possible.  But I hope that’s not why we are doing it.  We could be met at the door with a less than welcome response.  A skeptical response.  We may not get a thank you.  We may feel like the family “didn’t deserve our gift.”  Like they are “that kind of family.”  I hope that’s not why we are doing it. Every single new neighbor we meet is a beloved child of God, loved beyond measure by the Sovereign God who created them.  And we are charged to love them as well.  Who is in and who is out, who is lost and who is found?  What does it mean to be saved by Christ and what does it mean to be the community of Christ today?[4]

I wonder who will come to our monthly meal and game night at the Community Center?  If I was a betting person, I would bet there will be families that we meld with better than others.  Families that are “like” us and families that are different.  There will be kids that we gravitate toward and kids that we don’t.  We will be tested.   Why are we doing this?  Every single person, every single child and youth that shows up is a beloved child of God, loved beyond measure by the Sovereign God who created them.  And we are charged to love them as well.  Not because we find them loveable but because God loves me.  Who is in and who is out, who is lost and who is found?  What does it mean to be saved by Christ and what does it mean to be the community of Christ today?[5]

With everything we do, we will be challenged to love.  We will have to continually ask ourselves, “Why are we doing this?”  Is it for self-gratification or is it to be Christ in our community?  To be the church?  To do the things that we are charged to do because God’s grace and love flow over us each and every day?  Because when we were lost, Christ came looking for us?

Who is in and who is out, who is lost and who is found?  What does it mean to be saved by Christ and what does it mean to be the community of Christ today?[6]  Let us pray.

 

Loving and compassionate God.  Thank you for searching for us when we get  lost.  As we move forward with the things you have laid on our hearts, help us to let everyone in; to love without condition; to do without expectations.  Help us to find the lost in our community.  In Jesus name, Amen.

 

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[1] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 19.  Luke 15:1-10.  Theological Perspective.  Scott Bader-Saye.  P 68.
[2] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 19.  Luke 15:1-10.  Pastoral Perspective.  Helen Montgomery DeBevoise.  P 68
[3]Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 19.  Luke 15:1-10.  Pastoral Perspective.  Helen Montgomery DeBevoise.  P 70.
[4]Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 19.  Luke 15:1-10.  Theological Perspective.  Scott Bader-Saye.  P 68.
[5] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 19.  Luke 15:1-10.  Theological Perspective.  Scott Bader-Saye.  P 68.

[6] Ibid

Rooted and Grounded in Love

 Rev. Debbie Cato
Ephesians 3:14-20
Fairfield Community Church
September 11, 2022

Let us pray:  Eternal God, Open us to your Word read and proclaimed. Help us not to turn from your truth or avoid and distract ourselves from your message. Help us be receptive to the wisdom you offer. Amen.

 

Rooted and Grounded in Love

 

Today’s scripture is a beautiful prayer in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. 

According to tradition, the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the church in Ephesus while he was in prison in Rome, around AD 62. It is believed that it was meant as a circular letter; meaning it was intended to be sent from the church in Ephesus to the other churches in Asia that Paul and his followers had started. Paul wanted it circulated so everyone could read it and learn.  You might call this the “Zoom Workshop of AD 62” – passing a letter from church to church.  This would actually take years to do because of the distance between churches and transportation, depending on location was walking or water.

Paul's first trip to Ephesus was hurried.  It is recorded in Acts 18 and lasted about 3 months. The work he began when he was there was continued by Apollos and Aquila and Priscilla. You might recognize their names.  Paul met Aquila and Priscilla in Corinth and took them to Ephesus with him where they started a church together.  He left them in charge of the church when he left for a missionary trip. 

On his second visit to Ephesus early the following year, Paul stayed for three years.  This was a long time for Paul to stay in one place.  Ephesus and the church there was a key location for the western provinces of gentile believers and they used it as a launching off location when they set off for other missionary journeys including to Macedonia and Greece.  From Ephesus the gospel spread abroad "almost throughout all Asia." Despite all the opposition and persecution Paul encountered, the gospel message grew thanks to the church and the believers in Ephesus. 

 So now in prison in Rome, Paul writes a letter to encourage this beloved church.  Overcome with the amazing way God has reconciled Jews and Gentiles and brought them together in His church, Paul begins by saying, “For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father.”  Showing true reverence to God, Paul kneels before God and prays for this church body that he loves and cares for, even from a prison cell.

Now notice that Paul does not pray that the church will grow.  He does not pray for financial resources.  He does not pray that more missionary trips are launched from the church or more programs are started.  He doesn’t even pray that problems within the church would be resolved.  Paul prays for the spiritual health and well-being of the church and by doing so he prays for the spiritual health and well-being of each individual member in that church.  Paul prays for “strength in their inner being with power through God’s spirit.” “Strength in their inner being with power through God’s spirit.”  How can the church not help but triumph if they have the power of God’s Spirit in their inner being?!  That’s powerful!

Paul gets to the heart of what the church is and what we might all be called to do to make that come about. Can you imagine praying every day that God would give you strength in your inner being with power through His Spirit?  Praying that he would give this church strength through the power of his Holy Spirit?  Do you pray for this church?  What if we stopped praying for more people to come or for our offering to increase to meet our budget needs?  Or what if we even stopped praying for what action steps we should take next and just prayed that God would strengthen our inner being with power through His Spirit.  How powerful would that be?  How might that change us?

But Paul doesn’t end there.  He goes on.  He prays that “Christ might dwell in their hearts through faith, as they are being rooted and grounded in love.”  If Christ dwells in our hearts, Christ lives in our hearts.  He has a permanent place in our hearts.  Oh, how that would change us! 

And because Christ dwells in their hearts through faith, they are being rooted and grounded in love.  That’s such a beautiful image for me.  I love old trees.  As I drive around the countryside, I see so many old trees that were planted decades ago.  Some of them stand straight and tall and some are gnarly and crooked. 

Old trees have roots that have dug deep down into the earth through the years.  They often have no right angles but have twisted and intertwined; finding the best places to rest and go down deep.  They are messy, sometimes even ugly at times, but they hold fast as they have sought out nourishment through years of drought and wind, winding around each other, using another root for support, holding that tree firmly in place.  Often, roots seem haphazard, certainly not going in a straight direction or even a logical direction but growing in the way most beneficial for the tree. Growing the way they needed to grow for survival of the tree; the way they needed to grow to get the most nourishment from the ground.

I think that’s how our faith is meant to be – and the faith of a church community.  If we as individual members are not rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, our church certainly will not be; for after all, we the individual people are the church.  It does not happen overnight.  Like a tree, it takes time for our roots to go deep.  That’s why the generational inheritance we have received from the two churches that merged to become Fairfield  Community Church is so important to us and to what we bring to this community.  Two churches that each brought something important to this community, separately proclaiming the gospel and doing good works.  Two churches that needed each other to continue to survive.  Two churches that chose to intertwine their roots and continue to grow deeper together.  Taking the best of each branch and replanting together so to speak.  Needing each other. Relying on one another. Recognizing that each was rooted and grounded in love, recognizing that God could and would accomplish far more than you could ask or imagine. 

 There are multiple generations in this church; now one church melded from two.  Different generations; different roots, all intertwined; all parts of the same church rooted and grounded in love and faith.

Along with the old, thick, deep roots, we have new roots that are forming, twisting and following the roots that have already developed and grown and dug down deep.  Roots holding us steady and in place in times of turmoil like the pandemic that closed the doors of the building but not the heart and soul of the church.  Christ is at the center of this church and Christ is here to stay. 

And then comes this powerful sentence from Paul.  “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, … , “what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”  The breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

 God’s love is multi-dimensional.  It has width – it is wide.  It has length and height.  It goes deep.  Think about that. God’s love is not flat.  His love is multi-faceted and more complex than we can imagine.  Think of how understanding this, how really believing it, how accepting the fathomless nature of God’s love would change us and change how we live?!  Think how it would change how we are as His church!  Let’s pray for the power to truly understand God’s love – the power that comes from God that brings an understanding that can only come from God Himself. It all comes from God. God makes it all possible.

Realizing and living into Christ’s love will lead to spiritual growth, faith formation, and character in our lives.  If we as individuals experience spiritual growth, faith formation, and increased character in our lives, naturally our church will experience the same growth and development, and vice versa.  Everything we do will sprout from these roots and will come from a place of love and faith.  We will be “doing” out of our rootedness and groundedness in love and faith and not out of a sense of needing programs or needing to just do stuff.  This is God’s gig.  He is active and involved in all that we do as His church.  But he needs us to join along.  We are the hands and feet of Jesus, acting out of His love that fills and changes us. 

If we are rooted and grounded in the love of God and understand the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ and believe that God can accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine, the ministries of this church will not be a burden or an extra check on our to-do lists.  We will be acting out of the love that flows from us.  The things we do will be things we want to do; things we crave to do because we are filled with this incredible love of Christ.  It will be God working through us to accomplish the work that needs to be done.  We will gain far more than we give when we are doing the work of God.

Paul reminds us of this as he ends with a doxology that is fitting for this Sunday in the life of our church.  “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine..”  To him who by the power at work within us – God’s very own spirit is at work in his.  That’s powerful to think about.  We don’t have to; nor should we, do things on our own.  God will lead us if we allow him to.  Because, Paul reminds us, God is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.  Wow!

Let’s not limit ourselves by our own small thinking.  Let’s believe God’s promises.  Let’s believe that Christ wants to dwell in our hearts.  Let’s believe that we can be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, and it will be life changing for us and this church.  Let’s believe the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love has no limitations.  Let’s believe  that God can and will accomplish far more than we can imagine.  Let’s dare to be that church that believes God’s promises.     Let us pray:

 

Holy God,  help us to claim these promises for our own.  We want to be rooted and grounded in your love.  We want to be so full of the love of Christ that everything we do and say is out of love.  Help us to cling to the claim that you can indeed accomplish far more than we can ask or imagine.  In Jesus Name, Amen.